Good days with Friends in Chicago!

  Gretchen and I in Chicago!  

My great friend Bobbie in Chicago..

My Roomie Michelle and I 

  

..The Long Road Home

..Took the long Road Home, back to where it all started.  Going back to the past, back to the arms of some of my best friends and loved family.  Packing up and leaving Chicago was terribly hard, I suppose this was because I knew I was saying goodbye to a season in my life.  A season that was filled with joy, tears, pain, love and loss.  God used these things to shape my heart.  My first semester was beautiful- walking to Lakeshore, running in the first snow-flakes of winter, finding random coffee houses- drinking rich coffee and falling in love with Jesus over and over again.  The fall semester was also marked by a relationship that the Lord used to draw me closer to Himself. Although as painful as it is now, I had some incredible times in that season of my life.  I discovered more about myself, about the person God is creating me to be through it.  I learned how to deal with something I never wanted to face; a broken heart.  And it has been a beautiful..and very painful road.  Spent nights feeling so sick inside, restless to the core and screaming out to Jesus in the blizzard like snow.  But I made it ...because of the love of some of the most amazing people in the world and because of my gracious Saviour.  I woke up some mornings filled with a unexplainable joy that God brought to my heart.  I grew in love, grace and forgiveness.  I grew, I grew, I grew.  From the outside, it looked like a mess- and it was, yet it was the very hand of God that brought it.  

The second semester Gretchen, one of my best friends from back home, came and visited me.  Her visit brought me great joy.  This semester brought colder weather..and more fear than I knew how to deal with.  But God rushed into me like a river rushes into the sea and eased my fears.  I grew in friendship with my roommate, and with an amazing women named Bobbie.  These two relationships quickly became treasures.  I spent nights with new friends..Kathleen, Ben, Zach, Dylan and Bobbie.  Winter slowly turned into Spring and the snow melted away past days of the previous semester.  My aunt came and visited me in April, and I spent all my time with her.  Her coming was a gift from the Lord. 

May came in like a violent storm...finals approaching and dealing with more painful relationship stuff.  It all ended leaving me with a sad heart.  I was exhausted when I drove out of Chicago.  Went straight to sleep at my uncles house in a suburb of Chicago and headed for Nashville in the morning.  In Nashville I slept deeply, and  spent time with my best friend of eleven years and my aunt.  Two people that I love more than anything in this world.  Now I'm home with parents.  Looking forward to alot of time with Jesus..resting, healing and becoming more like the Son.  As you can see...it has been a long road home.  Summer has come, and it will go quicker than it came.  But for now, my heart is recovering...