I've been blogging all day.....

i am required to blog about art for my senior seminar all summer long and since i am a fabulous procrastinator, i have been putting those blogs off like crazy.  but earlier today i was able to get five done woohoo!  so i figured i would celebrate my victory by writing in a blog that i actually like.... aka, this one!

well the cat's out of the bag:  T and i have decided that we will live in america after we get married, at least, for a little while.  whew, what a relief to have made a decision about something.  and, AAAAAAHHHH!!! it's so scary that we have decided something!

it is going to be a very long process to get T over here safely and securely and, "not-to-be-deported-ly"... which include petitioning for a fiance visa, then acquiring a fiance visa then applying for a permanent resident visa then applying for a work permit... (T did i forget anything?)  finding jobs for both of us, planning for the wedding finishing school, senior seminar... oh, wait... that's my other blog again.  oops.

where was i?

oh yes.

we are asking God to please help make the process of getting his fiance visa go smoothly.  it would be a major bummer if they deported my husband after we get married.  oh!!  maybe they can deport me too, and we can have a wildly romantic kicked out of the country rebel honeymoon!.....  or maybe i'm pushing it on the optimism side of things.  let me read what i just wrote again to see if that even makes sense ..................... wow.  you're right jen kapp, i really am an optimist.

anyways, i guess the whole point of this post is to let everyone know that we have decided to remain in the usa, at least for a season, and to ask for prayer.  because it is going to be rough.... we have a long road ahead of us.

ps:  as a side note, can you also pray that i find a perfect wedding dress?  selfish prayer i know.... but i'm at least allowed to ask, right?

love yall!

Never read your old posts

Never ever ever read your old blog posts if you are as dramatic as I am. Cause I'm dramatic and it's just.... Embarrassing. Glad I got that one off my chest...... So I was gonna call this post "d-day" meaning "decision day" to represent the decision that T and I are making in four days about what we are going to do after we get married. However, then I read my old blogs and found them to be so disturbingly dramatic that I opted for a different title. T and I have been fasting movies and tv for 40 days to pray that God will guide us to the thing we must do after we get married.... Which is basically where are we going to live. It has been a real blessing doing this fast, and both of us have learned a lot about the holy spirit through it. Now the deadline is coming up and I like to think that we are like Gideon laying our fleece before the lord... A decision must be reached. So please pray for us? This is a huge step. God will be in it with us, no matter where we end up. And praise his holy name.... We will be together, the most important part. Love you guys so much.

iPad Post

So, this is going too be an interesting post for me. Not because I have anything at all interesting to say, not because something miraculous happened or because I have an incredible update. No the nature of this post is interesting because of the method of which the post is being posted. That's right ladies and gentlemen and fiancé (who occasionally reads my posts, hi T!) I am typing this blog on an iPad. And it is very interesting. For one thing the buttons occasionally switch up which confuses me, for another, autocorrect is a beautiful thing. I'm at work. I nanny for a family of three boys, 8, 9, and 11. All their names begin with the letter J so you can imagine how confusing it can be for me at times. However, these boys are a treasure. I love them so much even after working with them for about a month. I got this job from Ruth Bethany (shout out girl!) and it was a total answer to prayer since I was looking for a full time nanny job for this summer. Obviously, this time last summer I was working the dream job in Ethiopia, but I couldn't go back this summer because I had to make enough money for rent and tuition and stuff to complete my last semester at CNU so I can marry my best friend you know how it is. Oh, and there is something about my littlest J you guys should know. He has a very rare und undiagnosed blood disorder that prevents his little body from making enough blood. I take him in to the hospital for weekly transfusions. You wouldn't know that he was sick from looking at him, or talking to him, or playing with him even. He is the sweetest little guy in the whole world, and dare I say the bravest. And other than his brother the 9 year old J, the most active!!! The first time I took J into the fairfax childrens hospital for his weekly transfusion, I was blown away by two feelings. One was sadness.... This hospital is filled with the most beautiful little kids, adorable, smiling, curly headed angels.however, I know that every single one of these little guys is very very sick in some way,or else they wouldn't be here. Oh it is heartbreaking. it was such a painstakingly huge reminder that suffering is NOT a thing only to be found on the streets of addis ababa, or an orphanage. No, suffering is here, in my own homeland, America the land of the free and home of the brave. There are kids here who won't live out the year, there are homeless and there are broken... There are lost. The second thing that hit me was joy because this children's hospital is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. There is not a blank spot, brightly colored murals and paintings cover the walls, there are rugs and patterned floors and comfy chairs and kid movies playing, there is even a huge art corner section with a bona-fide art therapist. the fact that this place is made to be so full of light and beauty was enough to bring tears to my eyes. I told the art therapist on staff, Gretchen, that very thing when we struck up a conversation about art and her job and my travels to Ethiopia. And I wish I wish I wish I could bring this kind of care to my second home, the country that I have grown to love.... I want to paint the capital city of addis ababa with giant flowers and butterflies to remind the sick and the weary and the lost children that someone cares enough to make their home beautiful. There is something SO uplifting about a brightly colored space in the middle of adversity. Can you pray for my little J? i forgot to mention something else, he is doing a bone marrow transplant in August. This, for those of you who don't know (like me who had to look it up) is a VERY serious proceedure that could be life threatening. And he is only eight. He and his whole family are going to Disney world next week with Make a Wish. I am so syked for him, he is so excited:) So please pray. This family has already been through so much, if the bone marrow transplant goes well, things could get a lot easier... But they will be a lot harder for a while first. God puts us where we need to be each summer, whether it is Africa, or right here in sterling, five miles away from your own house. -blessings