Thank you God for giving me such lovely and loving people to take such good care of me continually! Ah yes, I love the Potters. :)
Joel, Owen, Jack, Bethany, and tiny Kate Lael is bangin around in Bethany's tummy. :)
Back to homework.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
I'm taking a 5 min break from my homework....
....to tell you guys how fantastic the Potter family is. They let me come over whenever I want, if I need to do homework I know I will not be bothered...as a matter of fact, if I get distracted, Bethany will come in and put me back to work. It's like having a home all the way over here in Michigan. They even bought me my very own special Potter house coffee mug! See?
Thank you God for giving me such lovely and loving people to take such good care of me continually! Ah yes, I love the Potters. :)
Joel, Owen, Jack, Bethany, and tiny Kate Lael is bangin around in Bethany's tummy. :)
Back to homework.
Thank you God for giving me such lovely and loving people to take such good care of me continually! Ah yes, I love the Potters. :)Joel, Owen, Jack, Bethany, and tiny Kate Lael is bangin around in Bethany's tummy. :)
Back to homework.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Meet the new roomies!!!!
From left to right: Kara, Kelsey, Kati, Jessalyn, and Callie
Kristi!!!! She was my wheelchair buddy. :)
Callie was my chauffeur!
Kristi!!!! She was my wheelchair buddy. :)
Callie was my chauffeur!
She took it upon herself to give me a lesson in trust......
And last but not least, Michelle was behind the camera taking all the pictures. You'll meet her later. :DAnyway.......meet the Dungeon!!!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Oh. My. COW.
This has been the craziest of all crazy semesters. If you haven't heard from me....fear not. I'm not ignoring you....I just feel the need to help God hold the world together. Stupid me. As if He needs it. Nevertheless....I still do it.
So.......beginning of the semester....if I can think back that far..........
-Eric had to go home. A few of you have asked me about it. He didn't end up raising enough money to come back to school, so he's takin' a semester off and working like crazy. Keep him in your prayers.
-I moved into The Dungeon. It's been a guys dorm for eternity past and I'm the privileged person who can now claim to be it's first female RA. The guys, both current students and past students, are not thrilled about it at all. Oh...fyi...it's in the basement. haha It's one of the biggest dorms. There are 8 of us down there...4 of them being freshmen. It's definitely been a learning process.
-First week of classes one of my legs swelled up really ginormous with a plethora of bites. The other leg was in bad shape too. Long story short, I was in the emergency room for a while....sent back to the hospital a few days later.....had a Dermatologist come see me at the school....was on crutches and in a wheelchair for a few weeks...had the grossest most enormous blister/boil things on my legs....much pain....etc. It was pretty intense. The final verdict was that I was bitten by a venomous bug (probably a spider) of some kind and had an allergic reaction to it as well. I also found out that I'm allergic to the mosquitoes out here...which made a large contribution as well. Fear not, I'm all healed up now. It provided some very extreme and unwanted excitement to kick the semester off! But as always, God showed Himself to be faithful.
-Aside from my trip to the ER, my roomie Callie was deathly ill for a while to the point where we almost had to bring her in as well. Then last week I was back in the ER with my roomie Kati who was having some intense chest pain and difficulty breathing. I've never been to the ER as many times in my entire life as I have been there in the last month. Fun times.
-With all of the drama, sickness, and quality hospital time, I've been a step behind in my studies from day one. THIS is the reason ya'll haven't heard from me. The teachers have been so gracious in working with me and giving me extra time. However I'm becoming a pro at pulling all-nighters. Not particularly healthy....but often necessary.
-I'm learning the joys of getting along with people of all personalities. Loving when it's hard to love. Being patient, truly patient, rather than simply tolerant. I see the faithfulness of God every day and am constantly amazed that He loves me as much as He does. I'm getting my daily dose of Romans, Hebrews, and Corinthians every day. I get slapped around and then embraced by it's truth. Love hurts. :) In everything (and I've only related the tip of the iceberg here) the most wonderful thing that the Lord has taught me is to choose to be joyful in everything. Once I realized that I was missing JOY in my life, my anger, bitterness, and frustration faded away. I can't declare that it's completely gone, but it's easier to rest in God's grace and His provision when I choose to walk through my day rejoicing in all that He gives me and does for me.
What a good God we serve!!
Before I sign off, I'll give you all a quick (very delayed) overview of my lovely birthday. I had been hearing about how fantastic it was going to be for months from Eric, Becky, Kaylee, Bethany....and others. Everyone seemed to know about it but me! haha
It started with Eric coming aaaaall the way down to school and taking me out to the park for a lovely, traditional picnic, complete with the checkered blanket and big picnic basket. He gave me the most fabulous Bible ever (real leather cover with wide-lined margins for notes!), we ate sandwiches that he made, and then he taught me how to play backgammon. I won. :)
Next, I had to go change into nice cloths and he took me to a small, privately owned Italian restaurant. Becky helped him plan my day, so he helped her by taking me out to dinner with the money she sent him. Teamwork at it's finest. ;) It was wonderful.
I figured the day would be over since it was almost 7, but no! He stuck me in my wheelchair and wheeled me downtown to our favorite coffee shop. We made it there 2 minutes before closing, so we got our coffee and sat by the creek that runs through town and drank our coffee and chatted.
He said that Bethany wanted us to stop by her house so they could give me a gift really quick. I REALLY had to go to the bathroom so I got there and bolted through the house, straight into a group of my five best friends at school who yelled SURPRISE! I almost wet my pants. lol It was the nicest gathering in the world. Eric, Kaylee, Callie, Michelle, Steven, and the Potters....aside from my own family, it couldn't have gotten any better. They gave me gifts including a harmonica, playdough, a whiskey flask lol, a bouncy ball, a sock monkey...and more. haha That's true love! Eric made the cake himself, which I though was pretty impressive.
After that he took me back over to the school where we played chinese checkers. The first time we went to coffee together, we played chinese checkers for 2 hours. lol It was fun to remember it.
My favorite part of God's creation is the stars, so to finish off the night we went to a big open soccer field and he set up his dad's telescope that they'd spent the whole week fixing up. Unfortunately, the sky was full of clouds. It was okay though. It's the thought that counts. So we ended up just hanging out and talking.
I almost forgot...when I was hobbling up the stairs to go to dinner with him, when I opened the door, he was standing there all dressed up with a huge bouquet of orange and yellow gerber daisies!!! It was phenomenal. All in all, Eric did a good job. And believe it or not...this is the super condensed version!!!!
Anyway, I'm still alive. I'm learning. I'm blessed. I'm choosing JOY!!!
I love you guys and I promise to be in some sort of contact soon.
I miss ya'll!
So.......beginning of the semester....if I can think back that far..........
-Eric had to go home. A few of you have asked me about it. He didn't end up raising enough money to come back to school, so he's takin' a semester off and working like crazy. Keep him in your prayers.
-I moved into The Dungeon. It's been a guys dorm for eternity past and I'm the privileged person who can now claim to be it's first female RA. The guys, both current students and past students, are not thrilled about it at all. Oh...fyi...it's in the basement. haha It's one of the biggest dorms. There are 8 of us down there...4 of them being freshmen. It's definitely been a learning process.
-First week of classes one of my legs swelled up really ginormous with a plethora of bites. The other leg was in bad shape too. Long story short, I was in the emergency room for a while....sent back to the hospital a few days later.....had a Dermatologist come see me at the school....was on crutches and in a wheelchair for a few weeks...had the grossest most enormous blister/boil things on my legs....much pain....etc. It was pretty intense. The final verdict was that I was bitten by a venomous bug (probably a spider) of some kind and had an allergic reaction to it as well. I also found out that I'm allergic to the mosquitoes out here...which made a large contribution as well. Fear not, I'm all healed up now. It provided some very extreme and unwanted excitement to kick the semester off! But as always, God showed Himself to be faithful.
-Aside from my trip to the ER, my roomie Callie was deathly ill for a while to the point where we almost had to bring her in as well. Then last week I was back in the ER with my roomie Kati who was having some intense chest pain and difficulty breathing. I've never been to the ER as many times in my entire life as I have been there in the last month. Fun times.
-With all of the drama, sickness, and quality hospital time, I've been a step behind in my studies from day one. THIS is the reason ya'll haven't heard from me. The teachers have been so gracious in working with me and giving me extra time. However I'm becoming a pro at pulling all-nighters. Not particularly healthy....but often necessary.
-I'm learning the joys of getting along with people of all personalities. Loving when it's hard to love. Being patient, truly patient, rather than simply tolerant. I see the faithfulness of God every day and am constantly amazed that He loves me as much as He does. I'm getting my daily dose of Romans, Hebrews, and Corinthians every day. I get slapped around and then embraced by it's truth. Love hurts. :) In everything (and I've only related the tip of the iceberg here) the most wonderful thing that the Lord has taught me is to choose to be joyful in everything. Once I realized that I was missing JOY in my life, my anger, bitterness, and frustration faded away. I can't declare that it's completely gone, but it's easier to rest in God's grace and His provision when I choose to walk through my day rejoicing in all that He gives me and does for me.
What a good God we serve!!
Before I sign off, I'll give you all a quick (very delayed) overview of my lovely birthday. I had been hearing about how fantastic it was going to be for months from Eric, Becky, Kaylee, Bethany....and others. Everyone seemed to know about it but me! haha
It started with Eric coming aaaaall the way down to school and taking me out to the park for a lovely, traditional picnic, complete with the checkered blanket and big picnic basket. He gave me the most fabulous Bible ever (real leather cover with wide-lined margins for notes!), we ate sandwiches that he made, and then he taught me how to play backgammon. I won. :)
Next, I had to go change into nice cloths and he took me to a small, privately owned Italian restaurant. Becky helped him plan my day, so he helped her by taking me out to dinner with the money she sent him. Teamwork at it's finest. ;) It was wonderful.
I figured the day would be over since it was almost 7, but no! He stuck me in my wheelchair and wheeled me downtown to our favorite coffee shop. We made it there 2 minutes before closing, so we got our coffee and sat by the creek that runs through town and drank our coffee and chatted.
He said that Bethany wanted us to stop by her house so they could give me a gift really quick. I REALLY had to go to the bathroom so I got there and bolted through the house, straight into a group of my five best friends at school who yelled SURPRISE! I almost wet my pants. lol It was the nicest gathering in the world. Eric, Kaylee, Callie, Michelle, Steven, and the Potters....aside from my own family, it couldn't have gotten any better. They gave me gifts including a harmonica, playdough, a whiskey flask lol, a bouncy ball, a sock monkey...and more. haha That's true love! Eric made the cake himself, which I though was pretty impressive.
After that he took me back over to the school where we played chinese checkers. The first time we went to coffee together, we played chinese checkers for 2 hours. lol It was fun to remember it.
My favorite part of God's creation is the stars, so to finish off the night we went to a big open soccer field and he set up his dad's telescope that they'd spent the whole week fixing up. Unfortunately, the sky was full of clouds. It was okay though. It's the thought that counts. So we ended up just hanging out and talking.
I almost forgot...when I was hobbling up the stairs to go to dinner with him, when I opened the door, he was standing there all dressed up with a huge bouquet of orange and yellow gerber daisies!!! It was phenomenal. All in all, Eric did a good job. And believe it or not...this is the super condensed version!!!!
Anyway, I'm still alive. I'm learning. I'm blessed. I'm choosing JOY!!!
I love you guys and I promise to be in some sort of contact soon.
I miss ya'll!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Once again....I fell off the face of the planet....
I don't have time to sit and write about everything that's gone on in the last 3 weeks, but let's suffice it to say that it's been one of the most eventful times of my life. Some if it incredibly good, some of it incredibly bad. I know my communication with the outside world has been horrible, but know that I've been thinking of you all and praying for you and I WILL call at some point. Once I get my homework under control, I'll get on here and fill you all in on the update with my leg condition and then give an overview of my extremely fabulous birthday. :) Both of those require time. I love and miss you all back at home!!!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Oh ME of little faith.....PART 2
My dad and I have been driving to and from work together every day. Well, last week I decided to bring along our radio drama CD's of the Chronicles of Narnia. I love the stories and I find it so interesting and wonderful that C.S. Lewis wove the stories, pictures, and concepts of Scripture into his books. As I'm sure you all know, God is represented in Narnia by the great lion Aslan. We were listening to "The Magician's Nephew" the other day when something really stood out to me. At one point, 2 children are making a great journey for Aslan along with a horse (that speaks...I totally want a talking horse.) When they stop for the night, the children declare that they are hungry and wonder why Aslan didn't give them food. The horse inquires if they asked him for food. The young boy says "I should think that He would know our needs without us having to ask." The horse replies "It is true that he already knows our needs, but I've a sovereign idea that he likes to be asked."
How often do we use the "he already knows our needs" line as a substitution for actually bringing our requests before Him? Of course He already knows, but He still likes to be asked. He still wants us to talk to Him about it. This is definitely something that God is showing me in my life on a daily basis.
So as I've continued to pray that God would provide for my upcoming school semester, I continue to be astonished at His faithfulness. I don't know why that astonishes me...He is God. I guess I'm just a doubter...didn't know it until now. That knowledge is very humbling, as you can probibly imagine.
So after the $100 I received in my last post, that same lovely family gave me another $100 the next sunday. I was completely speechless. I didn't even know how to thank them, but they said that God is blessing them right now and they wanted to share that blessing with me as well. Wow Grace, keep praying!
Then I just received a letter in the mail from a young couple who are very near and dear to my heart and in it was $150. Every time I see God answering my prayer, tears fill my eyes as I see my faithlessness compared to God's unending faithfulness! He continues to provide, even when I doubt.
Then as the cherry on top, I found out today that I got a $2.00 raise. I was at the point where I was certain that God would bring all the money I would need for tuition, and then immediately began to worry about getting enough money to buy my books. I'm so ready to just take care of things myself instead of taking them to God. After almost an entire summer of self reliance and worry, I've seen the amazing blessings that God is just waiting to lavish on us if we would just ask Him. What a good God we serve!!
Thanks for your prayers and support! I love you guys so much!
How often do we use the "he already knows our needs" line as a substitution for actually bringing our requests before Him? Of course He already knows, but He still likes to be asked. He still wants us to talk to Him about it. This is definitely something that God is showing me in my life on a daily basis.
So as I've continued to pray that God would provide for my upcoming school semester, I continue to be astonished at His faithfulness. I don't know why that astonishes me...He is God. I guess I'm just a doubter...didn't know it until now. That knowledge is very humbling, as you can probibly imagine.
So after the $100 I received in my last post, that same lovely family gave me another $100 the next sunday. I was completely speechless. I didn't even know how to thank them, but they said that God is blessing them right now and they wanted to share that blessing with me as well. Wow Grace, keep praying!
Then I just received a letter in the mail from a young couple who are very near and dear to my heart and in it was $150. Every time I see God answering my prayer, tears fill my eyes as I see my faithlessness compared to God's unending faithfulness! He continues to provide, even when I doubt.
Then as the cherry on top, I found out today that I got a $2.00 raise. I was at the point where I was certain that God would bring all the money I would need for tuition, and then immediately began to worry about getting enough money to buy my books. I'm so ready to just take care of things myself instead of taking them to God. After almost an entire summer of self reliance and worry, I've seen the amazing blessings that God is just waiting to lavish on us if we would just ask Him. What a good God we serve!!
Thanks for your prayers and support! I love you guys so much!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Oh ME of little faith.....
Today in Sunday School, we were in the book of Genesis where Abraham sends his servant to go find a wife for Isaac. As the servant approached his destination, he prayed that God would give him specific signs in showing him the exact young lady that He wanted Isaac to marry. Instantly, he saw Rebekah. He spoke to her and God answered his prayers precisely down to the smallest detail. Wow! not only did God give a perfect answer, He delivered it instantly!
As we discussed the story, the teacher asked us how often God has answered our prayers right after we prayed. We all looked around, kinda laughed.....not too often, right? I sat there thinking "I'm sure it happens for some people! It's so neat to hear their stories! Not sure it'll ever happen to me..." I'm ashamed at my lack of faith and trust in the God of the universe!!
Before the class started, we went around the group taking prayer requests. I've been realizing over the last few days that even though I've been working hard, I'm probably going to come up short a few hundred dollars on my school tuition this next semester. I've been trying to think of ways to raise more money, work more hours...I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!!! As kind of an afterthought, I mentioned my financial situation as a prayer request. I know now that my heart still wasn't believing in the provision of God. I went through the motions, but my heart still doubted. Then we had a wonderful class about a loving God who hears and answers prayers...instantly?
About 5 minutes after class, a lovely friend from church came up to me and pressed $100 into my hand. That's 25% of what I've calculated that I'll be in need of. This family that blessed me with this gift has been struggling financially themselves. We've been praying for a while now that God would provide work for them. Yet, they chose to look past that and give freely.
I'm ashamed to think that I doubted God's provision when I wouldn't even take the time to ask Him to provide. But I'm overwhelmed with gratitude to Him and to my lovely friends who have shown me such love and support, even before today. What a good God we serve!
As we discussed the story, the teacher asked us how often God has answered our prayers right after we prayed. We all looked around, kinda laughed.....not too often, right? I sat there thinking "I'm sure it happens for some people! It's so neat to hear their stories! Not sure it'll ever happen to me..." I'm ashamed at my lack of faith and trust in the God of the universe!!
Before the class started, we went around the group taking prayer requests. I've been realizing over the last few days that even though I've been working hard, I'm probably going to come up short a few hundred dollars on my school tuition this next semester. I've been trying to think of ways to raise more money, work more hours...I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!!! As kind of an afterthought, I mentioned my financial situation as a prayer request. I know now that my heart still wasn't believing in the provision of God. I went through the motions, but my heart still doubted. Then we had a wonderful class about a loving God who hears and answers prayers...instantly?
About 5 minutes after class, a lovely friend from church came up to me and pressed $100 into my hand. That's 25% of what I've calculated that I'll be in need of. This family that blessed me with this gift has been struggling financially themselves. We've been praying for a while now that God would provide work for them. Yet, they chose to look past that and give freely.
I'm ashamed to think that I doubted God's provision when I wouldn't even take the time to ask Him to provide. But I'm overwhelmed with gratitude to Him and to my lovely friends who have shown me such love and support, even before today. What a good God we serve!
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