faithful

Happy Earth/Arbor Day. hope you were able to hug a tree sometime this week, because if ever there was a week to do it, this would have been the one.

did you know that it’s been 2 months since I’ve blogged? Did I know that it’s been 2 months since I’ve blogged? glory!

I have spent a significant portion of the last 2 months investing in some of my non-DC relationships. This has taken a toll on my in-DC community, and I am indebted to their grace and understanding as I have bopped all over the eastern states. My travels took me to Buffalo, NY where I reconnected with my dear friend Steph – and we got to celebrate her landmark birthday together! :) A core group of us from freshman year at Messiah (minus Maria) met up at Karen’s house in February and we spent a good time laughing, updating, and reminiscing. I hosted Sheena for Spring Break and saw family on either side of picking her up/dropping her off. I spent a lovely weekend retreating with some dear girlfriends at Roxbury Holiness Camp, and again witnessed the magnificence of shooting stars as we lay in a field huddled in our sleeping bags. I traveled down to South Carolina (dropping off Sarah near Duke) where I laughed and swapped stories with Dottie, Jon & their beautiful twin girls, and then stayed with my lovely cousin Megan and her husband Chris. So many good conversations, so many good memories made!

Even as I have tried to pull back from traveling in April and to focus more on DC, I have still had the privilege of connecting to both sides of my incredible family for Easter (and the added bonus of a bridal shower – woot!). To be able to share stories, laugh with cousins/aunts/uncles/grandparents, sing with each other, glean wisdom and seek advice from my family is an amazing blessing for which I am so thankful.

Along with the traveling and reconnecting, there has also been some significant processing that’s occurred in the last few months. I am thankful to be standing on the other side of some of the harder conversations and testify to God’s great faithfulness – to loving even when it is hard: let us not forget “how to hope, how to laugh, how to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ how to forgive, how to bind up wounds, how to dream, how to cry, how to pray, how to love when it is hard, and how to dare when it is dangerous. . . . Praise be to you, Lord, for life; praise be to you for another chance to live.” (Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace)

here are links to some of the trips I've made recently...
Part 1
Part 2