Hi, I'm new here!

Hello to all of my neighbors at First Presbyterian! I’m grateful for your warm welcome into this community and I feel privileged that you have allowed me to take part in the long tradition of musical worship at this church!

We have been residents of Monmouth since 2017, but my husband Andre and I grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin. We were married in 2012 and lived in South Bend, Indiana while he completed his graduate degrees at the University of Notre Dame. I began a music education degree at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and after a few years of trying different career paths, finished my Bachelor of Arts in Music at Indiana University South Bend. In school I studied the clarinet and piano and participated in all the ensembles - orchestra, wind band, chorale, and various chamber groups. Andre and I both sang in choir and played handbells at our church.

In 2017 our son Linus was born and Andre secured a job at Monmouth College, bringing us to a new home in Illinois. We now have two awesome, funny, creative kids - Linus is six and Marielle is four - and Andre is a tenured professor in the political science department at MC. I’ve spent the last six and a half years caring for my kiddos and navigating parenthood within a new community, but I’ve also found time to do some studio teaching and make music in church and community ensembles such as the Monmouth Civic Orchestra, Monmouth College Wind Ensemble, Ecumenical Singers, and Choral Dynamics of Galesburg. I’m excited to have recently started taking lessons on the organ with Solee Lee-Clark at Monmouth College. I am a bookworm and infinitely curious. I find joy in many forms of exploration and love the creative process; I dabble in various arts and crafts like oil painting, papercrafting, and knitting, and try really hard not to neglect my little vegetable garden too much.

We, as a church, have been contemplating the wilderness during this Lenten season. I feel as though my family has been in the wilderness now for ages! We’ve endured a move to a brand new place, establishing new careers, navigating early parenthood during a pandemic, and everything else happening in the world; nevertheless we are so grateful that God has led us to this place. I feel as though the upheaval we have experienced has given us the opportunity to be reflective, both inwardly and communally, and grow in purpose and intention. Andre and I have learned so much about creating community while living far away from family, about growing roots where we’re planted, and about leaning on each other through all kinds of difficulties. I continue to learn that if we trust in God’s guidance, even when it doesn’t point in the direction we expect, He’ll take us exactly where we need to go.

Now that you know a bit about me, I would love to meet you too! Please feel free to say hello next time we worship together, or join us at a choir rehearsal! We can always use more voices, and they don't have to be perfect...mine isn't! Here's my secret - I'm not a vocalist by nature, but I'm learning to be brave and to sing anyway. God gave each of us our built-in musical instruments and loves when we use them in praise!

I am glad to be here, and I look forward to walking this path alongside you!