Down to one week...

Exactly one week from tomorrow, I'll be driving to Dubuque, IA, with a car full of most of my worldly possessions.

I should be running around like a crazy woman...shouldn't I? Instead I've been doing weird things. Like embroidering a square for a dear friend's friendship wedding quilt, or sitting watching old Disney movies with my little brothers and sister, or showing them fun youtube videos, or hanging out online with old friends, or dancing till midnight with some of the coolest people in the world, or lounging around talking to my mom, or cooking meals for my family, or talking on the phone to my campers, or writing letters to other campers.

Did I just type all that? None of it has anything to do with school. Or moving. Or maybe...it does.

21 years of being with the people I've grown to love more than anyone else in the world...and I'm leaving them. Who knows what will transpire between now and when I return...and if I'll ever live at home again. The kids are all gonna grow taller, and cuter, and wiser. My sisters are gonna keep growing into godly young women. And I'm moving on.

It's weird...

...but it's exciting, too.

It's an adventure! God is leading me on. He's holding my hand, just like He's been doing for the past 16 years since I first grasped it in trust. He is showing me where to go. He is loving me to Himself.

It's a whole new life...and yet it's the same. The same God is with me, and always will be. "It is because of thy mercies we are not consumed...they are new every morning..." God's mercies may be new every morning, but HE is always the same.

Ever been about to do something big and then wonder, "WHAT am I doing?" I thought of that last night as I lay in bed. "Lord, am I really supposed to be doing this? Is this really where you want me to go?" My mind felt blank for a second.

Then I looked up at my empty bookshelf and bare walls where pictures used to hang, and the stacks of boxes, and then out at the black sky and thought, "Well, it's too late to turn back now!"

I'm not really sure where I'm headed, but I do know that the Lord has opened every door and pointed me certainly in this direction.

Today as I visited with a dear elderly friend, she told me this, "If the Lord has made a way for you to get to college, He'll make a way for you to stay in college."

Yeah. He will. He'll keep on being faithful, even when I wonder or worry. He will make a way through even the darkest plaaces. When I feel alone, He'll still be there. When I have needs, He'll provide. When I fear, He'll comfort. When I'm satisfied, He'll remind me that He's the one who has filled me. When I'm happy, He'll smile with me.

I am His. And I'm looking forward to the journey with Him.