Birthday reflection

I don't have a great memory when it comes to things that have happened in my life but my birthday is one day that I can usually remember what I was doing in the past. Last year my mom, dad, wanda and tori were here-my car broke down, we ate at Le Klepto for dinner and I opened my presents at about 11PM! 4 years ago on this day I had just moved to Belgium from Norway-I had been here maybe 3 days and knew about that same amount of people. 5 years ago I was in Norway. 10 years ago I was living in Atlanta-I had just moved there 2 months before. 15 years ago I was a sophomore in college living in a dorm and 20 years ago I was a freshmen in high school. Wow how time flies and how my life has gone in a direction I literally never dreamed of.

As most of you know every Wednesday morning I meet with a group of high school girls who come over to my place for breakfast and a Bible study. This semester we have been going through the book of Esther. Don't know if you know this or not but the name of God is not ever mentioned in the book. So as we began looking at the book we talked about that fact-that even though His name is not mentioned- His hand is all over the story. He was writing Esther's story from the very beginning. Every week we've talked about that fact that God is also writing our story even if we never audibly hear Him speak.

Yesterday morning we were looking at the 6th chapter and here is what hit me-within the first 4 verses you see God's timing perfectly. If you don't remember the story-look it up-it's amazing!! The king "just happens" to be up, he "just happens" to have read to him the story of Mordecai saving his life and Haman "just happens" to be in the hall when he asks. All of these "just happens" are really God's perfect timing and his plan.

My life-I don't foresee a time when my story is literally written down into a book like Esther's but at the same time my story is being written. I can see God's hand in the timing and direction of things. And though my memory often fails to recollect many of the events in my life I love that at least once I year I can look back and be amazed at how God has moved in my life. It is always an amazing reminder to me of His complete faithfulness. Seriously-as much as I loved the traveling even as a kid I NEVER imagined I would be living in another country, doing the most amazing job anyone could ever imagine, getting to know people from around the globe. I never would have imagined how much God has shown me and grown me and blown my mind away with His awesomeness(wow-sorry about all the rhyming!). This morning as I skipped french-oops! and lay in bed I was just reminded how much God has done in my life and the fact that YES at the time it sometimes hurts but looking back it is always amazing. So here's to another awesome year!

Some highlights of the past year: Cooked thanksgiving dinner by myself for 12 people, went snowboarding in the Alps-1st time, first concert in Belgium-Kelly Clarkson, bought a car all in French, Tenerife Spain, ran in a race with my sister-Trisha, learned how to wakeboard, Macedonia-2nd time, Spain-lots of it including Madrid and Barcelona, the shore with my family, working at Crooked Creek Ranch in Colorado, meeting Kate-my sweet friend Amybeth's-new baby girl from China. There are so many more!!!

Birthday celebrations begin

So Thursday is my birthday-woop woop!!:) My mom and my oldest sister Wanda both sent messages recently that I should be on the lookout for packages from them and that I should let them know when they get here-there's always some concern when crossing an ocean. Well my landlords-who are amazing! usually answer for any packages I get and then they put them on a shelf in the hallway. So for the last few days I have rounded the corner of the stairs anticipating seeing a package. I have gotten a few cards but so far none of the coveted packages. Today there was one there! Now-normally I would rip open the package and open everything in them but this year I have decided(we'll see how long it actually lasts) that I would leave any wrapped presents wrapped until my actual birthday.

This package was from Wanda-now whenever I describe Wanda's gift giving skills I usually talk in terms like, "She is the BEST gift giver ever," or "Wanda picked out the gift because she is the most creative!" so I knew there was going to be something GREAT in the package. I brought it into my apartment and dumped out the contents. Remember-I had decided that if it was wrapped I wouldn't open it but I also know my family and they tend to cram stuff that is not wrapped into packages:)!!! there were some reece's pieces-yum and candy corn-yeah! even a little plastic cockroach-thanks wanda:) but there was one thing especially eye-catching. Inside of a plastic bag there was a chick-fil-a paper bag. You know the kind your amazing chick- fil-a waffle fries and classic sandwich with extra pickles comes in!? I smiled- knowing my family is well aware of my love for chick-fil-a and knowing that they share it. BUT and here's the interesting part- there was something INSIDE the bag. I had a moment of concern-had Wanda really tried to send a chick-fil-a sandwich in the mail???!!- I would love her for it even if I wouldn't eat it so I opened up the bag with some trepidation and when i looked inside I burst out laughing!! There were probably 10 packets of Heinz Ketchup:) Now if you know me as an adult you may not be aware of this BUT my FIRST LOVE was Heinz Ketchup. As a kid I put it on EVERYTHING-and by everything I mean things like but not limited to: steak, lima beans, green beans, potatoes, mashed potatoes, chicken, bread-and pretty much everything else that made it on my plate. And the best part was-after pretty much every meal I had ketchup on my clothes somewhere! My love of ketchup continues to this day but has been partially replaced by my love of salsa AND I am also much better at keeping it off of my clothes! But Wanda remembers the good ole days and for that I say, "Hats off to you wanda, you truly are the BEST gift giver EVER!!"

Here is the bag and one of the packets of ketchup-the rest are getting put away for a rainy day:)

French Class

So I spend an insane amount of hours each week in French class and you would think that after a year of this I would be able to speak at least a little French-it is not true!

Last year I had an AMAZING teacher-Dominique-

she was lovely in every sense of the word- she was patient, hysterically funny- at least i think so- the fact that I didn't understand a good 70% of what she was saying may have made her funnier.

This year I have a teacher who does not know how to teach. I hate going to class every day and I am holding out because supposedly our regular teacher is on maternity leave and will be back in November-so just 3 more weeks of Brigitte!!

SO my strategy so far is to keep my mouth shut-because not only does Brigitte not know how to teach-she is also not very patient. But sometimes I do get called on and in those cases I hope for the best. Today was a day I could not avoid being called on. SO we were supposed to tell about someone famous. Problem is-we're all from different countries so one person's idea of famous might not be another's. So the first couple of people were speaking of some old French man-still don't know who that was. I decided that when it got close to my turn I needed a bathroom break-in the sincere hope that by the time I got back it would already be past me:) Well I got back just in time- lucky me-and found out they had changed people and now I was to tell about Shakira. Well obviously i know who that is but LITERALLY the ONLY thing I know about her is that she is a singer. And so I told my not so patient teacher that and she told me I could pick anyone. BRAIN FREEZE! I couldn't think of anyone. SO I picked Obama-problem being I know NOTHING about his childhood either. So I decided to make it up:) And said that he had gone to private school-at which point I was corrected by no less that 50% of my class! so then I decided to say he had been the senator for illinois. My teacher said -what?!" I said "illinois" she said "what?" I said the "l'etat illinois" and she said "oh illinois" with a french accent!! Seriously!! since it's an american city you'd think I could at least get that right- but NO!

Viva le francais!!

Autumn is here!

SO fall has officially fallen on Brussels-there for a while it was a little too early(august) for my taste but now that it's actually October I welcome the gorgeous fall colors, crisp air and opportunity to break out all my amazing fall sweaters that I love so dearly(orange being my favorite color makes fall extra special!) I can also neither confirm or deny the fact that Christmas lights are hanging in my living room and Amy Grant's Christmas Album may have gotten played for just a moment-ooops!

So the fall has been exciting and fun and I have been RUBBISH at taking photos to document it! Friday night was homecoming at ISB so there was football to be played and after a gorgeous fall day it started to pour at the exact moment that the football game began. But of course-as a faithful fan I stayed for almost a full half:) I also had plans to go to a ladies night at my friend Fiona's- we chatted and then watched a Jane Austin film-it doesn't get much more girlie than Jane Austin! Here are some pictures from the football game.

After a FULL day of pouring rain-which had started at the beginning of the football game Friday night and continued the whole way through Saturday-Today the sunshine is out so after a bike ride through the forest this morning I decided to go do a little photo shoot around my part of town. I won't bore you with all the pics but here are a few that show the signs of the season!