the Year in Review

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So today I thought to myself, "Self? Why not post a thousand pictures to give everyone the basic idea of what the last year was like?" And then I thought, "Now, where on earth would I get a thousand pictures? And why would I want to be THAT verbose?!" So I'm not posting a thousand pictures. I'm just posting a few...to give ya'll a brief overview of some of the memorable moments from the first semester at Liberty...

To kick off the semester, we had an all-night-of-prayer, committing the campus, the students, and the academic year to the only One capable enough to handle all that that entails...and after thus spending the night, people went to various local businesses for breakfast...

...the nice thing about being up all night...is that it makes everything seem funny.

Lenn and Rachel, possibly the most entertaining pair of debaters I have ever met...she practices her kick-boxing skills on him, and he...shows off his evasion tactics while slinging sarcastic insults over both shoulders. I'm crossing my fingers they both survive the next semester...

Gina and Gabriela, after our first (and only) roommate swim outing...

and...Gina had a birthday! We love birthdays. So we got her a cake. And we put candles on it. And then we found out that candles aren't legal in the dorms. Oops.

Anthony and Andre went with me to WalMart one day, just because...and by the time we'd gotten to the vitamin aisle, we had done some skillful deductive reasoning...and that's how we realized that we were ALL wearing red t-shirts. So we took a picture...

...and Anthony texted it to all his friends...

...and we discovered that texting causes Andre's blood pressure to rise. Or maybe it rose because we were threatening to confiscate his chocolate milk. (trying to help him break the addiction...duh. That's what friend are FOR)

And then, a few weeks later, we went on a dorm outing, taking a whole lot of girls, and about half as many boys. The purpose of this gathering was to encourage the formation of deep and meaningful friendships while engaging in possibly brain-damaging or life-ending activities...

So...we went to the little creeky thingee with the big rock doohickies? And we jumped off the rocks...in order to show how much intelligence, common sense, and general wisdom we had gained from our college experience thus far. It. was. amazing. Especially if you didn't jump out far enough to avoid the rocks at the bottom. Heh.

And then, a few weeks later, just because we could...we decided to do a "Nerd" theme for one of our hall meetings. Yeah. Kelly doesn't always wear those glasses. She doesn't want to frighten other students with her obvious intellectual abilities.

The umbrella was really a nice touch. Some people can totally make an umbrella look nerdy...

The conglomerate effect of nerd night was quite...overwhelming. Never before have I seen so many pairs of glasses with tape covering the bridge...

Adieu to 2009

It's officially the turning of a new year. As we stand at the close of the first decade of a new century, there is much to reflect upon, many yet-unanswered questions hanging in the balances, much uncertainty, much pessimism, and yet...SO much for which we can be thankful.

As I sat tonight in our warm living room, surrounded by the impish little faces of a lot of smallish Kulps and a few rather biggish Beatys, I was made mindful yet again of how much meaning, security, and satisfaction is given to us through relationships--first and foremost that which we have with our Heavenly Father, but secondarily, through those which we have with the hundreds and thousands of people whom God places in our lives for us to pour into and learn from.

In looking back over this year, I realize that over and over again, in those times when I was really struggling, wrestling with big questions, or just feeling overwhelmed by the unknownness of life, it was often through relationships--through people--that the faithfulness and love of God was poured into my life when I least expected but most needed it.

Plus, life would be so much less interesting if there were no other humanoids--for real.
Tonight, for example, as our lovely guests were packing up and getting ready to head out the door, we noticed that the youngest little dude was MIA.

We found him upstairs...dribbling finger nail polish onto the floor with a fascinated expression on his wee face. There was something so delightfully comical about the whole thing--he'd given himself a bright pink goatee, was standing uncertainly in a large puddle of pinkness, of which still more was dripping from the upturned bottle in his chubby hand, and every few seconds he would gingerly lift one tiny sneaker, his mouth shaped into a wonder-filled "O" as he set his foot down in a different spot, gazing in amazement at the small pink print left behind on the linoleum behind him. It'd been approximately three minutes since we'd lost sight of him--these little people are ridiculously efficient in their uses of time, I'm telling you...

It was sort of a unique idea...I mean, it's a new year, so why not change the interior decorating a little, right? If splotches are in for the walls, why not carry it over to the floors? Think outside the box. Or the bottle. Whatever works for you.

So yeah. I'm excited about 2010. Cuz while I don't have all the answers, and I really have no clue what might happen during the next twelve months, life's an adventure that's pretty much out of my hands, and nothing takes our God by surprise.

Therefore, I wish you all a marvelous New Year, and hope the next twelve months are filled with unexpected blessings and plenty of growing experiences. In the meantime, I'll be upstairs in my bedroom slippers decorating the floor with blue fingernail polish...