Paris, Ici Je Viens! Countdown to Paris Trip

So I thought I'd start a countdown to Paris with a cool French picture each week.

Il y a officiellement 15 des semaines jusqu'au voyage de Paris !

(There are officially 15 weeks until the Paris trip!)

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and Help Someone Else Have One Too.

So, I'm just going to do a little shameless plugging here for a good cause.

This past June on my 16th birthday, I decided that I didn't need or really want anything, so my parents gave me the idea of sponsoring a child. So, I went to the World Vision website and picked out a child to sponsor.

I chose Ervehe who is an Albanian girl who recently turned 4 on Decmber 5th. Best. Decision. Ever. Every so often, I'll receive a letter from her family (she's too young to write) saying how grateful they are for the sponsorship along with little details about Ervehe's life (and she encloses kisses in the letter and sends them across the sea to me. presh.)

So, I totally encourage considering sponsorship if you have the resources. If you really take the time and think about how truly fortunate we all are, then it really seems like such a small gift to send a family $35 each month to pay for health and living costs.

Maybe instead of having one more present under the tree this Christmas, you can give a less fortunate family some hope.

Rain, Rain Go Away...

Well, we may not have snow days down here in Georgia, but at least we have rain days!

Today I woke up and got ready to go to school, only to find that the rain was so bad, you could basically raft down the highway...

It was a little scary to watch, but then Elizabeth reminded me that I could now finally wear my galoshes, and that made it a little more fun!

Then, on route to pick up my sister from college, the rain got so heavy that it felt like we were navigating through the Amazon. 

Well the good news is that there's no school tomorrow!! Hopefully this mess will go away soon though.

It really just reminds me of how intense God's power is. A little bit of a  daunting fact..

Well stay safe everyone!

One...More...Week.

Five of the Greatest Things That Have 

Happened My Freshman Year

(In no particular order)

1) Getting to know my best friend so much better: Well this is a good thing for obvious reasons. This was the first year that Elizabeth & I have really connected. We've had countless sleepovers which have made a plethora of memories, and for that I'm very thankful :) 

2) Developing into a much stronger Christian: While I still really need to work on doing my quiet times and relying on God for everything, I think that during this year, I've really come a long way on my Christian walk. I understand so much more about God and have even learned that the purpose of life is to glorify Him (1 Corinthians 10:31). It's been pretty great :)

3) Getting back into horseback riding: I rode for 4 years, but then had to quit for a while. But this year, I finally committed to getting back into the sport. I really think that God has blessed me with a passion for all things horses, and a growing ability in the art of riding, and I just feel fortunate that I am able to take advantage of that. I currently ride at two barns, and am re-training an injured TB named Josh who is really sweet, and a very good friend :) 

4) Having a good idea of my future: Just during these last few months, I've determined that I'd really love to have a career in either Early Elementary Education, or a teacher of kids with special needs. I think that God has equipped me to potentially succeed in these jobs, and so I'll try my best to make it happen! As long as my plans don't change.

5) Time Capsule: Lizzeth & I decided to create a time capsule filled with letters and memories from this year. We're planning on opening it after our senior year, and so hopefully we won't forget about it! It's a pretty neat idea, so I'm glad that we're following through with it. 

Phase One: Complete

Bonjour!

My good buddy Elizabeth & I have decided to enter into the 21st century by creating blogs. We'll be "team members" so that we each can post on each others own blogs. But we're pretty neat people, so I hope these will be pretty neat blogs! Hopefully I'll be able to make this a good place to come for a lot of random information, & if anybody ever has any suggestions on how to make it better, let me know :)

Well I'm going to go & try to figure out all of this new-age blogging lingo, but I'll check in soon!