My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less...Than Getting My MRS?

So this weekend, Janine Jordaan and I went on a fun little expedition to Boone, Iowa. Fun little trip I must say. It was quite eventful if I do say so myself. 


It began well with my car starting on it's own, and not needing Dodge to jump it! We left a few minutes late, but were in high spirits. Pretty uneventful ride just chatting it up about life, boys, school, and summer. Pretty typical ride. We stopped at a slightly ghetto K-Mart for Little Caesars PIzza where we looked kinda stupid and had a nice awkward experience with the lady.  We asked for a pepperoni pizza. She replied, "No. Come back in 10 years when I'm dead." (Jordaan and I stared at her and each other confused like as i muttered a please?) Somehow we got out of that situation and got our pizza and were back on the road! 


We ate our pizza, and I called Sandy to see where she was and when she was leaving. She was lost. And frustrated. Very frustrated. We finally decided to meet her at a Casey's on HW 30, but somehow we missed each other. (We think it was because we had already passed it before we decided to meet there, but who knows) So, we didn't find her. We stopped at another Casey's and waited 20 min for her to drive back to us. But we were FINALLY united with Sandy. 


We drove about 20 minutes to the YMCA where we grabbed all our stuff and headed in. We came to the front desk, and happily said we were here for the women's retreat. And we got a blank stare back. She had no idea what we were talking about. So, she went to the back room and got us some nice info that this retreat was at the Y camp. Not the YMCA. So, we picked up all our stuff and headed back out to the car with an address to the Y camp. We plugged it into the GPS and hit Go! 


So, back out on the road, no more than two minutes goes by, and we're about to go over rail road tracks. I look left out of instinct, and theres a train coming at us. Holy Cow. I was kinda worried because the lights weren't going off, and the little arm thing was up...not that it was close to hitting us, but it wasn't too far off. 


Anyway, we drive and drive and we get to a gravel road (which i HATE) and it was a windy (said Wine-dy) one let me tell you. So we FINALLY reach the Y camp and see people that are girls! yay! we take all our stuff in again, only to be told we should go put it in the cabin. So we did. 


Anyway, despite our adventures getting there, it was awesome. 


The theme was 'You're true identity' and we had an amazing speaker who in no time had captured my heart. She spoke of her own life and how each journey had given her a new perspective of her true identity. She had a disorder in her vocal chords that enabled her from talking fluently, but after about ten minutes of it, I didn't care anymore. I was just listening to a sweet old lady tell about her life. 


Anyway, we spent the night listening to her, but then when she was done, we had food and mod-poge to conquer. We made some Shaweet notebooks and talked until we were too tired to do anything else. We went to our cabin and I talked to Sarah about life as we fell asleep next to each other.


In the morning, we had an AMAZING breakfast and some time alone with God before our first speaker, which for me, turned into a talk with Sandy, but it was good. We talked about Biblical things and struggles in our lives. We began the day with some praise singing. Now this is one thing that kinda took me by surprise.


I haven't really ever sang with just girls before. It's kinda strange to have no male lower voices present in the mixup. But, it was beautiful. A chorus of girls singing to God the song Satisfied by Idk who. 


Heres the chorus:
Hallelujah! He has found me; 
the one my soul so long has craved.
Jesus satisfies all my longings;
through His blood I now am saved.


It was super good and super awesome to worship beside only girls where there were no boys to be distracting. 


Anyway, during the day we ended up sewing pillow cases, getting a Mary-Kay makeover, eating an amazing lunch, and going to the MRS degree talk.


It was spectacular. I learned a lot. 


The MRS degree speaker really put some good overlooked principles on the table for me to think about. Sometimes, it stinks being a girl. And I know I have a lot to work on with patience and my interactions. 


But I know that God is all I need. His love is all I need. And I never need to doubt it.