Nothing Much

It has been an uneventful couple of days here. I spent a good portion of Saturday snuggling with Acan Irene (I posted a picture of her a couple of weeks ago), who's having trouble with mom at home. She's a sweet girl and I thoroughly enjoyed loving on her!

Friday Chrissy and I babysat for our friends' four girls. We watched a movie and it was a lot of fun! I did have to smile at the fact that my career as a babysitter has followed me all the way to Africa!

Power has been in and out this week, which is kind of nice because if forces me into bed early. It's mainly annoying only because there's no ice cream in the city (and I guess having no light or fans is kind of annoying too) - but I am slowly learning to survive that aspect of Gulu power outages! :-)

Our van is back and is WONDERFUL! It's the same vehicle, but it has a new engine, new radiators, a speedometer (we didn't have one before, which added to the tremendous safety of the vehicle), an air conditioning that works, and the list goes on. Plus, we have new shocks and suspension. The difference in the ride is wonderful!

That's about it. This week it's back to normal at Tegot Primary, so back to normal for ECM too. I'm looking forward to it!

Oh, and Chrissy's malaria is gone. Yay!

So much craziness!

The past month has been absolutely insane!! I graduated, started an internship, moved, and applied for several jobs. Ahhh!

Let's start with graduation. Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Gran-gran all came up. Mom and Dad got here last Tuesday for graduation on Wednesday. We went to Stefano's (definitely the best pizza in Knoxville) to watch some of the Mavs game after they got here. It was fun and they enjoyed getting to see the strip on Cinco de Mayo! My graduation ceremony was really nice. Very surreal. It honestly is unbelievable to me that it has been four years since I finished high school. It has FLOWN by!! We went to Olive Garden afterward to celebrate.


We graduated!! Me and one of my good friends, Hannah.


With the parents.

And the grandparents.

We hung out on Thursday, moved some, and went to dinner before Dad had to head home. Friday we went to the Appalachian museum and Saturday we had lunch with Diana, went shopping, went to the Chocolate Factory, and viewed Knoxville from the Sunsphere. I was sad to see everyone go, but I'm so thankful they had the opporunity to come up. Hopefully they'll be able to visit again with the rest of the fam or I can go home for a weekend. Conner is definitely coming for a visit at some point, and I can't wait to see him!

I started an internship at JustLead, an urban youth ministry in Knoxville. I will be an AmeriCorps member there as well as a volunteer. I have to complete 510 hours by August, so I will be working insane hours, but I absolutely love is so far. It is such a blessing to be able to work with other Christians each day and get to share Jesus with kids. I feel like I'll be in a great position to really impact these kids' lives and I am praying that I take advantage of my time with them and that I have opportunities for great spiritual conversations with them!

Anne and I moved in with our friend Carli and her dog, Darcy, for the summer. We still have a bunch of boxes to unpack and nowhere to put all of our stuff, but I think we'll have a fun summer here. Darcy was kind enough to help wake Anne up this morning and is currently snoozing next to me. She will be ridiculously spoiled by the end of the summer, I'm sure.

Still looking for opportunities in Eastern Europe. Praying about it and trusting that the right doors will be opened and the wrong ones closed. The waiting game is something I'm horrible at, but this has been an excellent lesson in patience and waiting on the Lord. However, I still catch myself praying almost daily for Him to hurry and reveal His plan for the next year....I think I still have a long way to go on the whole patience thing!

And just so I don't end on a dull note, here's a super-cute picture of Anne, dressed as a flower for YOKE camp. :-)


P.S. I got some awesome deals on books from McKay's recently: Don't Waste Your Life, Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, The Pursuit of Holiness, and Crazy Love. I'm way excited to read them all. I started Crazy Love and The Pursuit of Holiness is up next. Can't wait!

Grandparents Visit, Mexico Trip, and School

So, it's been quite a week for me.

First of all, I will begin with a prayer request. As you probably know, I will be traveling to Tijuana, Mexico two weeks from today to work with orphans. However, this week the US State Department has issued a travel advisory for all Americans traveling to Mexico. Tijuana was specifically named as a hot-spot for violence. This week, I have spent a massive amount of time researching the violence, meeting with the leaders of the trip, seeking advice on how to proceed with the trip, and praying continuously for wisdom on what to do. As of now, I fully intend to continue with the trip as planned. I have a great sense of peace about going. While I am still fearful of what the situation may be like, I am confident that the leaders of the trip will take appropriate actions to help ensure our safety. Please be in prayer for our safety, wisdom, and fear as the trip gets closer!

On to fun news, my Maw-maw and Paw-paw and Aunt Ann are here visiting me this weekend! They came in from New Orleans and Colorado, respectively. Unfortunately, it has been raining all weekend, so we had to scratch a trip to the mountains, but we are still having a great time. Last night, we went to dinner at Calhoun's on the River and then took a short driving tour of downtown Knoxville. Today, after a quick trip to the doctor for Paw-paw's ear, we went on a tour of campus, then had lunch at Moe's on the strip. Tonight my roommates and I made dinner for them (Thanks so much, guys! You're the best!!). We also had a cake for Maw-maw's 80th birthday. Roomie A did the fabulous decorating job!



School is absolutely crazy right now. Midterms are this week and next, I have papers due, and two groups projects this week and next! I definitely won't be getting a lot of sleep the next couple of weeks, but then it's on to Mexico for Spring Break.

And just for fun, here's a couple pictures of Roommate A and I after Wacky-Tacky Club at YOKE. I have to say that's definitely the most colors I've ever had on my body at one time.

Back to School

Well, this is the first full week of classes and I am already exhausted. Classes officially began last Wednesday, which for me was an 8 AM Spanish class (and I don't speak Spanish!). My classes are actually surprisingly enjoyable (with the exception of one psycho teacher) and I am really looking forward to this semester.

I guess the only exciting news I have to report is that I'm going to Mexico for Spring Break with the college ministry at my church here in Knoxville. I am super excited. We will be gone a full week (Saturday to Saturday) and will be working primarily in an orphanage and a battered women's shelter. I had really been praying for a mission opportunity and this was a really awesome answer to prayer! There's a lot to do before I go, including raising support, but I truly can't wait to see what the Lord does with our time in Mexico!!

I also decided to try and do YOKE again this semester. I haven't done it in awhile because of class schedule and then surgery, but I really feel like it's something I should do again while I'm still in college. I'm going to call tomorrow and see if they still need help.

That's all for now. I'm going to try to go to bed early for a change.