Exhausted and slightly stressed, but ever so blessed. :)

Hey ya'll, remember me? Yeah, it's Grace! Grace Baldwin! It's been a while, I know, but it has been one of the craziest weeks of my entire life. Christmas was packed full of action, from Grandma's surgery, to showing Aidy ALL the sights of Los Angeles, to attempting to see everyone I needed to see in the last 3 days I was home. (That last idea failed...fyi.) So much for having a relaxing break! haha It was fabulous though and I wouldn't have left out any of it! I thought, "hmmm I'm tired...so I'll sleep on the plane and relax on my first few days back. Surely THEN I'll be rested up and ready for class!" Wrong again. Between snoring men and super talkative women...3 rows behind me...no sleeping was accomplished on either flight. Plus I had to lug my guitar everywhere I went. I mastered the art of looking like a damsel in distress and sweetly asking the stronger male passengers to throw the guitar in the super high compartment that I couldn't even reach if I wanted to... Anyway, I made it to school and COMPLETELY unpacked. Remember that part about the unpacking...it'll be important later. So, between getting unpacked and having visitors in my dorm (who I was extremely glad to see!), I got to bed late and had to be up super early in the morning. No resting was done there. NTBI had 1 day to train their new student leaders....so we sat there from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. It was in the middle of this fabulously crammed day of intense training that my dean, Amanda, took me aside and let me know that they were moving me to another room. Between loosing my amazing roomies and the fact that I had already COMPLETELY UNPACKED (told ya it would come in handy)...I was slightly distressed. Okay, maybe greatly distressed. I'm not goint to lie...I got a little choked up at having to leave Katie, Angie, and Kaylee. I wasn't given any reason, I was just told to go. So I packed up and moved to a dorm aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way down the hall where I spend 3 depressing days completely alone. I was bummed and lonely, super tired and insanely busy all at once. I marvel at the fact that I'm still alive. Well, enough with the pity party. I was finally given the reason for my move and that was that I had been elected to be the new RA for that dorm. As RA I'm pretty much responsible for the dorm and those who live in it. Needless to say, I was a little scared, overwhelmed, stunned, humbled, terrified, nervous, lost, helpless....and the list goes on and on. It was in this time that God's faithfulness reached out of His Scripture and out of the lives of the wonderful people at this school and wrapped itself around me. I think everyone could immediately tell how terrified I was and several of the staff members took time to pull me aside whenever they had the chance to talk to me, hear me out, pray for me, and give me advice. I was so encouraged and blessed!! I was still nervous when the girls started arriving. This is a small school and everyone pretty much knows everyone. However there were about 5 girls here that I didn't really get to know last semester....and 3 of them were going to be in my dorm. None of them are freshmen. That scared me even more. 2 of them are in my class and the third girl is a senior. I thought "Why would they put a Sophmore over a Senior? Are they crazy?" I felt completely inadequate to be any kind of leader to a group of girls who were either on the same level as me or more advanced. What in the world would I have to offer them?! I got a letter in my mailbox from one the Senior RA's named Marley. I was so blessed. She had been in the same boat when she first became an RA and she felt just like I did. Then she told me that one thing she learned was that we don't NEED to have anything to offer anyone. We are all sisters in Christ and there is no concept of "levels" in the family of Christ. We are all in the same boat, all learning, all sitting at the feet of the same Master. The only thing that I could even begin to offer anyone is the love of Christ and all that He has done. Wow! What a relief! It isn't resting on my shoulders! Christ already took it on His shoulders and freed me from any and all burdens that I stupidly choose to take upon myself. What a good God we serve!
SO! As my girls have arrived and I'm getting to know them more and more, I realize the faithfulness of God once more. They are a group of lovely ladies and we are having a blast! I'll attach some pics at the end that'll give you an idea of how well we get along. :)
I'm learning a TON in classes, but I'll have to save those thoughts for next time. As for now, if you haven't heard a word from me since I left California, it's because being an RA comes with a lot of responsibility, I'm now a librarian and have been in training for that, I'm on the music team, aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I have to read the entire book of Deuteronomy, memorize 10 lengthy verses, and write a paper on the Mosaic Covenant by monday...all for one class. There is homework in the other classes as well.
So I'm going to sign out for now. I know I wrote a novel and I give a gold star to each person that makes it through the entire thing. For now, I'm gonna get back to homework and staying warm. Just a sidenote for all of you in your lovely warm weather........with windchill, it was about -29 today. Without windchill it was a balmy -15. You know it's bad when each window has a thick layer of ice on it.......INSIDE. Nice. :)
Love you all!! I'll be calling soon. :) And thanks for my first letter of the semester Amy!!!

First dorm date. We went to get ice cream in -8 degree weather. Brilliant.

My glamor shot.

Bridgette!

Rachel! a.k.a. RaPo

Anna! haha

And here we are! Dorm 330! And yes...I am a good three inches shorter than anyone else there.