My Life (As I See It) Part 2

Towards the end of my last post I realized that there is actually a lot more to write
about than I realized! There were so many things that I had to leave out because
getting into them would just take too long, and I think that will definitely be the case
writing about these next few years. Here goes part two of…well, however many parts
this takes!

I remember the day I turned 11 very well. I was going to my best friend’s house to spend
the day, and as we drove up to their house all her siblings came running out yelling
that her poor goat had just died and please don’t come look! That day was full of fun,
but I had no clue what was really going on. Apparently a suprise birthday party had been
planned, but in keeping with my tradition of always finding out, it ended up not so much
as suprise. That year was filled with everything that was great about being a kid but
still growing up. Developing friendships, lazy summer days, and spitting watermelon seeds.

Me and Stephen with our grandparents circa 1998

During that summer though we received the sudden news that my Grandma (my mom’s mom) had died. It was completely unexpected and was very hard for me personally. She was a beautiful, kind person, and I loved her so much! (many more posts to come on that subject).

Basically 12 was just boring. My family and I can’t remember much of anything that happened (significantly that is) during that year. 12 was a significant year because that was my first time traveling to one of the most beautiful places on the planet…Texas. *Sigh* Texas is amazing.My best friend did get saved when we were twelve, so that was a great time! My Pappa got cancer during that year, and so my mom was gone a lot meaning I did a lot of growing up fast! Cooking, cleaning, and running a household.

My mom came home for my 13th birthday, but on my actual birthday we received the news my Pappa was doing a lot worse, so she made plans to leave Saturday morning before my birthday party. Thursday (my birthday) was filled with so many tears, and a ruined cake on top of everything! Saturday morning my mom came down with the stomach virus and couldn’t fly out. My 13th birthday (THE big birthday) party
was…well…to put it well, a flop. It was boring, no one talked, we all just sat around drinking lemonade. Woohoo. We left Sunday afternoon after getting a call from the family saying to come immediately. According to God’s perfect plan ( “his ways are not our ways…”) our car died two hours from the hospital, stranding us just far enough away to miss that final goodbye. I will never know why God chose to do that, but it was a peaceful time, when God’s presence was incredibly real to me. When I was 13 I made a commitment to God regarding my future life partner (more to come on that subject), and went to my first Prayer Advance. Oddly enough I met some people from a church that I would later join, but at the time it was a state away.

14 was my absolute favorite year. For my 14th birthday I got to do something I always wanted to do. See a real life dolphin up close. I actually got to pet it, feed it slimy dead fish (ew), and get a picture with it. It was a beautiful rainy day, and the park was practically deserted so we had the time of our lives! When I was 14 I also had the opportunity to start working with 5th and 6th grade girls, and found out I absolutely love it! They were so much fun and I came away with many “little sisters.” That summer I attended camp, but I went kicking and screaming (not literally). I didn’t really have a choice because my entire family was going and I couldn’t very well stay home all alone. Camp was…an experience. That is a whole series just by itself. Seriously. My loving best friend (knowing how shy I was) sent me a package on the LAST day of camp, meaning I had to sing a solo in front of the ENTIRE CAMP. She loved me that much. So much she only put pretzels in the package! (But I love pretzels so it was forgivable). That summer I sang a solo at the prayer advance with our youth choir (again oddly enough people from my new church have no memories of this event. That could be good or bad!) After that we (my family) took the longest vacation we had ever taken and went out West for 3 weeks. Highlights of the trip were going to Mexico, revisiting Texas (sigh), falling in love with San Diego, California, and making home movies in the car with my amazing brother.

To be continued…