Life Unexpected

  I can't believe that Christmas is already over.  Last night, after putting about 1500 miles on our vehicle, traveling to Bel Air, New Jersey, and Maine, we finally crawled into our own beds.  And I am already missing my family!  From baking traditional Czech cookies and breads with my sister Kristen, to playing Monopoly five billion times with my nephews, to dancing with my nieces to Christmas music, to going to the Lancaster City Market with my entire family, to cramming into "Duck Fat" Restaurant in Portland with my mother-in-law (which is a yuppie restaurant according to her!), to hanging out with my extended family in Jersey for a Czech Christmas Eve bash, to watching the Golden Pig come, to putting up the Nativity with my nieces, to building a Rice Krispy Train with my nephews, to sharing around our table Christmas morning all that we are thankful for...we truly did it all and I am more than blessed.  At the end of this vacation, I realized my love for my famil

Last night, I woke up to the sound of my 3 year old niece, Sadie, crying in her bedroom.  She and my sister Kristen, just flew in yesterday for Christmas and are spending the first few days at my house.  Sadie came with very little sleep due to a cold and a fever over the past few days.  Kristen came with less sleep.  So, you can imagine that at 3am, when Sadie was a crying mess who didn't understand why it wasn't time to get up for like the 3rd night in a row, my sister Kristen was at the end of her rope.  I myself was having difficulty sleeping too.  I came out to the living room to attempt to "help," as my exasperated sister attempted to talk my crying niece into going back to bed.  You can imagine it was a fun time! There are a lot of times where I find myself totally inexperienced when it comes to kids.  I guess it is because growing up, I never really baby-sat too much, and now I haven't had a chance yet to parent my own.  Last night, I felt totally helple

It's hard to believe that it is December 6, 2012.  I have tried to approach this Christmas Season differently, not focusing on hoping to get a referral before Christmas (like last Christmas 2011), but really trying to just trust God and see God every day I get up.  This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak at a youth retreat in Pennsylvania.  Ironically, it was held at the very same place that my own youth group holds our retreat.  It was really strange to be there in the cold month of December.  We are used to being there in May, where the warmth of the sunshine is everywhere. Saturday morning we had the opportunity to go on a personal prayer walk.  At first, I was a little hesitant.  It was cold outside!  But nevertheless, I took advantage of the opportunity to have some time to just be still before God.  The Youth Pastor of the group encouraged us to work through a series of reflection questions, moving to a new location for each section.  About half way through, I f