Memories & Now

    

     Today I am remembering. Remembering so many days full of laughs, and attitudes. Days with my kids that would literally keep me alive some weeks. Hard days looked like tears and loud voices, maybe even having to lay under the table just to get on the same level. Good days looked like a planner with no marks and a good grade on a spelling test. But maybe it was also just learning how to share and keep our hands to ourselves.

 

     I never knew what kind of day it would be until I saw them coming up the hill out of their portables and into the vans. High fives and hugs or an argument about wanting to go home instead of Academy, that was always the anticipation on Mondays and Thursdays. Small victories are like the Olympics around there.

 

     Today I won't be there. I won't be there all semester. And it sucks. Not as much as it did before because I've learned. And they have grown up and learned to that I can't always be there. But what I can do is love. Love them from wherever I am, always. And I can only hope that I did enough to prove them that.

 

I can't wait to see them.

     Right now I have been pretty much stuck in the bubble of Johnson U. I've left campus several times for Boomsday, church, and the all important Wal - Mart runs, but I haven't been to the city yet. In my Encountering Cultures class there have been numerous organizations similar to Urban Impact speak and recruit volunteers. I.AM.SO.FREAKING.EXCITED. I was wired to serve, and to love. So being stuck in limbo and trying to balance out my new normal in school has made that a little hard. I am stir crazy. Western Heights and Montgomery Village are two neighborhoods that have really stuck out the last three weeks and I signed up to work at Emerald Youth Foundation for our campus wide service day next week. It's like serve the city for all my Lexington friends. Praise God! I couldn't be more excited to get out into the community.

     I am doing my best not to get stuck in the past and where I'm not. Focusing on what I have learned and am learning to use it now in the present, to make an impact in Knoxville. It is a beautiful city just waiting to be loved. I get sad when I look at pictures or think of my kids and how I won't get to hug them all the time. But what I can get excited about is developing relationships here with the kids and the community of Knoxville. "GO and make disciples." Not "stay where you are comfortable."

     I am excited for what the future holds, because if it's half as good as all these memories then shoo I'm in for a wild ride!