What if Chuck Norris had a mullet????

I feel like I have so many random things I want to blog about today! First of all, I'm sitting in our living room IN THE SUN!!! This is huge. It got really cold Tuesday, but it's worth it! I will gladly take cold and sunny over warm-ish and rainy! I can now say that it is definitely winter here in Poland. I'm greatly enjoying my cuddle-duds and big sweaters. However, do you think that this has changed the fashions here in Olsztyn? Absolutely not. Just watching some of the girls here walk around makes me cold! They're still wearing capris with tall boots, and oftentimes have a few inches of skin hanging out!
Anyhoo, in no particular order, here are some highlights from the week:
**Saturday, we went out to a local village and helped the Baptist church here put on a program for the village kids. These are mostly kids who came to a day camp the church held last summer, so they came back to visit the kids and put on a puppet show, did some songs, had sandwiches (which we helped make...a non-linguistic task!), and showed a video that Sean put together with footage from camp. The kids had a great time, and the principal of the school wants the church to come back monthly and do something for the kids.
**Sunday evening, we had America night. We watched Remember the Titans and ate homemade pizza. Good stuff.
**signed the papers for our new flat and get the keys this Thursday. woo-hoo!
**met with Ola, the woman we met our first full day here. It was good talking with her and getting to practice our Polish a bit, too!
**helped the Stevensons get their house back in order after they had some work done on their house
**bought two boxes of some of the nastiest juice known to man...mint apple! eww! We bought the first box, smelled it, were pretty sure it was fermented, threw it down the drain, bought another box, smelled AND tasted it, were apalled, threw it down the drain AGAIN and realized that it was indeed apple mint juice! Really, who does that?
**laughed so hard on the bus that I hit my head on the pole behind me...ridiculous Americans!
**had the bus doors close in my face, with Amber already inside, and had to watch her and several Poles laughing as the bus drove away...mmmhmmm, good for the pride =)
**and now, I've saved the two best for last: this week, we learned the Polish word for mullet AND found out that our teacher (remember Milosc? He's still hanging in there!) had a mullet when he was little. Nice. And, finally, would you believe me if I said that Chuck Norris jokes have arrived in Poland as well???? It's true. I would not lie about something as great as this. And, might I add, I have seen several Chuck Norris classics playing on Polish televison while we've been here. I love this land. In honor of good ol' Chuck, or Walker as we like to call him, I'm going to re-post a list of Chuck Norris jokes. It's Friday and we could all use a good laugh.

One More Thing, And That's ALL I Need...

Can you tell I have some free time on my hands tonight? I figured I might as well get caught up while I can!
Wednesday afternoon, Amber and I went out to the University where we'll be primarily trying to meet students. Our primary job right now is language study, so we won't begin going out to the University and meeting with students full time until the end of February. However, we can definitely pray, so we decided to head out and prayer walk (which is basically just praying for a place while you, um, walk) at the University, also hoping that we'd get a little more familiar with the University and maybe even begin to meet some people or make some contacts. It was a great time and I wanted to share some of the pictures with you, so you could have an idea where we will be working and to ask you to pray for the students here.

There's a picture of the main gate with the University name on it (pronounced Universitet Varminsko-Mazhurski V Olshtinya)--please pray for the students, that their hearts would be opened and drawn to the Lord and that they'd find the entrance of the One who says "I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture" (John 10:9).

There's another picture of one of the many dorms on campus--please pray for all of these students in the dorms, that they'd be drawn to Christ, the One alone who satisfies and loves them

Last, this is a picture of a lake on campus. As you can see, it was a dark, dreary day, which seems to be the norm here in the winter--but also seems to reflect the general hopelessness that prevails here; please pray that the eyes of these students would be opened and that they'd meet the Light of the World, the One, True Hope of the world, that they could trust in and know:

"The God of all hope (who) fill(s) (them) with all joy and peace as (they) trust in Him, so that

(they) may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13)

One more thing...

Ok, one more post tonight, to respond to the hysterical comments on the picture post. So, Lori, I love the Polish Pirate Chic idea, but feel like I couldn't pull it off. I think that people would look at me and really think I had something seriously wrong with me. I also have a hair story for you, too. So, yes, we do have hairdryers, but we've both had hair issues here. The first morning we were here, Amber plugged in her international voltage hair straightener, ready to straighten away the humid air frizzies. We immediately noticed a slight burning odor in the air, but decided that it was simply the smell of a new straightener warming up. We had ourselves convinced until Amber actually put the straightener through her hair and we smelled the distinct odor of burning hair...smoke and everything. Yeah, it was bad. There are several sections of crispy hair...any suggestions????

I have had the issue of not getting all of the shampoo out of my hair. I mean really, am I five years old again???? We have this shower-head-on-a-hose thing that barely reaches to the top of my 5'3 head! AND forget good hair once you step outside into the hurricane! Think Flock of Seagulls...

Watch out for Those Blind Drivers!

First of all, if you guessed "Jaguar", you were right! Way to go!

Ok, on to more important news: so, we apparently survived our first hurricane in Poland. No joke. Last night it was really windy (duh),but other than that we really had no idea that there was a hurricane a-brewin'! It was even named: Kyrill. I'm thinking about getting a t-shirt that says "I survived Hurricane Kyrill". You can read more about it here if you have ridiculous amounts of free time and are interested. Now tonight, following in the crazy weather footsteps of Texas apparently, we have snow! It's just a dusting, but it's our first snow in Poland. And now we can be done. It's cold out there!
We just got back from a "team meeting" at the Stevenson's house where we were taught how to file our financial reports and got to eat homemade fajitas! Amber and I made two different kinds of yummy cookies to bring. I have really enjoyed cooking and baking here, which is one of my goals while I'm gone: to learn how to cook! So far, we've mastered omeletes, fajitas, quesadillas, chicken with pineapple and cheese, spaghetti (seriously, this is a fete for me!), homemade cake and frosting, homemade biscuits, homemade M&M cookies (BTW, M&Ms here are fantabulous...they taste a lot more like actual chocolate and less like candy coating), and homemade chocolate chip/snickers bar cookies. Phew!
And now, I leave you with a moment from our language class yesterday with our teacher Milosc (which is pronounced Meewosh, with a long o ):
Background: he's explaining the words for crosswalk and telling us how the green man on the sign means walk, the red man means don't walk; he then proceeds to inform us that we may also hear a beap to alert the blind, at which point Amber sits up straight, with a look of utter shock and "where in the world are we?!?!?!" on her face and declares, and I quote:

"They let blind people drive here?!?!?!?!?!?!"

after which proceeded many minutes of uncontrollable giggling. Milosc is thrilled to have us as his students. Pray for Milosc.

Picture Pages, Pictures Pages, time to grab your pen and pencil....

Here are the pictures from the previous post: clothes drying randomly throughout the flat; Patsy and Rebecca opening gifts; my stellar Pictionary drawing...any guesses???

Ummmm...no clever title here

This past Friday (yes, I know it's now Tuesday!!!) we celebrated Patsy's birthday as a team "family". It was really a good time. We all went out to a great restaurant here called "Hammurabi", then came back to our flat. First, we had cake (made from scratch WITHOUT a mixer and with a gas oven with only number marks for temps---it turned out pretty good, a little dry, but not bad!) and ice cream. Then, Patsy opened her gifts and got a really pretty Polish pottery coffee mug and creamer and sugar holders. She also got some beautiful cards from Abby, Cara, and Becca (Sean and Lydia's daughters). THEN, we played a game! We played pictionary and had a great time. Can you guess what my picture is? I'll give you a hint...it's a noun. Let me know what you think and I promise I'll post the correct answer!
This week has been a busy one so far. We've had language both mornings and a meeting with Sean and Lydia today, talking about what we want to see happen here and things that are going on. It really got me excited to continue meeting people here and get to work on the university campus here. Tomorrow, after language, Amber and I are planning to go to the university to check it out. Then, Thursday we're pretty much free (after language class, which we have every morning from 9-11:15), and Friday we're heading over to the Stevenson's after class for a team meeting and to spend time with a family who will be moving here in March! They currently live in Southern Poland, but will move here and join our team. Saturday, we're heading out to a nearby village for an outreach where we'll be handing out shoeboxes like Operation Christmas Child. Since Amber, Patsy, and I haven't mastered the Polish language (surprising, I know, after a week and a half of language classes!) we've been recruited to make around 200 sandwiches. I can do that!
So, that's what our week looks like. And here's some random things about life in Poland:
--most people don't have dryers; you dry your clothes on the radiators or hanging in the tub
--the fashion for the ladies here is capri pants with tall boots OR tall boots with skinny pants tucked into them...makes me cold just looking at them!
--most stores and places play American music...think Starship and Phil Collins
--Brie cheese is only about 1 dollar! yum!
--we found a new flat! It's great and I love what will be my bedroom because it reminds me of a ship's cabin =)

Funny You Should Ask...

It was SO great to read everyone's comments and offers to send packages filled with goodys! Thank you! I WOULD love it! But, there's just one thing...I don't know my address. No, really. We're all settled into a little apartment here (I'll put pictures on the next post) that is actually pretty nice. It's a great location, right next to a big park, near lots of little shops and bakeries, and really close to the part of town called Old Town (and where the mall is!). HOWEVER, in Poland, everyone has to be registered to an address and, for whatever reason, our landlady won't register us here, but wants to do so at her home address. Whatever the reason, it is definitely on the side of shady. And, for us, we have to be registered in order to get our visas (which we have to have within 90 days or we'll have to leave the country every 90 days and re-enter under a new passport stamp). Our main supervisor in Virginia would rather we don't have to do that, and our landlady says she ABSOLUTELY cannot register us here, so it looks like we'll be moving sometime in the next 90 days. Sean (our supervisor here) says it's normal and this is just a taste of how things are done here in Poland. He and his wife, Lydia, are working on finding us a new flat, we don't have to worry about that part. We'll just have to be ready to move!
So, that's the big news for today! We had our first language class and learned about 20 different ways to say "hello" and "good bye". My opinion of language day one: I like it! It sounds crazy, but I kind of like the idea of learning a new language. I think it will be good for the ol' noggin...or make me even more crazy!

A nice, hot, steamy cup of...butter????

I think I've mentioned before that I have NO clue how to move these pictures around (any help, blogging cousins?), so in no particular order: Amber struggling to open the two locks on our inside door and yet another giant lock on our outside door--which actually opens to the stairwell, not outside and uses one of those old keys

Amber and the Stevenson girls: (L to R) Cara, Abby, and Becca

Amber trying to decide if we're drinking hot cocoa or butter...hard to tell really. It smelled like butter, tasted like butter...Amber found that it came close to tasting like hot cocoa when she added sugar,but mine was already making the big swim down the drain by that point.

And I just realized that there are no pictures of me on here; I'll work on that next time!

Hello from Poland

Greetings from Poland! So, here I am...I don't even know where to start! We got in on Thursday with no problems. All of our bags arrived, Sean and Lydia and their daughters were at the airport to meet us and we were off! We ate dinner at a Polish restaurant along the way (I had pierogies...way better than the frozen ones!). Then, we unloaded our bags at our new home and crashed! Friday we spent the morning unpacking, then Sean took the three of us shopping for groceries and things like that.As we were checking out, we found that our cashier spoke English! We started talking with her and she gave us her name and number (a HUGE deal for a formal culture like Poland) so we could get together and she could practice her English. Then, we had dinner at the Stevenson's house. Saturday, we were up and at 'em pretty early to go with some of the people from the local Baptist church to go deliver shoeboxes filled with gifts from Operation Christmas Child. Amber and I went with a man who speaks English, which was way helpful. (He told us that he would talk and our job was to smile---that I can do!). Then, Saturday afternoon we met up with Lydia and the girls and had lunch in a part of town called "Old Town", because it's, um, old. Really old. Today we experienced our first church service all in Polish. I understood one sentence "David movie niet."--"David said no." Other than that, it was pretty much all over my head! However, there was a woman who came that we had delivered a gift to yesterday, so that's neat!
Right now, there's smoke flying from both Amber's and my laptop. We've been just hanging out and relaxing since church was over. We "cooked" our first meal here (grilled cheese and something that resembled tomato soup), then did some random things.
I've got some pictures that I'll post here in the next post because I'm not sure all of this will fit on one.
Well, I just got back from a little run, so it's time to shower! (and showering here is a story for another post)

Announcement....

Hear ye, hear ye...we have an addition to the Gordon family. Kyle bought himself a Jeep Wrangler today. He's officially a member of the Jeep club. Now he can do the little finger wave to all of the other Jeep drivers (what is that all about, anyway? I never waved at other Grand Prix drivers...)

He's like a kid at Christmas...oh, wait, he IS a kid at Christmas. It's a happy day in the Gordon household, (almost as exciting as Jill's news!). Now, all he needs is a puppy to ride along with him with the top off in the summer and all of Kyle's wildest dreams will have come true.

Good News!

For any of you who read my last prayer and update, I have some exciting news to share! Sean and his wife Lydia, who have been living in Poland since 2003, emailed to let me know that we've already got a person of peace! There is a woman named Ela, who is good friends with Lydia and a professor at the University where we'll be working with the students. She heard about what Amber and I will be doing and wants us to come to her classes and invite her students to meet with us outside of class! Apparently, this was totally her idea; neither Sean or Lydia asked her to do this, she came up with it on her own. She has been friends with Lydia for two years now and is totally open to studying and hearing the Word of God and even to helping them as they share about Christ, but is not yet a follower of Christ herself! She definitely fits the "profile" of a person of peace!
So, thank you for praying and praise God, who is the Lord of the Harvest...this just totally reminds me that He is "not willing that ANY should perish" 2 Peter 3:9...He has been at work in Northeast Poland, drawing people to Himself, long before we even knew to pray for a "person of peace"! It's His heart that is passionate about each one of us having new life and forgiveness in Christ. What a good God! It's also such a reminder to me, especially at this time of year, that He is Emmanuel...God with us; that He is a God who came to earth to live as we live, with struggles and frustrations and weaknesses, and made a way for us to know Him (John 17:3) and to have "life in all its fullness" (John 10:10). He is truly a God who loves us and cares for us!

Tree Down! Tree Down!

The picture says it all...

We've resorted to tying it down with a rope and nailing the rope to the floor. This poor tree has no dignity.

Home Sweet Home

Hello! I blog to you greetings from Huron, Ohio! I survived the training down in Virginia and am back in Huron for Christmas and New Year's.
My time in VA was amazing. I think it's going to be one those times in life that grows in significance as time passes. I think I'll look back and continue to grow in appreciation for everything that I got to experience and learn during that time. Right now, my brain feels like it's on overload and needs to process a LOT, yet is still reeling trying to think through all that needs done in the next few weeks.
We had a commissioning service in Virginia Wednesday and my parents and friends, Tim and Teresa, came down for it! It was a great day, then I flew home (while my parents and Tim and Teresa drove the 9 hours home!) Thursday. I got to spend some time with my friend Brandi on Friday, then spent today with my family picking out our Christmas tree (by the way, I spent yesterday morning scouting tree lots with my dad...tree selection is serious business in the Gordon household!). Every year we go as a family (or as close as we can get) to a tree farm to pick our tree. It's definitely one of our family traditions. And, if I asked who of the Gordons was the most nostalgic about traditions, who would you guess...Kyle? It's true. He's SOOO sentimental and nostaligic, it's great. So, fortunately Kyle wins the prize for spotting the "perfect tree" this year! Way to go bubby! Right now, my parents are trying to figure out how to replace all of the burnt out light bulbs for the tree lights. There are, like, 20 working lights on the whole strand. Good times. And for any of you who read my Christmas Survey about my dad insisting that we had to let the tree branches "fall" after being in the car for 40 minutes even though it had been standing for decades will be pleasantly surprised...he pulled the tree out of the van, trimmed up the trunk, and put it up on the SAME DAY this year!
As we speak, he's off for a walk over to Drug Mart to buy some new Christmas lights. I'll post a picture of the finished product. And for the Ohio constituents of the Davis family, you'll get to see the finished product in a week!

Christmas Survey

My cousins Amy and Lori have both filled out this survey and I have to admit...I'm a sucker for the online surveys too. Combine a survey with Christmas and I'm sold! Especially since it's been hard to get in the Christmas spirit down here in Virginia...I don't know how you Texas girls do it!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? ewww...egg nog??? Gag me with a spoon! (That's for you Lori!)
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Ummm, hello? The ELVES wrap the presents!
3. Colored lights or white lights on tree/house? Definitely colored blinking lights on the tree...white outside.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No
5. When do you put up your decorations? well, I decorated my door here the weekend after Thanksgiving
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? hmmm...fisherman's stew; crab legs; fondue are some family favs
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: singing songs all the way home from Aunt Lennie's house on Christmas Eve to keep me awake so I'd actually sleep that night (NEVER worked!); staying up most of the night with Kyle; my dad SHAVING before we could go out and open gifts (can anyone say cruel and unusual punishment?!?!);
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? what are you talking about? Is there something I should know????
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? As if! (Lori, I think this one is technically early 90's, but it's close!)
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Colored blinking lights, random and memorable ornaments, tinsel, and the star gets put up by Kyle Christmas Eve
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Thinking I'd better learn to REALLY love it!
12. Can you ice skate? I guess you'd more or less call it ice coasting
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My Cabbage Patch and the tea cup and saucer from Grandma D
14. What's the most important thing about Christmas for you? the more I get to know the Lord, the more I'm amazed that He became Emmanuel...God with us. To think that God, the Creator, would send His Son as a normal baby born to normal people, out of love for us is precious. Of course, I love all the family time, the excitement, the decorations and special traditions, too, but that God stepped into our world to be with ME is rad (I'm really getting into this, Lori!)
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? candy cane ice cream pie with chocoloate syrup on it!
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? cutting down the Christmas tree wtih my family, especially at the old place down in Bellville, fearing for my life as we drove up and down the "mountain" with a tree precariously hanging out of the back of our car, then getting home and dad insisting that we couldn't put the tree up that day because it had to stand up in the garage and let the needles fall....because that 40 minute drive in the car negated the 15 years of an upright position that the tree had previously been in
17. What tops your tree? star
18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? I really like finding the perfect gift that you're so excited to give to someone!
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Yum, definitely, especially in candy cane ice cream pie!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! So, I was trying to figure out how to use these three pictures and divide them into two posts...and then it hit me! A stroke of genius! How could I have missed the obvious! These three pictures CLEARLY go together! Obviously, the picture of the food is from Thanksgiving. We had our traditional turkey dinner earlier in the afternoon at the home of one of our leaders, and since we were all mourning not having any cold turkey leftovers to eat---we decided to all bring different "finger foods" to munch on while we played games Thursday night back at our "home". We had a great time, played some good games (Beyond Balderdash), and ate WAY too much food!
That leads me to the next two pictures. Trying to work off the several thousand calories consumed yesterday. There's a group of us that has really gotten into doing an exercise video called "Turbo Jam". It's kind of like Tae Bo with dancing and fun music. It's great. We don't have tvs in our quads (where we live) so we have to go to one of the other buildings and find an empty room...and cover the door window with a sweatshirt so no one can see =)

Five Things...

Ok, so quite a while ago, my cousin Amy challenged her blog readers to come up with five things we thought other people wouldn't know about us. Other than the obvious (that I'm a slow responder) here are my five, in no particular order:

1) I love trucks. I don't mean wimpy Rangers or S-10s, I mean "big boy" trucks, as my dad calls them.
2) I would love to fire a gun. Not AT anyone, but at a shooting range or something.
3) I really, really, really don't like the eye doctor. I could go to the dentist ANY DAY, but I HATE the eye doctor.
4) I have really poor circulation. Sometimes my hands turn purple. All the kids I taught at school would ask "what's wrong with your hands?!?!?!" in utter shock and dismay. Nice.
5) I don't like meat. I'm not a vegetarian, but if I have a choice, I usually don't prefer meat.

So, there you go. You can now psychoanalize me and find that I'm definitely a red neck at heart. Just give me a big truck, with a horn that plays "Dixie" and a gun rack on the back, and I'm good to go.

A Virginny Hollar!

Here are some pictures from my time here in Virginia so far. I still don't really know how to move the pictures around on the post, so I don't know what this will end up looking like! Someday I'll figure that one out. Somewhere on this post (hopefully!) is a picture of me and Amber, the woman I'll be working with. There's another woman going with us, named Patsy, but I don't have any pictures of her yet. Amber and I will primarily be working with students at the university. She's super fun and really sweet, and so is Patsy. It's been really great getting to know them. And Amber has a strange fascination with mullets, which TOTALLY reminds me of Kyle. We just got back from an evening out with several other women. We went to eat at Friday's, then made a quick stop at Target. We were all so tired, we had to get back and get to bed! My schedule has DEFINITELY changed from the previous two months!
Anyhoo...the other three pictures are pretty self explanatory. I'm at a place called the "International Learning Center" and it's on quite a few acres, with woods and a small farm and a little lake. It's absolutely beautiful here. It's like a small college campus, with buildings of classrooms, a library, a computer lab, dorms, a dining hall and things like that. Last night, all of the Journeyman (which are the under 30 and single crew who are going to serve for 2 years) were invited over to the home of the director of our Orientation program. They hosted nearly 70 of us! It was a really neat time. We had pizza, cake, and got to know everyone a bit more. Today I finished up the second of two Saturdays getting a certificate in ESL (English as a Second Language). It was pretty interesting, and I'm sure all of my teaching family members and friends will attest to how useful that will be whether here or overseas!
So now I'm waiting for Patsy to finish her shower so I can go get ready for bed and crash! Tomorrow we have church in the morning, which is really cool. We meet in small groups of about 8 or so, rather than as a large group. It's a really cool way to do church and gets us ready for what most of us will experience overseas. Well, Patsy just came out and informed me that the leading cause of conflict in marriage is whether you squeeze the toothpaste from the top, middle, or bottom, so that must mean she's out of the bathroom! Time for bed! By the way, married ladies, is that true?!?!?!?!

Yes, I am alive!

I live! Sorry it's been sooooo long since I've last updated this thing! A lot has changed since I last posted and I have lots of great posts that I've written in my mind, but just never got around to moving them from my mind to my computer. So, here's a brief list:
*went to a wedding in Michigan with my friend Brandi...good times
*had a surprise going away party given for me by my friends from church, Brandi and Teresa---I was TOTALLY surprised with my friends from town...then five of my best girlfriends from college came running out!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. We ate (kielbasa and cabbage, of course!) and DANCED, DANCED, DANCED!!!! It was just a perfect night. I was truly honored and humbled by their love for me. It was just amazing.
*I celebrated my grandma's 90th birthday with my family. It was a precious time. My grandma is an amazing woman and she seemed to really enjoy her day.

So, there's the last month in a nutshell! I am now in Virginia at the International Learning Center in training to leave for Poland on January 3. It's really been great so far. Incredibly busy, but great. We're filling out form after form and going to classes, and eating in a cafeteria (including eating Moraccan food today without utensils!), and living in dorm-type rooms, and way busy...sounds, wonderful, doesn't it?

Today was the first of the immunization clinics. After teasing all of the people going to jungle-type places, I looked at my form for Poland and realized I'm getting 9 stinking shots!!!! Most of them are hepatitis series, and today I had a Hep A (I think), rabies, and polio vaccine. Don't worry, it was well worth it, because I got My Little Pony, Dora, and psychodelic band-aids--it was well worth it.

Here are a few photos of my band aids and my room. (ok, so I was just kidding about the photos---apparently they're not loading on my computer. I'll work on that another time.) Please pray for me that I'd get done what gets done here and learn what I need to learn to be ready for Poland! Thank you =)

Deep Thoughts...

Ok, so I have a confession to make. I love watching DOG the Bounty Hunter. I hardly ever get to watch it, but I love it. No excuses, no deep meaning to it. I just do. Do you think they have DOG in Poland????

By the way, I'm kind of over the Lost thing. It's getting too weird. I mean, come one, we need some closure, or at least some hope of closure soon!!!

Red Hat Society, Here I Come!

Through some different circumstances going on right now, I've really been thinking a lot about growing old. To be honest, it's easy to think "it won't happen to me!". It seems like I'll be "young" forever and I sometimes forget that people who have grown "old" were once young and probably thinking "I'll never grow old!". I see some elderly people and see the ways their bodies and minds are failing them and it's a reality check that I'm not invincible; I won't be here forever. I have no guarantee that my body won't fail me or that my mind will always be sharp (of course, I have to add, that's really open for discussion right now!). My days in this body, on this earth are limited and numbered and will quickly pass, and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. It's a reminder of the Lord's control and reign and my dependence on Him. I must trust Him for my future, that He'll be faithful and His grace will be sufficient to carry me through whatever comes; that His love and care and presence will never fail, and eventually I, along with all those throughout all the ages who have trusted Christ, will be clothed with a perfect body that will never die. This life is temporary.
All this thinking about growing old also reminds me to care for those around me who are in their "golden years". I see that I, too, will most likely one day have to depend on other people to care for me and will long for the company of people coming to visit. It makes me want to care for them right now, knowing that I'll be grateful to anyone who would do the same for me in 50 years. There's also so much to learn! The older generation are living history books! I recently spent some time with an elderly couple from my church and found out that he drove a jeep off of the boat and onto the beach of Normandy on D-Day! How amazing! He is a living part of history.
Of course, my Grandma Davis' approaching 90th birthday has gotten me thinking quite a bit. I'm excited to go celebrate with her, and VERY excited to honor her with the scrapbook of 90 memories of her (thanks to my super-talented cousin, Amy, who is going to put it together!!!). It also makes me think of what my life will be like if I make it to 90 years old. I do not know, but I will cling to this promise:

"My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever." Psalm 73:26