Before I hit the road..

This is my last blog before I leave for the best Christmas ever!! I am pretty pumped about it!! Actually, I am MORE than pumped!!! I am ECSTATIC!!!

I got up this morning and tried to do some more packing, went to Atmore to eat, came back home and finished my packing for the most part, and Sarah came over for a little while to talk and hang out. She gave me some pretty sweet mittens and hat! Super cute and totally my style! :) I also have been doing laundry and getting all my things washed and dried.

Tonight, I went to church and heard a testimony from a missionary from Thailand, which was awesome. Then, my church prayed over me for my trip. :)

Now, I am trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I leave out tomorrow!! This is actually becoming real! This is something I have been wanting to do for 3 years now and it is about to happen. God's timing is always perfect, no doubt about it! His plans are always better. He will always be with us. He will always guide us. He will always take care of us. We are safe in His arms. Don't forget that!

I was thinking today about everything that has happened in the past year and A LOT has happened. Lots of changes, ups, downs, and turning things around in my life. Everything has changed for the better though. Praise the Lord! People have left out of my life and then people have been added and I like the new people a lot. Not that I didn't like the people who left, it is just there is a season and time for everything and everyone and I especially like the new people in my life. :)

Things to pray for: safety, boldness in my witness, that I make use of every opportunity to share the Gospel with others, and spiritual warfare. Oh! And that we do not get sick!

So, I am off to bed due to getting up early. Hope you have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! :)

Love in Him- MaeLee
Psalm 37:4

2 days!

I got to spend my time with family and friends today. My PawPaw called me last night to tell me that he was coming to see me this morning. So, he came over and talked with me for a little while and gave me advice about going out of the country. After he left, I got ready to go eat with my cousins, Candi and Chasity. We always have a great time together. We laughed and laughed some more!!

I ran errands around town and got things taken care of that I needed to. I hung around Candi's shop for while, which is always fun. I always seem to get into something while I am there. I had something going on with my car and Judson helped me out with that. Praise the Lord for gentlemen and men who know about vehicles! :) Then, I left home again to go meet with one of my best friends, Hannah. We had dinner together and got to talk about everything. I just wished she lived closer to me like she used to so I could see her more often! Hannah is an amazing woman of God and she has helped me with and through so much! God has definitely blessed me with a great friend!

I have just been chilling since then. I found some of my old cds on my way home though and jammed out to them! :) I have watched "The Grinch" while sitting around and not doing anything. I noticed that the main theme of the movie is about Cindy Lou trying to understand the meaning of Christmas and basically how it is NOT about the gifts.

So, the inquisitive side of me decided to look up when the exchanging of gifts began. It started a long time ago around the 4th century when a bishop decided to help out others. Now, it has turned into a HUGE ordeal about presents and that is what most people base Christmas on. People have forgot the TRUE meaning of Christmas. CHRISTmas is based upon the birth of JESUS CHRIST!! I am so excited that I get to spend my Christmas spreading the Gospel to people who have never heard about God!! I know that this is going to be my best Christmas EVER and it is all because I will be experiencing what Christmas is truly about. :)

Tomorrow is going to be my last day blogging. Thursday I leave out to meet up with my all of my team, except Amber. So, if Tim continues to blog the next two days, then we will be even on the times we missed blogging. Please keep me and my team in your prayers! Thanks!!

Have a great night!!

Time to face the music

Tomorrow will mark 3 days before I fly out. Oh! today has completely amazing! It seriously has. I got to get a lot of sleep in, pack the majority of my things, visit with my mom and her co-workers, make a random trip to Mobile, get things I needed from there, pick up awesome salad and bread sticks from Olive Garden, worship and talk to God on my way there and back, and spend some more time studying His Word tonight. Also, I got in around 100 texts from people telling me that they are praying for me and my team! Talk about feeling God's love!!

I needed $3,500 for my trip and I got that. Then, I also have around $900 extra and that is after I gave $200 to a team member who needed it to finish paying their way. I do not understand whatsoever why God is so good to me!! I mean, this is crazy!! Why would He choose to bless me and take care of me the way He does?? I deserve NOTHING! I mean nothing. I am a horrible person. I am a sinner. I do not always follow Him and His commands. I do not shine my light for Him like I should. I deserve nothing. I am worthless and an epic fail in comparison to Christ.

"All of us have become unclean, and all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6
"There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins." Ecclesiastes 7:20

I received some more money today. It was another $100. This time it came from someone who is not a Christian. Someone who I had never asked money from. Yes, she has given money before, but I have never asked once for it. She always writes me a card and says that she will be "thinking about me". This time she wrote she will be "praying for me and she knows that God is going to bless me". I read this before I opened the separate card with the money in it. When I read it, I just started crying. And then when I opened to see how much money I was, i really started crying. It is amazing how God use people in your life to share the Gospel. There are so many Christians who are opposed to missions and sending money with missionaries, and then there are people who are not Christians and are willing to give to others. Something is wrong with this picture.

Mark 10:21-23 "Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack..go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Tim mentioned me yesterday in his blog about praying for me and my team, so I am mentioning him in mine today. Please pray for him as he is preparing to preach on January 2nd at FBC Abbeville. Tim is about to start his last semester at Troy and then his plan is to go onto seminary at Lakeview Baptist in Auburn. Tim is a great guy who truly loves the Lord with all his heart and seeks to glorify God in all he does. So, please pray for him. :)

Tomorrow I get to spend time with some people before I leave out. So, be ready for some great stories come tomorrow.
Peace out!

Oh man!!

Today has been a wonderful day!!!! Got to worship with my church family and then ate lunch with some awesome people. I went to wal-mart to spend more money. :/ I have a love/hate relationship with that place. I came home to wrap my dirty santa gift and bake cookies for the Christmas party.

I went back to church to watch the children's musical and they did an awesome job! After that, I headed over to Sarah and Neal's for the party. We had a great time! I went in with toilet paper and came out with 2 new cds! Whoop whoop!! :)

I have a TON of thoughts running through my mind about everything today. It is really sinking in that I am leaving the country. There are some other things going on as well, but leaving the country is the biggest thing!! I have a whirlwind of emotions going on inside of me! Please be in prayer for me with this.

Hope you have a great week!! :)

Just a few more days..

Tim and I only have a few more days left in this 30 day blogging challenge. I am one up on him since he has missed 3 days and I have missed 2 days. I almost forgot tonight and I remembered as I was getting into bed.

My parents left early this morning to go to Mobile to see my grandmother. She is in ICU and they are trying to keep her stable. She will have surgery on her leg in the morning at 8 AM. So, please be in prayer for her. I slept until 9. I was hoping to sleep later, but my body woke itself up unfortunately. I got ready for the day and then headed to town to pick up some things I needed for my trip. Got to see some people I have not seen in a while. I came back home and watched a LOT of cake shows. I have decided that if nursing completely fails on me, then I am going to culinary school. I have always said that, but now I really mean it. I love cooking and baking! My mom was telling me last night that I needed to go to culinary school and I said I agree!! I decided to bake some cookies while watching the show for tonight. After that, I went outside and walked around the yard and just soaked up some of God's greatness!! Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love watching sunsets and sunrises!! They are my favorite part of the day!! God creates a masterpiece everyday! :)

Tonight I had Christmas with my family. We had dinner and I opened my gifts. I got some new luggage, which was well-needed since mine has been through it with all the traveling I have been doing. I got new sweaters, DVDs, gloves, jewelry, nice coat, and a new Nikon! My camera that given to me by a good friend for high school graduation was either lost or stolen back in July when I was chaperoning a youth conference in B-ham. So, I am pretty excited about the new camera!! God has truly blessed me with a wonderful family and friends!!

Something I have been praying about the past few months is truly becoming a Proverbs 31 woman. I want to be true and real woman of God! I want my only focus is to be on God and serving Him in my full capacity! I want people to see God before they see me. I tend to lose focus so easily though. I am sinner and fail God in every way possible and He STILL loves me. I deserve nothing of His or any blessing He bestows upon me!! It is so crazy to think that after doing the wrong things over and over and over and over and over again...He is still there for me. I know that if I had a friend that was constantly upsetting me, stabbing me in the back, lying to me, breaking promises, being mean to me, and everything else I would no longer want to be their friend. But God is God!! God is UH-MAZ-ING!!!!!! There is no other way to put it!! I am so glad I get to live this life He has planned out for me. I pray that I just do everything to glorify Him and only Him. So, if you want to pray for me about something, then pray that I open and willing to do everything God has called me to do and become the woman of God He wants me to be. :)

Have a great day worshiping with your faith family tomorrow!! :)

Rest

I am so super tired. I guess I did do a lot today, but at the same time I feel like I didn't. I got up and packed my things to go home. I delivered some books back to my nursing instructors that they let me borrow and ran some other errands too. On my way home, I found out that my grandmother had been picked up by an ambulance and I needed to go straight to the hospital. Come to find out, she had fallen at home and she broke her femur. They transferred her to Springhill Hospital in Mobile and she will more than likely have surgery tomorrow.

I did something out of the ordinary today. I got the urge to highlight my hair and so I sent a text out to 3 people asking their opinions on what I should do to it. Morgan's response: "blonde or caramel" Sarah's: "hot pink!" Judson's: "Why are you asking me?" So I did both Morgan's and Sarah's suggestions. The top part of my hair is now a dark blonde/light brown and the bottom is pink! I have never done anything like this, but I kind of like it!! I was really nervous about it at first, but once the color is on there is nothing you can do about it. It turned good, I think. No one has said anything bad about it...yet. haha!

I think I am about to go to bed now. Hope you have a great night and weekend!! :)

Facing the Facts

I took my last final today, so the semester is officially over for me. I came out with 2 D's in my classes. There is first time for everything. I had a moment of weakness, but it did not last too long. God's plans are better than my own and now I am just following Him and only Him. This has been fun so far..I should have let God take full control a long time ago. My life is nothing short of interesting, amazing, fun, and awesome! :)

I worked this afternoon and got to babysit this evening. It wasn't the Hoopers though. After I got back, I decided that I wanted to get out of Livingston and go watch a movie. So, I looked up what was playing because I don't ever know due to having no social life, which in turn means I do not watch tv and I don't know what is ever going on in the world. Anyways there wasn't anything good playing in Meridian with time we could go to..so we went to t-town to watch "Tangled". We sang, rapped, and sang some more!! The movie was awesome!! It was really one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. It was not a typical Disney movie. It was not "kiddy-ish" due to it having a lot of adult humor. It was a wonderful movie. New favorite for sure!!

I have come to find out that people assuming things is a new annoyance of mine. Do not assume things, just ask if you want to know. Assuming gets you nowhere just so you know. I will get off my soapbox now.

Anyways, I have had a great day! Oh and did I mention that I am wonderful and amazing friends?!?! God sends them to you in perfect timing. So great!! :)

Last Night

This is my last night of studying for a while and I am thrilled about it! I have been sitting in this same spot all night. I have moved all of one time. I take my last final in the morning. Whoop whoop! :)

Today has absolutely wonderful. No class for me today, of course. I went to eye doctor in Demop to get contacts and get both pairs of my glasses adjusted. I cannot remember the last time I actually wore contacts. This semester has been so busy for me that I have not made time to get them. I also got the oil changed in my car because I procrastinate and my car kept telling me over and over and over again to get it changed. So, I did!! While I about to get the oil changed, some white stuff came falling out of the sky. I think it might have been snow. haha! It snowed until like 2 something this afternoon. It was so pretty! I wish it had all sticked and been able to stay for a while, but oh well!

While at work, I studied for my final that is tomorrow. After I got off work, I went over to the farm of the family that adopted me. I was going to ride one of the horses, but ended up just feeding them instead. I will probably go try and ride tomorrow before I have to babysit. And now, as you know, I have finished studying for the night and I am going to head to bed soon. But something that stuck out to me today is how important encouraging your brothers and sisters in Christ is. I try to make it a point to encourage others, I do not always do the best of jobs, but I try. And this week others have been encouraging me and I like it! :) Another God thing that happened today is that I got MORE money in the mail for my trip to Asia. How amazing is that?? God really does supply all of our needs.

Getting Closer!!

I got the 2 shots I needed today. My arm is pretty sore. I asked to get both of them in the same arm so I would not have 2 sore arms. Bad idea. Oh well, lesson learned!

I got lost today for like the millionth time! I purposely 30 minutes early so I would be sure to get there on time or if I was early I would get seen faster. Well, I was like 10 minutes late. I was not anywhere close to where I needed to be. This is why my parents got me a GPS for Christmas last year. Come to find out, when I wrote down the address the office gave me I did not write the WHOLE address. Typical MaeLee. Hargrove Rd and Hargrove Rd East are 2 totally different places by the way. I was on the wrong side of town and by myself. Sometimes I am glad I am independent, like today. Oh yeah, before I got off on this exit my car tells me that I low on gas. Just great! So, in the middle of being lost and not knowing where in the world I am..I am looking for a gas station. I cannot find a gas station. I am worrying about finding a gas station because when my car tells me that I am low on gas...I am REALLY low on gas and it had been telling me this for about 15 minutes. haha! Finally, I just said out loud "God, please send me a gas station!" Then, BOOM! I turned a corner and there is gas station and a nice one at that. I did not feel like something bad would happen to me if I went there. After I got gas, I called the office that I was going to to get the directions I needed. She told me that I was on the wrong side of town and told me the CORRECT address. Needless to say, I finally got there and all in one piece. :)

After I got back from getting my shots, I got ready to go to a Christmas party with the Hoopers. Then, I went over to their house to help the kids get ready. We left and got there and the kids got to see Santa. Santa gave all of them a gift. Came back home and put them to bed and now here I am.

God is always with you, no matter where you are. You can always call upon Him for help! :)

Almost done.

I am one final down and one to go now. I cannot wait! I am leaving out of Livingston on Friday and it cannot get here fast enough. Oh, I have officially failed out of nursing school. There is no way I will be able to pass with the grades I have. So, I am in school for at least another year. Most people would be upset about not passing, but I am really okay with it. I have been so busy with school and studying and clinicals and work that I do not have much time for other things or people. So, it will be okay because I know God holds the plans for my life and He is in control of everything I do. :)

All I did today was take my final and work this afternoon. I got a little nap in. I have not had a nap in a very long time and it felt great! I have studied off and on tonight for my OB/Maternal/ Pediatrics final when I was not distracted by other things. haha! I seem to be easily distracted these days. But nonetheless, I still have to study. Blah!

Tomorrow I am getting my shots that I need to go out of the country. I know, I know..I am bad procrastinator. Anyways...back to studying I go.

Tied up

So now me and Tim are tied up on missing blogs. I basically purposefully missed yesterday's blog because I was too tired to blog and did not feel like staying up any later. Now, I am blogging because I am procrastinating from studying. haha!

Yesterday I spent the day with Melissa and the 3 kids(Hoopers). We went to Christmas on the River in Demopolis. We went 2 of the many parts of the weekend. The kids got tired and ill quick due to not having naps. We left there around 1:30 and went back to Livingston to put them to sleep. I left and got to watch about a hour of the Auburn game and had to head back to help Melissa because Archie V would not go to sleep. So, I played outside with him for a while to tire him out. I love kids and I would say that I love those kids more than any other kids anywhere, but I am always glad that I can give them back to their parents. I am not in that stage of life yet and I thank God that I am not. I love spending time with them and loving on them, but they are a ton of responsibility.

After that, I came back to my place to do more stuff. My roomie, Morgan, spent the night with a friend Friday and Saturday, so when she came in we talked for a long time about everything to catch up on the 2 days we missed with each other. I did not go to bed until after 1 AM.

Today I went and worshiped with my family here in Livingston. We had our meal after the service. I love getting to know everyone better, especially other families. I recently had a family "adopt" me since I am in the watchcare program and I got to spend some time with them today. The reason they wanted to adopt me is because they found out that I love horses and they have horses for me to ride. :) I also play with their grandchildren! So, this afternoon they offered to me to come over and ride and to bring friends. So, I did!!! I have not rode in a while, so I was pretty excited. Morgan was one of the ones to go with me. I wanted her to go because she has not rode a horse since she fell off one and broke her arm when she was 12. She rode today for the 1st time since then. Big accomplishment for her!

Since then, I have been studying for my nursing final that I have in the morning. I really do not want to be studying, but I need to. It is just one of those things I guess.

So, I am going to stop procrastinating and get back to studying I suppose. Hope your week starts off great!! :)

Dragging

I have stayed up way too late every night this week and today it caught up with me. So, I plan on going to bed really soon. There was no class or finals for me today, so I went to work the majority of the day. I got an invite in the middle of the day to go with the Hoopers for family night out of town. I, of course, said yes because I have not seen the them in 2 weeks. When I got off work at 3 I went over to their house to help the kids get ready while A4 and Melissa got themselves ready. We went and got Mae(4 y/o) from school and headed to go out to eat and shopping. Kids truly do say the darnedest things! haha! I have missed being around those kids! They are so precious! I was pulling in their drive and Archie and A5(2 y/o) were outside and when A5 saw me his face lit up! I love it! He came running up to me and just a jabbering.

Tomorrow I will be helping with the kids while Archie goes to the Auburn game in ATL. So, Melissa and I will be going to Christmas on the River with the kids. It should be a fun and interesting day. They always keep me on my toes, that's for sure! :)

So, like I said...I am about to hit the sack! G'Night!

Jokes

So, I am opening today's blog with a joke. My jokes may or may not be funny to you, but I like to laugh whether or not it is stupid.
Here it is: What is green and has four wheels?

Answer: Grass...I lied about the wheels. HAHA! :)

It has been a great day! I had two nursing tests today and I am so glad those are out of the way. The only thing that stands between me and Christmas break is my nursing finals. Finally! But, I do have to say that this semester has flown by. College in itself has flown by. It has gone so much faster than high school ever thought about going. And I was thinking today about how much I want to be 15 again. I just want to go back and live everything over again. There are a few things I might would change, but I have always loved my life. I am very content and satisfied with where I am in life now. It is an amazing feeling to be at complete peace and not stressed about anything. This truly is an indescribable feeling. I know that God is in full control of my life and He is leading me where He wants me to go.

After I took my tests, I went into work for the rest of the day. Got some good laughs there! haha! I am one of the 2 college students that work down there and everyone I work with is great! We laugh all the time. Oh and all the jokes we tell and pull on each other. One co-worker thinks it is always hilarious to turn everything on my computer upside down. Not cool because I can never remember how to correct it. I always have to get someone else to come fix it for me.

I have studied, made cookies, and watched "Morning Glory" tonight. Studying=blah. Cookies=yum! Morning Glory=great movie! :)

But anyways, I like jokes. :)

25 and 16

Today is December 1st! That means there are 25 days until Christmas and 16 days until I leave the country. Tonight it got pretty real that I am leaving so soon, which made me even more excited! :) God is pretty amazing!!

Today I got to sleep later than usual and when I did get up I really did not want to get out of bed because I was tired and it was freezing outside of my covers. So, I grabbed my laptop and made some pretty sweet videos of my friends and I dancing dressed as elves. Oh, I have been on a laughter kick the past two days and have not been able to stop laughing. Seriously. I laughed all last night like no other. I really am surprised that my stomach did not hurt today from all the laughing I did. And so when I made the videos today, I laughed even more because they were hilarious. After I made videos, I headed over to BCM. It was our last meeting of the semester and we had great food. Home-made potato soup and cornbread along with oatmeal raisin cookies! Good stuff!

Then, I headed to work for the rest of the day and studied for my nursing tests that I have tomorrow. Starting tomorrow I have to do some serious studying/reviewing for my nursing finals. After work, Morgan and I went got supper and ate and then did some more studying before heading to a college group bonfire. Turns out the pastor grilled hamburgers for us, so I didn't need to eat beforehand. Oh well! But we had smores, so all was well! Smores are my favorite! :) Morgan caught some marshmallows on fire and slung them at someone on accident!! It was pretty funny! And now, I have just finished up some more studying for nursing. It never ends! Today was full of great fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ!