Long overdue.

Hello people! Wow! It has been way too long since I've written on this thing, I apologize for that. My life has been CRAZY lately. Good crazy though, for sure. I don't even know where to start so this will probably be a gigantic, jumbled piece of writing. But hey, fits me perfectly so let's flow widdit. If you read these things and pick out all the bad grammar, stop reading now. Imma do me, and you just keep doin' you! :)

ANYWAYS,
God is SO stinkin' good! His blessings, love, presence, strength, everything about Him have been so relevant in my life these past couple months. I can't do anything but smile when I talk about Him! Before going off on a giant tangent, let's talk about graduation. Graduation was everything I thought it would be. I didn't cry because I'm just READY to be in college, but it was really sentimental spending time with some of my best friends and classmates for the last time. I mean, we exchange all of our "This isn't goodbye, just a see ya later!" Or "We'll hang out we're home for the holidays..." Or "This won't be the last time we'll see each other, I promise!" We say all of these things, but let's face the reality, Thursday night was the last time I will ever talk to a lot of those people. And that is what made my heart a little sad. I have such a big heart and it gets the best of me sometimes. God gave me a heart that breaks for what breaks His. I truly care about every single person I made a relationship with in high school. I tried my best to be the best "Jesus w/skin on" that I possibly could be these past few years. I hope Jesus is proud of me. As I walked across that stage Thursday night, after dropping my diploma in front of thousands, not only did I laugh really hard but I stood on the fact that I never conformed to "high school." Not once did I take a sip of alcohol or a puff of something illegal. I found myself in Jesus Christ and I stuck with it. I didn't sway like others did, I kept my eyes on the prize and pressed on. And I am proud of myself for doing that. It was MUCH harder than conforming and going to the usual party on friday nights with all my friends. Sure, I slipped a few choice words in my cheerleading career, but other than that I am clean, and I am proud. Only by God's grace could I ever do it. So all glory goes to Him! Saying goodbye to high school was bittersweet, but mostly sweet. I am so excited to see what God has in store for my future. He has been laying so much on my heart this past year. I am ready to have a group of friends that build me up and make me a stronger lover of Jesus. I've never had that. Sure, I have my strong, core friends but never have I had a large group of people who share the same love for Jesus that I do. I know that God is going to bring some awesome people into my life and I am so ready to meet them. They were handpicked by Him. How awesome is that! I don't even know their names yet! :)

Speaking about college brings me to my next topic: Joplin, MO. How, you ask? Well through divine appointments with certain people in my life, Emergency Management has caught my attention as a career choice. Emergency Management is the more professional title for "disaster relief." And as you all know it seems everywhere we look these days, literally, there is a disaster that has occured or is occuring. The tornadoes are especially what broke my heart and it was God's way of guiding me to this major. So I listened and obeyed and declared Emergency Management as my major last Monday. So excited about that! With that being said, yesterday, me and two good guy friends of mine took a trip to Joplin. I knew it was bad up there, but honestly until you actually see it with you own eyes, you can't fathom the damage. Pictures don't do this place any justice. As soon as we entered into the desturuction my heart was absolutely devestated. Tears swelled up in my eyes as I met and listened to stories of these people WHILE we were standing on what was left of their houses. Talk about humbling. We helped at two different houses, one still had a structure maintained, the other completely gone. You could see for miles because absolutely everything had been completely flattened by the tornado. The only way to describe it is that it looked like the end of the world had taken place. Everything was destroyed. It all became real with the stories I heard. As we arrived at the second destroyed house, we stood on top of it looking at the house beside us, as three cadever dogs looked for a dead body. The house that used to stand in front of that one belonged to a man, his wife and daughter. The man is now a widow. I could tell countless stories like this that flooded my ears yesterday but I'll save you the heartache. Please continue to pray for these people. It is going to be years before things even BEGIN to be normal again. Go, share Jesus, listen to stories and help clean up. It's like a never-ending cycle.

On a lighter, more happy note I leave for Africa on June 15th! I remember counting down from six months and now I'm just weeks away. So surreal. My dream of three years is coming true. Today, we officially got the okay to spend a day at Amani Baby Cottage in Jinja. I am very excited about that. I've wanted to do that for a long time now! So keep me in your prayers!

I'll try not to wait so long before the next post! :)

God bless you guys!