family.

I have been blessed with such an amazing family.

This last week has been long and hard, and my mom, my dad, and my sister (and my husband, my roommates, and my family-in-law) have been dealing with it right beside me day in and day out. What a great family! How special it is that when things aren't going well for me, my family interrupts their own life to come alongside me, get angry with me, cry with me, help me find the answers.thanks family.

Friday was a work day at PBA, and I was able to take my laptop and work in my classroom listening to the beautiful sounds of OTR, and the musical stylings of my father. =) (I miss ya, dad...sunday morning just isn't the same without you.) I prayed for a renewed sense of purpose and plan at Place, for a renewed calling for the students, for a chance to make a difference there.

I wish you all, with your tender and compassionate hearts, could invest in the children at Place. What a huge difference we could make! If even we could get all the ece and kinders shoes that fit them that'd be something...



love and passion,

Alissa

I love re-connecting with old co-workers. The teacher I worked with last year was so fantastic, so full of wisdom (and fun!). Missing her this year...

The books I have been reading about Burma have formed this exotic, unknown, uninfiltrated picture of that place and those people. To go to Burma...that is to go to the end of the world, the last frontier. To go to Shan state.....impossible. What wonders it would hold though...what wonders.

reflective

Yesterday was an amazing day...

Getting to go to church on a decent amount of sleep makes all the difference in the world. I loved connecting with the pastor, meeting new people, observing older, wiser couples....I can see us there. I am anxious to see where we end up.

Over the Rhine was absolutely moving. I ...love music, love it. I get so lost in it, but also, somehow find myself. OTR opened with "I Want you to be my Love" and it felt like such a sweet, simple, intimate blessing from God.

At church yesterday Dean mentioned struggles, mountains that seem insurmountable. I thought of my faltering dreams of a life lived...differently, and wondered if I was a silly/naive, idealistic girl...

In one of the songs coming out on the new album the lyrics said something about everyone has a dream that they never see lived...and again I thought of my own dreams. And a rush of assurance, of confidence, of divine plan, of a purposed life....came over me. And that made me cry ever so bitterly as I thought about all the more waiting I had to do.

I have more to learn, I have harder yet to love, I need clearer yet a vision, I need a more willing leg to limp, I need stronger still a faith.

And...in the meantime, there are difficult people to love and learn to work with.
a husband I must better support, encourage, and love.
a people that I can give a voice...a language too...
an education that I can pursue and further myself in.
and...a trivia night where, if I'm lucky, I'll win us a round of free drinks. =)

with (wavering) hope and assurance of things hoped for....

resonate

I've somewhat started my new job. Sometimes change is difficult for me, and even though this job is my "dream job", the newness of it is still (at times) presenting challenges.

But...

I am so excited to be where I am. I respect and admire the PBA administration in a way that spurs me to invest deeply. Invest in teacher relationships, kid relationships, to work my absolute hardest, and then work even harder. I want to live up to the high standards that the administration has set. It feels so good to work on a team that shares my passion for the kids we work for. It feels so good to resonate with my job.

(Now...how to get 1,000 plus kids off of their bus, into the right teacher's classroom, while on tv...?)

thankful

for girl friends i can laugh, cry, drink, and hot tub with.

for a husband who works crazy hours, and then at 2 in the morning pays for a crying girl's cab home after she's been abandoned in the rain.

for my kits

and for my home...even when it's scary at 2 am by myself! =)