I'm sitting on the back porch of my parents house in Colorado on a GORGEOUS May day. It's sunny and warm, but not too hot, and we've been here for almost a week — soaking up as much time as we can with some of my all-time favorite people.

This is a big trip for our little family. My new book just came out last week, so we came for a book signing at the most wonderful local bookstore, The Tattered Cover.

But we also came because in just 6 weeks (Oh.My.Gosh, six weeks!), our little family is using our one-way tickets and heading to Spain — at least for the year. So really, we're here to say “See you later” to my family and some of my very best friends.

Our leaving for Spain marks the end of an incredibly formative decade in my life. We leave for Spain on mine and Carl's 10-year wedding anniversary. This will also be the longest we've been away from Nashville since making it our home 10 years ago.

It's the end of an era in 10000 different ways.

And it's funny, because I expected Denver to feel the same way. Being at my parents' house, sleeping in my childhood bedroom, driving around the neighborhood I know like the back of my hand, and eating at the pizza place I've been going to since before I could drive — I thought it would feel like an even harder goodbye. But it actually feels like this really cool “hello” to an old part of myself that I haven't seen in a while.

I'm not sure how to explain it, or what that means, but that's how it feels.

But for some reason, this time, being in Colorado feels like the start of something new, or the re-start of something a bit dormant, not the end of something old.

Again — I have no idea what that means or how exactly to explain it, but I think it has to do — at least in part — with this blog!

You may or may not know this already, but this *gestures to our whole corner of the internet* started almost 12 years ago, and it started as a blog.

With a background in both journalism and women's ministry, I had the divinely orchestrated (truly!) opportunity to combine the two as I traveled around the world for a year on a mission trip called The World Race.

Part of the deal in going on the 11 month, 11 country trip around the world, was that they wanted you to keep a blog of your travels — a practice I fell in love with almost immediately.

That's where this whole thing started. Using my journalism skills and my heart for women's ministry, I started telling the stories of what was happening — both around me and within me as I traveled. And much to my total shock and delight, women started reading my little blog — my stories weaving together with theirs. It was incredible and I was hooked.

I wrote my way around the world and then at the end of my trip, I came home and knew I was nowhere close to being done.

So, a few nights after I landed back in the states, at my parents house, to be specific, I sat in the big chair in the corner of their living room and got to work creating a little corner of the internet we could call our own.

(I was insanely jet-lagged and knew absolutely nothing about building a website, but hey, why let that stop me?)

That was 12 years ago — and so much has happened since. The Lipstick Gospel, The Girls Night Podcast, my Love Your Single Life course, a TED talk just a few months ago, a bunch more books (including my brand new one, Create A Life You Love).

One of my all-time favorite verses was, and still is, Habakkuk 1:5. “Look at the Nations, watch and be utterly amazed, for I'm going to do things in your days you woulnd't believe, even if you were told.”

That verse (while totally out of context, but also, I'd say still very true about the nature of God), has totally defined the last 10 years of my life. And I have a feeling it's going to define the next ten years as well.

Just a few weeks out from what some might call an even crazier adventure (because it includes two three-year-olds!), I find myself back where this all started the oversized chair in the corner of my parents living room— with a similar sense of expectancy and excitement and nerves at the total unknown stretching out in front of me — but a familiar desire to write my way all the way through it.

(Note: If you want to stay up-to-date with all our adventures, make sure we're friends in all the places! Instagram and make sure you're part of our email community!)

I'd love to know — can you relate to this at all? The ending of a big season, the beginning of a new one, or the feeling that something deep within you is waking up for the first time in a long time?

P.S. If you need a tool to help you through the transitions you're facing in this season of life, make sure you check out my prayer journal called, The Between Places!