Over my spring break I went to visit my friend Jill. I met her almost 10 years ago when I did a missions internship down in Oklahoma. She used to be Oklahoma Jill (since I already have a friend Jill), but then moved to Kentucky to go to seminary school and is now henceforth known as Kentucky Jill. And such a dear precious friend.
Usually we have wild adventures together, but this time was very relaxing and just really nice to be together. There were lots of talks, sleeping in, watching movies, contra-dancing, eating popcorn, more talks, walks, and of course laughs.
It seems like in every city Jill lives in there are these amazing Christian opportunities of stuff going on, that I never seem to find in my state. She had told me before of these retreats she went on and loved, and there was one going on the weekend I was in town. So we went. It was a retreat for 'spiritual refreshment' for women and we met at a cottage with 18 other women. The theme was being loved by God. There was time of bible study, prayer, and focused discussion, and then they gave you a lot of time to go off and think and pray or cry or journal or whatever you needed to do. They encouraged you to try different ways to commune with God. One way was through drawing. They had nice art paper and art supplies and encouraged you to let your mind go blank and then just start.
I felt the song 'as the deer' in my mind and started to draw a deer. I thought
hey, I've got this, I'm being inspired by God to draw something beautiful for Him, it's going to be amazing as I expected something Michaelangelo-esque to appear on the page. Instead:
haha, it's more like a failed Rudolph,
what a manly strong jaw you have there Rudolph
I laughed and then just doodled
my where to live comparison list
a random parade
the drawings I always used to do to tease the boys I nannied by giving us animal names that sounded like our last names
Clearly I do not commune with God through art.
So anyway, the retreat was awesome. There was a time of small group prayer and sharing and it was really good to open up and cry and share with a few people about feelings. Distrust, trust, loss, sadness, hope.
God is good.
Jill made me some dish called Bulgogi, I was skeptical, but it was very tasty.
Also while I was there I noticed Jill still had her old car in the driveway (she'd been driving her new one for over a year now). I asked her about it and she said she didn't want to list it because she didn't want Craigslist creeps coming to her house since she lives alone. I encouraged
(peer-pressured) her to list it while I was there, and in fact, listed it myself. Within 2 hours she had an email, we both drove off to meet the person, and by the end of the night her car was sold. Praise God! His hand was all over that.
Jill took me to this awesome frozen yogurt place to celebrate (see I knew she'd be happy she did it!)
For once I chose fruit over chocolate and thoroughly enjoyed my pineapple, pomegranate, and blueberry fro-yo with chopped fruit. Yum.
It was a great visit and a great time with my friend!!!
Which I guess is irrelevant as there is no snack or water provided to put on that little shelf, and no wi-fi for your laptop. The seats are even more narrow and don't recline at all. No movies. They also now charge for carry on bags too. So my cheap flight was not quite as cheap as I had hoped. I guess if I got that $108 fare it would've still been worth it if I could've packed everything into 1 backpack (that'd be free) and byo snack. But otherwise, will not be flying Frontier again.
Anyway, despite that unpleasant first bit, the visit was wonderful. Short but sweet. My brother picked me up and we were able to catch up. The visit was filled with lots of time with little girls, Chick-fil-A breakfasts, early Christmas with them, crafts with my sister-in-law, and just nice downtime with them.
I made those little pants 2 years ago for big sis
Molina is such a sweet fun girl and so smart. She's 2 years 2 months and already talking in full sentences and very curious about the world. It was fun to see my brother and his wife and see what wonderful parents they are.
Everyone is coming here in March for mom's 70th/retirement party. I'm really looking forward to us all being together and to see again how much the girls will have grown in just 3 more months.
