In the blink of an eye

Time's speed continues to baffle me.

I remember an afternoon when I was about 6 years old. We were living in the mance next to the church my dad worked at. The curtains in my bedroom were a soft yellow and had little girls dancing in fields on them. I sat wrapped in the curtains, staring out the window, balling my eyes out. Crying, because I never thought I'd be 20 years old. Life was going SO slow, and I: Fiona Louise Johnston, was never going to be lucky enough to make it to the 'ripe old age' of 20. I wanted to grow up SO badly.

Somehow I made it to the age of 12,

6th grade school photo)

At which point my family moved overseas to Russia.

(Red Square, Moscow, Russia)

At the age of 14 I headed to a Christian boarding school in Germany called Black Forest Academy (BFA).

(sitting out the front on my dorm my freshman year)

I spent all four years of high school there. Some of my best memories were made there. Those, I thought were the FASTEST 4 years of my life.

Before I knew it, I was 18, heading back to Australia to become an 'adult'. Two months after graduating high school I got engaged to my dear boy Scottland Custer (who I met at the boarding school). Scott was a year ahead of me in high school.


(Scott as a senior, me as a junior - we weren't dating at this point, just friends)

After he gradated from BFA, he started college at the University of Tampa. We wanted to pursue our relationship seriously after I graduated, so he applied for a study abroad program in my home city in Australia. Well as the story unfolds, he definitely studied 'a broad'...he says he married me for my accent ;)
6 months after we were engaged, we were married (both 19, in Australia)

(Feb. 3rd 2007)

4 months after that, we were heading back to America so Scott could finish his degree at UT. We arrived to Tampa August 2007. One month later, I turned 20 :)

(20th bday party)

Wow, I had made it! The biggest milestone a 6 year old could conjure up. Little did I know 2 years later I would become pregnant with our first child :)

Now, it has already been 8 weeks and 2 days since our first child was born! 8 weeks!


I was just folding all of Olivia's clean laundry. There are already several piles of clothes Liv can't fit into anymore. She is now wearing 3 month clothing, and is almost getting too long for them! She is growing daily before our eyes, especially her eye lashes! Every time I look at them they are longer!

It's been 3 fast, amazing, life changing, challenging, beautiful years since we moved to Tampa, and in a little over 2 short months, our time here is coming to an end. I'm nervous to even write this out. I'm sitting here wishing I didn't have to. I've lived in 21 places so far in my life, in 4 different countries, but moving, unfortunately, still isn't easy! Packing all the boxes is easy compared to saying goodbye to the friends who have become like family.

Scott's internship with our church is finishing up at the end of Oct. and the next step we feel (with much prayer and many tears) God leading us towards full time seminary for Scott. Denver Seminary in Colorado to be exact. Scott's parents own a house in Colorado Springs (about an hour commute to Denver), and they have been gracious enough to let us move in with them come November :) (you know they are excited to have their grandbaby close!).

We haven't finalized all the plans yet, like what exact date we are leaving, but for now we feel a peace about this next step in our lives (gosh, it's even hard to write that).

Next month I'll turn 23. When I was little I was so concerned time would never pass. Now I know, whether I like it or not, time will happen and it will happen fast. I first left Australia 13 years ago. I could have never imagined where I would be today, so who knows where we will be in another 13 years. One thing I do know though, is that God has gone before us and even though my heart is breaking at the thought of leaving, I will hold tight to my life verse.

"'For I know the plans I have for you' declares the Lord 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"