The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This Christmas I got to spend the weekend down at my sister, Amber's house with my wonderful family! As you can see, my adorable niece, Bri, LOVES making silly faces for the camera =)

Bri also loved opening her dozens of presents, & helping everybody else with theirs as well. Haha!

My big brother got to come too! It's always special when we can spend time with him. He is active duty in the military, so often he is overseas or on base for holidays. It was great to spend a few days with him!

I love my sister, Amber! I am SO thankful for the encouragement she has been to me, especially over the past several months. During the 3 months I was in Peru, she was one of the only people I could count on hearing from regularly, & that meant SO much to me. She also went out of her way to prepare a big "Thanksgiving Dinner" with all the trimmings on Christmas day, all because I wasn't able to have a traditional meal over Thanksgiving. She is so considerate, & so much fun to be around.

This Christmas was one of the best I can remember. The past few years I've been been guilty of taking the important things for granted & focusing more on the lesser things. But this year, after being so far away from my loved ones for so long, it just really hit me how much I have to be thankful for just to be able to spend time with my family over the holidays. I honestly almost forgot about opening presents I was just having so much fun cooking with my mom & sister, playing with my niece, & torturing my big brother. Haha! I am so thankful for all of the blessings the Lord has given to me =)

Little Blessings

Isn't it so amazing how God gives us little blessings each day? Mine came in the form of a seat mate on my flight from Minneapolis to Denver VERY early this morning. I settled into my window seat & a middle-age couple filled the two seats next to me. I don't know about you, but I think that flights are awesome opportunities to share the gospel! So I was praying about talking to Lynn, the woman next to me when I noticed that she was reading something about C.S. Lewis. So I mentioned that I love C.S. Lewis & we started chatting about our trips & life in general. Turns out she was headed to Okinawa Japan with her husband to visit her daughter & her family. She asked me about college & I told her that I attend a Christian University called Northland. She got this surprised look on her face & then started laughing. Turns out her niece is in graduate studies at Northland, & I actually know her! Small world, huh? We both agreed that it was a blessing from God to have been seated next to each other & then we got to talking about how good our Heavenly Father is. We exchanged information & I promised to say hi to her niece for her. Anyways, I thought that was so cool & such a blessing! What a great way to start out a trip =) So now I'm drinking a peppermint mocha in the Denver airport, waiting to board my flight to Orange County California to spend 10 days with one of my best friends. I'll be sure to update when I can & share pictures. I hope that you all have a wonderful, relaxing weekend!


The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.” ~Lamentations 3:22-24

Yay for sitting!!

Hey there! I finally get to sit down today, so I'm happy =) Lol!
I just have to share a quick blessing. I have been stressing out alot about how I'm going to pay for college. Like-- ALOT! I will be paying for it on my own, so that has been a very scary thought for me. I was losing sleep over it, & freaking out whenever I thought about how much money I'm going to have to come up with, but God has given me such a peace in the past couple of days!
First of all, He has already provided the first payment in an awesome way! So that was a great encouragement.
But I was still a bit worried about how I would be able to earn the rest of the money that I will need this semester. But as He always does, God has given me assurance in a way that only He can. A peace that passes all understanding.
He has used many different things over the past few days to remind me that He is, & always will be in control, & that if He wants me to be at Northland, He will provide-in His time! But if He chooses not to, then He must have something better in store for me.
He has also reminded me that no matter how huge a monetary debt might be, He has already paid for my biggest debt with something infinately more precious than money. He sent His only son to die on the cross, to pay for the debt of my sins. How can I know that & still doubt that he can provide me with a little bit of money for college? Isn't God good? =)