Movin' On Up!

Today is my official move-in day to my brand new apartment here at Bryan. What a great way to live out my Senior year here in Dayton. I think I will miss dorm life like crazy, but I know this apartment will allow me to build a deeper bond with the girls I'm living with. I am excited to be living with two of my dearest friends and I am looking forward to getting to know the other three girls better.

The biggest challenge I'll be facing is secluding myself from the rest of the campus. Rudd, the music building and the building where I work, is the closest building to the apartments. The advantage is I'll have the shortest walk of anyone to class and work. The disadvantage will be that I no longer walk down a dorm hall, through a lounge, around the Triangle (our school version of a 'Quad') , through the Student Center which finally dumps me outside of Rudd. My chances of seeing people as I walk to my Musical Dungeon has just dropped from 99.9% to around 0.5%. I know I will need to work hard at spending time with people; afterall, this is my Senior year, my final chapter in 'the best days of my life.' I don't want to look back regretting a single moment of this year. What will make this a challenge is with my recital approaching in March, the stress will get to me and I will lock myself away in my pracice cell... er... room. Also, not eating meals in the Cafeteria will make seeing people even more a challenge. So hopefully I will find my balance and not it interupt my studies and music.


Back to the moving part. Let me give you all a poor quality camera phone tour of our apartment. For those of you who are a little slow, the picture at the top is the outside of the apartment. Now walking in the front door you'll see our living room, which is clearly in need of a rug, coffee table, and a TV (hint, hint).


Then as you move beyond the living room you'll find the kitchen which is fully equipped with a fridge, sink, tons of cabinets and drawers, stove and a convection oven. Yes... I will now be learning how to cook from a convection oven. Oh buddy! This will be an adventure in itself.

Past the kitchen is Kirsten and Jessica's room and to the left of the kitchen is their bathroom. Instead of showing tons of pictures, let's just skip on upstairs!


As you reach the top of the stairs you will go straight into Britney's and my room. Lovely isn't it? And big!!! See mom, I made my bed! That is all the work I've done so far with moving in... much packing left to do at the Tromanhauser's and then unpacking it here. Fun times! The closet is MUCH smaller than my old dorm room, so this may present a challenge, but Britney and I are up for it!

Lastly, we'll take you to the bathroom, which is between our room and Anna and Liz's room. The bathroom as you can see is very big! Plenty of room for us to spread out all our girly primping items... or all of their girly priming items... I'm sure my straightener and small make-up bag will fit in a drawer somewhere. What you may not see in this picture is the fact that there is a the actually toilet room to the right and behind the camera there are two seperate shower rooms. We are going from 4 girls sharing one shower to 2 per shower. How lovely! :-) I hope you all enjoyed this brief tour. Be sure to come visit for a full tour once our place is fully decorated.




Movin' On Up
Rhett and Link cover

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Glass of Water

I would like to introduce you all to the new man in my life. Tu Tuan is 15 months old and he is an orphan in Vietnam. God brought us together in a way that only He can do and it just goes to show how awesome He truly is!

This past weekend was the highlight of my summer. If there was only one reason God kept me here in Dayton for the summer (even though there has clearly been more than one), this weekend was that reason. Our youth group attended "IGNITE", a conference hosted by Precept Ministries for our local youth groups. I had an amazing time with our girls who attended the conference. The whole theme of the classroom sessions was getting dirty for God. Finding out what pleases God and how we can do just that. In our second session one of the verses that we read over was Matthew 10:42 "And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple,truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward." We never even discussed this verse, we just briefly read over it, yet it was stuck in my head for the rest of the day. All I could think about was how before college my biggest goal was to work with orphans in some way. I either wanted to live in the states and do foster care and adoption or work in an orphanage outside the US. Now I had dismissed this idea completely, thinking God had called me into some other form of ministry. I could not get my mind off of helping orphans. Part of me felt bad because I knew I was missing out on some other things being taught during the sessions due to this distraction (not that my ADD mind needs help with getting distracted), in the end this distraction was just what I needed for God to get my priorities back on track.

In our last session, I finally could understand the calling of God. He was saying, "I want you to support a little one. Give him more than a cup of water, give him food, shelter, cloths..."

"Umm... God... That's great and all. But I'm poor! Hello, I have groceries to by, a monthly school bill and other random stuff that pops up. I can't afford any extra expenses." I knew it costs as little as $30 a month to support a child through a ministry like Compassion or Holt International, but I wasn't trusting God enough to supply me with the funds.

"Just trust and obey, Charlee!"

"Yea, okay God. I'll look into it when I get home tonight."

God, having a sense of humor, and knowing I'd conveniently forget, didn't let me wait until I got home. When we were finished with our session I walked past the table of the band, Julian Drive, that was giving a concert in a few hours. I see their merchandise, and then on the other end of the table I see small packets and right away I knew what was in them.

"Alright, alright! I get the picture! I'll support a child."

So I walked over to that end of the table and began looking at the pictures of these children on each different packet. Seeing the faces, the precious faces of children in need, my heart was broken. I was disgusted with my selfishness to think that I could not help these children. After a prayer for God to lead me to the child he wanted me to support, he lead me to precious little Tu Tuan.

I am amazed at how quickly God works. From my previous post of begging God to take back over my journey it took just a few days for him to lead me along to the next step.

If you are interested in supporting a child I encourage you to look into the ministry of Holt International. It is a great ministry and a great way to give a "glass of water" to a little one in need.



Glass of Water

Coldplay

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In a State

Growing up on the road always had its ups and downs. The biggest 'up' was all the amazing things I've seen in my short lifetime. I've spent time in 31 states and 7 countries. I didn't just study geography in school, I experienced it! The one 'down' to all of my childhood adventures was being cooped up in a van the majority of my Thursdays-Saturdays (and even some other days of the week).

Now that I look back on my experiences growing up, I realize that my some of fondest childhood memories were spent in that Forest Green Ford E-350 van. My middle sister, Larissa, and I would make believe all types of life situations and pretend to be living them. I remember playing with my numerous Polly Pockets from city to city. I loved singing along to the radio with Larissa;however, I didn't love when Rush Limbaugh was on... that meant no more singing. I also learned a lot of lessons in that van. Such as "Life isn't always fair" from the fact that my oldest sister, Bethany, ALWAYS had her own bench seat while Larissa and I had to share. I learned how to read a map and calculate travel distance (this also goes under fondest memories of mine). I learned to control my bladder like no body's business. Rule #1: No bathroom breaks! We only stop for food and gas.

We actually had several travel rules that my sisters and I were expected to follow.
The rule that was enforced the most was "Three questions you are not allowed to ask: 'Are we there yet?' 'How much longer?' and 'When are we stopping?'" Instead, we would learn to ask questions such as, "What state are we in?" or "Which mile marker are we at?" With these two questions we would pull out our trusty map and discover for ourselves the distance we had left to travel. As I grew older, I began to have less of a desire to know about our ETA, I just wanted to see where we were on our journey. I developed an appreciation of our adventures not for the destination, but for the journey.

The light bulb has just come on in your brain. "So, THAT'S what her blog title and subtitle is about!" Yes, in my spiritual life I'm back to being that small child again who has the desire to say, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? How much longer?!?" God just gently whispers back "It's not about your destination, it is about your journey." Starting now, I am applying the same rule to my life that my parents applied to our travels. There are three questions I am not allowed to ask God: "Are we there yet?" "How much longer?" and "When are we stopping?" Instead, I am going to continually ask God "What state am I in?" I want for Him to show me where I am on my journey so that I can prepare for the next mile marker. If I'm not in constant check of what state I am in, I will end up completely lost, confused and worried. Oh wait, that is where I am now! Um... God... What state am I in????? Would you please navigate from here on out? Thanks :-)

"...for I have learned, whatever state I am, to be content." Phil. 4:11

In A State

UNKLE

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