.10,000 reasons for my heart to find.

Will I ever ever ever understand why I get these kinds of friends in my life??

Such a sweet week.

"...for all Your goodness i will keep on singing

10,000 reasons for my heart to find..."

That song's been on repeat for me this month. Looking at these faces I love so much, I gave up keeping count. 10,000 sounds about right.

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Studying, a Skype date, and Soup

Welcome to a grad student weekend...

My life is pretty stable and predictable and boring, and I am so loving that. So so loving it. I love studying every day at the same wonderful coffee shop (yes, they know me by name and drink order), I love that I can count on running into half of Fox's PsyD program and a bunch of new friends from church there (I love going to church half a mile from my house so that we all go to same the coffee shop). I love my rhythm: class, lunch with friends, study, veg with roommate and whoever else is over, phone with people from home, bed (...ok, Bones rerun, then bed). I like that not much crazy is happening... my life right now is getting to know kind people, working hard at a subject I love, lots of Jesus time, lots of sweet cousins, and learning this town and community a little deeper each week.

It suits me... and I'm thankful to be here.


*Here I am yesterday about hour 5 of 7 of working on a lit review.

 

These were taken during a much-needed brain break... but seriously? I am so loving doing this work which feels purposeful and fun to me (most of the time). I feel so lucky to be studying something I love so much.

gchat:

 me: ok im gonna go continue immersing myself in reviewing studies on resilience factors in street children :-D be still my heart.

*I had a lovely long Skype date with the beautiful Kymberly Grove, rocking her last third of HNGR. Here she is in her Thai bedroom (she did not know this screenshot was taken... sorry babe. But you look cute!!)

 

My favorite quote of the conversation:

Me: What, you mean you're not omnipotent?!!

Kym: Yeah, becoming omnipotent's on my to-do list... somewhere below about a hundred GCPs.

(...Only HNGR people may get just why that's so funny.)

*And to top off my exciting Saturday night, I walked to the grocery store for vegetables and cooked my favorite soup. This was life-giving for a variety of reasons: 1) Phone date with Heath while I walked!! 2) Walking outside!! 3) CHOPPING VEGETABLES = awesome prayer time. Don't know why, always works. 4) Cooking from scratch!! 5) Doubled the recipe so there's lots in the freezer so I'LL BE ABLE TO EAT SOMETHING BESIDES COFFEE AND LEAN CUISINES THIS WEEK YESSS.

Recipe below.

 

Black-Olive and White Bean... my adaptation from digthischick's adaptation of the Moosewood Cookbook version.

3 T olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 celery ribs, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 cans black olives, sliced- save the juice!

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups white beans

1 1/2 cup roasted tomatoes (the blog says to roast them yourself. Um yeah I don't do that. There's a good can of fire-roasted with garlic kind you can find at the grocery store.)

1/4 c fresh basil (or third that if you're using dried. Or more. Basil equals love.)

Salt & pepper to taste

Heat olive oil, add onion and saute 2-3 minutes.

Add celery, carrots, half the garlic, and about 1/3 of the olives. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the olive juice (there should be about two cups) and the chicken broth. Bring to just barely boiling.

Add the rest of the olives, the white beans, and the tomatoes. Simmer 20 minutes.

Add the rest of the garlic, the basil, and salt and pepper. Serve hot. Serves 4ish.

YUM.


...and now I'm self-conscious because who blogs about soup and studying and skype dates?
But I read this and it is the best explanation of why I blog, too.
...And I'm going to stop apologizing on my own blog now.
:-)

.quote of the day.

"I WILL answer these [questions]...but it'll have to be in a different email, because this one's already long, and I have to go learn how to cook frogs (that's not a joke at all)."

-.kym.

.who i love and miss.

.and am so proud of.

A gift in this year: Kym.

This girl.

Everything is a gift, I believe, and also I try to choose to see.

But I can honestly say with this friendship the God-deciding-to-just-hand-me-a-present-ness especially jumps out at me...

not only because she's so wonderful (and oh, is she!), but also because our friendship has just been unique and kind of weird (in its awesomeness).

I honestly have no idea where its depth and encouragement freakin' came from*. And I'm so appreciative.

Kym and I had had a total of one coffee date and some very pleasant group interactions...

when I called her at 12:30 AM (as in, after midnight, mmk?) because I needed to vent and I needed to vent to her specifically.

That was about all I told her before I yanked her out of her apartment into my car and drove her around Wheaton for an hour non-linearly spilling my [crazy] heart out.

True. Story.

And then after I dropped her back off close to two in the morning on a school night, and had calmed somewhat down and was feeling ridiculous about the whole situation, I reached for my phone to text her an embarrassed apology- and had this text waiting:

"You are lovely and wonderful and I can't tell you how glad I am you called me :-D."

Who says that? Kymberly Grove.

Annnnd then we were soul sisters.

I love this girl. So much. And miss her SO much.

I'm so grateful for her sweet face and hugs.

I'm grateful for her amazing listening ear.

Did I mention amazing? Listening? Ear?
That said, I am SO grateful for every chance I had to hear HER heart. Because it is beautiful.

I'm grateful for what she teaches me about life and family and church and community.

I'm grateful for the unique way she can observe, listen and speak into situations and people's hearts.

I'm grateful for her willingness to go hard places, in her own life and others'.

I'm grateful for the depth of her faith. Having deep faith is scarier than choosing to not. She is brave.

I'm grateful for her authenticity. She is who she is. She calls others to be who they are. She won't do anything less. Love that.

I'm so grateful for her comedic gifts, for which she does not give herself enough credit. She completely rocks the dry humor, without a drop of mean-spiritedness. It's awesome. She makes me laugh a LOT.

I'm grateful for how many different people, and different kinds of people, she can see beauty in and appreciate and make feel beautiful and appreciated. Everyone loves her. She works at calling out others' gifts. It's amazing and such a gift to the people in her life.

I'm so grateful for the memories we made together.

We do this thing where we go get Starbucks to go really late at night (...like ten),

and then go to the beautiful lake behind Rez and sit on a bench in the dark,

talking and feeling the wind and staring at the lights on the water.

(As we drink our lattes).

It's my favorite thing ever.

I'm grateful for Iglesia meetings,

and taking the kids to a play, and how our little girls come hug us when they see us.

I'm grateful that she stayed with me when she was between houses. I cherish that week.

I'm grateful for long conversations and cuddling.

I'm so grateful to have gotten to hear some of her heart and thoughts about HNGR;

to be praying through this year with her.

I honestly, really feel like God so intentionally gave me Kym this spring. To keep me kind of uniquely sane. And certainly to make me so happy. And, I just love her. A lot.

(And I am SO proud of her now in Thailand!!)

Thanking God for giving me Kym this year.

*(I mean I guess the whole point of this blog exercise is, she came from Jesus. I meant it, you know, for rhetoric dramatic effect :-)).

.21.

A gift in this year: Children.

This is a pretty good image of how I spent most of my year:
with my arms full of babies.

(As in, I cashed in a groupon on a massage recently- the masseuse told me it was evident I worked with kids. "Your back is twisted in the way we always see with someone who has a baby on their hip all day..."-
I was so proud.)

My life was FILLED with children this year;
so, oh, was it filled with joy. 

It is joy to see God's design in how they develop.

It is joy to watch their growing exploration of the world around them ("Bubbles! Colors! Blocks! A bird! Look!").

It is joy to be the recipient of their gleeful affection.

It is joy to see their innocent, un-self-conscious personalities expressed.

It is joy to hear their questions of faith.

It is joy to see the purest human love between parents and their babies.

 It is joy to deep-down know just how valuable a life is, even when they have yet to "contribute" anything to society.

It is joy to delight in their beauty and uniqueness.

It is joy to pray over their lives.

I loved going to Rez- a church that number one, has tons of small children, and number two, values them.  Kids are welcomed and encouraged to come to virtually anything. I love seeing them come down the aisle with their parents; I love serving them the Eucharist; I love seeing them dance in the aisles during worship. I love the hugs I get from the kids in the families I know. I love that a good friend's four-year-old was scared to take Communion so they had her come to me for her first time. I love seeing them fall asleep on their parents' shoulders during the service. I love that we hear of God as Father with these examples of it surrounding us. I love that they are growing up feeling safe and accepted in an atmosphere of faith.

I loved teaching the elementary-schoolers at Iglesia every week. I love that Steven, Kym, and I took the kids to see a children's play at the college and they still talk about it months later. I love taking them out for hot chocolate after class and that they call it "going on an adventure" ("Are we going an an adventure to Starbucks tonight?!!"). I love that the moms will call me if they need a babysitter. I love that I joke with them that "God wouldn't recognize me taking Communion without a baby in my arms!" (joke- bad theology- He does!)- because most Saturday nights, I reach for the wafer while juggling at least one toddler in my arms and another clinging to the hem of my shirt.

I loved being immersed in Michael and Lisa's family. I love their babies (ages 5, 3, and 10 months). I love babysitting them, I love playing at the park, I love that I met M. the day after she was born, I love watching Michael and Lisa be parents, I love being Tia Emily.

 

And finally, obviously, there was my job.
All year I had eleven babies assigned to me. I got to read to them, I got to chart and watch their development, I got to cuddle and do crafts, I got to plan activities that were particular to their needs and strengths and preferences, I got to observe and encourage and fill with joy at their relationships with their beautiful parents. I got to fall in love with them and see them grow over a whole year.

 (And it's so sad I'm totally not allowed to post pictures of them, because they are the.cutest.babies.ever. Seriously. Be sad you can't see them.)

"How can there be too many children?
It's like saying there are too many flowers."

-Mother Teresa

Thanking God for giving me children in this year.

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