Welcome To Streams!

Today is my second day as an intern. It is awesome so far! I went on a walk down the road from the intern house and the sights were absolutely beautiful! Someone I know once said it looked like a mixture of Ireland and the Pride and Prejudice field...I could not agree more. Here are some of the pics I took with my phone:
















And, my personal favorite:

My Last Day in Arizona

I woke up this morning with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and a hazy cloud fuzzifying my thought process...Today is the last day I will get to spend with my family before moving to New Hampshire to be an intern at Streams Ministries.

HowEVER! It is also my last day to get all my packing done in preparation for this year long adventure! Mind you, I had absolutely no motivation to do anything having to do with packing...It is my very last day in this house, with this family, and I still have a bunch of packing to do before I get on that plane tomorrow morning!

So when I woke up at 9:00 (earrrrly for me) specifically to finish all the projects I had started over this past week and realized I had such strong feelings against all things packing, it caught me off guard! I have less than 17 hours to pack up my room, make sure that all of my clothes and such fit into my two suitcases that I'm allowed to take with me for a year, and hang out with my family for the last time, and I am what??? Too tired?? Unmotivated? Really??

I suppose the reality of how much time I truly have left didn't quite override the not so reality of "oh i have plenty of time to finish that stuff...sleep is more important!"

Who am I to be so selfish in these last precious hours of my time here with my family?

So after staggering out to the kitchen to make some Mac'n'Cheese for breakfast (I know...I am super unhealthy...what else is new?) I made the command decision to be sedentary no longer. Now I have eaten breakfast and I'm totally ready to start my jam-packed day. Haha, quite literally!

Now all I have to do is pack up the remains of my bedroom and bathroom, clean out my car that I won't be driving anymore, weigh my suitcases to make sure Delta won't be charging me $125 dollars a piece for each suitcase over 50 lbs, do a load of laundry, and find my winter hat. Among other things :)

Oh yes, and the family is all going out to dinner tonight no doubt in a last-ditch attempt to keep me home just a little while longer. They've only come up with about 170 reasons for me to stay...God, I'm gonna miss them.

Hopefully that hazy cloud around my head will get burned off by all the sunshine, because I have all to much to get done to deal with a head-cloud simultaneously.

Feel free to pray for me while I set off on this new God-filled adventure! I'm scared out of my mind, but I know that I know that I know that this is God. I know I'm supposed to be there, and that peace in my heart is the only thing keeping me from staying here.

Heavenly blessings,

XOXO
Jourdan

Nyquil - The Bane of My Existence

Funny story time!





So haha joke's on me...I never woke up this morning.

Well, that's not entirely true. I did wake up. Just not at the reasonable hour I wanted to. See, work opens at 7:30 am and, well, I didn't wake up until 7:38. Sound like a familiar story?? Well it is. It conveniently decided to repeat itself a few months ago - the first day of my job. Lucky me.

So here I am, lying in bed at 7:38 am wondering HOW in the WORLD did I miss my alarm?? I mean, I know I set it for 6:30, I just know it!

But alas. There it lay. The secret answer to all my little problems. The Nyquil bottle...sitting right next to the alarm I was supposed to awaken to.

Yes, I had a cold last night, and yes, I took a healthy dose of that stuff at like 11:45 pm.

No, I did not know that when you take Nyquil past a certain point in the evening, you risk not waking up ever again. And no, I did not know that even if you only take a half dose, at 110 pounds it doesn't really matter HOW much you take of that stuff, it will knock you out.

Nyquil. Truly the bane of my existence. You love it, you hate it. It helps you sleep, but it also helps you to never awaken again...especially when you're supposed to awaken for a very important meeting...or a coffee date. Yeah, not so wonderful there.

So at 7:38 am when my mother came traipsing down the stairs with 'i've been awake for hours makeup and hair' asking me if I did indeed have to work today, and if I did indeed sleep right through my keith urban alarm, I was in bed wishing I could be her for once (no offense mom, teehee!)

But all told it was a lovely kind of day.

Not sure if I told you all this yet, but my grandparents have been in town the last few days - they're from New Jersey. I haven't seen them in 10 years!! We ate, we laughed, we cried, we ate, we watched movies, we went on walks, we ate, and we laughed some more. A true Italian vacation.

Sadly they are leaving on a plane tomorrow morning at the butt crack of dawn, and I will miss them terribly. It was so nice to have so much life in our house. It felt like overflowing.

Two more days left at the health club until I am finally a full-time student again. No more working for me! Well, not the paid kind anyway :) And then I'm off to New Hampshire for a new kind of lovely adventure...the kind you never forget.


"For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning."
-Psalm 30:5

Heavenly Architecture

"...The sufferings of this present timeare not worthy to be compared
with the glory that is to be revealed to us."
-Romans 8:18
from Brin at My Messy Thrilling Life today

My life is like a rollercoaster and I've said it before...it twists and it turns, and I don't know where I'm going until I get there. That's what it has been like ever since I moved from my hometown in Kennewick, Washington to the dry, hot Phoenix, Arizona. I hated it when I got here but I think God had a reason for it all...a divine design that was hidden from my eyes until His perfect timing determined that "it's time." Now I know.

Man, I'm looking back at my posts from when I first moved here and it's crazy how much I've changed. It is so humbling to re-read my grumbles and whines about coming here and then see how God has routed my life so perfectly for the near future. I would never be where I am at this moment...right now...if it weren't for this move. I'm sure of it.


All that to say...I am just having some of the BEST days of my life right now. My choices finally feel concurrent with His timing and it feels inexplicably perfect. My sister is home for a month (woohoo!), I put in my letter of resignation at work (which was a little bittersweet), I get to take a trip to Washington and visit all my good friends next week, and I get to start planning for my new life in New London...I couldn't be happier.

God works everything in His plan for the good of those who love Him.

...He really does...

I'm finishing up down here in Phoenix and I'll be off to New Hampshire towards the beginning of September!! That's a month :) Ah! I'm crazy excited.




"The light is breaking, the surface cracking...all the good is leaking through."

Holy Crap, I Got IN!

AS promised, here are those six words I really really wanted to be able to share with you all...."I Got Accepted, I'm Outta Here!!"

I just got the phone call today and I have been officially accepted into the Streams Ministries Internship Program in New London, New Hampshire! I will be leaving sometime around the 9th of September...

Wow, I am flying right now. I can't BELIEVE I got in! Well, I guess I can..I knew I was supposed to do this so I shouldn't really be surprised when God works it all out. But still. I'm in shock. And awe. And surprise...ment...And excited...ness.

Holy moley.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who prayed for me, I know it made a difference.


That's all I've got to say..