Before I start, a little bit of background. Jessie and I met in college, got engaged after a little over 3 years of dating, and got married at around the 5-year mark of being together. We graduated college the same year, worked individually on building up our careers, struggled through years of long distance, and learned what it was to truly place Jesus at the center of our relationship. 
We made this blog, Jessie and I. This should be really interesting. Simply put, we don’t see eye to eye on everything. Neither do we see eye to eye physically – I’m a good 10 inches taller than she is. So you, our readers, will be able to see our different perspectives on the things we write about. Let’s break it down by category:

Faith 
We both share the same bedrock beliefs of Christianity that have been echoed throughout history since the foundation of the Christian church. However, we both grew up very differently when it comes to faith. I grew up in a Protestant household. I attended Sunday School, went to vacation Bible school, and awkwardly made my way through middle and high school youth-groups. I was “churched,” and yet, my relationship with Jesus Christ didn’t mean much to me until the latter part of my freshman year of college. I’ll eventually talk about how I started  believing in the Gospel in a later post, but all-in-all, my story is not that uncommon. On the flip-side, Jessie grew up in a very different context of faith. I’ll let her explain her unconventional upbringing surrounding her faith, but for now, just note that we come from very different backgrounds. Now that we are married and are experiencing God’s hand in a more unified way, we carry with us both the undeniable truths from the bible and our different perspectives. Though we are both jars of clay with the eternal light of God shining through our cracks, we are both cracked differently, and we hope that you will be able to appreciate God’s glory shining through the both of us in unique ways, just as we have both learned to appreciate our differences together. 

Family
As of now, the North Carolina branch of the Palpallatoc family line is 3-strong: Me, Jessie, and our dog, Tolkien. Though, I guess he only kind-of counts, depending who you ask. Even though we both grew up with very different families, very different traditions, very different values, we both have come to the same conclusion. Although we both have had challenging experiences with our own families, we acknowledge that it is a sacred structure, and we both are committed to establishing this family with  Jesus Christ as our cornerstone. That being said, we don’t have it all figured out. As the head of this household, I get nervous everyday about my ability (or rather, lack thereof) to steer this ship. It’s a humbling and sobering daily meditation on my inadequacy that has me running to God’s throne room to plead for strength, wisdom, love, and leadership. In His grace, He has led the both of us to more experienced brothers and sisters in Christ who we can learn from and be poured into by. Similar to the first two categories, we don’t agree on everything when it comes to family. So through these blog posts, you’ll be able to see our differing opinions on family values, our differing perspectives on how to resolve future family conflicts, and our very different ideas for baby names if God blesses us with a child in the coming years.

Food
We have extremely different tastes in food. I love spicy food, she does not. I love a lot of flavor, she gets overwhelmed by too much of it. I don’t like soupy or mushy foods like oatmeal, bananas, or applesauce, but she enjoys all three. Cooking brings me genuine joy and relieves stress. Cooking for Jessie probably brings her stress levels to the equivalent of a NYC taxi driver on New Year’s Eve. Along the way, we’ve both made the commitment to find foods that we both enjoy, while testing our limits and keeping our minds open. Food has been something that brings people together through generations, and it certainly has for us. I think whether your taste in food is more of a Josh, or a Jessie, or somewhere in between, you’ll be able to appreciate our commentary of different recipes, experimenting with new flavors, and trying local restaurants that we’ll be showcasing here.

All in all, my hope is that you will be able to see the love of God shine through our brokenness, our tribulations, and our victories. 
Until next time.

– Josh

Like many couples, the two of us work 9-5 jobs that take up the majority of our time and energy. But even though we can only spend the in-between hours on the things we really love, what fulfills us the most is our faith, our belief that Christ died on the cross for our redemption and salvation; food, our need for sustenance and trying new recipes and cuisines; and family, us building our lives together and preparing a good foundation for our future family together (along with our adorable dog who lightens our life and brings us joy and the necessary understanding of duty and responsibility).
Through this blog, we hope to share our journey of faith, our growing recipe book inspired by awesome creations found online and in various books, and the building of our household and family.