Getting there

Slowly but surely the semester is winding down.

I only have about a week and a half and all this school craziness will be over.  Only about twelve pages left to research and type. Only one more speech. Only three more finals and I'll be done.

India is also slowly taking shape. This has definitely been a patience building experience. As of now,  everything is on track ...so far.  Its been quite crazy with doors opening and closing all over the place. But, God truly has purpose in it and it has been amazing to see how He has worked everything out.
I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and I am so excited to travel to India. I may (the Lord willing) even be able to visit my compassion  sponsor child. This still is all dependent on when my group will be returning to Chennai. But, thankfully for once I have learned not to worry. God is in control of this too as He had been for every other aspect of this trip.

Other than all this excitement and school stress, life has just been fun. :)
Thanksgiving break was wonderful. I got a lot done, caught up on my sleep and ate way more than I probably should have. 
My little niece is getting cuter by the day. :) Such a little dolly...sometimes. She makes the most hilarious faces and grunts all the time. hehe.

The other evening I spent some time with Brooke and a bunch of other girls for her birthday. It was a lot of fun. We baked and decorated Christmas cookies and played a lot of games. We were going to play football but sadly we were rained out.
And this is it for November.

Bring on the Christmas lights and music, some eggnog by a Christmas tree, and all the shopping, gatherings, and craziness that will come this December. :)

In Christ
~Michelle

And another one down...

sigh...
all my friends are getting married.


Yup. I'm getting to be an old maid at the age of 20.
Alas.
What shall become of me. :)


Last night I leaned that one of my old high school bunch has bit the dust and is ENGAGED!


                                      
                                                    senior year...this seems so long ago!

 all together again for the big news...

ahhh!! :)

Congratulations Katie and Reilly! They are already cute and I haven't actually seen them together! :)


I still can't believe I'm old enough for this.

In Christ
~Michelle

Let All Things Now Living

There is so much to be thankful for. I don't even know where to begin. God has once again brought me a very long way since last year.  My parents, my family, and all of my friends are all so amazing. U of I has been such a wonderful experience. I get the opportunity to go to India I have a house, I warm bed... and on and on. I love Thanksgiving. It definitely makes you think.              ~~~ Let all things now living A song of thanksgiving To God the creator Triumphantly raise. Who fashioned and made us, Protected and stayed us, Who still guides us on To the end of our days. God's banners are o'er us, His light goes before us, A pillar of fire Shining forth in the night. 'Til shadows have vanished And darkness is banished As forward we travel From light into light. His law he enforces, The stars in their courses And sun in its orbit Obediently shine; The hills and the mountains, The rivers and fountains, The deeps of the ocean Proclaim him divine. We too should be voicing Our love and rejoicing; With glad adoration A song let us raise Till all things now living Unite in thanksgiving: "To God in the highest, Hosanna and praise!"

In Christ
~Michelle

Getting Used to It

I spent the weekend in Belvidere with Troy and Ellie.  It was an absolutely wonderful weekend.

Wendi, Larissa, and Brooke met at my house and we drove up Friday night. I love road trips. I got to catch up on all the happenings back home.

Ellie's apartment is really cute. We had a lot of fun that night just sitting around and troy taught us to play the tongue drum. Its a really cool African sounding wooden drum. I think I want one. :)

Saturday morning Darcy joined us and we took the train into Chicago.

waiting for the train

We sat in the upper deck of the train and watched the scenery and people. It was a nice calm ride compared to driving into the city.

passing another train.

brooke, darcy, wendi, me, larissa, ellie :)

Chicago! :)

While we were waiting (for an hour and a half) for the Cheesecake Factory, Brooke, Darcy and I walked to the lake.

too bad the water was probably freezing cold. :)

The Cheesecake Factory was amazing. It was definitely worth the wait. It is Darcy's birthday this week so Troy had them sing to her. 

We actually didn't do much shopping. It was a Saturday and the stores were really packed and we had to get back before the train left.  We did get a nice tour of the city though.

 It was really sad walking around. There were so many homeless people begging for food and money.  Some of them would walk up to you while others wouldn't even look at you.  They all looked so cold, dirty, and lonely. I never know what to do when I see things like that. You can't help them all and you don't know their motives. But, still I feel bad just walking past.   

After a beautiful day in the city we made our way back to the train station. Thanks to Darcy's amazing memory and the help of a homeless man who was walking by we made it to the train on time. Needless to say we gave him a gift card to McDonald's.

Brooke and I sharing some really good chocolate coconut cream cheesecake on the train. :)

Then we headed back to T and E's where we ate pizza, or at least tried to we were so full of cheesecake.  We were all tired from walking around chicago all day so we went to bed early.

To Troy's surprise all four of us girls got ready in the bathroom with no problems and we made it to Belvidere church on time. We left right after church and headed home.

That was such a great weekend. (Thank you Troy and Ellie for putting up with us!) I had so much fun and it was wonderful just to be able to hang out with some of my friends. After a stressful week at school, it was so encouraging to spend time away with wonderful people.

So, I'm finally getting used to the fact that Ellie is an old married woman. :)

In Christ

~Michelle

I just want to sleep

The weekend was crazy.

 I began the weekend with only 4.5 hours of sleep and I don't think I added too much to that number.


Friday was spent rushing around so that I could make it home in time to run to the courthouse to get another passport because it turns out that my passport wouldn't work to get my visa which I need to get before I can go to India....


Yah, and then I went home and did home work and got ready for the weekend. This weekend was our huge yg invite. I think it went well considering the stress level of all of those in charge.


Saturday morning we all met at church to start cooking the Lasagna. It went really well but it took forever and we ran out of cheese twice. So, we showed up at the FH an hour late but we still had plenty of time to get everything in order.

Cooking away...

  

aprons make the job so much more fun :)

The Lasagna ended up being really runny but everyone said it was good and they came back for seconds. :)

I spent the night at Emily's because my house was overrun by men. We had a lot of fun with our company and probably stayed up way too late.

Sunday we stormed the church with about 200 extra guests.
Food went well in the evening, thanks to the adults who came to help. I actually got to talk to people after supper, which was really nice considering the whole weekend was for fellowship. :)

There were so many people that I haven't seen in so long. It was wonderful. I got to see my cousins, TroyandEllie, all the oakville girls and a lot of my friends from back home that I don't see enough.

After Sunday night clean up I hurried home and packed up all my stuff and headed back to Champaign.

I love invite weekends.

In Christ 

~Michelle

Anniversary

Yup. That's right.

I've had this blog for one whole year.

A lot has changed in a year.


I don't go to ICC any more, I took a ton of trips, met a lot of great people, I quit my job, my best friend got married, I moved to U of I, I became an aunt, and soon I'll (Lord willing) be on my way to India. :)

And there's so much more to come...but I have no idea what. :)

               ~~~~~~
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.

The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

-- J R R Tolkien

It's been fun. Thanks for reading! :)


In Christ
~Michelle

All the colors of the wind

Monday night we had trick-or-treater's. It was so fun. I don't remember ever having a trick-or-teater at home.

It is so beautiful here in Urbana.

Most of the trees still have their leaves. There are Reds, yellows, oranges, purples, browns, and there's still some greens.

My walk to class and back is lovely.

The weather has been lovely as well. :) So, I've been doing homework on the front step in the sunshine. Its wonderful.

Sigh...why does winter have to come?

In Christ

~Michelle