God's Favorite Word is: "Surprise!"

Sorry it's been awhile! These past two weeks seemed to have just flown by!



Last Tuesday, Sarah Barlow and I took our friend Jenny to the Chicago Botanic Gardens for her birthday...that place is absolutely beautiful!! I'd like to take even a portion of that place and put it in my backyard! The last two gardens we went to were my favorite: the Japanese garden and the English Walled garden.



The days have just been filled with catching up on friends' lives, being with family (my sister's finally home!), and getting surprise plans from God!



Growing up, I had, what I like to call, a 2nd set of parents and siblings. :) This past weekend my "second parents" renewed their vows for their 25th wedding anniversary. It's such a beautiful thing to witness the commitment in their marriage & my own parents' marriage considering this day and age:



And then there's always the most fun part of weddings--the reception!






That same night, my friend Dan was in town and came by to visit. We both had weddings that day, but managed to squeeze in some chill/catch up time before hitting the sack. Haha, needless to say we were both pretty wiped from the day! Here's some PhotoBooth fun (haha he might hate me for putting this up!):



Hmm...picking teeth? Eww. Anyway, after church the next day we went back to the "renewed Bride & Groom's" house for a picnic w/ them and the family that was their for the wedding.



I love Filipino parties! Haha, basically, you come around lunch, talk and laugh really loud with the family while sipping coconut juice(if you can handle the sweetness) til dinner, re-heat the food and stay til midnight! There's always a little karaoke in between. lol

In the time spent outside of these events, God's been bringing in some pretty unexpected things to the table! It's been that type of thing where I say I'll never do this, or this will never happen and then it does. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about! lol It's all been mostly good! A few doors are opening and a couple have been shut, but God's given peace over everything so it's great! I've been learning so much about faith and being patient and humble as a team player instead of just a acting as leader all the time. All of it is exciting really! I've been learning so much this summer that I can't even begin to imagine what the year ahead is going to bring...craziness!! But not knowing can sometimes be the fun of it. :)

So stay posted in the next couple weeks, it should get interesting!