in him is the fullness of all things

The countdown, which has unofficially been on since I moved to Chicago in August of 2012, is officially on. I have one week left of pharmacy school. Two before graduation. I still can't believe it. To be quite honest, it doesn't feel like I thought it would feel. Don't get me wrong, pharmacy school has been the most difficult thing I have ever done and moving to Chicago sort of compounded that difficulty. But it has also been one of the best things that I have ever done and I know that I will never be the same. At approximately this time 4 years ago, a couple that I had never met, approached me at an event and told me 2 things: 1) That I carried the joy of the Lord and 2) That the season of life I was entering would be stretching and that I should take heart because when you stretch something, it never goes back to how it was before, and that the same would be true of me. I am so thankful for reminders that God still uses supernatural means to speak to his kids. It...

I'm torn about New Years Resolutions. On the one hand, I love the idea of a NEW year...there is something so fresh about a "clean slate", right? But on the other hand, why do we have to wait for a new year to make changes in our life? Why do I need to wait until Jan 1 to decide to eat better, exercise more, read more, etc? So I have mixed feelings about it. So I don't know if this counts as a new years resolution, and if it does, whatevs. But I am going to finish at least ONE book in 2016. You may find yourself thinking "Wow, Eva. That's a really modest goal. Aren't you an adult? Aren't you in pharmacy school? Shouldn't you aim a little higher?" Trust me, I know. In 2008, I read all 4 books in the twilight series in ONE WEEK. That's 2,444 pages in one week. What has happened to me?! Pharmacy school. It has somehow managed to simultaneously stimulate and deactivate parts of my brain but that's another story... ANYWAYS. I started re...

Hiiiiiii, For the record, it took me approx 13 tries to remember my login information to this blog. That’s how long it has been since I’ve written on this thing! It’s not that I haven’t had anything fun or exciting to write about…it’s just that the longer it’s been since you’ve done something, the more frightening it can be to get back on the horse, so to speak. Example: my dear friend Adina invited me to go rollerblading with her not too long ago and it’s not that I didn’t love rollerblading, it’s just that it had been like, 15 years since my last attempt. Long story short, it turns out somethings are NOT like riding a bike. Some things do NOT just come back. Muscle memory, it would seem, only goes so far. And I have some new scars to prove it. ANYWAYS. I didn’t have my first honest-to-goodness date until after I graduated college. When I say honest-to-goodness date I mean there was none of that “is this really a date because yeah, we are eating together but he didn’t pay” or “doe...

God has been teaching me an unreal amount of things in the last 6 months--things that it seems he has to teach me over and over, but by his grace I am making progress, slowly but surely. I am so thankful that God's love for us doesn't depend on the number of times that he has to teach us things or the amount of progress that we make--he just loves us because he loves us. A few weeks ago as I was reading through Jeremiah, I came across this verse in Jeremiah 2:13 and was particularly struck by it. "For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me--the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all! How often do we chase things that we think will make us happy, only to abandon the only one that can truly fill us up? In the interest of keeping it real with you guys, I want to say that for the LONGEST time I have been chasing relationships. Not in the way that some people do. I was not by any me...

2013 has been a beautiful year. It's funny, beauty isn't always borne from easy or fun or quick. Sometimes, beauty is borne of pain, waiting, patience. Sometimes. But the thing is, when you get to the beautiful part (and sometimes it takes a while), you see that the parts leading up to it were necessary and worth while. As I look back over this year at the person I was at it's start, I find myself thankful for everything that God allowed me to walk though because I am not the same, nor would I ever want to be.  In this past year I have experienced heartache, through which I've learned that no man will ever be able to complete me like the man Christ Jesus can. I have learned that living life as a people pleaser is no way to live life at all.  I have had the opportunity to travel to and through many new states including Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Delaware. I have seen old and new friendships flourish in this year. I pr...