Chchchchch Changes!

Changes, changes and more changes!  To say this summer has been a whirlwind would be an understatement!  For the sake of my time and yours, here's the very short Reader's Digest version:

Well, I sold my house in 7 days!  Now, I'm in a transition.  I'm thinking of buying a hip loft in downtown Nashville once Kolby graduates.

Here's even bigger news!  All summer, Kolby and her best friend, Sadie, begged me to move to Louisiana for her senior year.  The first time they asked, I laughed.  But, I made a promise to them that I'd pray about it.  I told them if God showed me this was His will, who was I to argue with Him?  Fast forward to August.  Kolby is now doing her senior year in Monroe, Louisiana!  I'm now commuting and living two weeks in Nashville working with two pregnancy centers and two weeks in Monroe, working on several projects there, i.e., an abstinence program, hosting a Christian radio show and many speaking engagements.

The decision to allow Kolby to attend school in Louisiana didn't come easy for me.  Actually, I struggled with letting go and letting God for months.  Finally, I made the decision to trust Him completely with my youngest daughter and to have faith that it was the right thing for her.  I'm continually receiving confirmation that for now, she's in the right place.  She loves her new school, is excelling in every subject and her walk with The Lord has never been stronger.  I couldn't be more proud of her.

Never would I have imagined a year ago that my life would be as it is today.  This summer, we've made life long friendships with people we didn't even know a year ago.  The Lord has truly been working in all the details.

Kendra started her Junior/Senior Year in College several weeks ago in NC and her relationship with her boyfriend, Brandon, is going strong.  I love him!  He passed my test with flying colors!  I would welcome the idea of being related to him one day!  They went to Hawaii and are looking forward to going back and doing mission work.  They are helping each other get to Heaven!  I love that!

Tawni is using her nursing skills to work with brain injury patients and she's doing quite well.  She has such a heart for people and chose the perfect profession that suits her personality to a tee.  She, too, is in a serious relationship and is very happy!  I'm so happy for her.  She deserves the very best.

Teryn and Chad are doing well and Salem just started Pre-K today!  Chad's music school, Pro Music Academy, just launched its second location in Seattle, Washington and it's exploding!  If you want to learn any kind of instrument, how to write songs or receive voice lessons, check out pma.com!  You can't find a better place to learn from.  Now that they offer Skype lessons, you can take them from anywhere in the world!  Teryn's real estate business is booming and she's reaching and breaking all the goals she has set for herself.  Need an agent in Nashville?  Get in touch with Teryn Chapin.  She's the best!  Sold my house in 7 days!

As for me, I'm more content than ever.  My God, my family and my friends are the greatest blessings in my life and I don't take them for granted.  We had an amazing family beach trip in St. George with my brother, sister and their families and already we are planning next years! 

Unfortunately, there've been a few bumps in the road over the summer too, but I've decided to focus on the good and not the bad.  When one door shuts, another door opens.  When friends disappoint and hurt you, God brings more friends into your life to help ease the pain.  All we can do is wish the best for those we truly loved and cared for, accept things for what they are, and move on.  Such is life, I suppose.  Seasons come and seasons go.

FYI:  Kolby and Sadie started a new YouTube Channel called "The New Different".  Each week, they are bringing devotionals, sharing their hearts and interviewing guests.  Their first intro video had over 100,000 views in its first week alone!  Be sure to check it out on YouTube! Just search for Kolby and Sadie and you should be able to locate it.

Please don't forget to follow all of us on twitter, Instragram and our Facebook page.  We'll be posting news when we're able about "Preacher's Daughters" soon!  Thanks for loving the Koloffs!  We love you guys too!

@victoriakoloff
@terynkoloffchapin
@tawnikoloff
@kendrakoloff
@kolbykoloff
@chadchapin
@nikitakoloff
@thekoloffs
@gabbykoloff

Facebook - Preacher's Daughters - The Koloff Family

Tawni's Blog

Since I haven't had a minute to blog lately, I wanted to share with you another great blog that I read.  It's my second daughter, Tawni's, blog.  She writes with passion, conviction and just plain good stuff!

Enjoy!

Here's the link:  thingcalledlivin.blogspot.com

And, yes, I promise my new blog is coming!  Be ready for it because there are HUGE changes in my life and the life of my family.

God bless you!  Go do something for Him today!

BUSY BUSY BUSY!

It has been a crazy, wild, amazingly fun filled, spiritually incredible summer!  I will write soon and update all of you loyal readers!

Please be patient with me.  So much to do, so little time to do it:)

Until we catch up, God's blessings to you all!

Victoria

What a Month!

So many exciting changes are happening in my life!  Change is scary, hard and uncomfortable at times, but I'm doing my very best to trust Him in all things.  When I do that, it sure makes for a more peaceful transition.  My house is going on the market this week and I can't wait to see how quickly it sells.  Trusting the Lord will bring a buyer right away!

We're also preparing for our annual "Family Beach Trip", which begins next week and I can't wait to be with my entire family, including my brother, sister, their kids and special friends too! It's always the highlight of our entire year when we get to be together for fun, fun, and more fun!

I apologize that I haven't written in a few weeks, but we've been incredibly busy!  For one, Kolby left for a week long camp in Louisiana, where her life was forever changed!  It was one of the greatest experiences she's ever had in her life and she's still talking about it.

I had the privilege of speaking at the camp on the last day to the high school campers and witnessed over 25 teens accept Jesus Christ as their Savior at the end of my message.  God is so good!  I am humbled how He continues to use me, in spite of myself.  I know I'm not worthy, but He sure is.

On the last day of camp, Kolby made the decision to be baptized!  I was honored that I could be there to witness her emersion into water proclaiming her love and desire to serve Jesus!  As a mother, there are no words to describe watching your child make the decision on her own to serve God with her life.  I was truly blessed.

If you're looking for a camp that's annointed and whose staff members and leaders are appointed by Him, I absolutely endorse and recommend Camp Ch-Yo-Ca in Calhoun, LA.  Kolby loved it so much, made lifelong friends and can't wait to go back next year!

After camp was over, Kolby and I were invited to stay as guests for several more days and spent time with some amazing, wonderful and generous people, the Howard and Robertson families. They treated Kolby and I like family and were gracious to us during our entire stay.  They made us feel so welcome. 

Our time with both of these families were some of the most comfortable, relaxed days I've had in a long time.  They opened up their beautiful homes to us and literally made us feel right at home.  We were invited and blessed to attend a really cool "Sweet 16" Party and it was a blast!  The gals at Junk Gypsy did all the decorating for her party and there is no way to describe how incredible this party was!  I've never seen anything like it in my entire life! If you want a unique, one-of-a-kind party, you want to check them out!  Kolby also went mud digging(?), tubing and even target shooting!  She had the time of her life!  Now, my little city girl is daily begging me to move to Louisiana! I think the Lord knew how much Kolby needed this trip.  He truly blessed her with special friendships and she misses all of her new friends very much.  We worshipped together on Sunday morning and were so blessed by their church service and family.  I even (unknowingly) ate crawfish for the first time and loved it!  I seriously can't write enough about our time there.  We made great, lifelong new friendships and are looking forward to our next visit.   Here are just a few pictures from our visit.  Good times with great people!

So much is coming in the next month alone! We'll be going on vacation, moving to a new place, Kolby's going on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic and I'm off to Missouri for a week long women's conference. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it.  But, God is good and He sustains us.  Life may be busy right now, but it's also very exciting!

God has so much in store for all of us.  I hope you'll learn to completely trust Him with everything in your life.  This past year has been a crazy ride for the Koloff Family and it's probably going to get even crazier.  We are receiving more and more invitations to speak and there is nothing I'd rather do than share what God has done in my life with others.  Without Him, I don't know where I'd be.  I encourage you to stop whatever you're doing and ask God to reveal to you His plan for your own life.  If He doesn't show you right away, trust that He will in His time.  My life is not perfect by any means, but I do serve a perfect God.  He's there waiting for you too.  I still receive countless letters about how our little show is helping you or your family.  That blesses me more than anything.  I pray that one day soon through my travels, I'll have the opportunity to meet each one of you.  Until then, keep Him first and never forget that He's crazy about you!

So many of you are writing and asking about Season 2.  I wish I could tell you more, but I'm not at liberty to do that yet.  But, I'll say this, I think you're going to be very happy about what's coming!

I'll write again soon, but until then, Happy Summer PD Fans!  We miss you too!

A Night at the Fontanel

In the past six months, our lives have changed forever.  God has blessed us with many opportunities and we aren't taking them for granted.

Last night was another one of those times.  We were privileged to spend an entire evening at The Fontanel Mansion in Nashville, TN.  This is the former home of Barbara Mandrell and her family.  They built this amazing, 27,000 square foot log home in 1988 and lived there until they sold it in 2002.  The two music moguls who bought the home have turned it into a "museum" of sorts.  On the 130 acres, you can attend concerts, hike, bike, zip line, and tour the house.  The place is incredible and I highly recommend you make a trip there!  Your entire family will enjoy it. 

We not only ate dinner in the family kitchen, but sat at the family's original dinner table overlooking this magnificient property.  After dinner, the girl's and I got ready in Barbara's mirrored bathroom and had our make up and hair done in her dressing room.  I even used one of her toilets!  OK, maybe that was too much information!  It was a night of surreal moments.

We were there to celebrate an incredible event in our family, which you'll find out about soon:).  The girls and I were so blessed to hang with Jaime Dudney, Barbara's only daughter, who works on the property.  She gave us a personal tour and shared many stories of her mother.  At 13, Barbara toured with Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, George Jones and Patsy Cline!  For those of you too young to remember these legends, you'll want to youtube them.  These are the artists who've inspired people like Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney and so many more!

I personally enjoyed my time with Jaime so much.  We're already making plans to have dinner soon.  She was so sweet, real and normal and I appreciated that about her.  You'd never know she grew up so privileged, as there's nothing snobby or pretentious about her.  The owners are lucky to have her working there.  Who better to take you on a tour of Barbara Mandrells' home than Barbara Mandrell's daughter herself, who actually lived there for 15 years!  I'm grateful the Lord has brought another new friend into my life!

The staff and management at The Fontanel Mansion are second to none.  They were absolutely incredible.  If you've been looking for a place to get married, renew wedding vows, have an anniversary party or any family event, you've found it!  Our entire experience was beyond words.  This home has God's handprints everywhere you look.  The Mandrell/Dudney Family are a strong faith based, Christian family and you sense that as you walk the hallways of this magnificent home.  I can't say enough good things about our night.  The food was delicious, the ambiance soothing and you felt like you were at "home". 

As I looked out the window of the beautiful mansion, I stood in awe of all that God's done and is doing in my family.  Nikita and I are on friendly terms, the girls are thriving in their careers and school, my son-in-law's music school, Pro Music Academy, is exploding and my granddaughter, Salem?  Well, she's just my heart walking around!  I'm excited to take a front row seat to witness what He's going to do next!

Thank you Lord for my wonderful family and another amazing experience. I love you beyond words.

Happy Birthday Salem Sophia!

Four years ago today, the lives of me and my family changed forever.  It was the day that Teryn and Chad welcomed their daughter, my granddaughter, Salem Sophia, into the world.  I was blessed to have been asked to witness her birth and being in the room as my oldest daughter gave birth to her first child was beyond anything I could have ever imagined.

Since that day, my life has never been more full.  Even when I'm having a bad day, all I need to do is call that little girl and talk to her.  She tells me about her day or asks, "When are you coming over, Mimi?" 

She changed my relationship with Teryn and made it better.  She brought healing into our family that we needed at the time.  God's timing is perfect.  Grandchildren are God's rewards for parents to enjoy after experiencing the toddler and teenage years!

Happy Birthday, Salem Sophia.  Your Mimi loves you high as the sky, deep as the sea and all the air in between.

Now, let's go have that "Beach Pool Party" that you wanted!

I love you, my Lil Pooks:)

Something Wonderful Happened this Week!

This past Thursday during my radio show, "Real Talk", (airing on FOXSports Radio, 910Theduck.net), my show crashed.  That means, the system went down and we were off the air.  Twice.  Here's why this is fantastic news!

Never in the station's history has this ever happened!  The listenership for my show is growing so fast, the system just couldn't handle the overload, hence crashing. Yes, this is a great problem and one we hope to resolve before my next show on Thursday.

I wanted to take this time to personally thank those of you who've become loyal listeners by tuning in each Thursday from 4-5pm (Central) online at http://wmrb.streamon.fm/# .

This "problem" is forcing us to look for solutions.  I'm working right now on future possibilities to expand the show.  I'll keep you informed on how that progresses!

It's so exciting to witness how the Lord uses media to reach others with messages of hope and redemption.  It is even more humbling that He chooses to use me, but He redeemed me and I love sharing that hope with others!  Don't know about you, but He still has much more work to do where I'm concerned.  We are all works in progress!  I may not be who I need to be, but I'm definitely not who I used to be:).

God loves us just the way we are, just too much to leave us that way!  Thanks again for tuning in and be sure to mark your calendars for this Thursday at 4pm(c) online at http://wmrb.streamon.fm/# for more "Real Talk!"

Until then, remember to "KEEP IT REAL!"