snapshot memories

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.

The Wonder Years

Over the last few weeks, I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about people I miss and reflecting on times past, and I've realized -- yet again -- how very blessed I've been by those the Lord has put in my life and the experiences he's allowed me to have.  So for this week's Multitude Monday, here are some pictures that show some of the people, places, and events (from 2003-2008) that have helped to shape me and bring me to where I am today.  Some of them are kind of random, since I pulled all of them out of Facebook albums...yet, they're all sweet memories nonetheless.

571.

2006
Living with Kevin...always amusing :)
And musical -- how I miss having live piano music!

572.

2007
Chicago -- Oh how I love this city!

573.

2007
Thanksgiving dinner in my studio apartment
on the northside of Chicago
With my sister Nahomie, who came up
from FL for a month-long visit

574.

2006
Family

575.

circa 2004
Sweet, sweet Darlyne in Haiti

576.

2007
I met up with my mom in TN, and
we spent the weekend with my grandparents.

577.

circa 2006
James, in Cades Cove

578.

2005
Jessica and Sean, two of the most amazing
people I've ever been blessed to know.
The Lord has taught me so much
through these two.

579.

2003
Junior, 4 months after joining our family.
He went to be with Jesus 4 months later.
We read Psalm 91 in Kreyol together
every day.

580.

2008
Katie and me at Argo Tea :)
How I miss our tea dates!

581.

2008
Kevin, right before we saw Wicked.
This was my last day in Chicago.

582.

2008
little Miss Lina :)
This was taken during a surprise weekend
trip I made back to Florida.

583.

2004
Me and Phalone, the first little girl I ever
sponsored.  She moved out of the school
system shortly after this photo was taken,
and we lost contact.  Thankful for the
time I was able to spend with her.

584.

2006
Mom and me.

585.

2005
Nahomie and Mom
at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Warsaw.

586.

2007
Nahomie, Lina, and me
Getting ready to bake/decorate Christmas cookies.

587.

2008
Paul, just before we saw Wicked.
Such a fun night.

588.

circa 2007
Paul and Jean Marc, my little sponsored boy.

589.

circa 2007
Sheila and Paul.  Love these two.

590.

2007
My mini-snowman that I built on my balcony
at my apartment in Chicago.

let it rain

Let it rain, let it rain.
Open the floodgates of Heaven

The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad
Let the distance shores rejoice
Clouds and thick darkness surround Him
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne
A fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side
His lightning lights up the world
The earth sees and trembles
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord
Before the Lord of all the earth
The Heavens proclaim His righteousness
And all peoples will see His Glory

- Michael W. Smith, Let it Rain

not that you can really tell from this picture,
but...this is my backyard in the RAIN!!!

561. Seeing Mr. Jim back at Esperanza, after being in the hospital for nearly two weeks.

enjoying my unexpected day off

562. An unexpected day off!
563. An impromptu lunch with my favorite newly married friend :)
564. Planning activities to do with the kids at Notre Maison.
565. A rainy Sunday!!!  So so thankful for the rain!

Sabrina and Donovan; aren't they cute?  :)

565. Sunday lunch with Donovan, Sabrina, and Paul.
566. My new camera, which came in the mail today.  I'm excited to try it out!  :)
567. Good biopsy results for a friend's dad who has been hospitalized since Thursday.
568. Green grass, thanks to Sunday's rain.  We even have a few purple flowers that popped up in our front yard.  Amazing what a good rain can do.
569. An ice cream and movie night with the brother.
570. Clean drinking water; I take this for granted, yet so many people around the world don't have access to something so simple, so lifesaving, as clean water.  And so, for the next 10 days (well, 9 now, since today's almost over), I'm joining The Well's Project at Texas A&M in drinking only water to help raise awareness and funds to provide people in several communities in Rwanda with clean drinking water.

today's ten

551. Kris and Stephanie's engagement, and the sweet time celebrating them Saturday evening.
552. Jessica's quick trip back to Texas!  So wonderful to see this dear friend and catch up over a yummy dinner.
553. Saturday evening's 1/2 2[tall] 1V N WC PSL* :)  Still trying to limit my sugar intake, so this was a splurge...oh so worth it!

me and Jess

554. Lunch on Sunday with some of my favorite people at one of my favorite places.
555. Feeling oh-so-much better than last week, and my voice is coming back now, too!  Goodbye, Beth the Mute!
556. Cooler weather! Meaning, the highs for this week range from 87 (today) to 90 (Wednesday-Friday).  It was chilly enough this morning, though, that I got to wear (for the first time) the jacket I bought in FL this summer!
557. Last night's sermon.  So applicable, and so convicting.
558. Being handed a wad of gourdes as I walked into church.  I know it's silly, but it makes Haiti feel a little bit closer.  (22 days!)  :)
559. Reading in my hammock, enjoying this beautiful weather.
560. A fun Saturday morning, working with several lovely ladies--and enjoying that the Aggies were playing in Dallas rather than College Station :)

*half-caf double tall 1-pump-vanilla nonfat no whip pumpkin spice latte  Oh no, I'm not high-maintenance at Starbucks, of course not!  :)

Wedding festivities!

Once upon a lovely Sunday evening in September, Donovan and Sabrina got married :)

As promised*, here are some pictures from their wedding weekend (apologies in advance for the poor photo quality, particularly regarding the last bunch).

The girls started out the weekend with pedicures:

Sabrina, Everly, Birdie, and Jubilee

The evening before the wedding, we made the lovely

30-minute drive to Independence, TX for the rehearsal.

Note: Sabrina's sister Bunny stood

in for her at the rehearsal.

Post-rehearsal, Sabrina and Jube looked lovely;

Paul and Birdie pretended they were in a band.

Bridesmaids

Birdie, me, and Everly

 Almost married!

Sabrina and Donovan

At Cenare for the rehearsal dinner

me, Sabrina, and Everly

 Wedding Day!  Getting ready at Eyrie Park.

Sabrina, me and Samuel, Jubilee

Willin and Everly

Trying to figure out how to tie the sashes;

these pictures make me laugh :)

 Beautiful Birdie

Time to put on her wedding dress;

she was positively giddy with excitement :)

Opening her gift from her husband-to-be--

a beautiful necklace from Anthropologie.

Time to head to the church!

Willin, Samuel, and Jubilee, Sabrina

The ceremony

(photos courtesy of Paul)

Quick photos before the reception

 The cakes!

Having fun at the reception, which was held

at the Antique Rose Emporium. So beautiful.

Off they go, amidst a shower of rose petals.

 Once most of the guests had departed, we took

advantage of the empty dance floor.

Some got a little crazier than others...

Around 1am, after cleaning up...soooo tired...

But happy :)

Congratulations, Donovan and Sabrina!  It was such a blessing to be a part of your special day--and even more, to be part of your lives!  May God richly bless your marriage; His faithfulness is already so evident in each of you and in the way He brought you two together.  Love y'all!

*This shall forever go down in history as the day that I actually followed through, in a timely manner, on a promised blog post.  I think I should get a gold star.

Three months later...

Oh hello there, blog.  Long time, no see (I know, my fault).  I just looked back at my last post and realized it's been over three months since I posted.  How in the world.  I would say that life got busy and so that's why I abandoned the blog, but life is always busy...  Guess I just got tired of trying to keep up with blogworld (I also quit reading blogs for a few months, gasp).  Anyway, I'm back (for now, anyway); here's the saved draft of the post that would've been published June 27th, had I finished it:

531. Lina's here to visit!
532. An impromptu mini-roadtrip to Killeen, to look for a car for Paul.  Though the car didn't end up working out, it was still lots of fun driving and hanging out with Sarah and Paul!
533. Celebrating Everly's 19th birthday!
534. Roadtrip planning with Julie and Sarah!
535. Sunday morning breakfast with friends.
******************************************************
Quick recap since then (not necessarily in chronological order):

• Lina's visit ended up lasting a month, which was wonderful.  She even celebrated her 16th birthday here, with a big party at Sarah's house--including a pinata, lots of cake, and a slip-n-slide. 



Parker, Pearson, Paul, Lina, Peyton, and Phoebe
at Lina's birthday party


• Paul bought a car!  Life is definitely easier when our schedules don't have to be perfectly coordinated based on who needs a vehicle when.  (Though it's a little ironic that I'm writing this today, since a friend will be borrowing my van this weekend, thus causing us to revive our car-sharing skills.  But no biggie; we're pros!)
• Julie, Sarah, Lina and I went on a roadtrip to FL, where we:
• visited with Kevin and Danielle (and Stevie!)
• spent an afternoon at Ginnie Springs
• watched the last shuttle launch from the beach
• got horribly stuck in traffic...for hours...before we finally made it to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch/dinner



Kevin and Danielle

• spent several hours in historic Saint Augustine
• I tagged along on a roadtrip with some friends to help another dear friend move to her new home in Colorado Springs.
• I quit drinking coffee for a month.  For no reason.
• I quit eating sugar for a week.  Because I eat too much of it.
• I went with some friends to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2...and now, after nearly a decade of refusing to read/watch/be in the least bit interested in HP, I am now hooked.  Just finished reading HP5 yesterday, and I'm caught up on the movies through #4 (and, of course, the last one).

• 

  Rachael, Erica, Jessica, and me
  getting ready to head to CO
  

  Paul went to Haiti for nearly a month to work with Real Hope for Haiti.
• I got a kitten...for a month...until it was absolutely and abundantly clear that Dieuchka (my cat from Chicago) was not going to permit that this be a two-cat household.  So Kitten got a new home.
• The Aggies are back in town...which means, so long, summer traffic.
• I bought a plane ticket to Haiti!!!  After a year-and-a-half of waiting, I will finally be heading back to Haiti on October 25th!  Soooooo excited!

So those are the events/happenings of the past several months that come to mind at the moment; to get back on track with Multitude Monday (even though, yes, today is Thursday), here's my gratitude list for the past week-and-a-half:

536. Donavon and Sabrina's wedding. So much could be said about this; suffice it to say, it was a beautiful wedding, all the more so because of the way the Lord brought them together and demonstrated His faithfulness through their relationship to each other, to their families, and with their friends.  So incredible.

bridesmaids! at the rehearsal.
Birdie, me, and Everly

537. Spending the day of the wedding at Eyrie Park.  I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by how calm a day it was, despite the many women there (including bride and bridesmaids) getting ready for the evening wedding.  

538. Visiting with friends at the wedding, including one who came all the way from Virginia.

539. Donovon's grin (the entire evening, really, but especially as he watched Sabrina walk down the aisle).

540. The clear, star-filled sky the night of the wedding.

541. RAIN!!! the night after the wedding...the most rain we've seen here in drought-stricken Texas in quite awhile.

542. Getting sick right before my day off this week (would've preferred not to get sick at all, but since I did, at least I had lots of time to try and sleep it off).

543. My brother, who provided dinner and a movie for me the night I got sick.

this just makes me laugh
Paul and Birdie, at the rehearsal

544. Talking and laughing with Everly and Birdie the night after the wedding, even though we were all still quite tired from the previous evening's festivities.

545. Samuel, serving leftover wedding food to me, Everly, and Birdie on the couch.  Oh how fun he is...and how quickly he's growing up...

546. This post from a friend, reminding me of so many truths about the Lord and of His holiness.  

547. Orange blossom tea with honey

548. God's protection and provision for Alloune and Lourdes Milla in Haiti.  So thankful for Heartline Ministries.

549. Getting to meet and spend an evening with a sweet family who is praying about moving to Haiti.  We spent several wonderful hours getting to know each other and talking about Haiti.  I'm so excited to see what the Lord has in store for them!

550. 25 days til Haiti!!!

Jubilee, with Vincent and Violet
at the rehearsal

with the bride-to-be at the rehearsal dinner
me, Sabrina, and Everly

almost married!
Sabrina and Donovon

I think, perhaps, I will put wedding pics in a later post.  Stay tuned :)

in every season

All of my life

In every season

You are still God

I have a reason to sing

I have a reason to worship*

I know, I skipped Multitude Monday last week...  It was a combination of being really busy + not being terribly motivated to blog.  Don't get me wrong--I have so much for which I am grateful (see list below!) and I really truly am blessed; however, these last few weeks especially have been kind of rough as the Lord has been kind of "making" me take a step back and look at my life--where I am right now, where I might want to go, in whom/what I'm setting my hope--and start to evaluate what's good...what's not so good...and where it may be about time for a change.  For example, the fellowship and accountability I have with my church family is oh-so-good; taking my eyes off the Lord and setting my hope on earthly things (however "good" they may be)= bad.  As far as the change that may be coming, well, hopefully that will be settled--one way or another--in the next few days.  So, check back next week, and maybe I'll have more to say on that then!

So anyway, these past few weeks haven't been my favorite overall, but God is faithful, and I do have lots to be thankful for!

Royers Round Top Cafe

501. Spending an evening in Round Top with Julie and Sarah, eating at a gourmet diner and then exploring a world-renowned music institute (which has some very funny statues...).

502. Finally getting to go ice skating again with Sarah.

503. True Grit movie night with friends!

504. A nice drive to Houston--just me, my music, a couple of sermons, and a quad grande americano.  I really enjoyed this, despite...

505. ...getting sent to the wrong side of Houston for my class...which meant...I got to come home way early...and I still got paid for it :)

movie night!

506. One year ago I visited my amazing church for the first time...and then never left :)  Love this amazing body of believers; so thankful for the way God has used them this past year to teach and encourage and challenge me in so many ways.  So very blessed to be part of a church that truly preserves and proclaims the Gospel!

507. And while I'm on the subject of my amazing church family...  I'm just ever-so-grateful for Sarah and Julie and our somewhat unofficial fight club; so thankful to be able to live life--with all of its laughter and tears and confusion and plain 'ol craziness--with such sweet friends who really demonstrate what it means to live out the gospel.

508. Dinner with several super-special families (including lots of cute babies!) after church.

"Hi Beth, I came by to say hi and to drop
off keys to Paul and none of your dry
erase markers work very well.
Love, Joe
P.S. Paul can't read well."

509. Movie night at Sarah's.

510. Lifegivers

511. Our first sign language class at the Bacaks :)

512. Running with Julie and Fernando.

513. This.  Watch it.  These people are fantastic.

514. Spoons with Sarah and Meg!

515. Re-watching a few episodes of LOST with the brother.

516. Sir Green Shirt's brilliant suggestion that Paul and I use google calendar to coordinate our [ridiculously busy] lives.  I cannot BELIEVE we didn't think of this sooner.  

517. That Brian found the earring (one of my favorites) that I lost at work several weeks ago; definitely didn't expect to see that again!

my new apron from Anna!

518. That my hope...my joy...my security...is not based on any person or situation/circumstance in this life but is in the Lord; "God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever". (Psalm 73)

519. Anna's back from Uganda!!!  And she brought me a super-awesome apron!  :)

520. My "mirror message" from Joe.

521. Bible study at Esperanza on Sunday.

522. Getting to babysit two adorable little boys--and cuddling for hours with the two-month-old :)

523. Spending all of Sunday with Sarah and getting to join her family for their Father's Day lunch.

524. Dr. Pepper icees.

Bible study at Esperanza
(photo courtesy of Pearson)

525. A lovely little walk home from work (after the sun was down, so it was actually somewhat cool--or at least, not blazing hot).

526. The reminder that when I'm faced with a decision, I don't have to figure it out alone.  So thankful for the incredible blessing of having God's Word to guide me, as well as godly friends and mentors to advise and pray for me.  

527. Going to see Green Lantern with friends.

528. Freshly ground coffee.

529. Rachael's "movie interpretations".  Sooo funny.

530. Getting my child sponsorship packet in the mail for Ti Nina!

I will bring praise

I will bring praise

No weapon forged against me will remain

I will rejoice

I will declare

God is my victory and He is here.

* Desert Song -- Hillsong

So much for Monday...

 I almost managed to get this posted on Monday...but then I decided to make one itty bitty minor change to the blog...which failed...and which then necessitated a revamp of the entire layout/design...which took forever...and then it was time to go to work...and I still wasn't done writing my list...and then I got home from work and got distracted by Haiti videos on youtube (see #497)...and then the internet quit working...which I decided was a sign from God via Suddenlink that I needed to go to bed...so I did...and so Multitude Monday is once again not happening on Monday.  Oh well; c'est la vie (se lavi).

:)

early morning calisthenics with Rachael :)

481. Seeing a shooting star--without a doubt, one of the highlights of my week.

482. A mini-roadtrip (as in, an hour or so away) to go to the drive-in with dear friends.  So fun, even though I slept through most of the second movie :)

483. Hilarious moments with friends...such as when we killed a ginormous cockroach...with hairspray and wasp spray...

484. Lunch and pedicures to celebrate my amazing friend Sarah's birthday.

485. Getting to work with Rachael (and her twaaaang; oh, how I love it) every day last week.

486. Free furniture from a friend, and help from wonderful friends with trucks to transport this furniture (thanks Rachael and Jeremy!)

me and Little Bit

 487. Babysitting "Little Bit"; I really enjoy this kid!

488. Two dinner-and-a-movie nights last week!  We watched this and this.

489. So thankful for the work Heartline is doing in Haiti.

490. Running into Donovan and Sabrina at Kroger.

491. Getting to see Aja and meet her youngest sister when they came to town for a few days.

492. Hanging out with the Bacaks at the pool.

493. Dinner with Sara and Deondre.

494. Tank the Chihuahua...even though normally I'm not really a dog person.

495. Jube's birthday (8?!?! When did this happen???)

496. Praying friends, and a note of encouragement.

497. Breaking out my Haiti music again and spending some time reading my Kreyol Bible...though this also sends me further into Haiti-withdrawal...Oh ayiti, mwen vreman sonje w.

Donovan and Sabrina

498. Starting to plan a roadtrip for next month; super excited!

499. Sweet Eugene's has Big Train Chai now (my favorite!); it's about time somewhere in town got it!

500. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  (Ephesians 2:4-10)