365 days

"I have quite the to-do list....I need to get on that blog", I thought about 5 minutes ago. So here I am!

This was my post 365 days ago exactly (which is really impressive, because I didn't even plan this.) I was 25 days away from moving to grad school and completely terrified. After all of the lessons, both hard and harder, that I had learned and that Christ was still diligently and patiently teaching me, leaving for my "Abraham land" as  I referred to it, because I was merely following a calling, was a huge step. I came here with not much more than that prodding, an acceptance letter, and what I could fit in a too-small U-hall trailer.

All that to say, here I sit in that apartment  that I got to "put my things in" one year later. It's incredible to look back over the past year at all that I've experienced; some anticipated (mostly that I'd be in school...that's about as predictable as this has been) and most that has completely unexpected, to me anyway. I can tell that grad school has changed me-for the better-but still, changed me. It's pretty amazing what can happen over the course of a year! I've walked through some of the hardest days I've seen in quite some time, and have had to sift through some buried lies that Satan has been speaking into my life for quite some time that slipped under the radar. Grad school, and my Terre Haute experience in general, has made me a better clinician, a better professional, and a better thinker overall. I've met some of the most incredible people, and have had the privilege of calling many of them friends. I've sat with friends in the middle of their seasons; I've sat though my fair share of seasons as well. I've watched relationships that I've cherished morph into long-distance relationships. I've learned that I have the most incredible support system a girl could ask for. I've laughed, cried, and worked harder than I ever have in my entire life. I honestly think I look at life differently than I did a year ago. I was given a gift not too long before my move last summer. It was something I had "picked out" and hangs in my hallway-the word "trust". Because up until that point, that was what I kept coming back to. Trusting in a God who is bigger and wiser and stronger and more able that I can  ever hope to be. And I'm happy to report that this same word is how I can sum up the past year-trust. It's been hard on LOTS of levels, it's been fun, it's been silly, and it's been scary even. But through it all it has come down to this:
                                          This little sign I picked up at Hobby Lobby years ago and has made many a move with me, but still sums up things better than I can.

I know I have a lot more tomorrows, a lot more change, and a lot more "unexpected" ahead of me. And knowing Who holds it all makes it that much more exciting. 

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; "...Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”-C.S. Lewis; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe