Broken Down...

...but trusting God.

My stomach hurt so much last night. I couldn't even leave the student center to come back to my room. I had fun at AWANA, but I always seem to get sick there.

I woke up to study for OT. I sat in the home schooled section in the cafeteria. Chapel was amazing. A man who was jailed only 7 years previous more numerous drug charges is now a Bible faculty member at Moody. He is also HIV +. He shared his testimony and how his mother prayed for him every day. It was amazing. I loved loved loved chapel. OT went well I think. I know I missed at least one question, but hopefully that was it. I had a great time in Lit. The teacher asked what phrases we were sick of and I promptly raised my hand hand blurted out "holy cow!" "brilliant" followed by a "just kidding!" The teacher was just like...I didn't see that one coming, that hurts, let me change your name...*walks over to computer* let's see...grace, grace" hahaha. He took it well I hope. Everyone seemed to think it was really funny.
I went back to my room and worked on my cousin's scrapbook page for her birthday. That reminds me, today IS her birthday. I need to call her.
C and I lifted at 4.
I accidently stood a friend up for dinner because I thought we were meeting at 5:30 but really we were meeting at 5:30, which I showed up 7 minutes late for that anyway. I really wanted to talk to her, and I feel really bad because she is the sweetest nicest girl ever. I also had a super cool God story to share with her:
A lady from my church randomly sent me an email yesterday. It said something to the effect of "grace, how are you? how is school? I've been thinking about you a lot lately. Hope you're doing well etc." Well, I wrote the lady back right away, and as I have no secrets, I just let her know that I was doing better. I told her the week my family fell apart was also the worst week of academia. Well... let me do a copy paste trick here.
Hi Grace:

Just thinking about you :) How are classes going for you? I pray
for you. I didn't get to even visit with you when you were here this
summer. I trust you had a good summer with the puppet team.

We have had some winter weather. One day last week we had rain,
sleet, snow and ice. That was enough winter for me. Something
tells me that is not the end of it, however. ha

I need to get back to work, but thought I'd just take a minute to say
"Hi". Have a good day.
Will we see you Thanksgiving? :)

My reply:
Hello!!!
Thank you thank you thank you for writing to me! Classes are going well I think. My favorite class is Anatomy and Physiology. We had an extremely difficult exam two weeks ago. I think I can handle anything after taking that test. It was during that week that everything fell apart at home. However, I grew considerably in my walk with God. Even though it was the hardest week of my life, I really learned what it feels like to depend completely on God's providence. With all that behind me, I am just trying to get ahead so I can enjoy Thanksgiving break. I am actually going to Florida with my brother Kurt. We're staying with our cousins in Orlando. I'm really excited for warmer weather but I shouldn't complain because it hasn't been that bad here. Last Friday it was 61 degrees and snow didn't hit until Sunday. It is bitter cold outside now; the kind that makes microwave meals tasty. I have to go outside again because I work with AWANA kids on Wednesday.
I hope your days goes well also. Thanks for the note. Perhaps we can visit over Christmas break. I'll see you then!

Her reply:
Thanks for the reply. I was really praying for you that particular week. I now know why --- besides the difficulties at home, you were having tests. You are so right -- some times God takes us thru the valley to grow in our walk with Him --- or to lean more on Him.

*sigh* Isn't it amazing to have a God who cares about you so much? He orchestrates every circumstance in our lives and will never let us down. You know when people share stories about how God laid on their heart to pray for someone in the middle of the night, or do some random act of kindness for someone? Well, I always wanted to be a girl who God would wake up in the middle of the night to pray.... I never expected to be the person that someone else was praying for! I'm just humbled and overwhelmed by this great amazing God that we serve. I am glad I went through that week. The timing was awful, it was super hard, but God knew what was going on. I was so desperate that week. It was a sweet experience to have nothing else matter but your relationship with God. I woke up crying to Him and I went to bed crying to Him. I learned to live with no dependance on myself. It was sweet, bittersweet because of my Dad, but sweet time with my heavenly Father.

My roomie had a super rough day yesterday, but she handled it with more grace and tact than anyone else would have. She still had her teary moments though, and understandably so. We prayed long prayers for each other before we went to sleep last night.

I really want to skip chapel because I felt soo sick last night and this morning, but I looked it on online and Chapel looks sweet today. I don't know what I'll do. Probably I'll skip. I'm going to the blood structure and function today. I'm really looking forward to it. If I could go back and change anything, I'd major in Biology. It's so fascinating!