The countdown is on!

I love my job, but I'm so enticed by the upcoming THREE WEEK break I get from work that this week can't end fast enough! I was actually sort of dreading some of my appointments today, which is strange because I had clients coming that I genuinely enjoy working with and helping. But in His goodness, God blessed me with two really great sessions to end the day! I feel so energized and passionate when "my girls" get healthy. Tomorrow, I have three appointments, and then on Friday - none! I plan to get caught up that day on my notes for the week. My boss is taking out to lunch for our last hurrah before we're off for Christmas break, and I know we'll have a good time with that.

Missy is in Japan this week on business, so that's been sort of weird knowing she's halfway around the world and 14 hours ahead of us. Think if I ask her what's going to happen tomorrow morning she can tell me? ;) Apparently her hotel in Tokyo is right across the street from Tokyo Disney - can you believe the luck?! Unfortunately, she's so busy she likely will have no chance to visit the park. Tonight (or today for her) she's in Osaka seeing some clients, and then she heads back to Tokyo Friday night and flies home Sunday. Please pray for safe travel - her flight leaves Tokyo at 5:30 Saturday night and she lands in Newark at 4:30 - Saturday night! Funny. I guess she gets a "do-over".

I'm really hoping I win a local radio contest that one of my newfound Dayton-area favorites is running. They are giving away prizes daily, and tomorrow and Friday's prizes are two round trip airfares to anywhere Air Tran flies. They are also having giveaways of $1000 gift certificates to two local jewelers, so that'd be fun to buy myself a nice diamond since I may not have a man do that for me in life (sidenote: please don't feel sorry for me about that or reassure me that I'll get married. I may not, but far more importantly, God has blessed me with a very content heart about that issue. He knows I want to be married, but He's settled that issue for me a few years ago, and it feels GREAT! I do appreciate, though, the thought that I'm so awesome God will certainly be blessing me with a mate! ;)).

Not much else is new, which is probably why I haven't posted recently. Oh! How could I have forgotten??? I got to go home this weekend. I know you may be thinking, "Uh huh - big deal." I'm referring to my visit to Heritage Baptist Church, my beloved church family. Since making the move here, my professional adjustment has been extremely simple because my job is outstanding. My personal adjustment has also been pretty good, too. I do well on my own here, am staying connected to my friends, and no longer worry that those relationships will die. My spiritual adjustment has been the longest process, primarily because I struggled to find a church that could hold a candle to HBC. The teaching there is first-rate, and the fellowship of believers is something that I don't know if I'll ever find again. This past Sunday, we had Heritage Homecoming, which was a service geared toward recognizing that HBC has had a special place in the hearts of many students who attend (or attended) Ashland University just up the road. Many of those AU grads, myself included, settle into the area and become members of HBC. I spent the last 6 years making HBC my church home, and I grew so much as a person and as a believer because of this special part of the body of Christ. While I'm home over Christmas break, I'll have the chance to worship there three times, and I'm pumped! I'm blessed to know that this group of people not only love each other - they deeply, reverently, and recklessly love the Lord. Their collective desire to know Him matters more than feeling good, believing easy (but false) truths, or having hundreds at their services. They forsake the easy road for the committed one, at a cost to themselves and to the ever-present option to settle into a comfortable, self-focused life. They reject fluffiness and subsist on the heartiness of God's Word. They take sin seriously, and they ask tough questions. I wish I was as good a Christian as so many of my brothers and sisters at HBC are.

I still wish I got to worship with them each week (or, really, that I could combine this dream job with all aspects of my life back home), but God has helped me find a new place that I'll likely make my church home in the coming months. As I was sitting in church at HBC on Sunday, listening to the words of a fellow member who has also moved on, I felt almost sad for my clients because I know without a shadow of a doubt that I'd be an even better counselor if I was still under the teaching at HBC and in the midst of that body of believers. The way they live out the love of Christ, demonstrate what it means to desire holiness above all else, and invest in one another's lives is a challenge and inspiration that kept me going and grounded in my walk. I love them and miss them, and I'm proud of the person I became thanks to HBC's influence. I'm blessed to know they still consider me part of the family, and that's a status I wouldn't trade.