catching up...

Oh hey, look; here I am again. Crazy that it's been nearly 8 months since I last posted. Even crazier, though, were those eight months... As a quick summary, from mid-May 2012 until now, I:

- Found out that I'd been accepted into the nursing program at a college here in town.
- Worked a lot. A whole lot. Good thing I love my job (well, most days).  :)

fun in the Smokies

- Traveled with Paul in July for a quick family reunion/camping trip in the Smoky Mountains.
- Attended the weddings of several former coworkers, one in June and the other in August (congrats, Brian & Emily and Jack & Anna). Fun fact: they all worked at Starbucks at one time or another.

Lina and Taylor

- Got to spend lots of time with my youngest sister, when she came to stay with me and Paul for a few weeks in July. We celebrated her 17th birthday while she was here (she has now had two birthdays in a row in Texas)!
- Received the sweetest birthday gift ever from my coworkers - a handmade card full of kind words, and money to go towards my next trip to Haiti.
- Said good-bye to free time ;) and started nursing school in August.

with Melissa at her wedding reception

- Studied. A lot. Most productive place I found to study? On the floor in the back room at Starbucks. Go figure.
- Made a quick trip to Kansas in October for Guepson and Melissa's wedding. Such a perfect, beautiful ceremony and reception, and it's always fun to see Haiti friends in the States :)
- Cooked many a crockpot meal at Starbucks. Besides this, I pretty much survived the semester on coffee and tortilla chips.
- Successfully completed my first semester of nursing school. 4 more to go...

loved, loved, loved being back in
Haiti and with these kids

- Traveled to Haiti with Paul and spent two gloriously wonderful weeks at Heartline and Notre Maison. More on this soon...
- Started running again for the first time in many months...and signed up for a half-marathon to help raise money to build a new maternity center for Heartline. Learn more about Run for Life Haiti here. More on this soon, too...

These past eight months have been busy and fun and challenging and stressful and exciting...pretty much the full gamut of adjectives/emotions. Through it all, the Lord has continually been teaching me about trusting Him, that His grace is (as the song says) greater than all my sin, and that I can work super hard and try my best until I'm absolutely exhausted...but if my focus isn't on Him, if I'm relying on my own strength to get things done, at the end of the day, I'm a mess. And being a mess is not fun. So here's to a new year, and to a renewed focus on the loving the Lord, celebrating His goodness, and living in a way that reflects His gospel message.

The gospel teaches us that instead of focusing on ourselves and our closely clinging sin, we've got to focus on, to consider, Jesus. We've got to look away from our sin, whether because it's alluring and drawing us toward it or because it's condemning and pushing us into ourselves and away from our Savior. We must patiently focus all our attention on him. We've got to think on, ponder, or consider, Jesus. Every aspect of the gospel is meant to encourage us in our war against sin. Of course, we should be aware enough of our sin that we seek to repent of it and are grateful for the cross, but that's not where our thoughts should settle.  Our thoughts should be steadfastly riveted on what Jesus has done.  (Elyse M. Fitzpatrick, Comforts from the Cross)