Well, I have officially completed another semester of
college! It’s pretty crazy when I stop and think about all that has happened
this semester. By far this was the most emotionally, physically, and mentally
exhausting and trying semester. I have learned a lot from it but would be lying
if I didn’t admit that I’m glad this semester is in the books.
I have seriously neglected blogging since school has
demanded so much of my time but I don’t want to let this semester slip by before I talk about the highlights. I’m
just going to attempt to summarize my semester with pictures...we'll see how that goes.
We had some of the most glorious weather this fall. I absolutely LOVED getting to enjoy such sweet sunshine and warm weather so far into the fall. My sweet boy came to visit on one of those glorious days and we had a picnic and walked around the arboretum while enjoying each other's company and the gorgeous fall leaves. It was such a wonderful day!
Happy Holla-Ween! This Halloween, my sweet housemates and I decided to dress up as superheroes but "girlify" them with tutus and makeup. We made our shirts, made our tutus (the day of I might add), and embraced our inner superheroes. UK was a safer place thanks to these superheroes...
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Super(wo)man!
Well, the first kid of the Fab Four Family's is officially married. So weird! It was so fun to celebrate Jessie and Nate's wedding and spend time with precious friends. Everyone looked absolutely beautiful (especially Mrs. Jessie Bargen). I must admit that I have never danced (or sweat) so much at a wedding before. Ha! Once dinner, toasts, the first dance and the Father-Daughter dance were done, the dance floor was open and we busted all kinds of moves for hours. Goodness, we were all in rare form and danced the night away. Oh we had so much fun! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Bargen!
For my birthday, my sweet boy got season tickets for the Contemporary Dance Theater. We have only been to one show so far and it was...different for sure. Ha! Neither of us are very "artsy" so I think we probably missed some of the message the dancers were trying to portray BUT we were entertained and enjoyed getting to experience something totally new together.
Oh how I love Jesus Prom. Each year, Southland puts on a prom for the mentally and physically disabled where each "promer"is assigned to a date and is able to play games, get their hair and makeup done, and dance the night away. Jesus Prom by far is one of the most amazing and humbling nights. It brings me SO much joy to watch these men and women laugh, play, and dance. This year I had a pretty difficult night. I was assigned to a 10 year old girl with Aspergers. Rather than wanting to dance, get her hair and makeup done, or walk around, Destiny wanted only to play games and run...around the entire church. Ha! Phew, it was so exhausting. Little Miss wanted nothing to do with anyone but me and had very little interest in doing anything prom related. Most of the night we spent in a corner talking about animals...her favorite subject. While I was exhausted, that night was a night that I truly had to humble myself and pray that the Lord would give me patience and grace. While last year was so much fun, this year gave me such an appreciation and high respect for parents of children with disabilities and reminded me that while serving others, we are to humble ourselves and put other's desires and needs above our own. All in all, the night was absolutely worthwhile and humbling to spend time with Destiny, talk to her parents, serve with sweet friends, and watch the promers dance with total abandon. Such a beautiful visual.
For our first Christmas gift, Mom and Dad surprised us with tickets to The Story Tour at Southeast Christian Church. The tour is based off of the book The Story (which is the Bible told in a story format) and has songs from the perspective of significant people in the Bible. The CD is one of my favorites as it's amazing to hear the stories I have grown up hearing from the person's perspective and hear the emotion and struggles that each must have experienced. The concert was absolutely beautiful with amazing singers and musicians and incredible lyrics. It was so fun to start off the Christmas season with family (including my aunts Anna and Con-Con) and experience the Bible together in a brand new way.
It's Ugly Christmas Sweater Time. Remember that jealousy is a sin...
There are a few highlights that I don't have pictures of to document but are definitely worth mentioning.
Woodhill this semester has been absolutely amazing! It has been incredible to see how God has moved in that neighborhood and what doors He has opened for us. Goodness it has been so great! Monday's have been one of my favorite days of the entire week. The relationships that we had from last year continue to grow closer and friendships from this semester have been so special. I have fallen in love with one family in particular. The relationship I have with this family is more God ordained than all the others and it has been so incredible to watch how the Lord has loved on this family through us. What an honor. I absolutely love getting to love on, encourage, pray over, and talk to this sweet family each week. My heart aches for all they have had to experience but am so encouraged that through this time, rather than distancing themselves from us, they have drawn closer to us, count on us being there each week, and have an interest and desire to come to church. How good is our God?! On the last night of the semester, while visiting with them, Mary (the wife) said that her psychiatrist has seen a change in her since we've started visiting her and that "she doesn't know what she would do without having us to look forward to each week." That made me tear up. GOD IS SO GOOD! I am so honored and humbled to get to love on these precious people and am so excited for the conversations and friendships to come! It makes me smile just thinking about Woodhill...that neighborhood holds a special place in my heart.
In addition to Woodhill, Southland Christian Church is opening up a campus on Richmond Road...which is literally across the street form Woodhill. I am seriously SO excited for this campus to open up and to get our families into church. It's been difficult to get our families that want to go to church to church because most of them don't have cars and most of us go to 608 and not morning church. SO, this campus opening up is going to be such blessing for our families and our community. The outward focus that Southland has and their desire to love on ALL of God's people is absolutely amazing and makes me SO excited to be apart of the start of this new adventure. A few months back, Rachel, Jeremy, and I got to meet up with the campus pastor, Gary Black and hear his vision, hear about the ministry opportunities, and tell him about our love for Woodhill. We also got to visit the church while it was still under construction, which was awesome. One of the most amazing parts of the tour was having the opportunity to pray over the baptistry. As we stood praying over the baptistry, my heart flooded thinking of all the people we would welcome into our family and I prayed desperately that our friends at Woodhill would come to know our Jesus! If you can't tell, I am thrilled for this new campus to open and am even more thrilled to see how the Lord will be glorified and honored. All praise be to HIM!
Another fun part of the semester has been living in a house. It has been SO nice to have a room to myself, a bathroom that I only share with Miss Lydia, and precious housemates to do life with. We have enjoyed so much laughter, great conversations, and many dance and singing parties. This last semester kept me super busy and unfortunately caused me to spend a lot of time studying in my room BUT I certainly enjoyed the time I got to spend with the girls and am looking forward to a hopefully calmer next semester where I can spend even more quality time with them.
Wednesday nights were my very favorite days of the week during this semester. With such a busy and demanding schedule, by the time I got to Wednesday I almost always had lost all motivation and energy. WELL, to combat the mid-week blues, my precious friend Jen Larsen and I met up each Wednesday evening for some MUCH needed laughter, talking, and adventuring. My goodness, I cannot speak more highly of this precious sister and say enough how much of a God send she was this semester. The start of our friendship is quite a mystery...which only goes to show how God ordained it is. Jen and I have shared so much laughter and so many tears together as we processed and talked through life and what the Lord was doing in each of our hearts and lives. Gosh, my heart swells when I think of how thankful I am for her friendship and how honored I am to be apart of her life. She is such a beautiful, hilarious, joyful, intentional, special, and Godly woman and teaches me how to better love life and the people in it. She has influenced my life in more ways than she will ever know and has showed me what a true, Godly, and unconditional friendship looks like. I am so humbled to have her in my life and consider her as a bonus sister. I can't wait to see what God has in store for our friendship and know that we will be friends for a lifetime. Oh I love her so much!!
Well, I'm sure I am forgetting many things that have made this semester special but that's all I can think of for now. Here's to the end of this semester and here's to Christmas Break! Ha!
