In the beginning....

 Well, I finally did it...I started a blog. I have been contemplating it for quite a while now and really should have started it when I lost my job last August, but that's jumping ahead a little. Let's start from the beginning....
  I grew up on a farm in Fulton, MI to the parents of Joe and Kathy Shook. I have a brother, Justin, who is two years older than me.  We led a rather "normal" ( really, what is normal?) life of church (Fulton Christian Church), school (Vicksburg - Go Bulldogs!), and a little bit of 4-H (Fulton Lucky Clovers), oh and did I forget to mention - Politics (Yes, Politics...my dad was the township supervisor of our community). I had a fairly uneventful childhood until October 11, 1995. This is the day that my world started collapsing in front of me. The day that my world stopped turning. My dad was killed in an automobile accident and my brother was in the car and suffered serious brain injury.  The accident was the result of an elderly woman who was nearly blind running a stop sign.  This accident changed my life forever. My brother had to go through rigorous rehabilitation and my mom and I went through some serious counseling.  I was a rather rebellious child and this made life just all around hard.  I hated my world and most everything in it. I was use to getting what I wanted and now God was in control and there was nothing I could do.  Beyond the accident; I wanted nothing more in school than to have a boyfriend. I was lonely, as it seemed most of my friends had experienced boyfriends by now and I hadn't even kissed a boy yet.  I was a freshman in high school and I kept noticing this one boy in particular. I didn't know his name, but the first time I saw him my friend was dancing with him at a school dance and he had his shirt off. I remember leaning over to one of my friends and saying, "Look at that boy who Adria is dancing with. He's sooo hot!".  I then often noticed him walking down the hall, hand in hand with his girlfriend and he would wink at me out the corner of his eye.  I loved the attention, but just kinda stood back and admired from afar.  Second semester rolled around my freshman year and guess what?  That boy was in my drama class. All I could think was, "Yay, now I can stare at him all class." Little did I know that this boy actually thought I was cute too and this began the many, many years of me pursuing a relationship with him.  The boy's name is Mike Porlier and after 4 years of literally chasing him; his heart pulled a hammy and we started dating.  We married on September 29, 2006, which was the happiest day of my life.  I married my best friend on that day.  Now, I did skip over some of the dating stuff, but let's just say our relationship had its ups and downs, but there was a lot of growing in there too.  We had a long courtship of developing into the people that we needed to be in order to make that commitment to one another. Oops...I almost forgot....reverse....My mom remarried in October of 99 to Doug Mitchell. Doug has a son, now my step brother, Mark Mitchell. Mark is married to Angela and they have two beautiful daughters, Ella and Maci. I graduated from WMU in April of 2003 and landed a job as the Manager of The Industry Source Too in Muskegon, MI.  Mike wasn't going to move with me, but in the end decided that it was in his best interest to move away and start new with his life.  We lived in Muskegon for about a year, when Mike got a good job as a Salesman and wanted to move to Grand Rapids. We moved and soon I changed jobs and worked as a Claims Processor for State Farm Insurance. I was happy there for the most part. I loved the people, which made the job easy to go to each day, but I wanted something more. I wanted a higher salary and I wanted that big title job. I had previously pursued a position as an Assistant General Manager at RiverTown Crossings Mall (General Growth Properties), but had never heard much about it.  I soon learned of an opening and applied. I landed the job and hated it.  It was not the position for me. It did not fit into my future goals in life and made me very unhappy. Well, in August 2008 a blessing in disguise...maybe....my position was eliminated and I began my stint of unemployment.  We were very nervous about being able to pay our bills and just make it financially from day to day, but have seemed to get by...BY THE GRACE OF GOD!  Speaking of God, Mike and I regularly attend Kentwood Community Church.  Mike acts in the Children's Ministry as Gordo and also as KC Jester for the Kingdom Come Campaign. I worked with Upward Cheerleading this past year.  We were also baptized on Palm Sunday of this year.  I was baptized as an infant, but found that I needed to make the step of faith on my own and needed to publicly declare my love for the Lord. Being baptized was also a time for me to let God and others know that I have surrendered my life to him. I have given up my constant need for control and have allowed him to be in the driver's seat of my life.  This was something that I learned through my job loss and definitely a life lesson.  This was Mike's first time being baptized publicly and I was sooooo proud of him.  I think our marriage has grown stronger because it. In late January of this year, we learned that I was expecting a baby.  It was sort of a surprise as I had been off birth control since the previous April and was in a way, thinking that we might have a problem.  Well, it was God's perfect timing and we couldn't be more excited.  I have to admit I was a little more nervous than Mike. He is much anticipating the arrival of his son...Yup, that's right a BOY!  Jaques James Porlier is due on September 28, 2009 (Did you put that together? - One day away from our 3rd anniversary).  And that brings us to today...36 weeks, 3 days pregnant and counting down the days until we can meet our first son.  We have been so blessed and are excited to share our new parenting adventures with all of our readers.  So...check back often and discover.... THE REAL WORLD...PORLIER STYLE!