Thankfulness

So after many, many complaints/encouragements from my beloved sister I have decided it is time to update y'all (that's right...it's been 6 months and I've picked up the y'all!) If you really stop and think about it. It makes a lot more sense than "you guys"... and it sounds cuter! :)

Anyway, like I said, it's been over six months now since I moved to Texas and some days it feels like I just moved here. But today, it feels like forever. Not necessarily in a bad way, but just in that I have this sudden awareness of how long it has been since I've seen my family and my close friends, the people I hold dearest to my heart. I'm not even sure I understood how dear they really were to me until God lifted me up and out of my selfish pain and removed me from all that was familiar. Funny how that cheesy little line "absense makes the heart grow fonder" seems to be a reality these days.

Don't get me wrong...I have made some incredible friends here. I love them dearly as well...but I would really like to have the best of both worlds...wouldn't we all in some way or another? "Have your cake and eat it too"? Okay, enough with the cheesy lines.

So I am planning on writing a real job/life update soon, but I think this blog is purely for those people back home that I am missing that may not know just how much. For those who's voices have yet to leave my life...Grandma, dad, mom, Jody, Katie, Kourtney, Jonathan, Jessie and Rebecca...

I seriously do not know what I would do without your committment and love in my life. I don't think I have done a very good job of communicating over the years to any of you how much you really do mean to me, and how much I really do care for y'all and for your lives. God has shown me so much and taught me incredible truths and I know it sounds crazy, but there are some nights where I cry through the desire I have to share this hope with you. I long to see y'all be free, full of joy and a hope for the future. Understanding that you are loved fully and motivated to live passionately. I want everything for your lives and would do anything to help y'all attain all that we have access to through a living, loving, perfect Savior. When you are joyous, I am over joyed and when you suffer, I am burdened. I love you with a love that only comes from our God. Thank you for loving me and sticking by me during the most painful and beautiful journey thus far in my life. Thank you for your support and perseverance and for your graciousness and patience. (when hearing the same crap over and over. Ha!) Jesus said that in this life we will have trouble, so when yours hits...you know where I am. I thank the Lord everyday for you.

I miss u.