of late...

Things I'm excited about lately... :)


Long e-mails back and forth almost every day with my fifth grader cousin Anna. Her favorite thing in the world is reading. She's into creating clubs, and she writes interesting and fascinating stories as she tells about her life. ... I love her e-mails!!!!!! We talk about Jesus, God, and Heaven too. It is so good to know she believes, in her shoes I feel it would be especially hard to and it's almost crazy that she has the faith, the mind-blowing faith and wisdom that she has. The first time I sent her a Bible verse at the end of my e-mail, I was so excited when I saw she sent one back!!!!! And her next e-mail, before I got a chance to reply was simply:

The Way---

"Jesus answer, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.'"
-John 14:6


ha... that excited me so much!! I love hearing about her love for books, all her friends, bird camp, and her pure and true thoughts about Jesus and Heaven. ... Mostly I like just being a penpal! Being connected. A fun and exciting part of her life...



The kids at Hope. We lost A LOT of five-year-olds who I was very very attached to. Last Wednesday when I got back to my place, I cried thinking about how sad it was that I might never see dear Bria again, who I love so much and who was so attached to and loving toward me. I will always remember her huge smiles and playing tag with her on Wednesday and her smiling so much and giving me so much hugs and telling me, "You are the best teacher, Abby." ...  Anyway, I cried and thought of how sad it is to lose her and to lose those friends that you don't want to lose and who you don't even get to reunite with joyfully and happily and playfully in eternity, like we will get to with grandparents! It's really sad and painful in a deep way. ... 

I realized though that when kids leave it's sad, but there are all the rest to focus on, love on, and to let Jesus love through them too. They are so incredibly sweet!!!!!!!! I have known for so long that I would be very sad when these five year-olds, a few of who I became more attached to than any kids I've ever known besides my cousins Anna and Carlie, leave. And because of that it's really taken me by surprise how much I love the new three-year-olds coming in!!!! Wow. They are all very cute. And it is a joy to watch them grow. I am so excited to get to watch their personalities transform these next few years and to play with and love and just smile over!! I love all the kids so so dearly. ... and my coworkers too!!

I'm becoming someone who hates to say goodbye to the people in my life. Everyone is dear to me and I enjoy seeing the beauty in each person.

... And guess what?? Bria already came back to visit today!!!! :D That was a humungous blessing and excitement!! And also... I get to babysit for the other girl I was most attached to, and her mom friended me on facebook awhile back, so I'm friends with her and get to see pictures, videos, and even go visit Brynn in the school-age room any time I want! Same with Rosha and her mom!! And... Brynn and her mom want me to babysit!!! And I am getting asked by quite a few other families to babysit/told they will let me know if they ever have a date planned... that is very exciting and special to me. Every time. It's a humungous honor and excitement. I really really love these kids and want to babysit them!!!!! One of the cute new three year olds (they're all really cute) named Daniel says to me at least ten times a day, "Abby, you can come to my house, Abby." And I always say I would love to. :) ... I love them. I love getting to play with them all day and getting to know and connect with their sweet parents.



Making the most of all my paid time off. I get three weeks per year and can't wait to use it for the best every year!!! I'm currently excited about a few trips with friends that I won't even need to use much if any paid time off for and also for the first big trip I plan to take: to Denver to stay with my cousins Anna and Carlie. ... In the future I can't wait to go on mission trips. One to Africa some day. ... And to see who of family or friends might go with.

I'm excited to see what the future holds...


Editing pictures for people. Oh this fills me with a crazy amount of excitement and purpose/resposibility. It is so exciting for me to do this for people. Exhilarating in ways.... It's so hard to manage time, but it's a joy to try to fit everything in and give to what I'm doing and try to let go of the rest. I'm very very excited to keep doing this as a way to love on people and God. I feel like this is one of the many things He created me to do.


... yep. Those are a few of the things I'm excited about. It's exhilarating with how hard they are to keep up with with so little time in a day and so much other stuff to do too, most importantly love on and give time to everyone in my life. ... but the challenge of what to fit in a day is part of each day's beauty. Thanks God for all these things and people I get to be blessed by. And mostly You.