Gifts!

Last night, I had an experience that can be described best as a gift from God.

Six girls.

Old, classy house.

Open Bibles.

Hot drinks.

Heart-to-hearts.

Prayers.

Rejoicing with each other.

Sorrowing with each other.

And you ask, how did this happen? Well my niece is watched two days a week by a girl who attends a private Christian university around here. Our paths have crossed and she invited me to a little get-together she has with her friends on Tuesday nights. I had been missing my community of believing friends from Biola and this really was what I needed.

Working in a restaurant is fun, and the people are great...but when you are the lone Christian... ugh, I can't describe it very well. But it is like being constantly on guard in your mind and heart. There is a constant barrage of bad words (which wears down on a person after a while), lots of teasing (whether in jest or with real disrespect), and no one that can really relate to a HUGE part of my life. Don't get me wrong, i LOVE my friends that I've made in the restaurant world. But when I have nothing balancing it out...it can be draining.

So to sit with these girls, who believe in the same God I do, who can take me in as a stranger with the only commonality being our love for the Word and God (and in the case of the one girl, my niece), and it felt...normal.

We talked and laughed and asked each other questions and got to know each other better...

I just sat back and basked in the feeling of being with these girls. I don't know if we're going to become close friends. I don't know why God brought us into each others lives. But I do know it wasn't on accident.

(And on top of it, they gave me some of their leftover Pad Thai (I LOVE pad thai) when they found out that my fridge was pathetically empty.)

As I drove away, I was filled with a deep warmth way down inside me. A friend of mine recently wrote a blog post about an experience he had sort of like this and here was what his thoughts were...I found mine mirrored them.

"Why am I so surprised to feel this love and friendship with other believers just cuz I didn't know them when I got up this morning? I shouldn't be."

And after I think about the God that I have gotten to know over the years...I'm not surprised anymore. HE does this. and he delights in seeing his children cross paths and enjoy each other and encourage each other.

Mmmm...I love getting gifts when it's not even Christmas or my birthday!!

And just so the post isn't pictureless...


Last evening we got out some new baby stuff for...the new baby. And she loved this bouncer seat. She would grab her babies and just sit in it watching us go through clothes.



She's been such a cheese ball lately. Totally grinning and giggling. Everytime we laugh at something, she does the cutest laugh too. it's SO much fun!!