Carried.

            Warning: the coherency of this post could be off. Despite the fact that I, for the first time in 3 weeks, got 9 hours of sleep last night, I am still a little tired college girl waiting for my laundry to be done on the big blue couch in our apartment’s living room. Last time I wrote I was still immersed in the short days and long nights of the sweet sweet summer. But now, as you probably have assumed, I am back to my becoming-more-like-home-home in good ol’ Newport News, VA, and ain’t it sweet.

            I can’t get over this summer. How much of a blessing it was, the sweet trips God planned for me to take, and the lessons he planned for me to learn on the way. It was just… such a gift. It’s hard for me to even fathom that I got to experience such an extended time of pure sweetness. Everything was just so perfectly timed, but duh- He does that for me every day. I love that He wanted me right where I was and He could teach me and give me so much in every place I got to go. It just makes me want to fist-pump just thinking about it. I love that I would become so at peace about moving onto the next thing this summer. I love that plans fell into place like a puzzle, trips just missing overlapping by a day in-between. And I love knowing that if it had been up to me, I couldn’t have dared planned a summer so perfect and giving, and clearly my four months away from home were planned by the ultimate planner. And clearly, He carried me through those times so I could fix my eyes above and not in front, to clearly see the beauty of the now.

            So, summer ended. And that is never a very happy thing to say. But this time, for once, I was ready. Weird, me, the homebody girl ready to leave home? I mean, of course I wasn’t ready to leave my parents- or my cat- but I was ready for the next one, a theme of my summer, and hopefully my life. Being one of the last ones to leave made leaving not as hard. And although my heartstrings pulled tight when saying goodbye to the people I spent the most time with, I knew that I would be able to pick up those friendships right where I left them when we returned once again. Anyways, I packed up and shipped off, and the butterflies and sleepless night before I leave sleep didn’t happen, which told me that I never need to be anxious about anything because He’ll carry me along no matter what.

            I filled my walls with pictures of those people I wont see for a while and those I see everyday. With verses that carry me through the day and with snippets of my life. Most of the pictures are from my summer and last year, so when the memories of those times get rusty in my head, the pictures will still be as bright as the day I took them. I like looking at the people I love most whenever I’m in there, a constant reminder of His unending and unfailing blessings and promises in my life. We got the rest of our apartment situated and figured out and were finally settled when Irene came crashing down.

            By crashing down I mean crashing my Internet with the CNUalerts and weather reports and emails about the potential monster coming our way. So, as they should’ve, CNU evacuated school for a few days and before the night was over, I was out of there. The sense of adventure in me (not known for my adventurous side so I don’t know what got into me!) kicked in as the feeling of angst that I wouldn’t get to be at my school for the first weekend faded. And boy, was it an adventure. With a 24 hour time period of some of the craziest times, including a huge dance party resulting in a potential ankle breaking of a friend, I cant even recap or tell the stories without hurting myself laughing. I just know God was up there laughing, too, knowing how we were going to all tell the stories from that weekend for years to come. And as the storm grew closer, the southern-coast girl in me got anxious and fleeted home from adventure, to be in the safe abode of my northern Virginia home. And of course, my friends tagged along, to add onto the stories and brave out the hurricane that was actually only a thunderstorm in NoVA with me. As much as I hated to leave this place a week after I got here, I needed that hurricane break. I needed a crazy 24 hours with copious amounts of stories and laughs. And I needed to go back home, to be able to rest and to be reminded that it was okay to leave. So, despite my initial angst and worries about leaving NN a week after I got there, He carried me all across Virginia to put me right where I needed to be when I needed to be there to fully soak in His glorious plan.

            School is back in full swing, now. Not only my school work, but now Tabb is back in session, meaning my schedule just filled up and I get to go back to doing what I love- getting to be in high school girls lives. And what a privilege that is. My classes are great and my schedule is fitting after many hours of contemplation and rearranging during that blessing of add-drop time. Where I live? Oh, it’s the best. I’m in an apartment with some of my closest girl friends and on a hall with a lot of my closest friends here. It’s a great place to be, where I can both pour out and be filled up- come to find fun and come to find rest. It’s been such a blessing for the few weeks I’ve been here, I can only imagine the gift that it will have been by the end.

            And now I am finally here for good, hopefully not being evacuated. My biggest concern these past few weeks have been that I may get in a valley here at school after my spiritual mountaintops this summer. That I may end up in a dry spell or a stagnant time in my faith after such a high. And in that worry? Well, duh, He spoke truth. I had to step back to realize how He will carry me in my valleys if He has me in valleys. And He will carry me on the mountaintops when I’m on mountaintops. And He’ll carry me in the in-between, because that’s what He does. It’s His job, His salary- my life, His hours- 24/7, baby, and ain’t that sweet! All He wants is for me to follow in His footsteps and let Him carry me- that sometimes is the hardest part. But, I’m being carried whether I know it at the time or not, and the fact that God knows my heart, anyone’s heart, isn’t buff enough to carry the world on it, that’s comfort right there. No matter where this year is going to take me, what swerves or turns I will encounter in my path, what mountains and what valleys, I am most definitely not doing it alone. I’m carried by the Creator of the stars and the moon, and pushed along by the people He has provided for me along the way. And, incase you were wondering, the view from here, the mountaintop and the shoulders of my Father, it’s a great view; one I never want to lose sight of.