Congratulations!

June 9th marked the beginning of a very exciting journey for two of my best friends. It was Fuller's graduation. Becca and Sophie both walked across the stage to receive their Masters of Divinity degrees. It's been great to share with both of them some of their times in seminary. I've known Sophie for 6 years now--and seen her enter seminary and now leave seminary. I've only known Becca for a 1 1/2 years but we have become close in that short amount of time. How much fun it has been to see both of them learn, grow, and change in that time!

There were celebratory events all weekend. One of my favorite times was joining the Draffins for tea at the Huntington Garden.

The biggest event was a joint party in Becca and Sophie's honor put on by a San Marino church member. Here's a picture of the two of them with 5 of the youth group girls. The party was a great mix of Fuller students and church members. Being a member of both of those groups, I had a great time. :)And the actual event of graduation was...well, long. So long that we made up a graduation degree for Kernie the monkey.

He received a doctorate in philosophy of theology. Yes--we were bored.
But we got through the ceremony finally--and grabbed a picture with the graduates. Way to go girls! Now they are both in the process of looking for calls to eventually be ordained pastors in the PC(USA) church. It's exciting to think of the amazing ways that God is going to use both of them.

Cross that off the to-do list...

I had an academically hard quarter with both my professors being some of the most challenging professors at Fuller--and two of the most powerful women at Fuller. It was a quarter filled with many papers, many books, and honestly many learning moments. But it was also a quarter filled with many to-do lists. But I crossed off my last thing on the to-do list this afternoon in finishing my last final and am DONE with the spring quarter! Whew!

Neighborly Love

My apartment's balcony overlooks the front yard of a quite eccentric houseful of people. My favorite is the guy who is the aspiring rock star...I often get to hear band practice with not so good guitar or drum solos. There are frequent loud conversations in their front yard--sometimes a party, sometimes an argument... There's always some kind of activity. I haven't spoken a whole lot with my neighbors--just a wave from time to time when I sit on the balcony.

One day when my roommate Julie was out on our balcony one guy from the house told her that he hoped her tomato plants were okay. He had been watering his own plants when he decided that the tomato plants needed water too. He pointed his watering hose from his yard across the fence, mailboxes, and sidewalk that separate our living places and aimed at our second story balcony and watered the tomato plants. Odd, yes. But sweet too--because he was showing us neighborly love in the only way he knew how.

Remembering

Some say that today I officially entered my mid-twenties. 8:33pm tonight marked the 24 years I've been in this world. I've been reading through the Old Testament over the last few months and have continually been reminded of God's command to the Israelites--to remember what He has done for them. This morning I tried to reflect and remember what during the past year God has done for me. As I began to write, I realized what an amazing year it has been. Blessings abound...healing from Crohn's Disease from surgery, incredible financial provision, a new amazing community and emotional healing at Cursillo... These are only a few things on my list. Praise be to God! I can only imagine what the next year will bring..

It was a year worth celebrating--so celebrating we did. Friends took me out for a lovely lunch and we continued on to have a day filled with laughs and goofiness as we shopped at Paseo. My friends then tricked me tonight in coming over for a small surprise birthday celebration at Sophie's. We will keep celebrating this summer by going to see Wicked June 19th.

At CPK for lunch...I got a free birthday ice cream sunday

Late night celebration at Sophie's

And I have to rejoice that I now am the same number as my favorite television show...24. By the way--check out that artistic cake.