Time for an Update!!!

Upon some requests I am going to make an attempt to place a whole semester of happenings into one post!

This year I am living off campus with three lovely ladies that I met last year and it has been an adventure. Somehow we managed to put an apartment together and it looks quite nice if you ask me. Sorry there are no pictures to post on this but soon. With living off campus and not wanting to drive everyday a few blocks to school I have walked in the nice weather but once it got crazy cold out I looked up the Panther Shuttle route and times and successfully rode a city bus and made it to class on time. Once I started doing this my roomies

soon followed and it has been interesting hear their bus stories. One of my roomies wasn't so sure about riding the bus home and would walk but I encouraged her to ride it home one day that it was really cold. We knew she should have been home by 3 or 4 since her class was done at 2 but when it got to being 5 we got a little worried, so we called her and found out that she rode it around 3 times and couldn't figure out how to get it to stop at our apartment so she just went back to campus. I must say we got some good laughs out of that one.

I came into this year of thinking I will be finishing my BA in psychology and be done in two years like a normal 4 year degree. God had other plans for me, I turned down radiology school this summer to work at Hidden Acres since I felt it was God's plan for me but since this

summer and not feeling completely comfortable with psychology classes I applied to radiology school again since it was free to do and there was nothing to lose

by doing it. I hadn't heard

back in a long time and I just assumed it was a no go again. Long behold the address they had for me was wrong and then sent a letter to my home in Kalona saying I had only a few more days to pay the acceptance fee otherwise they would give my spot away. This night I remember clearly, my mom called me and I didn't answer it because we were having a "family dinner" and it is one of our rules to just spend time with people we are with. Later I got word from my dad that I needed to call home and I thought something was seriously wrong but long behold it was this letter from Allen about paying my fee. I got so excited that this was my chance and meant to be from following God's plan this summer!!! I was just soooo excited that this was finally my break, something that I wanted happened and no one could get in the

way of it or take it away from me. So I will begin going to school there in the beginning of August and attend there for 2 years and then find a job! I do have a desire to finish my BA in psychology/family services a

nd after this semester will just have one semester left so I will be trying to figure out how I can do that through summer courses, additions to allen classes or night classes. I haven't gone to school for the past three years to just stop.

I have also continued to volunteer with the middle school group at Prairie Lakes Church. I have the same group of girls as last year and they are 7th graders now. It has been really cool to see how they are growing and making positive decisions in their lives.

One new thing I have done this year is gain a mentor. She happens to be the mother of one of the 7th graders I am in a group with and was my women's choir professor at UNI. She is an awesome lady who has been through a lot and has pushed me to take time for myself and not be a people pleaser or a go-with-the-flow person but to stand up for myself and what I want. This process has been hard but something I have really needed. It has been hard for some of my friends to understand when I go do things by myself instead of with them but I have seen the essential benefits for my well-being because they are not going to be around forever to do things with.

This next semester I will continue working at my job with the UNI athletic media taking stats at games, writing bio stories, and coordinating golf. In addition to this I will be teaching swimming lessons on Saturday mornings.

Well my computer is about to die but here are some photos from the semester.

Mary Alice and I at Dance Party V!!!

Supporting our buddy Logan in the 50th UNI Men's Varsity Glee Club Show.

Some of the girls and I before heading out to our group birthday dinner.

Summer at Hidden Acres

Now that I have been home for almost two weeks since working at camp I should probably let you all know what happened there. I worked as Senior counselor and lifeguard for seven weeks and it was an awesome time for teaching children the word and way of God

and being stretched myself in new ways. With my first week I was so blessed to have a wonderful Junior counselor who helped me with new ideas and really loved on the kids while I was away lifeguarding all afternoon. These four girls were horse campers and had a great

time!

The second week of camp was a lesson in patience for me. I was in a cabin with 11 girls who were second and third graders and some of them were internationals. This was one of my favorite weeks in that I counseled with two amazing women! I was somewhat one on one with one of the campers as she had a hearing implant and very difficult to put to bed and had a hard time sleeping the night through. She really was a blessing in disguise because I learned how to patiently love her along with 10 others who needed undivided attention. One of my favorite sayings from this week was from an international girl named Carroll said

"I don't know" in such a cute way you could never be mad. It was frustrating with how slow she was in getting dressed and walking places but laughs with her far out-weighed the moments that upset us.

Week three was a week of training these seventh and eighth graders how to become wranglers and learn barn duties. At the beginning of this week I thought it would be hard to get through to these girls because they weren't very talkative and were more interested in their looks then spending time with the horses. As the week progressed they came out of their shell and we had such a good time that they were pushing me into the pond and mud pit. We ended the week with ring bare-back riding and a breakfast trail ride. It was hard to let some of these girls go back to their home life and leave the fun freedom of camp.

Week four brought us to the half way mark of the summer. This week the camp had a half week for kindergarden and first graders (which I had) and second and third graders, which was older camp. All of these girls were such sweet little ladies. This week I was really shown the innocence of faith. They asked questions like, "why did God make the sky blue", "how big is God really", and the list goes on. They really just wanted to play and be outside and it was cool to see how they all included each other since most of them did not know anyone else in the

cabin. There was one special girl who was our "leach" for the week. She always wanted to be

held and needed to be talking to someone. I remember when she picked out her clothes for one day she put on this shirt with a sewn on vest on it and pink scrub pants she wore when she was in the hospital. One of the other junior counselors and I just looked and laughed which wasn't the right thing to do but she was just so cute and we agreed she was quite the character. After these few days were up I had a few days to go home for the 4th of July to be with family and prepare for the last two weeks of camp.

Week 5 brought me to another week of horse camp. This time I had a full wagon of girls and my first campers from out of state. The hard thing about this week was that there were a few girls who were looking to go deep into the word and learn as much as they could and a few were only there for the horse part of it and could care less about chapel and devotions. To bridge this challenge we all memorized different verses of the gospel to make a story and a few thought this would be way to hard and similar to school and would have none of that but they did it! I

felt like a proud mama and then the few who were looking to go deeper asked what books of the Bible they should read during Stop and Drop time and while they were at camp read a few of the smaller books in the Bible. This pushed me to brush up on what was said in those books as they wanted to discuss what was going on. I loved talking about this with these young girls and can't wait to get back to my group of small girls at church to discuss things with them!

Week six, last week of camp was full of middle school and high school students attending camps for volleyball, basketball, paintball, shooting, horse wilderness, english riding, and core camp. These ten girls in my cabin were here for volleyball and had been coming to Hidden Acres for years now. Most of these girls knew the Lord as their savior and wanted to be impacted and changed the week they were here while some were strictly there for volleyball and didn't want to attend anything of the religious sorts. There was one girl who was there for volleyball and was sick during the week but after a personal Bible reading time she chose not to be part of volleyball that day as she still didn't feel well and kept on going with her personal reading time. By the end of the week she realized God can forgive anyone no matter who they are or what they have done and chose to re-dedicate her life to Christ! These girls were so much fun and always had me laughing and teaching them something about life or God's word.

Camp was such a WONDERFUL experience and I'm so glad God brought me here this summer. During the first week for staff training I got a call from radiology school telling me there was a position open for me and I could get into the anatomy class starting the next day. I didn't know what to do because this had been my dream but looking back I made the right decision. Knowing the lives I have impacted and the girls who are now in God's family because they were in my cabin and God gave me the words to say is worth more than any profession to me. If radiological technology is to be my profession God will bring that back into my life again.

Catching up on some things...

So the last time I wrote was this spring...sorry for all of those who want to know what's up in my life. I finished off my second year of college well and set a major in psychology with a minor in family studies! This summer I am working at Hidden Acres Christian Center as a senior counselor and lifeguard and there are only 2 more weeks left. I have met some really great people through this job and have grown a ton in my faith and have really changed as a person with a different look on life. Camp in general is a real change because I always have dirt on me, we have no connection with the outside world unless we receive mail or find a place with cell phone reception on the weekends, and we are all there to serve God and share news with others about him.

I can't believe the summer is pretty much half over! I'm excited to move into my apartment, see all my friends again, and getting into a routine. I am looking for a different job in Cedar Falls that will work better around my class schedule so if you know of anything give me a jingle because I am actively searching for something. Some exciting news is that my brother will be going to school at UNI this fall and so will a great family friend so I'm excited to show them what UNI is all about and how they can make it their own!

Been Awhile...

So to update you all there has been a lot going on...

On Palm Sunday along with 40 others who attend Prairie Lakes church I was baptized. I had been wanting to do this for awhile but I wanted to make sure I was doing it for the right reason and not just because. My parents and close friends were there to support me and I love them all and know they will be there.

After Easter the year just flew by. I attended Drake Relays to watch my brother and the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks run and also got to see a friend from my graduating class who now runs for Alabama. He seems to be doing great things and doing well for himself which is cool to see. It was only a week after Drake that I was done with my sophomore year. This was a bittersweet year with meeting new friends, experiencing new adventures, and making decisions for the future.

Phili Missions 2010

PHILADELPHIA MISSIONS TRIP 2010

Spring Break this year was a little different then it ever has been. I went with 40 other college students to Urban Hope in Philadelphia. This is an inner city mission where they focus on children coming to the Lord and through them hope that their families will hear the word. After the 22 hour bus ride we arrived in what many would call 'the ghetto' and we helped with with a children's program called Kingdom Kids, where we went around the neighborhood and picked up children on a list the church had. To get an idea of how many people that lived around the neighborhood they call a block from stop light to stop light with 8-10 people living in a home that has another home side to side with them. If you do the calculations there are around 400 people living on a block! Also the people in this neighborhood do not make as much money as you would think, the average income is $20,000 a year and that is per household and to support 8-10 people.

Through out the rest of the week we cleaned up the streets around Urban Hope, picked up many little drug bags and even found some, did projects for Urban Hope to improve

their facilities. We also did some things with the homeless people, we gave them sack dinners one night in the subway station and just had some conversations, then we went to Breaking Bread which is a service in a church downtown for them to get a meal 3 different times a week, get help with banking and law, get different clothes, visit the salon, and there is even a hangout place in the winter where they can come and have coffee, watch tv and hang out with each other.

One of my favorite things we did were to go to the Boys and Girls club two different days. We worked with the same kids both days and they were excited to see us again.

While there we helped them with their homework and played games with them. These kids were so sweet and just wanted someone to care that they were trying with their homework. Most of them do not get individual attention but have dreams to be something big and get out of their living situation.

We also did some team bonding since many of us just knew a few other people on the trip. Many nights we would play crazy uno, share glory day stories, and we even had a dance party in the church the last night we were there.

On the very last day we were there we did some sight seeing and saw many of the historic sights. Among those were the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall where they signed the Declaration of Independence, Quaker House, Benjamin Franklin's grave, Betsy Ross's house (whose real name was Elizabeth Clayborne). Some of the fun things we did

were to eat an authentic philly cheesesteak sandwich, grab a special shake at H

ard Rock Cafe, and finding the train station instead of the art museum so that made us flag down a cab in order to get the art museum just in time to run up the stairs that Rocky ran up in his movies with the rest of our group. It was quite the adventure that day full of laughs and good conversation with some new friends.

Our whole group before departing Urban Hope!

New Adventures!

So I have been back to school for about a month now and this semester is going to pretty easy I feel so that is a good thing after the craziness of last semester. I have joined women's chorus and love it, it doesn't seem like a class but we get credit for it so can we say A : )

This summer I had planned on participating in Camp Adventure which is a summer program that UNI sponsors for students to be trained to work as a camp counselor at an American Military or Navy base around the world while being able to travel on the weekends. I went to the interview and figured out it wasn't for me so I have applied to two summer camps in Iowa to be a camp counselor at. So for that matter I am planning on taking the Red Cross course to get certified in CPR, First Aid, and Lifeguard. I have started swimming a few times a week and have a month until the class so I'm hoping I will get stronger and be able to do it. I don't know which one will want me or which one I will go to but I'm praying God will lead me in the right direction. One of the camps I attended as a child and is 20 minutes from my house, so that seems to be a good way to do it but the other is around the Des Moines area and is an E. Free camp which is cool because that's the kind of church I

attend. Plus, my current roommate works there and there are a lot of other people from UNI that work there that I don't know of too well yet. It would be a great opportunity to get to know people I go to school with!

I am still not officially a psychology major but at the end of this semester I will be. I also have declared a family studies minor. I will have to go to grad school in order to become a school counselor or an adoption consultant but I am up for the challenge especially since I found out that if I strategically plan it out I can graduate in 2 years and then go to grad school for a few and find a job after that. I really think this is the way I'm supposed to go.

In this past month I have attended my first hockey game which was super loud and

something new and interesting to experience. I don't think I will really go to another one again but it was a good experience. I feel as I get older I need to experience new things and be open-minded

about these things because they are things my friends like to do and I like doing things with my friends!

So that's the update of my life in the last month basically, just school, little bit of homework, activities at church, swimming, and friends!

Listening

Over this Christmas break I have been able to do a lot of listening to God and other people. I have known and been told that I am a good listener and give good advice but until now I wasn't sure that is what I wanted to do with my life. I have not been accepted into Allen's radiography program and am looking at options that include helping others but listening also. God really has laid on my heart a passion for adoption and children which I never thought would happen but with listening and following his plan for me I feel I have been lead down a whole different path. This fall was the first time I started helping out with the middle school youth group at the church I attend at school and I have grown to love talking with the small group of girls I have. Even though they are only in sixth grade they understand what is going on and are very curious about what else is out there. It boggles me to think about how the brain develops and what it thinks at different ages. Ever since I was a younger girl I have always thought it would be cool to adopt a child, I mean yes your children have your blood but why make more children when there are thousands who don't have a home or a family. One of my close friends at college was adopted and listening to her talk about some stuff has really shown me that this is a rewarding career if you can find your nitch. Right now I don't know what career I will chose but I am excited to see what is in store for me in the future if I just keep listening to what God has in store for me.

Ringing in the New Year!

This past semester has been awesome getting to know a great group of girls and others who live on my floor. Since we all got along so well we figured it would be impossible to spend all of break away from each other and decided to ring in the new decade together in Minnesota at our friend Abby's house. It was a fun trip filled with going to Mall of America, eating at the Cheesecake Factory, hot tubing, and sledding on some crazy hills.