Why I'm Excited

Dear readers, there are many, many reasons why I am excited. For starters, my summer has gotten off to an excellent start, with some weddings, some nice little trips, and some good old fashioned family fun. I'll give you some pictures to look at rather than words, because aren't pictures worth 1000 words? Here are like...5000.





Here is a snapshot from wedding #1, my dear friend Brooke.













Here we have some of my favorite people in the world at the Brooke James-Tyler Tallon nuptials. The curly-headed boy on the left was actually a groom himself this past weekend. Congratulations, sir. (Don't know why this is blue and underlined...it doesn't link to anything.)










My dearest friends in the world, Daniela and Lara Morgan. I was destined to be friends with them since before our moms met our dads, and life has carried us from Brazil to Santa Barbara to Abilene together...and then to the British Library, where this photo was taken.









And here we are on the Cherwell River through Oxford, England, smiling so big because we didn't have to paddle. (Not at that point, anyway. Janine bravely took the oars later on into the trip and safely delivered us back our docking point. Hooray!)













Ok. Now for another reason why I am so excited...and another visual aid.
Now, my friends, if you are new to this space, you may not know what this is. But if you have been reading for a while....you have seen this before. Except last time you saw this chart, it had a much, much larger blue region. Out of the $18,000ish that I am raising for the first year of my internship, I only lack 1.5%!!!! Which equals between $200-300. This is AMAZING. This is the chart we've all been waiting for, and this is the chart that makes me not just excited, but elated.

And now, reason #3 why I'm excited. The very reason that the chart makes me so excited, actually. I would like to share with you snippets of emails I get from the missionary in Natal, and let you see why exactly I'm so jazzed to get down there and begin working with them.


"hi my special girl,
it´s very good to hear from you. everybody is waiting for you in september, 3rd. each month we are talking about you are coming and the people is asking me: are you sure cris is coming? and i answer: yes, i´m. then they ask me: can i go with you to the airport to take cris? i believe i´ll need to buy a bus until september. ah ah! we are very busy right now because we have many personal bible classes during the week and programs with the people at the weekends. we have cooking class, english class, class to read and write to old people. ladies bible class and girls bible class. i need you here...
the church is growing day by day and we have many new people. you´ll love them. they are very special people. please, pray for this new people.
we have a english conversation class waiting for you. i promise them you are coming to help us and they are very excited. they are not christian yet but i gave them an english bible to study for while....
i´m very proud of you about your graduation. congratulation baby! i´ll send you some pictures from us.
we love you. even when we don´t write you we have you in our hearts and mind. we want you here. God is sending you for us.
we love you,

marisa"


Mmm...beautiful, isn't it?