Life is Beautiful.

Can I just take a moment and say that I am starting my forth year of college.  How in the world did this happen?  Where has time gone!?  I also have two brothers in college and a sister in high school.  Seriously, all this is insane to me.  I remember my first day of college.  I remember I had a horrible case of pink eye, and I freaking out in the car right before I had to move in, and I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I look back and wow has God brought me such a long way.  In the past 3 years I am so thankful for all the obstacles, joyous moments, great friendships, great talks, awesome mentors, and even nursing classes.  I could seriously go on forever about the things I have learned in the past three years.  One of the most important things I have learned though is to fully TRUST in the Lord.  

This past summer has been a difficult one, but also a summer full of learning and growing in my relationship with God.  As some of you may know back in May I started having seizures.  Its a totally new thing for me, and it has never happened to me before.  In three weeks I had two seizures.  From having the seizures this meant lots of tests and doctors appointments, and most of all not being able to drive for six months, which has been a HUGE struggle for me.  I love being independent and I love to work and without being able to drive I felt totally stripped of a lot of my freedom.  I have been having to depend on people the whole summer, and I really am so thankful for the friends and family that I have and to those of you who have helped get me through this summer!  I was actually going to get to be a live-in nanny this summer in Charlotte, NC which I could have not been more excited about!! We were also going to get to travel I was going to have my own room and everything it really was going to be a perfect job!  Once the seizures started though my family and I made the decision that I should probably stay at home just to see if we could find out what was going on with my body and stuff.  That was hard for me because not only was this my dream job but it also meant that I didn’t have a job for the summer.  As the summer went on I began to realize that the only way I was going to get through this summer was to fully put my trust in the Lord and that things would be okay! And you know what things have turned out okay, and its actually turned out to me a great summer, even without driving!  

This summer I was actually able to go back home to Michigan for a few weeks which was good! I was able to hangout with my siblings, go to my brothers graduation party.  I was even to go to my grandparents house up north for a week with my whole extended family, which I haven’t been able to do in several years. I was able to counsel for two different camps, and wow did I meet some of the best and strongest young women.  I came back to Indiana and I got to hangout with some awesome people, go to some birthday parties, and I basically was out on a boat and tubing everyday for several weeks, which was SO fun!  And the last couple of weeks I have been staying at a friends house and it has just been such a blessing.  Its been a blessing getting to know her whole family and just hanging out and having fun!  

The Lord has just taught me so much this summer, and a lot of those lessons really haven’t been very easy but they were much needed!  I have been totally humbled when it comes to driving a car and never in my life do I think I will take driving for granted again!  I have learned that there really are some awesome people in this world, and just some people who really do love the Lord.  I have learned that prayer can really go a long ways!  So many prayers have been answered for me this summer!  Whether it was for financial reasons, or praying one of my campers would receive Christ into their life.  I have seen Jesus work some miracles this summer!  

Last semester I took a class called Beyond Suffering.  It was a great class and I was really able to learn a lot.  Through the class one of the main things I learned was that EVERYONE in this world struggles with something.  No one has it all together and we all struggle.  With those struggles what are we going to do with them?  God gives us different struggles so that for one we can grow in him and two so that we can learn from our struggles and help others going through the same thing.  I am so thankful for the struggles I have had this summer. Many times I have no idea why I’m thankful, but I am because I have realized without those struggles I wouldn’t be the person I am today!  

So thats it, I start my forth year of college tomorrow.  Time really does fly by, and I am so thankful for every moment of my life this far. 

Here are some of my favorite moments of summer:

Ephesians 4:2

Time has flown.  This year has went by so fast.  I can't believe next year I'm going to be a junior in college, is that really possible?  It literally seems like just yesterday I was graduating from high school.  This year has been so great, but so challenging.  There has definitely been a lot of challenges, but their has been so much rejoicing as well.  I have made so many great new friends, and I've also made my other friendships so much stronger.  I am so thankful for all my friends and family, and this year I really realized that.  

This summer I had a lot of different options as to were I wanted to work.  Just the other day I decided that I will be going to Mackinac Island for the summer again.  It was a hard decision, but I really think its what I'm suppose to do.  I will not be doing carriage tours again this year.  I will actually be working at two stores, and two restaurants, the same guy owns them all.  I leave a week from today.  I'm getting pretty excited.

Today I got to go to my home church, and it was such a blessing.  I forgot how much I love Colwood and how much it has helped shape the person I am today.  I love the people, the atmosphere, the music just really everything.

Tonight I was watching a movie on Lifetime.  Its called the Pregnancy Project, and I thought it was so good.  It spoke a really good message.  A senior girl in high school decided you would do a social experiment on what people would do/say if she got pregnant.  She faked it all, but it was a real experiment and I thought that it spoke volumes.  This girl was an A student, popular just about anything you could have wanted in a person.  And as soon as people found out that she was pregnant they started being so mean, talking about her behind her back, not talking to her at all, ect....In her presentation she talked about stereotyping.  About how teen moms get stereotyped and how people say "Their life is over", or "Your never going to get to finish school.", and so much more.  This is real life people.  People get stereotyped and are ridiculed every.single.day.  So many people, including myself, just sit around and watch it.  We let this happen.  Everyone needs to be loved, cared about, and feel like they belong somewhere no matter who they are!  I've realized over this past year that you truly need to get to know a person.  This world is filled with sin and horrible things, and so many people are so broken.  No one really looks at the inside and all those wounds though.  People just like to look at the outside and judge them by that, myself included.  Its a lot easier said then done, but what if we just loved everyone? What  if we started to listen and help others?  This world could make a transformation.  I watched a video in church today and here are some of the statistics it gave us. 27 million slaves exist in the world today.  144 million orphans!  1.5 million cases of abuse are reported each year.  5 children die each day from abuse.  Then we have drug addicts, teen pregnancy, eating disorders, alcoholism, depression, anxiety, ect.... I could go on forever.  Everyone struggles.  We need to know that everyone struggles, and that not everyone is perfect.  We need to know that we need to help and love each other because no one, and I mean no one can do it alone.  We need to realize how much a simple hug or "hello" can do for someone.  You don't have to go all the way to Africa to see hurting people, you can literally go right in your back yard, where ever you may be.  We also need to remember that Love speaks.  Love moves. Love heals. Love sees.  Love frees.  

I feel like I just went on a rant, and maybe none of it made sense, but I know all that stuff is something I need to work on.  I need to work on fully loving others.  I need to work on not stereotyping other people.  Something else I have come to realize is that we can't fix everyone.  We cant fix everyones problems either, and we shouldn't be trying to do that either.  So often I want to fix everything and make everything alright, but we have to understand that, we, as humans can't do that.  We first need to give it fully to the Lord, and then we need to listen and just talk to that person.  I can't express how much just listening to a person can mean.  I had multiple campers last year that told me they never felt listened to.  I've had adults tell me that as well.  If we can make time to watch T.V or take a nap, we can make time to listen to a broken person, and all of us our broken so we should always have a person to listen to.

I'm not really sure where I am going with this post, but all of this was on my heart, so I thought I would put it out there.  I know I'm going to try to be more loving everyday, and even more caring.  Maybe we need an accountability partner to make sure we are doing this.  Whatever it may be I challenge all of you to try harder.  Because there are broken people everywhere who just want to be loved and listened to.  

Moments

Well in 2 days I'm going back to school.  I'm really excited for it!  This summer has been awesome.  When I look back and see all the things I have done this summer, I'm amazed.  Its been great, and its been life changing.  I have been at home for almost 2 weeks now, and its been great.  I have really done a whole lot of nothing, which hasn't happened in a VERY long time, so its been super nice.  Its been nice just to hangout with my siblings.  My mom and I hung out a few days, just us, and that was awesome.   Its been a great past two weeks.  Since I haven't really been doing a whole lot these past few weeks I have had quite some time just to think about life.  To think about my summer, my life, my friends and family.  And in conclusion I have came up with my top 5 favorite moments this summer.  I want to share them with you.
1.)  My summer started off with staying at IWU for may term.  I got to stay with my church family, and it was seriously so awesome!  I feel like I have really gotten close to them, and they have changed my life for the better.  So that was def. a highlight of my summer.
2.)  Another one of my favorite days this summer was at the beginning of Aug.  It was the weekend and I got to go up north to my grandparents house and see all of my cousins on my mom side.  It doesn't happen very often, so it was great!  We went out on the boat, we got to go tubing, took pictures, and best of all sang karaoke.  It was a great couple of hours, and I always cherish my time with each and every one of them.
3.)  Up in Mackinac I went to a bible study called Crossroads.  It was mainly college students, but every once in a while we would all get together and have bonfires and stuff.  One of the first weeks I was on the island we had a bonfire, and it was so awesome.  It was awesome to just gather together as christians and share testimonies and sing songs.  There was even food.  It was legit, and its a great memory for me.
4.) Another one of my favorite memories was a wedding that my family and I went to earlier on this month.  I didn't know a single soul there, but it was so fun.  It was fun to do something as a family.  As everyone gets older I see us rarely doing things as a family, so it was just so great.  We laughed a lot that night.  Tyler, Grant, Brooke and I all slept in bunk beds that night.  I even got to hear Brooke and Grant fight the whole night.  It was great though.  I enjoyed it.  I enjoyed being together as a family.
5.)  Springhill was probably the biggest highlight of my summer.  I met so many amazing people, and its just an awesome place.  I had some amazing campers that even changed my life.  My favorite moment though was with this one girl.  She came from a horrible home, and just didn't have a good life at all.  You could tell she was so broken.  She wanted and needed love.  She didn't know Jesus, and she didn't want to know him either.  By the middle of the week though I saw a huge change in her.  We talked and she told me things she was never able to tell anyone.  She accepted Jesus, and I saw her praying at night.  I saw her reading her bible.  I saw a complete transformation.  And the best thing is, is that I still talk to her, and she's still going strong.  I had a lot of awesome things like that happen at camp.  I can tell you nothing is better then watching a child accept Christ.  Its literally the best thing ever.  
Also one afternoon on my break my friend Mallory and I played "Truth or Truth", and if you know me well, you know that I love to play that game.  So yeah, it was great.  I also had a really, I think life changing moment, when I got to talk to one of my friends one night under the stars without anyone.  It was after a really bad week at camp, and I was just going through some things and she just really knew what to say, and yeah it was really awesome for me.
So yeah. I had a LEGIT summer!  It was awesome!  I don't think I can express that enough.  I can't thank anyone enough who was apart of my summer.  You made it great.  All of you did.  Something else this summer taught me was to give back to others.  I'm so excited to get back to school because I want to do so much. There are sooooo many hurting people in Marion and I just have a lot of plans to love on them.  Love can go such a long way, I learned that this summer too.
Well I'm sure everyone is done hearing me ramble.  So yeah, I think I'm gonna go.
Peace

Spring Hill

Well, I'm not even sure where to start.  This summer is coming to a close and I can honestly say I learned SO much!  Its been one of the hardest, but one of the best summers I have ever had.  I just got back from spending three weeks at a camp called Spring Hill, it was so awesome.
Spring Hill was so awesome.  I know I already said that, but I needed to say it again.  I cried more in these past three weeks then I have in a whole year.  The campers where hurting to bad, the counselors and other staff where hurting so bad, and I was even hurting.  But the awesome thing about it is that almost all of them came to know Jesus.  It was so great watching literally hundreds of campers grow in the Lord.  I can't even describe how wonderful it was.  I can't describe how loved, and wanted I felt the last three weeks.  I can't even begin to describe how much my campers taught me, how much they changed me, and what an everlasting impact they will have on my life.  I met some awesome friends.  Literally, awesome!  I have never been around a group of people who love the Lord, and everyone else around them so much.  It was just a great, great, great three weeks!
God has taught me a lot these past three weeks.  He taught me that he has a purpose for everything.  He taught me that its okay to be weak at times, and to let other people help you.  He showed me that its okay not to have it all together.  He showed me his everlasting, abundant love for EVERYONE!  He showed me that a little bit of love can go soooo far!  I could go on and on.  But those are the main things he has taught me.
In about a week and a half I'm going back to school.  I'm excited, and kinda sad all in one.  I'm sad because it means summer is almost done, and that all in itself is pretty sad.  I'm excited to go back because I get to see all my wonderful friends.  I get to see my church family(wayne, Algene, Gena, Ryan, Adam, Jamie, ect....)  I'm excited to be on a schedule, and to not be a traveling nomad, but to stay in one place for a few months.  And most of all I'm excited to see what God has in store for this year, really excited.



http://youtu.be/PbDtWltHfN8

good days

Lots of new things are happening.  And I'm enjoying every minute of it.  I just left Mackinac Island for the summer, its kind of bittersweet. I'm going to miss all the people that I have come to love, and the horses as well.  Mackinac was awesome now that I look back on it.  I really was blessed with so many wonderful friendships.  I was blessed with going to a great church, and I was blessed with a great job as well.  Its something I will never forget, a summer I will never, ever forget.
I got home last night, and it feels great.  I went to church this morning and I worked in the nursery and played with some little babies, man I love kids.  After church I came back and took a nap, man did it feel good!  I feel like I have't slept in a long time so it was sooooo nice!  Then I went out to eat with my parents, just the three of us.  And that never happens, so it was really awesome and nice.  I'm home for a whole week, and I'm really pumped about it!  Oh, and this week I'm hanging out with a ton of friends from home, and I couldn't be more excited, I miss them all so stinking much!
Next week I get to go counsel at Spring Hill, and I'm soooo pumped about it!  I miss counseling, so I'm really looking forward to it.
This past week I think I've learned a lot.  I learned that I can do just about anything when I set my mind to it.  I learned that God is going to put people in your life that are going to encourage you, and help you in any way.  I learned that all it takes is a little conversation to help make someones day.
This summer is going by so fast, but its been great,.  Only about a month before I go back to school, and I'm actually pretty excited about it.  I miss all my friends.  I miss living with Mary Beth, and all my other friends.  I even miss eating at Wild Cat kinda.
Well its getting kind of late, and if you know me well you know I need sleep.  Peace.

Beautiful Night

Well I'm sitting out here on the water, at 11:00 at night writing this post.  The water is beautiful, and its so peaceful.  Its never quiet here, and right now it couldn't be more quiet or more perfect.  I'm sitting with my new friend Shasha, who is from the Ukraine.  She is really awesome.  Where talking about our life's and she is such an amazing women of God, its so awesome.
This past week God has been showing me so much!  I got to go out to my Grandparents house with the rest of my family last week for 3 days!  It was a great time away from work, and I cherished every min. of it.  So coming back to the island really stunk.  I didn't want to come back at all, and quite honestly it was really hard for me.  I've never been one to be home sick, or miss people.  But I miss so many people, and for the first time in my life I'm homesick.  But I decided I could either be mad at the world, or I could be happy, and in return maybe make other peoples day a little bit brighter.  So thats what I decided to do.  I decided to smile a lot more, and make of an effort to see whats going on it other people life's.  I realized that I have been so consumed with myself lately that I haven't really been paying attention to others, like I should be.
So yes, this whole week, I've been smiling at people, waving to people and talking to people. I've made friends with all the pooper scoopers, the taxi drivers, and hotel shuttle drivers, and even the grand hotel drivers.  In fact the other day I was coming in from the barn, and this man stopped me and asked me how my day went.  I replied with "great, how was your day?"  And he told me it was "alright" and started to walk away.  Then he turned around and said "  you know I'm really thankful for you.  You remind me so much of my daughter and every time I see you I think of her.  And just thank you so much for that, it truly means the world to me."I was speakless.  I was speakless because this was totally God.  Putting a smile on my face, and being friendly was what God wanted me to do, and I did it, and I just happened to be helping people i little ways.  It gave me goosebumps, and thats when I knew I have been in the right place this whole summer. Even though I don' like it here to much, I know this is where God wanted me, and he has made that very clear.
I go to talk to my friends from school the other day, and it was great.  I miss being in E3W, and having our little fights, and being sisters.  It was truly one of the best years of my life, and I grew so much last year.  I am so blessed to have the RA, diversity coordinator, RD, and all the rest of the girls I lived with.  My life is just that much greater now.
Last night I got to stay over at one of my new friends house. Its an awesome house, and it was such a good night.  We played my favorite game "Truth or Truth", and it was fantabulous!  I go to hear their hearts, and even some silly things, but it was great and truthfully what I needed.  God has blessed me with GREAT friends here on the island, friends I will never forget.
Well I'm going to go now, and enjoy this beautiful night.  Remember to keep smiling, because you never whose day you may make a little better.

Changes

Well, Hello anyone who reads this.
I have not wrote in this thing forever.  Life has been crazy!   Instead of working at Spring Hill camp this summer, I actually am now working in Mackinac Island, for Mackinac Island Carriage Tours.  I never saw myself doing anything like this, but its something different, and slowly I am starting to like it.  I get to work with horses everyday and thats a blast.  I get up at 5:30 every morning and usually don't get back till around 6 or 7, so really long hours and we only get one day off a week.  God is truly testing me.  At times I want to give up, when my horses are being bad or the  people on my carriage are just plain rude or mean.  But I know I'm meant to to be here and I know God is going to do great things.  I found a church here and I go with a few friends.  There is church sunday mornings and wed. nights.  And then coffee house friday nights, and a bible study on sunday nights.  Its a lot of fun, and through those people I am learning a lot.
I think the reason God sent me here is because I was getting to comfortable.  I mean I go to a Christian school, and for the most part am surrounded by loving, christian people.  In coming here to Mackinac I am totally out of my comfort zone, lets just say a lot of people do different things that I don't agree with or like to do.  But I have realized I'm not here to judge them, but to be their friend and show them Jesus through that.  And as time goes on I am starting to realize that more and more.  I'm uncomfortable here, but thats exactly how God wants me to be.
Its fun here though. I mean I'm on an island.  Tons of people from ALL over the world come here.  Its so beautiful, and so many different, exciting fun things to do.  I line danced in the street the other night.  Theres cliff diving, swimming in this huge lake, riding horses, riding bikes.  Did I mention no cars are allowed on the island, so I def. get my workout, I like it though.
I'm going to try and write in this thing more.

This is the type of carriage I drive everyday, with the horses and everything.  

The beautiful island I am on!

The Grand Hotel.  Its only took 93 days to build this whole thing.  There are also 385 rooms in it, and all the rooms are different. No two rooms are the same!