Bringing In the New Year!

Yesterday I went over to the Born's house for a New Years Party and it was amazing. We played Apples to Apples, Spoons, Dutch Blitz, and Fantan. Christa and I sat around for a really long time and just talked about what God was doing in our lives, which was awesome. Quote of the week; "You can't use mans power to accomplish God's work. It doesn't work." We played Apples to Apples, Spoons, Dutch Blitz, and Fantan. After staying up until well after 4 a.m., we finally decided that it was time to get to bed. I was staying over at the Born's, so we all went upstairs and changed into our PJs before heading to bed. I woke up the next morning (well, technically it was the same morning) at around 11. Seeing that Claire was gone, but that Jenny and Hannah were still asleep, I quietly went downstairs, where I found Claire and Mrs. Born watching TV. We sat together until pretty much everyone got up and the house started moving. John's older brother came over with his wife and 3 kids, Ellie, Ezra, and Kaleb. I colored with Ellie for a little while before going into the kitchen to hang with Jeff, Hannah, Claire, Jenny, Hannah, Mrs. Born and Patrick and his wife. After the kids left, I went upstairs to get my things packed and get ready for Sara to pick me up. She came and we took pictures and chatted for a few minutes before heading to the Justice house for some food and fellowship with them before Josh had to go back to Verity. When we got there, we greeted Mr. and Mrs. Justice, Josh, Micah, Evan, and Josh & Micah's grandparents. It was good to see them all again, and as I have not been to their house in a while, the visit was long overdue. We had a great time playing Dutch Blitz (and losing rather terribly to Josh, our reigning champion) and we talked about some deep stuff too :) I realized the importance of journaling in my life as a record of where I've been and where I'm going. It's a way to get down who I am and who God is shaping me to be. The pages of my journal are my "soul-catchers". Which is actually a phrase I came up with while at Josh's house this afternoon. Ahh, life is good right now.

~Rachel