Looking Back On My Year

From the Beginning:

In Monterey:

• After a long struggle of living there for the past 7 months, I finally had friends to rely on.
• Before Wintercamp, I felt like I was living in Ecclesiastes. What was the point for everything? Why was I there? At Wintercamp, I realized that even though I may not see it, God's purpose for my life is bigger than me and I should be content in knowing He's got it under control when I don't understand.
• I traveled to Virginia for Spring Break by myself and had to grow up for a day when my flight from LA to DFW was canceled and I had to figure it out on my own.
• I went to Mexico with my Youth Group where I was blessed by hanging out with Casa de Esperanza, The Mission, and Renos de los ninos; and working with the Calvary College to build their new special needs home.
• I realized that before we moved, that my assessment of my own value to those around me was faulty in more ways than one. I was taught what a true friend was.
• I was overcome with Anxiety as a result of so much instability with change occurring in my life that I could not control. I found it was becoming difficult to breathe. Literally. It came about because I thought that nobody cared to know what was going on in my life and that my story wouldn't be relevant to them. So, I kept it bottled up inside, revealing to no one what was going on, and the stress took over. (A song that helped me through this was written by Tenth Avenue North on their new CD that had just come out at the time called "Any Other Way". It was like the song was written for me. I couldn't believe it) I learned that one of the expressions of love is to tell someone whats going on. Good and Bad.

God decided to change our moving plans at the last minute. No longer were we PCSing to Bahrain, but Virginia instead.

In the Summer:

• We took a road trip from Monterey to Norfolk (Where I drove for about 300 miles total!) and our first stop would be to visit some old friends from Yokota in Las Vegas for a few days. A place where I realized there's soooo much junk out there that I'm glad I've been sheltered from thus far.
• We then left for the Grand Canyon, where mid-roadtrip, we were informed by our Dad (who was still in Monterey) that our moving van, that had left ahead of us, had caught fire and nothing was expected to be salvageable. All at once, we were impacted with the reality that what the Lord blesses you with, he can also take away. And surprisingly, even though we were sad about having nothing other than what we brought with us on this road trip (Which was really unfortunate for Torii and me, because we only brought the things we took to Mexico for the missions trip), we were filled with peace that could only come from the Holy Spirit.
• After our stop at the Grand Canyon, where the beauty of God's creation was incredibly displayed, we headed on to Dallas to meet up with our extended family for a few weeks of summer that was hijacked for my parents by all the follow-up junk with our moving truck. By the end of the trip, we were all waiting for this nightmare to be over and to just start over with our new home in Virginia.
• I grew closer to my cousin, Hannah, this summer. I love her very much (as well as the rest of my cousins!)
• We headed on to Louisiana where we met up with some more friends from Yokota, and then on to Atlanta where we visited the CNN studio and the Cococola factory, and then continued our journey to Norfolk.

In Norfolk:

• I was re-united with some of my best and truest friends :)
• After a couple of months of living elsewhere, and after a long search, we moved to our house in Chesapeake, that we would not be able to have if the fire never happened this summer.
• The Lord allowed me to re-enter public school, even though I had no records/proof of me attending school for the past year and a half.
• I was invited to Young Life by my neighbor, who would become a good friend of mine :)
• I was/am being blessed by the girls I eat lunch at school with. (LUNCH BUNCH! X)
• I turned 17! :D
• I went to Rockbridge with Young Life where we paused for 20 minutes outside under the stars to pray and think, and I ended up using all that 20 minutes to pray for the legacy I want to leave here, in VA. And that God will use me to encourage and be a light to those around me.
• I returned to Rockbrige to be apart of the WorkCrew and serve those who were going to the camp that I had just attended two weeks earlier, and it blessed my socks off! It felt great to be serving again and to have that spiritual emphasis put into a retreat.
• I realized that I need to remain patient when it comes to waiting for the guy that I asked God to pick out for me and his timing is perfect, and that's something I don't want to mess with by attempting to interfere with his will by putting my time and giving my thoughts to someone other than Him.

I had a wonderful Christmas and it felt more like Christmas than it has in a few good years. It wasn't about the presents, even though I did get what I asked for, I would've been perfectly content if I didn't get any presents at all. Right now, I just feel so filled by how much the Lord has blessed me with.

And to top it all off, he answered my prayers with snow :]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Growing Up...

It's always weird when you get to Winterbreak and look back on how things were last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. You see how far you've come, and what's changed in you, and you look back and see what caused those changes. Then, you look ahead, and you might realize, "Holy cow! I only have one more Christmas with my family after this one before I move out!", and you wonder what your Christmas will look like next year. And the year after that. (etc)

When we moved to Virginia, we ended up finding a house right next to one of my best friends, Kyhlea. We also ended up being close-ish to another one of my great friends, Kelsey (who lives about 30 minutes away) In the past week, I drove my siblings + Kyhlea to our church for caroling. Or, at least, I attempted to. If it weren't for faulty directions that led us on a detour that got us lost for about an hour and a half, then we would've made it on time. (I won't name names... Dad...) But it was really odd how calm Kyhlea and I actually were in the situation. We were led on to the freeway and were pretty much in Virginia Beach by the time my mom told us we should turn around. I think we both realized that in this 2 hour road trip, we were growing up. Just the fact that we were at a point in our lives where we could drive each other around in the first place! (I think we will always joke that this was our first road trip together ;] )

A couple of days ago, I had a sleepover with both Kyhlea and Kelsey, and Kelsey had driven to my house BY HERSELF! And it's only going to keep progressing from here! Soon, we we'll all be in college, or have jobs, (or both! haha) and we'll be planning out our days without the approval of our parents! (sooooooo weird!)

Fact of the matter is, we're growing up. We've waited so long, yet it's happening so fast! This time next year, we'll all be spending our last Christmas's with our families as dependents (pardon my military lingo...) and I can't wait to see how much we've grown by looking back to the point that I am at right now, just like I'm looking back to where I was at this moment last year.

God has brought me through a lot. All of us, as a matter of fact. We will face trials this year, but God will bring us through again. It is my prayer that whatever happens, we will grow closer to each other and closer to Him, and that his light will be radiant through us. :)

So, World, Bring it on.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

-Caitlin-