Mini-Update from Buffalo, NY

(this was from September 27, 2011)

I have spent a significant chunk of time going through my stuff, reading through cards that I've saved and finding old photos. Family, friends, familiar places... so many memories flooding back to me. The life that I have lived in Buffalo. So many experiences shared with this city and these people. It makes my heart ache a little that I have been gone, missed celebrations and milestones.

One of the many family dinners at the MacKays
(we decided to all wear plaid that day, ha!)

Yet I know, that I am not meant to share life with them (geographically) at this time. I am confident of my calling to New Zealand to those people I have come to love. It is not the same though. Its not meant to be. I can not repeat 23 years in my own culture in a couple years overseas. But I see the faithfulness of God like woah. Although I am far from my family in the States, God has provided me with Kiwi families.

And the life that God has given me in NZ is un-trade-able. I have even been blessed to have people come to be a part. I feel the love so strongly. I am so grateful. There are so many broken things in this life, it can really really get me down. But I look around me, at the people in my life, with all the complexities of our relationships and life's issues and I am so thankful I get to have a messy life with people.

I want God's unfolding story to form the words on the pages of my life.

The girls I live with and some friends at my birthday dinner at the MacKay's house