I'M GOING TO KUWAIT, FOLKS!!!

THE KUWAITI COAST...

MY HOME FOR AT LEAST  THE NEXT 6 MONTHS...

AND THE JOHNS...

WOOHOO!

I leave March 12th.  I'm quite excited!

I'm sorry I haven't been around.  I don't really know what to else to say.  I hope that all is well with u all!  If u want, I should have email over there.  I would love to hear from u!  I love u and miss u all, even though i'm not at all good at showing it! 

Biscuits and gravey?  wwwhhat?

*sticking tongue out and spitting*  Amy says, "Thank you Captain Obvious!"

YAY!  Tea and Coffee in Encinitas...  Good times with the gals! 

I apologize for being a bit behind the times!  This was my Christmas...  It was lovely.

Amy napped, and I looked at her suspiciously while talking on the phone to my mommy.

It was great fun!

Then on New Years Eve at Carly's abode...

Becca and I duked it out at twister.  Alas, she defeated me.

There was dancing, and the New Year came at last!

I'm so pleased I was able to bring the new year in with you all!  I feel so blessed to have you guys in my life!  (I don't say that enough.)  Each of you are so special to me and I love you dearly!  I look forward to fellowshiping, learning, and growing with you all!   

I look back on this year, and it feels as though a tornado has swept through my soul and i remain to view the reckage of my heart.  I know that i am the cause of much of this damage and i don't know where to begin in picking up the pieces.  The darkness that has consumed me is surfacing and i am transparent.  I keep thinking of Romans 1 and how applicable that passage is to me.  I feel like Salvation, Freedom, and Truth are in the distance, but all i see is a haze before me.  The mask is coming off, and this is who i really am and who i am in the midst of overcoming...     

You who never arrived
in my arms, Beloved, who were lost
from the start
I don't even know what songs
would please you. I have given up trying
to recognize you in the surging wave of the next
moment. All the immense
images in me--the far-off, deeply-felt landscape,
cities, towers, and bridges, and un-
suspected turns in the path,
and those powerful lands that were once
pulsing with the life of the gods--
all rise within me to mean
you, who forever elude me.

You, Beloved, who are all
the gardens I have ever gazed at,
longing. An open window
in a country house--, and you almost
stepped out, pensive, to meet me. Streets
                          that I chanced upon,--
you had just walked down them and vanished.
And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors
were still dizzy with your presence and,
                                startled, gave back
my too-sudden image. Who knows? perhaps
                                                the same
bird echoed through both of us
yesterday, separate, in the evening...

rainer maria rilke