The Trotter Family

I grew up in a military family, so we moved a lot and I didn’t have a “hometown” until junior high when we left the Army and entered civilian life.  I guess Lee’s Summit, MO, where my parents have stayed since then, or Belle Plaine, IA, where my parents grew up, could be considered my hometown.  But I never felt like I needed a hometown.

Almost from the first moment I saw Jonathan I wanted to marry him.  We met at Red Bridge in the youth group and were close friends throughout high school.   Towards the end of our senior year he spoke with both his dad and my parents and our courtship began.  About a year later we got married and moved to Rolla where I finished my B.S. in Chemical Engineering.  (Yes, I am math and science geek.)  While the church in Rolla went through a difficult transition, we decided to stay and work.  We ended up working in youth ministry, leading the teenagers during most of our years there.  We absolutely loved working in ministry together and also fell in love with teenagers.

After our college graduations we moved back to the Kansas City area to be closer to family and so Jonathan could attend nursing school.  That’s also when we had our first born son Nathaniel.  We started volunteering with the youth ministry, and then Jonathan started working part-time for the church.  Soon we added Isaac to our family, and I stayed home with the boys.

Three years later we added another baby to our family, this time a girl, Hannah.  We started our home school journey that year, and also our journey toward Cambodia.  Shortly after she was born, we applied with Team Expansion.  The application process is a long one, and we needed that time to solidify our dedication to missions.  In other words, I was scared to go, but you can read about that elsewhere.  We remained open to another baby, and God gave us a second girl this year, Faith.

When we got married I didn’t care where we lived as long as we could be together.  I vaguely knew Jonathan’s desire for missionary life but never guessed this is where we’d be after 10 years of marriage, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.