BLESSED

I AM BLESSED.

blessed to have a father who not only supports me but works hard to find all the best ticket deals, best iphone deals, best EVERYTHING for me

blessed to have a mother who works out the details and remembers the necessary things i would be bound to forget without her

blessed to have a brother who's not worried or stressed, but just excited for me

blessed to have a sister who reminds me that i will be missed through her tears but who supports me all the same

blessed to have the best extended family ever - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins - who are cheering me on as i go. and some (ABI!) who decide to join me in the spirit of adventure by going to china ;)

blessed to have the best friends ever who meet me at the airport at 4 30 in the morning

blessed to be able to even do this, blessed to have the opportunity to spread the love of jesus to the ends of the earth

may god BLESS YOU here in the states as i head on over to africa.
i love you all and i will keep you in my prayers

have an AWESOME year.

xoxo
love,
christie

Growing up? Eh, no thanks.

I guess it's scary to think about growing up. It's always been that exciting thing that never seems like its actually going to happen and all of the sudden your entire future is staring you straight in the face and you realize you've fantasized so much about how great growing up will be that it actually looks pretty disappointing. You watch your friends come and go and you have to settle with the fact that people are going to come and go for the rest of your life. You finally realize that your world does not have to revolve around boys although for some reason it still does. You've come to the point where your tears and your dad will no longer get you out of car accidents and the responsibility of everything has fallen one hundred percent on you and all you want to do is run away from it. But you can't. And that's exactly what growing up is. When you were little everyone was taller and stronger and smarter so it was okay to rely on them. Growing up is realizing that you're the same as everyone else now and you can't expect them to do the work that you are capable of. The scary part is not knowing if everything will be okay. And the worst is knowing that if it's not, the only person to blame is yourself. 

Just some possibly true, perhaps paranoid and maybe a little bit depressing, thoughts I've had about growing up. Sometimes it's just plain old sad that there won't be anymore running around barefoot till the porch light turns on, or eating macaroni and...who am I kidding? All I ever eat these days is mac 'n cheese! #childatheart

Love, Christie 

this is your time

I haven't written a post in a while, but this one comes from the heart.

Today I was trying to schedule out my last few weeks in America. My dad and I were trying to plan something, and my mom wanted to go shopping and out to lunch but all of our schedules were clashing like crazy. Finally, Dad and I worked something out but Mom and I were struggling. We poured over the calender on her handy-dandy iPhone and came up with nothing. She had lunch with a friend one day, I was getting in all the hanging out I possibly could before I left my friends for 6 months.

At first, it was frustrating. Why were neither of us willing to give up something in our schedules so we could spend time together? Then, it was sad. Since when was it more fun to spend a few hours with my friend before I leave than time with my mom? Mom and I always have so much fun together. We go shopping, out to lunch, take roadtrips to Chicago or North Carolina and always have a blast. Why wasn't I willing to make room for her in my busy-but-not-that-important schedule? I mentally shook myself and cleared my head. The people who matter the most to me are my family, and if I'm about to leave for 6 months, they are the people I want to spend the most time with.

Finally we scheduled a time that would work, and I'm much more excited to hangout with my mom than with my friends this week (not to say I don't LOVE my friends - I do!). I'm not sure why I made a post about this, but I think this little situation got me thinking. I realized that the life we live is so short. It doesn't seem like enough time. Time goes by and before we know it we've lost close friends and family and we didn't even get a chance to tell them how much we loved them.

This is your time. Live it to the fullest, and frequently carve out special time in your busy schedule to spend a while with someone close to your heart. The time we're given never seems like quite enough and the last thing I'm sure any of us want is to wake up one morning and realized we've wasted it. xoxo

Love,
Christie