Welcome back to life...

life...is finally getting normal again. For the past few days my backs been messed up and i went to the doctor today so i just stayed home from church tonight with my mom so i could lay down. We were talking and i was like "mom sometime in ur life u have to play guitar hero" haha just joking and she was like...ok lets go! lol. i guess i'm not used to being able to have her do things and it was the most fun night i've had with her in probably 3 or 4 years. I taught her how to play guitar hero and we played singstar then found singstar 80s and she rocked out to all her songs. haha. We've never laughed so much together and had so much fun!! I'm so glad i can actually do stuff with her instead of having to watch her lay in bed all day and sleep. The clinic in chicago made such a difference!! I'm glad that i'll have atleast one year with her being able to do things and go places before i graduate. Its so so so nice to have my mom back. :D I wouldn't trade this for the world. She still has a constant headache but it's less intense and she's actually able to get up and walk around and ride in the car. It's amazing and so different from the life she had for 2 or 3 years. Thanks for all the prayers!! but dont stop! lol. She has a lot more to go and we're hoping that all this success will just continue and get so much better so she can actually live a normal life again with us. God has blessed our family so much through this and has only shown to be a provider and friend and shoulder to cry on. My family realized we were the only ones on the planet earth that is going through this same exact thing so we had to lean on each other now more than anything or anyone else. And God was always there and still is always there when we felt like no one understood. My mom came to church with us for the first time in...oh wow way too long. and we actually went as a family. Definitely an answer to prayer. I cant wait to see what God has in store for her and my family!

Chicago..

Off to chicago again...gotta go pack then get in a car for 3 hrs w/nothing to do. haha. then sit at a hospital w nothing to do. well this will be fun [sarcastic]haha im' kidding. it should be fun. found out my mom is comin home monday finally btw.


.....excited for shopping in the windy city :D

Chicago...

was so much fun!
-tried sushi for the 1st time
-rode in a taxi
-walked around magnificent mile for 3 hrs :D
-spent time w/my family
-got away for a day to forget about everything here
-got to see my mom!
-ate hospital food
-took tons of pics
-had the most amazing popcorn ever invented
-used an ipass haha
-met some random people

...i needed today to just get away. Im so glad i finally got to see my mom and hang out w/my dad and brother and sister. Just keep praying for our family and esp. my mom. She'll probably be up there another week and pray that the doctors will know what to do for her...pray that she will be comforted and not stressed.

Countries

Ok I totally blanked during this. haha. it's harder than it sounds.

33

Daily

On my way to school... Isaiah 41:10 is the verse going through my head. "Dont be afraid for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand" I pray that God will take away the fear, give me strength, and make me bold. It's amazing what God will do if ur willing to obey and listen.

Success = obedience....probably one of the biggest lessons I learned from NYGO. One of the best thing i've ever done...best week of my life. I loved NYGO and grew so much. I was stretched and changed. It was awesome. Man I'm just full of blogging today. haha. Ok that's all. I promise.

Just one of those verses that hits right on

"Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord; point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth, and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you."
-Psalm 25:4-5

U S of A

In 2m 45s

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brings back geography memories

Still...

I still feel that God wants me to go to kenya. I've been praying like crazy since summer camp and keep doubting...thinking stuff like....i have no idea what to do...everyone will think i just wanna go there cause all the kenya stuff with the church. I've learned....it really doesn't matter what people think. It's not gonna make a difference if they think that or not. lol. This is totally between me and God. I'm still not sure but still feel God really pressing this on my heart...but not for the baby center. I think that's awesome...but it's not my passion. God has given me a passion and a love for elementary age kids. I know God wants to use me. I'm so incredibly willing to go where he leads. I'm open to anything he has to use me and glorify him. This is a crazy ride and I'm trusting God to lead me exactly where he wants me....to open doors and close doors where they need to be.

On fire rallies...

have absolutely been amazing and eye-opening for me. Tonight especially hit home for me. God definitely has laid 2 people on my heart. One of which i dont get along with at all. Fear definitely has gotten in the way of talking to these people. I've kinda been in a valley with God lately...feeling distant and just needing something to jump start me again. This was it. Tonight biz told us to call a person God layed on our hearts if we needed to talk to them. I wasn't at school today so i knew i needed to call her and talk to her. Tomorrow will be....exciting....nervous....making me completely lean on and trust God. trust that he will give me the words to say. trust that he will give me so much confidence and just go for it. I have nothing to lose. I'm totally ready to jump off the edge. I'm ready now.

Something else that happened tonight just uplifted me and definitely encouraged me. I went on NYGO this summer and we wrote letters to friends back home. I wrote a letter to a girl that i was very close to and was super nervous to write to. I didn't know what she'd think or what she'd say but amy said something that was so true. She said it was more important for my friends to hear about God and risk their friendship by them rejecting what i had to say than playing it safe and saying nothing while knowing their life was going downhill. So i wrote this girl...about a week after i got home i got a letter back from her. Opening it was scary and exciting. She just said Ashley i definitely needed this and im so glad you care about me and wanted to talk to me and hang out. She's come to fanning the flame yesterday and today and said to me afterwards that because of me writing her that letter that she's at church and it changed her life. woah wow i was just like....God used me to impact one of my friends lives. I never thought i could do something that would change a life. I love that girl so much and am so glad i got past the fear of rejection and losing a friend. Instead we've grown so much closer and even more important....she is madly in love with God! I know i need to get past the fear i have right now and let God work through me to impact other people's lives. Even calling my friend tonight i had no clue what to say....i totally had to stop and pray and say God i know that i need to talk to her....give me the words to say. How great is our God. Absolutely amazing. He never fails. He's always there. Caleb has impacted my life so much throughout the last few years. I can't wait for tomorrow night.

Scary snow...glorious God

Ok so tonight I went to a superbowl party at my friends house and left at 10 to go home. first of all my car started and i was super excited [it hasn't started in like 4 days] haha. but the roads were super bad, it was snowing incredibly hard, and i was extremely nervous to drive home. but i was like..ok if i just go slow and watch carefully i'll be fine. Like 2 min down the road all the sudden my car started to turn off the road and i couldn't do anything to stop it. it was so scary. not like anyone ever tells you what to do when that happens. so i tried to get out by myself at first then called my mom and my friends dad to come help me get out. Then this car drove up and stopped ahead of me. My first thought was...ok should i roll down my window. i dont kno who it could be. what should i do? i called my mom real fast and asked her haha but then after like a min of sitting in their car they came out and helped me. I was glad it was two guys from northwood. phew. lol. I'm glad they knew what they were doing cause i sure didn't kno. But throughout the whole thing...God was there and planning out every second. He kept me safe first of all. Then right away he sent some high school guys to come push my car back on the road. All the times i needed to call my mom, dad, or friend right away...they were the ones to call me at the times i needed them to call. Isn't it cool how God works things out? On the way home i just took time to thank God for everything in my life. The little things that do so much!

Keep my neighbors in your prayers. A husband and two little boys lost a wife and a mom this morning from a long battle with cancer. The little boys are only 7 and 9 and have a long life ahead of them and they wont really know a ton about their mom. We're all thankful that she's in heaven now without any pain at all. Just pray that God will give the boys and their dad a peace about this and just to kno that she's so much better off in heaven with Jesus.

Adventures in babysitting haha

Tonight I had to babysit from 5:45 until 9:30. I have to admit i did not wanna go at all haha. but it was so much fun!! Except for the part when they were crying because the storm got bad. haha but it was still good. Our roads back here are gettin a ton of water and it's starting to snow so hopefully we'll have a 2 hr delay tomorrow! haha. ya right...northwood actually delay school. lol.

Tonight...

was soooooo much fun!!! It was the sweetheart dance and probably the most fun i've ever had at a school dance! I wanna go dance some more. haha.

God smiled

8th grade impact jr. trip. We talked about making God smile. today was one of those days where i was like...i think God's smiling. God really used me today and it was awesome. Last weekish sometime haha umm i was reading galatians 1 and in verse 15 it says "...For it pleased God in his kindness to choose me and called me, even before i was born." i was just like...whoa that's really awesome. then today it came back to me and i was like... wow God wants to use me. God wanted me here even before i was born and he chose me. I was just amazed by that. I think i made God smile today :D

p.s. success=obedience
today was a successful day. it's crazy how God's works things out. he never stops amazing me.

3 day weekend!!

ahhh what will i do w/all my time. haha. then we have a 2 hr delay on tuesday. i'm pretty excited. should probably start filling out my senior year scheduling stuff. ughh. fun fun. haha.

Piece by piece

So as a junior in high school, the school's always saying we need to choose our career paths and pretty much decide the rest of our lives right now. haha. i've never had any idea. but the other day it kinda clicked and i'm not positive this is what i want to do but i'm pretty sure. I think i might want to be a social worker and deal w/kids that are abused and need to go into foster homes for a while or whatever the problem is. God's given me a passion for little kids. I used to work in Children's ministries all the time and babysitting is so much fun for me just to be w/the kids. haha. Even when i felt God telling me to go to kenya in the next few years what i would do is work w/little kids. I'm not sure why but God has just given me this passion for little kids. I think by going through all this stuff w/my mom and all the health issues in our family i've learned how to deal w/not so fun situations. lol idk how else to put it. But i really dont know. That's something i think i'd be good at and really enjoy as a job. I'm just praying that God would reveal to me what he wants me to do and help me make the right decisions.

*snow*

last night i went sledding from 10 til 12. haha it was amazing. but anyways...i went and saw I am legend w/amber and it's pretty much one of the scariest movies i've ever seen. haha. i jumped like 5 times and just wanted to close my eyes bahaha. But it was good...and i will probably have nightmares about the infected people or whatever for a week. lol.