in him is the fullness of all things

Day after day, week after week, I continue to be astounded by the goodness of my Father. Leave it to him to lead me a beautiful congregation on my first Sunday...he would :) In the weeks and months leading up to this huge transition, I was told by a few people that had done their share of moving that it can take a while to find a church and I was fully prepared for it to take a while. But God certainly has a way of exceeding our expectations! Those of you who I have spoken with since being here know that I comprised a list of 8 churches that I wanted to check out. I couldn't even tell you what it was that lead me to search for yet another church...But somehow I found myself on the page of Church in the City and even though it was a half an hour away, I just felt like I needed to visit it.  From the moment that I stepped into the building, I felt so welcomed, so comfortable. I really appreciated the fact that the congregation wasn't too large; the people seemed a bit more...

Well folks, I have finally jumped on the awkward/awesome bandwagon (c/o Sydney from The Daybook )and I am going to take a moment and share some of the highlights and {awk}lights of my week! I don't normally do this and I can't promise that I'll do it again because most weeks nothing particularly awkward happens to me. This week was a little bit of an exception. So without further adieu... AWKWARD The fact that it took me 5 tries to spell awkward correctly. Showing up to my class an hour early and then proceeding to stay in the empty classroom for the extra hour until class started. Eating by myself in the cafeteria. Getting to this new home fellowship 15 minutes early and awkwardly walking up and down the street until 7:30 instead of owning up to the fact that I was just so excited to be there that I got there way too early. Walking into a Walgreens seconds before they were closing Being on the phone while trying to check out and apologizing both for being on the...

So I have reached the two week mark here in Chicagoland and I've made a few observations that I feel are worth noting: Everyone and their mom wears Sperry boat shoes. (many)People from the midwest cannot pronounce Oregon correctly. They prounounce it like "Or-eee-GONE". Chicago sure looks a lot like Oregon when it rains. Gas is flippin' expensive here. What do you know, even in grad school Pinterest can still serve as quite the impressive distraction!  Did you know that you can pay ~$35,000 a year in tuition and your school can't even afford a decent gym? Well now you know. No one knows where Corvallis is. All these things have only made my love for Oregon grow exponentially! I am counting down the days until I get to return to the luscious, green northwest. But in the meantime... Pharmacy school isn't too bad! (I'll probably look back at this and want to kick myself in the face for ever uttering these words...) Everyone said that I would h...

So it's been a full 8 days since I've been here and I'm trying to soak up every last minute of freedom before school begins. TOMORROW. Aside from orientation, which was obviously the highlight (not) of my week, I can't say that I've done much. I did however, take a trip into THE CITY which ended up being a bit of a self-discovery experience for me as well. You see, as most of you know, I grew up in Corvallis, a small (ish) town that can hardly be considered a city. In fact let's be honest, it's kind of a farm town! I've been kind of torn as to whether or not I am a city person or a country person. What I can say without any hesitation is that I AM NOT A SUBURB person. As soon as I stepped off the train and was greeted by the tall buildings and bustling people, I felt as if someone had poured cool water on my soul. I love this city! I only wish that I lived closer to/in it. With that being said, I think my ideal living situation would probably be on a ...