137 days...

As many people know, my family is moving to Africa this year in May. People ask me questions daily ranging from, "How do you feel about the move?"  to "Where will you be going to school?" to just straight up, "Why?"  This blog is kinda gonna be a place where I can answer those questions and also just say day to day how I'm feeling about the move. Things I'm excited for and things I'm nervous about. 

When my parents told me that we were moving to Africa it didn't seem that bad. I was actually pretty cool with it, and then they said it was going to be in a YEAR. Wait a second... so I'll be moving to Africa for my sophomore, junior, AND senior year of high school? The years that you're a teenager and are some pretty memorable years? I was okay with it, but it seemed pretty far away, so I kinda put it out of my mind for a little while.  

After that conversation it felt like every time I would think about absolutely anything, it seemed related to moving to Africa.  For example, did they have "prom" in Africa? Thinking about prom led me to, where would I be going to high school??? Would I be home schooled? I was starting to get a little freaked out. What teenager wouldn't be a little freaked out? All of your friends say, "Wow! You're so lucky! I wish I could move to Africa!" I would say that too if one of my friends was moving somewhere cool, but then it's me whose the one moving, and it doesn't seem as cool as it seemed when it was someone else. Of course I knew it was going to be an amazing experience, and that I’d look back on it and think it was incredible, but at the time all I was thinking about was my friends, theatre, school, prom, my cell phone, and my straightener, priorities.  

The end of 8th grade is when my parents told me about the move, and that summer I was going on a church retreat called, "The Walk" with North Point. Leading up to "The Walk" I had really been praying the God would tell ME that we were supposed to move, just confirm it. What if my parents had heard wrong and they were actually supposed to wait until I got out of high school??? Or, what if they were supposed to move and I was supposed to stay in Georgia? I was waiting for God to tell me personally, not just tell my parents. Well, I got what I asked for, confirmation. It was the last day of the retreat (The Walk) and we were in morning session. Truthfully, I don't even remember what the speaker was saying, but I felt like he was talking straight to me. No, it wasn't even really him talking straight to me, I felt like God was talking straight to me, but through this speaker. I realized that there was more to life then just my little "1st world problems." I was being selfish. I knew in that moment that we were supposed to move, and I was at peace with it.  That was the first time I've ever felt like God was talking to me, and it was pretty cool. 

It's been 7 months since I heard that now and I'll admit, I still have those bad days where I go back into the "1st world problems" of what about my friends, cell phone and straightener, but I have to remind myself that He has it all under control.  (:  He knows what I think are some "priorities," and has been so amazing with giving me little, what I like to call, "God Kisses." 

He provided me with a friend, Bailey Klee, who will be moving with us and going to school with me, a cell phone that will actually work in Swaziland, AND a straightener that had duel voltage (so it'll work in Africa.)  He's got it all under control. 137 days to go, and I’m ready.