home for a week. gone for a week. repeat.

so, this past week, i slept and went to work. every day. besides the 12 minutes i spent at the greenjackets game on Monday with Sarah & Mary Beth, and the almost 3 hour long dinner i had with Hannah at poblano's on Friday, that's all i did. it was  glorious. just glorious. i scrapbooked some, facebooked a LOT, went shopping, wrote/journaled some, stocked up on pretty much all the presents i needed to get for people during the whole month of June, etc. i have never just relaxed this much. i had nothing i had to do except go to work and go to the Banjo-B-Que on Saturday afternoon to help the people i babysit for.

i learned a lot this week, even though i didn't do much of anything. as i type this, i'm reminded of what Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still and know that I am God." SO true! i feel like i got deeper with the Lord this week in different ways than I could ever really imagine. but it was good. 

the next 4 weeks of my life are going to be CRAZY. crazy good, though.

i leave tomorrow morning for AMPED! it's our church summer camp! it's gonna be at Camp Cedar Cliff in Asheville which is where our senior retreat was. i'm pretty pumped! it's weird because i'm a senior and it'll be my last youth camp. PLUS, i'm the only senior girl going, which will be weird, but cool at the same time. i still have NO idea what i'm going to say at our "Senior Farewell" Night. maybe that's a good thing. haha. : )

next Sunday we have Panama practice all. day. long. which is good, but so energy draining. i know the Lord is getting me prepared for Panama, but i think since i have SO many other things before then, it hasn't hit me yet that i'm really going to Panama, but it will in due time. we're also performing the drama before the church that Sunday night, which will be cool, but semi nerve wracking!

the next week i'm home, but it won't be as chill as this past week. we have our first high school Bible Study that thursday, a birthday party for 2 of my friends, work/take care of the nephew, etc. i'm pretty pumped about hanging with the Jackster! haha.

after that, i go to the BEACH! sooo ready for that : ) then i come home from the beach, and literally hours later, i'm on my way to alaBAMA! pretty pumped to go there. not looking too forward to the 6 hour drive i get to make, but it's worth it : ) i'm already trying to get prayed up for that trip. my emotions are going to be running high, but i'm so, so ready to see what the Lord has in store for me there! the one thing i'm scared about is golf. i'm going golfing. i really wish that i would have it on video for everyone back home to see, but they can all probably already have mental pictures of what that will look like...haha.

so ready to see what God has in store for me in these next few BUSY weeks, but so thankful for this chill week i had last week!

no longer the majority.

i graduated from high school on Saturday.

on Sunday, we had our "Senior Recognition Service" at church. our pastor preached about taking a risk for the Lord and about no longer being apart of the majority of Christians who sit back and make sure they live a "safe" life. He showed us this video of part of a sermon that Francis Chan preached. Watch it! As he continued preaching, I thought about what had happened in my life the day before. Yeah, I had graduated high school (and I'm not devaluing how important that is) but I had also spent pretty much the whole day with my biological father's family. About 2% of the population in the U.S. are adopted. Of those people that are adopted, only about 4% of them search for, find, and go on to meet their biological parents. So, I'm in a very small group of people who have found at least one of their birth parents. I'm not apart of the majority of adopted children who don't find their birth parents. I'm in the minority.

Every day we have the opportunity to sit back, put on our safety helmets, and be "good" little Christians who never take chances for the Lord. Or, we have the opportunity to not be in the majority, to take a risk, and to be on fire for the Lord.  God didn't promise us that when we follow Him we'll have this easy, carefree life. Why be boring and be the stereotypical Christians when we can be crazy, radical people doing exactly what the Lord wants?

So...do you want to be apart of the majority of Christians who sit back and have nothing to count for when they die? Or do you want to be radical and be apart of the minority of those living their lives out fully for Jesus? 

lately..

..i've been frazzled. yep, that's the best word to describe me. at least for today.

i had my last two exams at ACS yesterday and i was officially DONE. no more homework to turn in, no more tests to take, nothing left for me to do at ACS. except a few things...haha.
i woke up today at 11:20. 11:20. Really?!?! I was supposed to be somewhere at 10, so obviously that didn't happen. Which made me feel awful because it was with someone that I really wanted to see. Oh well, life happens. But, I had to be at Olive Garden at 12. Which gave me all of 40 minutes to shower, dry my thick mane of hair, put on make up, get ready, etc. As I finally left the house at 11:57 (thankfully, Olive Garden is only like 5 minutes away) I saw a text from Samuel from 11:24 that said "Where are you?". I called him and I was like this doesn't start until noon, right? Thankfully, he had gotten the times confused, not me, but I was so frazzled by the time I got to Olive Garden. I kept trying to talk to Dr. B and my words got all jumbled up and I felt like a moron. Lunch with him was really good and it was relaxing and really bittersweet. As the five of us sat there for the last time we would have lunch with Dr. B, it was odd to think about. My time at ACS was and is really coming to an end.
I raced to school after lunch to give Mr. Rutherford and Mme. their gifts, which was really bittersweet as well. I walked into Mme's room for the real "last" time. She opened my gift and almost started crying, which made me almost cry.
I've gotta go to school tomorrow to show the new student council secretary how to do the job I've done for the past two years. Giving that up is honestly one of the hardest things for me to do. I'm really going to miss it.
It probably doesn't help that I've been scrapbooking a lot lately and remembering all the memories I've made this year. I think I'm ready for this next chapter in my life. I'm really going to miss everyone at ACS and everything that's been in my life for the past eight years.

We leave on Thursday morning for New Orleans! I'm excited!!! Next Friday is graduation rehearsal/luncheon, C's Party, the family comes in town...then graduation is Saturday, Sunday is church graduation, Panama training, another party, etc. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!

It's craziness, but God's really been teaching me to just enjoy the moment, to still be with Him, no matter how much I have to do.