{thirty.}

wow.

thirty.
yep.  i turned thirty this month and let me tell you... i'm pumped about it.

for real.

most people i've talked to get so freaked out by thirty years old, but i've had a phenomenal first thrity years and am so excited for what's to come.  as i approached thirty years i started thinking back about what i've walked through and i can't be help but be overcome with gratitude of where God has lead my steps and the opportunities i've been given and experiences i've been able to have.

just in the last year i've been to haiti four times.  what the heck?!?  how'd that happen?  what an amazing gift to go and experience this country and love on her people.  this shot is from my last time there and man i love it.  i love those haitian babies.  can't get enough of them!!

i think my time spent in haiti is one of the most special things i've done in my thirty years.  maybe it's the humanity of it all... the sheer depravity of the situation in haiti is overwhelming, but the hope and love that exudes from the people overwhelms my soul.  the way that place pulls on my heartstrings and causes me to ask myself the question "does anything else really matter but loving these people and sharing what i've been blessed with?"  God's truth, education, wealth (yes if you live in this country you ARE wealthy), my time and love... it's all worth it!!  

...and guess what??... haiti gives me SO much in return.  my heart is so full when my feet are dirty and on haitian soil! i love the beautiful community of people down there. whether it's the team i lead down to mission of hope, the other teams that we have the pleasure of meeting and working alongside, or the haitians that i get to meet and have started developing friendships with, the community overwhelms me with gratitude every. single. time.  

without a doubt i have grown in my confidence as a child of God,  as a woman who can travel the world and trust that no matter what, God has me in His loving care as i love on my neighbors.  this makes all my worries and fears just melt away and joy abounds.

welcoming thirty and thinking on the past has made me so grateful for life.  the life i'm living definitely does not look like the life i had "planned," but man i'm so glad it doesn't.  the life the Lord has allowed me to live has been a beautiful one so far.  one filled with laugher and love mixed with heartache, struggles, and tears.  yet i've had more blessings in this life so far than my heart and mind can take in.  

gratitude.  it's the stance i take when looking back over my life so far.  gratitude for so many things.  for family, for friendships, for education, for joy, for creation that speaks to me in beautiful ways, for hard experiences that stretch and grow me, for hard work that does the same, for grace, for experiences, for adventures, for the church.  there are so many things that my mind continues to list of things i'm grateful for and i think that's where God wants our attitudes and our hearts.  grateful.

so as i enter this 30th year of life i'm reminded of this post from March of 2011 and continue to move forward with open hands, living adventurously expectant, & asking with child like faith as best as i can, "what's next Papa?"

::this resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!::  romans 8:15-17 {the message}

{with.gratitude}

aw