The SUN!!!

Wow!! The past month has a been another roller coaster in life it seems... but I'm so thankful that the Lord has brought me to a point such as this. I look back on everything that I was worrying about and the Lord has been faithful to answer prayers and offer hope for the future. About a month ago, I was counting down the days till I would be leaving... counting the days till I could escape from everything. Thankfully, I no longer see this mission trip as escaping anything, I see this where God wants me and He was gracious enough to open my eyes to see that. He parted the clouds of the storm(s) I was going through and now the sun seems to be shining bright! I was having some issues with a dear friend of mine, but the Lord has brought us through that and now our future looks brighter than ever and my heart is as peace. My grampa has gotten wonderful test ressults back and it seems that he is cancer-free at the moment. I've gotten to know a girl I will be spending my summer with and am looking foward to the friendship the Lord is already starting to plant there. The past week was spent hanging out with my friends and family, people the Lord has so abundantly graciously blessed me with! The sun is shining bright!

Let me be clear about one thing though, I'm not anymore in love with my Savior or anymore 'pleased' with Him... that is definately NOT the case! I'm in love with my Savior storm or shine. I rely wholly and entirely upon Him mountain or valley. I praise Him in every situation and give thanks constantly for I am always blessed beyond measure simply by the Christ's death on the cross for my sins, giving me eternal life with God. Every breath beyond that is a blessing that I don't deserve. So please don't misunderstand, my joy is not found in the sunny weather of my life, I'm just sharing that the sun is shining very bright right now.

16 DAYS!!!

So as most of you know, I will be spending my summer in the Philippines working in an orphanage... and it's coming quick! I now leave in only 16 days!!!! I'm soo very excited, but am also understanding how big this trip is going to be. Yesterday I learned alot about the exact orphanage I'll be working in, called Gentle Hands. Most of the children I'll be working with are special needs, much due to neglect and abuse. There are some with physical disabilities as well. I was able to go to the website, gentlehands.org and was able to view all of the children and read a little about their story. Just seeing them broke my heart, I don't know how I'll be able to come home after two months. But I'm getting very excited and ready to go! Hopefully I'll be able to keep up blogging while I'm there, as I expect to have internet access at least once a week.

May...

So this week has been sort of a blur. I finished up all of my final online exams, bringing me to the joyous end of this semester. However, on Wednesday the grandmother of my best friend, Emily, passed away. Grandma Hasty as she was called by many, myself included, was one of the sweetest ladies I've ever known, also with a tremendous amount of spunk that I found refreshingly admirable. This was bittersweet time, as we will miss her, but are thankful that she is now with the Lord. As May comes upon us, marks my last month before I will be leaving to go the Philippines for two months. I'm trying to spend as much time with friends and family as possible during this time, as I know I will be holding dear to the memories I make during this coming month while I'm gone. Fortunately, I should be able to have access to the internet while I'm there. I will try to blog and keep up to date on what's going on, but I'm not sure how well that will work out, we'll just have to wait and see.

End of Semester!!!!

So, I've definately been lacking in blogging lately...nearly a month since my last post, sorry! I've just been so busy with school and such, however I've got one more final to finish and I will be done!!! YAY!! Hopefully I'll start blogging a little more regularly....we'll see.

P.S. ~ I leave in a little over a month!!!! (36 days!) I'm so very excited about what the Lord is doing and is going to do!!!

Friends!

The Lord has been helping me realize how blessed I am in the area of my friends! I have been blessed with several special friends over the years but there are two that have had a wonderful impact on my life and have become so dear to me, Mrs. Emily Baugh and Miss Tracey House. I've blogged about Emily before and how close we are, as we have been best friends for years and years, knowing each other since we were little. However, more recently the Lord thought I needed another very special best friend and has brought Tracey into my life. Tracey and I pretty much collided into each other.. with neither of us really expecting to become close friends. Me and Tracey started working at UPS at the same time and went through training together and have been working pretty much side by side since August 2007. However it wasn't untill the past six months - year that we have really gotten close. Someone recently actually commented that they didn't see me and Tracey as friends, but more as sisters...this is oh so true, but the funny thing was it took this comment to open both of our eyes to the reality of how close we really are. I'm so thankful for her! This girl is truly a wonderful woman of God, always encouraging me in my walk with Christ and always a listening ear when I need to vent or to think out loud. And of course... she's NEVER scared to be silly/crazy with me! (FYI: We are known for being silly and, as you may have already seen, taking silly-face pictures!) Enjoy SOME of our MANY pictures!

I'm so thankful for this wonderul friend the Lord has blessed me with!

What a day!

So this afternoon I went and had my wisdom teeth cut out... Not FUN! I was a little nervous, but overall I sruprised myself with how calm I was. I was put under, which was a great plus and relief and woke up not able to close my mouth due to all the gauz. I was still a little woozy from the drugs, so I had to have mom help me out to the car... but other than that I'm pretty sure I was pretty sober after everything and didn't do anything too silly. However, something from the surgery, either the anestethia, the pain meds, or the bleeding, made me sick...very sick. At one point we thought we were going to have to go the ER when after getting sick and putting gauz in my mouth again, my pain on one side spiked to the point I was violently shacking. We think a corner of the gauz got caught and was going into one of my holes, because shortly after we took it out and rearranged a new piece of gauz, the pain was a little better to handle and I was able to stop shaking.

So with all of this going on, shortly after we got home, we got a call from my grandfather. He has been undergoing chemo lately and had a scan today to check the progress after everything. He is to get the ressults of this scan next Monday, but the doctors were able to catch something else. The doctors called my Grampa and told him that they found that he has a blood clot that was heading to the lungs. They told him to go to the hospital ER, and that the hospital would be expecting them.

So as I head to bed tonight, I would like to ask everyone to pray for my grampa and for our family. My mom especially has had a lot to deal with today, from sick kid to sick dad...it's been a tad overwhelming but the Lord got us all through it and it turns out that my grampa will possibly be coming home in a couple days.

How grateful I am to the Lord for His amazing grace and presence in my life and for giving me such a great family. My mother and even my brother took great care of me today, even in the midst of this physical pain, I feel so blessed and grateful!

Everyday Sunday ~ Hanging On

God, I'm in this place again,

Trying so hard not to fall,

but everything keeps coming down with the rain,

and I try so hard I forget to call

Everybody's looking around

And wants to be found

And I'm just hanging on

I give You all that I am

Everybody's looking around

And wants to be found

And I'm just hanging on

I give you all that I am

I come to You with all that I am

I bring to You all that I have

And all I have is nothing

And I keep on trying

And all I want is You

Everybody's looking around

And wants to be found

And I'm just hanging on

I give You all that I am

Everybody's looking around

And wants to be found

And I'm just hanging on

I give You all that I am

And as I sit here in the midst of You

I come to you

I come with all that I am

And as I sit here in the midst of you

I come to you

I come with all that I am

Everybody's looking around

And wants to be found

And I'm just hanging on

I give you all that I am

Everybody's looking around

And wants to be found

And I'm just hanging on

I give you all that I am

All that I am

And I'm just hanging on

I give you all that I am

You're everything I am

And I'm just hanging on

And I'm just hanging on

I give You all that I am