A New Chapter Unfolds

Hello everybody, and Sunday greetings from the rainy (soon to turn snowy) north. I have enjoyed my Sunday afternoon - napping for several hours while the rain poured down....ahh....now chili is cooking on the stove, and I am going to attempt to sit here and write a blog and catch you up on some big changes that are upcoming. I will try to keep this post from being too long, but I hope you'll read it and enjoy the update of what is happening.

This upcoming week will mark the 2 year "anniversary" of when my husband left, with the explanation that he didn't want to be married anymore. When I think about the fact that two years have passed and remember back to those early days and then see where God has brought me two years later....well, there really aren't words to describe my gratitude and awe. When Jesus began His ministry on earth, He said, among other things, that He had come to bind up the brokenhearted. I've known the faithfulness of God throughout my life, and now I know it in this - He binds up the brokenhearted in ways we can't comprehend.

When Jeff left, I knew that God was faithful, and I knew I had hope in Him, but when you're in the midst of the darkest days, you just simply can't imagine being on the other side. You know it has to somehow be possible and that God is capable of healing, but you just can't fathom being there. And yet, two years later, I feel awake and alive again - that all my senses are again engaged in life, and I'm excited about the present and have hope for the future. That is a miracle that God alone is responsible for.

When everything happened and I had the opportunity to come to Boston with my brother, I knew it was what I needed to do. And even though I made the decision, it was almost like I woke up one day and was here. God has used my time here to heal and restore and redeem, and I have loved everything about being here (well except for maybe the cold lasting so long!!). But now that I am at a place in life where I do feel awake again and like I can make decisions about what is next, I have been contemplating a lot of things - is this where I want to settle long term? What do I want to do in life? What have I been made for?

When I did move, people asked me how long I would be here for, and I always said I didn't know - I'd be here until it was time to not be here. All of this leads me to this announcement: When our lease is up at the end of June, I am going to be moving. Where you might ask? Well....I am going to be moving to Orlando! Nikki and I are going to be roommates, we are going to live close to Jenn & her husband, and I hope to find a job that allows me to utilize some of the creative interests I have, as well as working with people. There are some great churches in the area that I will be able to find a place to get plugged into, it will be warm (HOT!), and I'm really excited to be able to share life with my "sisters".

It will be hard to leave this area - it has become home and I love where I live and the people I share life with. It will be weird to leave brother with him only having one year of school left. And sometimes I can't believe I'm willingly choosing to start over again, go to a new place....but I think it's time and I'm ready, and it's something I want to do.

I plan to enjoy every moment I have here between now and when I leave. There are still a lot of details to work out as it gets closer, and I'll certainly keep you posted. I did want to let you know where things stood, as you have all been a part of this journey of healing, and I will be forever grateful for the encouragement, prayers, and support.

So there you go! If you want to come visit us before I leave, feel free! May and early June will be beautiful. Then you can come to Orlando for a visit, and we can all go to Disney World! There will be many more blogs about this I'm sure, but for now, this is a good start. I hope you have a great week, and I love you guys!

Greetings!

Hi everybody! Happy President's Day to you! I have today off, which is AWESOME!! I know that I was just on vacation, but this day off was so needed and came at a great time. I have chores to catch up on - laundry, cleaning, etc., so I am thankful for the extra day. Wouldn't it be awesome if weekends were always 3 days? I think I could get used to that!

Here's a funny picture for you. Ellie has for some reason started trying to get in my lap whenever I sit at the desk to use my computer. It makes it very difficult to get anything done, but I think it's kind of sweet. Here she was just a little while ago...

We've had a lot of sunshine here the last few days, which is helping make the cold temps not quite as bad. I'm definitely ready for spring, but I still have awhile before it'll be here. Things don't really start blooming here until the first of May, which is kind of insane!

I just wanted to say a quick hello and give you a short update. More blogging to come very soon! For now, I'm off to do chores... Have a great week!

A Birthday At Disney

Greetings! I am back home safely in Boston, and I had a fantastic time in Orlando! Look at some of my previous posts to see all of the pictures. I wanted to post some stuff from my actual birthday, which was tons of fun. Disney is running a promotion this year where you get in free on your birthday. When you go to the will call area, they give you a button that says "Happy Birthday" and then they write your name on it. All through the day whenever a Disney employee sees you, they say happy birthday. So I got to hear it all day, and it was cool! (Notice the mouse ears that dot the "i"!)

Being able to spend time with my Mom and my two "sisters" was such a great way to celebrate a birthday, and we had so much fun together.




After a full day of rides and lots of laughs - Nikki, my mom and I rode a roller coaster together and laughed so hard were crying through the ride - we ended the day watching fireworks over the castle.

I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to go to Florida and spend time with family and friends and Mickey and enjoy sunshine and grass....I am excited about being 31 and seeing what God has in store for this upcoming year. Have a great week!

Real Orange Juice

We spent today touring around the Orlando area, enjoying the sunshine and hanging out. We stopped by Jenn's mom's house to pick some juice oranges off the orange tree, juice them, and drink some fresh Florida orange juice. It was AMAZING! Today was absolutely gorgeous - warmer and sunshine and just glorious. I got to wear flip flops, which was fantastic. Here are some pictures from our adventures today.






Tomorrow we'll all be in the Magic Kingdom for my birthday, which will be lots of fun. It's supposed to be a gorgeous day, and I'm sure we'll take lots of fun pictures. I'll post them as soon as I can, which may not be until I get back to Boston. Have a good weekend!

Animal Kingdom

Greetings from Florida! I thought I'd post another blog with pictures from our day yesterday so you could keep up with our progress. As we entered the "Disney compound" yesterday, no one else was driving at the time, so we stopped and took a picture. The day was actually colder than our first day, but the wind wasn't quite as bad, so it wasn't horrible. I wore my puffy to stay warm. We spent a lot of the day at the Animal Kingdom, as you can see below.

Of course, in the Animal Kingdom we have the Tree of Life...

There is also a cool roller coaster called the Everest Expedition, and they created this mountain that the coaster goes in and out of. Here is a picture of that.

We went on a safari while we were there and got to see lots of animals. Here are a couple!


After spending time at the Animal Kingdom, we went back to the Magic Kingdom for a little while. We rode the Haunted Mansion, and one of my favorite parts of that ride is looking at all of the tombstones they have before you get inside. Here is an example...

We also rode the carousel - a timeless classic!


Finally, here is a picture of the castle that I took that I thought looked really cool.

Today, we are taking a break from the parks, and the four of us girls are just going to hang out, see some of the Orlando area and enjoy catching up and being together. Then tomorrow, we'll spend my birthday in the Magic Kingdom! It should be lots of fun. Have a fantastic Friday!

Greetings From Orlando!

Hi everybody! I am safely here in Orlando, and while it's certainly warmer here than it is in Boston, it is quite chilly (cold!) for Florida standards. Before I get to that though, let me show you what I left yesterday in Boston. I still can't believe they let us fly out - thanks for the prayers I would make it out! I heard our flight attendant say she thought we were one of the last flights they let out. This first picture is from inside right before I got on the plane of what it looked like outside.

This next picture is the view from my seat just before we took off. I realize it looks like you can't see anything, but if you look closely, you'll see a line almost in the middle of the picture that separates the white from the gray. That is actually what it looked like from my window. You couldn't see ANYTHING! I have never been that scared to take off, but thankfully we made it just fine.

Back to Orlando. Temps today were about 50 with 25mph winds, so it was quite cool. My mom bought a hooded sweatshirt to get warm, and I got a hat with Mickey on it.


We spent most of today in Epcot, and it was lots of fun!

We rode some great rides, walked around the various countries, ate some yummy food..... Here I am sampling a churro from Mexico!

Here is another picture from the countries - I was testing the British phone booth.

After Epcot, we rode the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom and rode a few rides there. The crowds are very small this time of year, so we never really had to wait much at all. The wait at Space Mountain today was only 5 minutes! It was very cool.

Apparently I have brought the cold weather with me because tonight is supposed to be the coldest night Florida has had this winter. It's supposed to be cold again tomorrow but be in the 60's Friday and the 70's Saturday, so we'll get some nice weather before we head out. I will say it has been awesome to see grass - and flowers! - in February.

We plan to get a good night of sleep and then head out to a couple of parks tomorrow. Nikki arrives tomorrow evening as well, so that will round out our group. I'll keep you updated and post more pictures as I can! Have a splendid evening...

Super Bowl Sunday

Hi everybody! I hope I still have people that read my blog since I have done such a horrible job of updating it lately. I do apologize. I promise there will be many blogs coming soon with lots of fun pictures and information. Before I give you a preview of what's to come, let me tell you about what an amazing weekend this has been so far.

First of all, I went outside without my coat on!!!! Yes, the high temps are only in the mid-30's, but do you understand how warm that feels? Amazing thing number 2 is that I saw a patch of grass this weekend! I haven't seen any grass in probably 2 months, so that was pretty monumental. There are still piles of snow everywhere, as evidenced by the picture below, but it's melted enough in just a few places for grass to appear. It just helps us remember that spring will one day come again.

Another fun thing that has happened this weekend is that Brother gave me Wii Fit for my birthday. He gave it to me early so he could play with it too! It's tons of fun, and it is much cheaper than joining a gym but just as effective. I did a 40 minute workout yesterday, and can I just say that I am SO SORE today! I would be somewhat embarrassed about admitting that, but you would be sore too. I'm going to keep at it though and soon I will be a Buff Midget!

My 31st birthday is this coming Saturday. I have the extreme privilege of getting to fly down to Orlando on Tuesday afternoon to spend the week at Disney World with some of my best friends in the whole world! I am SO EXCITED!!!

Nikki, Jenn and I were inseparable until we all started moving away, but we have the chance (along with MUM!) to spend time together in Orlando this week, sharing some life, some laughs, a birthday celebration with Mickey Mouse, and some sunshine, and I am so looking forward to it. I know I will have many stories to share with you and lots of fun pictures. I'm not entirely sure what sort of Internet access I'll have while down there, so it may be that I have to wait and post stuff once I return, but if I can put updates on the blog while I'm there, I will.

In the meantime, I'd ask that you pray that I will actually be able to fly out of here. My flight is scheduled to leave at 4m on Tuesday, and it looks like there is about a 70% chance so far of a massive snow storm hitting here on that day. Hopefully it'll stay away long enough for me to get out!

Hope you all have a great week, and I'll be in touch soon. Happy Super Bowl watching!