Undeserved Blessings

The 26th, yesterday, was my 19th birthday. Going from 18 to 19 won’t be too hard this year, as I’ve been saying I’m 19 for months now on accident. Every year around this time I must look back and remember thinking, “wow, I wonder what I’ll be like when I’m _____” Well, here I am at 19 and I think my past self would be pleased with me now…I hope.

I feel as though my birthday has been a three day affair. It all started on Friday. I knew Melissa and Jennifer (fellow PTA students) were planning something. Honestly, I only expected a card. When I walked into the classroom, my eyes beheld much more: my desk and chair were decorated to a tee with balloons, fliers, bows, and ribbons. There were also a bag of chocolate covered popcorn (yum) and a lovely card. Those two really out did themselves for me and I felt truly touched. All through out class that day I was repeatedly wished a happy birthday.

The next birthday encounter came at the Bible study that night. The girls gathered in an upstairs spare room and the boys remained in the basement at the Rieker’s house. We’ve been going through a series of lessons on being Knights of God’s kingdom and Princesses of Principle. I know it sounds cheesy, but these studies have taught me so much and I’m thankful for them. Anyway, someone mentioned that it was my birthday and the girls wished me a happy day. Phew, I thought, that was painless enough, now it’s over and I can enjoy the evening. Ah ha! not so apparently! After we had had a snack, I sat down to enjoy some conversation with some of the girls when I hear the melody of that dreaded song, Happy birthday. Everyone came in the room and sang to me, both Happy Birthday and God’s Blessings. I could feel heat creeping into my face as I’m sure I turned red as an apple. All that attention was a little too much for me.

As hard as it was to endure the singing, I have to say, I was again touched that they all took the time for it.

Saturday, I was being wished happy birthday on facebook countless times. My “party” was nice, though a little awkward due to the odd mixed group that showed up. Mom seemed to really want to throw me a party, and knowing I had nothing going on that night, I’d agreed to having some family over. Well, the Davidovics side all showed up, but only Mike and Diane and Karin from the Meister side were able to come. The two groups get along ok but it’s not the easiest of crowds. Then, with round the world ping pong in mind, I told Jessica to see if her brothers would come over. I didn’t give any thought to the fact that they had company and when I did think of it, I figured the chances of them arriving on time or at all were slim. You can imagine my shock when David, along with Caleb Jones and Luke Wahl walked in my door before any of the other guests. We played some ping pong which was fun. I just hoped that the rest of the evening would remain in the same easy going way. Ah ha! not so apparently! “Time to sing Happy Birthday Goof” my mom’s call could be heard. My mind reeled. I scrambled for some way to escape the impending doom of being sang to again. But, despite all my efforts, it was inevitable. Feeling completely embarrassed, I took my spot before the princess castle cake that I had built and once again endured the singing. One glance at David’s friends told me they were feeling out of place and quite uncomfortable with it all.

Oh well, there are just some things in life that we have to look back and laugh at, you know. In the end it wasn’t so bad, and I’m sure to any adults reading this, it may all sound like silly teenage worries, but to me it felt colossal.

And, however awkward that party may have been, once again, I was touched that they all took the time to come and celebrate with me.

Today, Sunday, I felt as though God was showering me with birthday gifts. Though, the morning service was poorly attended, which was disheartening, we learned such a great deal from Exodus that it became a blessing to attend. During lunch I enjoyed a lovely conversation with some sisters about the Bible, God, and living for Him, and then preceded to serve lunch for one of the men’s tables. It was a quick shift and I was able to make it to the song service just in time. There was hardly anyone in the sanctuary at first, but it seemed it didn’t matter, for the joyful sound that came from the worshippers in there was amazing. As time went on and people slowly trickled in the volume and praise grew louder and stronger. I was literally trembling from the amount of effort put into worship to the king. It was effort well spent, for our Lord deserves all of our praise. And, then we were again blessed by a wonderful sermon by Ken.

It was such a beautiful Sunday, but I came home totally spent. I have more homework than I care for and a terrible busy week ahead of me. Oh well, I’ll plunge into it and try to have a good attitude.

Bluffton Invite

Life has been…normal lately, that’s why I haven’t posted anything in a while. School is so demanding that I’ve hardly been able to do anything social and exciting that’s worth reporting on…till now.

This weekend was the Bluffton, Indiana invite, and we decided this year to take a large group up. We ended up getting 16 to go: 13 girls and 3 boys. That required two vans, one of which was my own, and a car. The boys, Jessica Sauder, Anni, and Brenna went in my van and, on the way up, the six hour drive seemed to go by really quickly. Before I knew it we were walking into the Apostolic school down there, late, as usual, and plunging into the beginning of a fun and somewhat tiring weekend. First things first we had to meet up with old friends and become acquainted with some new ones. This is my favorite part about invites. When you meet new people you can be whoever you want to be to them.

Next, in a somewhat disorganized way we found vans to pile into and drove to the Bluffton distribution center for a work project. We were to fill boxes with food to send out, and my job was the crunchy peanut butter. That went all fine and well until I ran out of peanut butter and an attention span for the simple project. I moved on to a more exciting job: flattening boxes in the middle of the room. By the end I got to know some great girls and together we had a lot of fun being goofy.

Back at the school we practiced the songs we would be singing for the church on Sunday. The song leader called them the Hallelujah medley.

We had dinner, which was nice, except I mistakenly sat near a group of guys and once a conversation was started the subject quickly became about cars, sports, and deer. I only know enough about one of those subjects to actually have a part in the conversation and what I knew wasn’t what they wanted to hear.

No big deal, though, the next activity was a lovely singing in which we learned a new song that I fell in love with, I think it was called the Old Fashioned Religion or something. Following that we had  a minister come up and give a message. He had a nifty PowerPoint pulled up and announced the topic to be about the make up of a Christian. He went on to speak on the heart, brain, hands, and feet of a Christian. It was a blessing of a message.

For the rest of the evening we would have snacks, play volleyball, and basketball, have a praise singing, and fellowshipping (notice the “i” in that last word as opposed to an “o” MOM! ) During this time one girl came up to me and asked if I remembered her. Having met so many new people that day I apologized, for I did remember her face, but her name escaped my memory. Well, Nicole jogged my memory by telling me that we had met a few years at Girls Camp. That year I had been struggling a lot and I must have poured out my troubles to her because she let me know that she has been praying for me ever since. For years I’ve had a sister in Christ interceding for me in prayer and I didn’t even know it! That was the biggest blessing of the entire weekend, to hear her say that.

As far as accommodations went, we were assigned to go places. I was lucky to have met the girl whose house I would be staying at. The Eissenman girls were all very sweet and I felt like best friends with them already. There was not one awkward moment among us and we fell into easy conversation as soon as we reached their house. We chatted about light topics like vacations and books and about deep topics like the end of the world until 1:00 at which time we all were “fading fast”.

That morning we woke to the smell of breakfast cooking. After a quick shower we came downstairs to meet the other 6 family members: the parents were both busy preparing breakfast for us while feeding the baby, Evan. Until breakfast we had only had glimpses of the twin boys: Jason and Jeremy, and their older brother: Andrew. Danielle, Alyssa, and Erika, the three eldest daughters had spent the day before and night with us.

Breakfast tasted as delicious as it smelled and perhaps we lingered a little too long at the table, for we ended up coming into the Bluffton Country church at the last song. The sermon was lovely and the singing afterwards: great. We ate lunch there then planned to follow some of the other young kids to the Bluffton North church. We piled in the van and rolled down the drivers window to ask another car if we could follow them. Well, the window had been having problems before, but we were always able to grab it and pull it up into place. I forgot to tell David not to let it go all the way down, which was exactly what he did unknowingly. We were in a hurry so we just left it on the freezing twenty minute drive to the other church, but once there the issue had to be addressed because, not only was it cold, but it was raining. David, Caleb, and Brett stayed outside and worked on trying to get it up while we girls went into the church to try to find some help. I don’t want to say anything against the Bluffton church, but we were not treated as hospitably as I would have hoped for and the boys ended up just driving it around town to try to find a car shop or something. They went to Wal-Mart and bought some pliers to try to grab the window with. They wrapped duct tape around the pliers hoping it would help grip the window. When that didn’t work they removed the tape…well, end of story, the window shattered inside the door. Good thing they were smart enough to buy some plastic to cover the gaping hole of a window space for the six hour drive home.

I shouldn’t complain because I adamantly refused to make anyone else drive, but I’m going to anyway: The plastic was not only loud as ever when we got up to speed, but it also came loose very quickly and did very little to keep out the cold. Brett’s pillow helped to muffle the noise, but there was no way to keep it against the window without it falling, so I held it up. My left arm became so tired at times, but I wrestled with whether I would rather feel the burn or hear the noise. Now that I think of it, its pretty remarkable that we made it out alive, I spent more focus on that pillow than the road.

At one point I went to pass an elderly Sunday driver. As I came up to him in the left lane I see his break lights go on and he slows suddenly. Looking up I realize a deer is running across the median and a quick calculation told me it would be crossing the road just as I went by. Things were not looking good for us or the deer as I slammed on the breaks and screamed “DEER, DEER, DEER”. Last minute she turned to run along sided us then crossed. I’m sure we must have clipped her tail we came that close. After wards Brett exclaimed, “It would be just our luck to hit a deer”. So true.

All in all, it was a nice weekend, but not worth the drive. I don’t think I will do it again, but that doesn’t mean I don’t regret going this year.

Sorry I forgot to bring my camera: no pictures.

Super Bowl

Today is Mom and Dad’s first full day on the cruise. We were able to call them up until now and it sounds like they are having a blast! I’m glad for them.

Here, things are not nearly as exciting. We went to Amy and Jared’s house for a super bowl party last night (they have a big tv) with Jessica, David, and Caleb Sauder, Sarah Sceggel, and Caleb Jones. It was fun as the team we were rooting for won!

On Saturday in an effort to keep things as normal as possible, we woke up and ate breakfast while having a Bible study then cleaned for an hour. I was impressed with how much we got done in that one hour, I think we were all trying a little harder because mom’s gone. After that I got a call from Joszef Davidovics. He wanted to go sledding today. So, we met at his house and all went together to Dettwieler park for some fun in the snow. Zooming down the hills was a blast, but walking up them was tiring as usual. I’ve never slept so well!

So now it’s back to life. I have clinical today for which I will be leaving for in fourty five minutes. Tomorrow and the next three days after that is school. Then Saturday the parents will return home at about 6:00. I can’t wait for that!

Snow Days

Last Friday I found myself sick. The fever carried over into the next day and I was left to spend the day on the couch being coddled and cared for by Mom. I wasn’t the only one, however, Ryan and Steven had come down with the same thing. The sickness caused me to miss church that Sunday and caused Mom to have to cancel Anni’s surprise birthday party.

Then Monday came and I felt I was well enough to go to clinical. I am very fortunate to have been placed  at such a nice clinical rotation. It’s outpatient, which I prefer, and my instructor and the other PTA and PT are very kind. I help out around the clinic, hearing all morning of the huge blizzard that was to hit on Tuesday. I honestly felt fine all day up until lunch. After that I think they could see that my health was deteriorating fast and they let me go home a little early. Thank goodness for that because the snow had already begun.

That night was spent watching the weather. To all of our shock, schools were already deciding to cancel. Well, Mom’s and the kid’s school. I was still left in suspense through the night as to whether or not I would be facing this storm the next day.

Tuesday morning came and I diligently woke up at 6:00, mentally preparing myself for the journey to come. It wasn’t getting to school that I was afraid of, but being there at 12 when the storm hit and not being able to get home. Well, it would not be so, for once I came out of bed I went straight to my parents room and joined my dad in watching the news. “Illinois Central College-Closed”. I was very glad for that because, turns out I woke up this particular morning running a 102.4 temperature. Since Dad wasn’t feeling too well either, we spent the morning together on the couch watching the local news channel.

The storm turned out to be as dramatic as predicted. Once it started at 12 the roaring wind and the driving snow came to the ground with fury. At times we couldn’t even see the barns out back. We had brought Steve inside the house and as the storm progressed, it was evident that he would not be going back out. It was a lot of fun having him inside for so long.

Wednesday the storm had subsided, but the snow  plows couldn’t keep up with the drifting winds, so no school that day either. Feeling better on Wednesday, I decided to have fun. After some cleaning was done, we all saw the new snow, sun, and outdoors calling. Gladly we heeded that call and bundled up.

There’s this one activity that we do nearly every winter. It’s my favorite thing to do and that is to saddle up the horse, tie some ropes to the back of his saddle and ski behind him! With me on the horse and Anni and Mom in the back, we took off down the empty and snowy roads to Grandma’s 1 mile away. It was so much fun and Larry proved he was strong and has great endurance.

Karin Being pulled by Larry.

We came home from doing that quite tired and a little sore, but with smiles on our faces. Then the Sauder’s and Karin called to tell us they are coming over for ping pong. Mom set out some snacks before they arrived. Our playroom is large and has a nice Ping Pong table in the middle, perfect for around the world. Of course to put a spin on things and make it more interesting we played toss the paddle.

I was pretty sure that I would have school on Thursday even though it was posted that none of the rest of my family would. Grudgingly I spent the rest of Wednesday studying and preparing for the next day. Just in case I checked the ICC website every ten minutes or so. After about fifty times of doing that it was clear that I would be braving the cold and the roads tomorrow. However, right before turning my computer off for the night I gave one quick check just in case and it was closed! I felt like a little kid and had to run jubilantly to tell mom and dad. My plans for Thursday: build and igloo.

It turned out to be the sweetest igloo ever! it’s huge!

Well, now for the part that I wasn’t going to write but I have to get it out.

I MISS MOM AND DAAAAAADDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They left this morning at Three Thirty for their 20th anniversary cruise, which is super cool. I hope they have a ton of fun in celebrating those 20 years of marriage. That doesn’t mean I don’t wish them back. Taking care of things at home isn’t hard and the kids are being good, that’s not why I want them back, I genuinely miss them. It might be pretty abnormal, and perhaps on the pathetic side for a teenager to be saying this, but I am convinced that I love my parents more than anything in this world, second only to God and I don’t think I can handle not having them around for a whole week! I feel so lonely and forlorn without mom’s smiles and dad’s hugs. (I can write this here because they never read this blog, otherwise I wouldn’t because I don’t want to put a damper on their trip.) Well, for whatever reason, during the midst of my despairing over them leaving, I did have one comforting thought: God isn’t leaving me and, though I don’t have a prayer of reaching my parents for seven days, I know that I can contact God at any time I want no matter what. That gave me some comfort.

So, although I will still miss them terribly and will think about them a lot and I may cry a little, I will get through this week because I have God.