Dancing in the Rain

So, I've been working on a couple of the things on my little "things to do before I'm 25 list". Namely, the reading ones. :) Which means I'm currently reading about 4 books AND the Bible... :) I've read the first three of the Anne of Green Gables books and have definitely fallen in love. I really can't believe I have never before read them! Anne Shirley is the sweetest, most bewitching fictional character I have ever met, and I'm pretty sure that if I could write like Lucy Maud Montgomery I would be the absolutely happiest person in the world. But, alas, I can't write like the wonderful L.M. Montgomery; I can't even write like the sweet, sometimes silly, fictitious Anne-girl; yet I'm still awfully happy. Because I happen to know that it is just as sweet to brighten someone's day with a simple card or letter as it ever could be to be a "literary giant" writing "best-selling classics". So there! :) And...there's s

So...today is November 16th, which happens to be my half-birthday. That means it is exactly 6 months until my birthday. To celebrate, I jotted down this little list of 25 things I want to do before I'm 25. Granted, since I only have 6 months left, I may very possibly not actually accomplish all of these things. But it was fun making the list... :) (and yes, the idea sprouted from a comment my mom posted on a previous "25 things" list of a different theme on Facebook. :) ) These are really in no particular order! Read all of " The Journals of Jim Elliot " Scrapbook the trip to Bolivia Finish the Beth Moore Bible study I'm currently doing ( A Woman's Heart: God's Dwelling Place --great stuff! :) ) Learn to skate on in-line skates Read all the unread books on my bookcase Apply for the fall 2011 semester at Ellerslie ( http://www.ellerslie.com/ ) Beat my sister at a speed game (Dutch Blitz, Spoons, Blink, etc.) Finish editing my "Let There Be Light

The other day, I was flipping through some old journals and I came across this, dated March 24, 1994: "I am determined to see Jesus." I was seven years old, not yet saved, and a stubborn brat. I was "determined" to do a lot of things: eat as much sugar (candy, cookies, whatever!) as I could snitch in any given day; do as little school as I could get away with; spend every spare minute (and quite a few that weren't spare) either reading or playing outside; drive my sister crazy by imitating everything she did, said, and wore; boss my little brothers around to get my way; get dirtier than my mother ever dreamed was possible by playing in the mud; keep everyone outside my family convinced that I was a sweet, perfect little angel... etc, etc! OK, so maybe I didn't do all of those things on purpose , but hey--it is who I was! Yet somehow, God was already working in my sinful little heart to draw me to Himself. How amazing is that?! And in the midst of my little

Hey, y'all! :) Well, we're actually home (it's hard to believe we've been home a week!), but I decided to go ahead and send out one last update e-mail to fill everyone in on our last week in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It was a busy, crazy, full week (hence the reason I didn't ever get an e-mail sent) as we tried to pack as much into it as we could and spent every possible second with the kids. :) So... Thursday (October 21st) we went to the Cristo, one of the main tourist attractions in Cochabamba. It's the big statue of Jesus up on a hill. Kaley came with us for the afternoon. We rode up on the teleferico, a sort of cable car type thing. Once up there, we took pictures (of course!), sat on the little wall and watched a thunderstorm come in, played on the playground (swings and broken see-saws...), and just had a good time visiting and enjoying the scenery. From there we went to get ice cream, did a little shopping, got trancapechos, and then trekked back to House 1

...has officially arrived; the music in the CD player tells me so. :)

Hola, everyone! :) Well, I really did not intend to let a whole week go by before sending out another update... :) Life has been pretty "normal" here. A lot of hanging out with the kids and the tias, a couple trips downtown... We watched a movie with the tias on night duty the other night--Sister Act. It was in Spanish and there weren't English subtitles, so it was a bit interesting at times. :) At least I'd seen it before so I wasn't totally lost! (we watched "El Rey Leon" in Spanish with the kids one night; that one was easy because I pretty much have it memorized :) ). Another night we played a dice game with Tia Consuelo and Tia Yovana (pronounced Jo-vonna...strange, I know). It was actually very similar to Yahtzee and was lots of fun once we caught on to how it works and stuff. It would not have been nearly as confusing to begin with if it hadn't all been explained in Spanish, I'm fairly certain! :) Saturday evening, Amber, Jennifer, and I

Hola, everyone! :) Well, as I start this e-mail, anyway, I have sweet little Fabiola asleep next to me on my bed...which means that there is a good chance I'll get interrupted and have to finish later. :) As I told a friend, I'm pretty sure I'll go through "baby withdrawals" when I get home; living with 3 "baby babies" and 3 that are 8 months old (the triplets!) has spoiled me. :) For the most part, life is falling into a routine here, so I'll just kind of fill you in on the few things outside the norm and then maybe "introduce" you to some of the kids here. You know, besides Jhosie. :) Also, FYI, there are a few pictures up on Facebook; the internet here is really slow and my computer has issues, so I'm trying to get more added but it happens slowly. And just so you know--I can't post names with photos, you might have to guess at some of them. Only not in a comment, because I'd have to delete it. :) OK, moving on... We were abl

Hey, y'all! :) Well, this update will probably be longer than the first one...it's hard to believe we've only been here one week! So many adventures in so little time... So, we'll start with the "birthday party under the bridge" that was on Sunday : First you have to remember that everyone there (except the three of us "senoritas") was high on glue. We took the cake...which we had made...which was a whole 'nother adventure (I'll tell the story of that in a minute :) ) So, it wasn't really much of anything compared to our cakes stateside, but THEY thought it was pretty cool. So we sat on their beds under the bridge and they set up their little "table" (which was some kind of metal container turned upside down). They were so cute...they spread a sort of tapestry hanging or blanket over it like a "table cloth". They sang happy birthday...in Spanish and then English, multiple times because it took them a little bit to find

So, now that we've been home about a week... :P Sorry I didn't get any updates posted! I've decided to just go back and post the e-mails I sent out while in Bolivia. So, if you got the e-mails: you've already seen all this, sorry! Hola, everyone! This is just going to be a very quick update because I only have a few minutes... :) So far, it's been crazy. The trip here was pretty uneventful, apart from a few moments of panic in La Paz when, first of all, they wouldn't take two of my twenty dollar bills for the visa because they were torn. Amber had already gone through and was getting our bags; I could see her, but she couldn't see me, the dude didn't speak English...I was pretty much freaked until I finally managed to yell Amber's name loud enough for her to hear me and she came over and had two new, fresh bills to give him. :P THEN we weren't sure we were going to make it to our gate in time; we did, barely. :) Jennifer (the founder and director

Well...since it's been pretty much forever since I really blogged, and I'm getting ready to leave the country, I thought maybe I should at least try to post a quick update on life. (Besides...it's right here on my to-do list: "blog" :D ) So first, a quick recap summary of the AMAZING summer I had at House of Faith! It was a summer of growing, stretching, being challenged, walking and working outside my comfort zone, learning more and more and more of God, getting to know and love some precious kiddos, working with some of the most wonderful people on earth, developing friendships and loving life! It would be absolutely impossible to do a "typical day in the life of a House of Faith 2010 summer intern" because every day was a new day and just a bit different. And "House of Faith" and "typical" (or synonyms such as "normal" and "usual") do NOT belong in the same sentence! House of Faith is anything but typical. That

Walking down a beautiful path. :)

Brief recap of a crazy week at House of Faith...Sports camp prep, swim party, IHOP short stack attack...and the beginning of a prank war!

so...I wanted to get this posted Saturday night, but I couldn't get it finished in time. So, here it is. And now that I (kind of) know what I'm doing, hopefully I'll get them done faster. :)

Life has been crazy. Busy. Slightly out of control. And I love it. :) It's hard to believe it's already the end of May! This year is nearly half over...unbelieveable! I've already dubbed this "the year outside my comfort zone." :) The first couple of months were spent actually looking for a job, which I've actually never done before. It's never really mattered, but this year is different because in October I'm going to Bolivia with Amber (another thing outside my comfort zone...) and that takes money. Which means I needed to work. :) Just when I was starting to get really frustrated and really struggling with trusting God to work everything out...He worked everything out better than I could have dreamed! :) I "nannied" for 5 weeks...which, despite my extensive babysitting experience, was still slightly different from anything I've done before--babysitting Monday through Friday, 8-5--I loved it! And I totally miss those kiddos (they were

I've decided to start posting a review of all the books I read...not so much because I think any one "out there" will be interested (though I do love to share the good books I read with everyone !), but because I think it will help me better assimilate what I learn from these books... When Dreams Come True by Eric and Leslie Ludy ( Click here to buy the book ) I got this book for my birthday. And I read it straight through in one "sitting"...from about midnight to about 5 am. *sheepish grin* And yes, that is a clue of how good this book is! I had to pause a few times and remind myself that this was real life , a true story ...it's WAY better than a fairy tale! As the "tag line" says, it's a love story only God could write . This is the story of Eric and Leslie Ludy; from childhoods rooted in faith through turbulent adolescent years as they each wandered from the Godly path through being drawn back into faithfulness to a faithful God--and eventu

Wow...it's been over 2 months since I blogged?! Inconceivable ! Or maybe it's just inexcuseable... *shrug* Anyway, I'll try to do better! :) Soo...life has been crazy, and I have about 2 weeks reprieve before it gets even crazier. Hopefully sometime in the next 2 weeks, I'll blog about what has been and will be so crazy! But today, I'm going to blog about-- my birthday. :) I turned 24 on Sunday, May 16. It just seems strange to be "so old"; like I should be mature and grown-up or something. But I'm still just me...trying to be like Jesus...and having a lot of fun along the way! :) I got some *really cool* stuff for my birthday, and of course I wanted to show it all to all of you! (maybe the imaginary "you"s that I think are reading my blog...? :) ) Puppets! :) The dog came with the name Scruffers, which is almost as cute as he is, but since I kinda want to be able to use him as a vent (ventriloquism) puppet, that name doesn't work (&quo

If "God is light and there is no darkness in Him" (1 John 1:5) and I am called to "be holy as He is holy" (1 Peter 1:15-16), why am I not even trying?! Why do I excuse darkness in my life? It has no place here! I belong to the One who *is* Light, there is no room for darkness in my existence. I want to live a life in which *every part* is flooded with God's light. I want to be so caught up in my amazing God that there is no time to get caught up in things that are not of Him, however "good" they may be. But how do I get there? By choosing. Constantly, consciously, intentionally making the choice to focus on the Lord. Who will I feed- the hungry cub of desire for the Lord that longs to grow into a lion, or the roaring lion of "the lust of the flesh", so closely tied to another roaring lion that seeks to kill, steal and destroy? Every moment of every day is a choice. Light or darkness? Spirit or flesh? God or the world? Life or death?

Yep, you read right. There is, currently, at this moment, snow on the ground in San Angelo, Texas! And there was a whole troop of very happy Miller kids out there enjoying it earlier. :) It isn't much; just an inch or two. But schools are out for the day (only in West Texas....) and it seemed like kids were coming out of the woodwork in the neighboring houses to build snowmen and play in the snow this morning/afternoon. Crazy how we've lived here for 2 months and we didn't even know any kids lived in those houses. :P We had a fun, slighly violent snowball fight (I have a bit of a headache from taking a hard-packed snowball right smack in the face) that started out with girls against boys and ended pretty much every man for himself. Rather than building a snowman, we built forts for the fight...which were promptly obliberated in the war. But it was all so much fun! Then we all trooped inside to make and devour some snow ice cream. If you've never had it/made it, you shou

OK, so after a month of not blogging (sorry, y'all!), I thought I would share our Valentine's Day with everyone. Because y'all so care, right?! ;) My parents are in San Antonio this weekend so my mom can study for her NARM test (to be a licensed midwife) that takes place on Wednesday. So...this afternoon, Amber and I got this text from Daddy: Oh me, oh my--what can we say? We didn't forget it's Valentine's Day! We thought we would celebrate the digital way! So gather together, do not dismay. Text us back when you're all ready to play. So we all got together and replied: Gathered in the living room Awaiting our impending doom. ;) And this was the next text: The clues will come one at a time To get the next one, you have to rhyme. So turn on your brains, get ready to look It's DIGITAL V-day, so go check _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _! So we all went rushing to Facebook . Sure enough, Momma's status update said: ( See it here ) Robert & Kelly are playing a Valenti

This was a Christmas present...perfect, huh? ;)

*I have been working on this post for quite some time; I originally wanted to post it at midnight, January 1st; I just couldn't quite seem to get it right! :P* There is a song that we sang several times in our church in Springtown; I think it's called "Open Up the Skies". The chorus says, " We won't be satisfied with anything ordinary; we won't be satisfied at all! Open up the sky; pour down like rain; we don't want blessings, we want You! Open up the sky; fall down like fire; we don't want anything but You! " That little chorus is my heart's cry these days. Who wants ordinary? Not me! I want God and Him alone! "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." --Helen Keller As I've been reading (or re-reading) biographies of Christians who have made a difference just over the last century, I find a common thread. They were all completely devoted to Christ, didn't care what others thought or did, but simply enjoyed the a