This is: Karen Callis

So, since I have so much free time (ha ha), I decided to start a mini series on the blog called "This is...". It's inspired by the new trend on instagram where someone takes a picture of a person and says "this is 'so and so' and this is what they do and this is why they are awesome..." I feel like God has blessed me with plenty of fantastic women in my life so I want to herald them for all the world to see! So without further adieu, 

This is Karen Callis.
I have known the Callis family for about as long as I have lived in Corvallis. We were members of the same church for several years and my brothers and I were around the same ages as her kids. 
It wasn't really until my senior year of high school that I really had the opportunity to know Karen and her family in a deeper way than I could have possibly imagined. Without going into too much detail, there was a period of about 2 months that I was displaced from my home due to a family crisis and the Callis family took me in. 

Psalm 68 talks about how God sets the lonely in families and it was so incredible to see how God took a really nasty and hurtful situation and used it to show me that first and foremost, He still loved me, even in the midst of crummy circumstances. But also, he showed me something that I hadn't had the privilege of witnessing in my upbringing--knowing what it's like to grow up in a family that is lead by two people that not only love the Lord, but also love each other so deeply. Honestly, I am thankful for everything that happened that year because without it, I probably would have had an incredibly incorrect and skewed view of what marriage was to look like. Now I can thank God for Godly surrogate parents who gave me an example to look up to.

Karen has been a mother from another mother (I don't even know what that means, but it's the first thing that came to mind) She is someone that I go to for advice, and someone that I'll always love and look up to. Thank you Karen adopting me as your daughter and for being there for me during one of the most difficult seasons of my life. I am ever so grateful.

photo cred// Craig Paulsen

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