high: my life/low: none

we had our first official, routine staff meeting tonight.

when we went around to say our highs and lows of the week, it was hard to come up with a low. at first, i thought it could be that i was tired from the craziness of the weekend of welcome/RA training/start of school. but even as i came up with that, i realized that even in my tiredness, i was still content and happy. the tiredness i feel is not the weary exhaustion that i had for most of this last year. instead, i am energized by the job i am privileged to do and the people i get to do it with. thank you Jesus!

tonight was super fun. i had missed having all my RAs together, even though it had only been a few days. we plays two truths & a lie, and thoroughly enjoyed josh's accents for medical emergencies. we are almost all ready for our event that is a week away. all the treats got eaten. i told my life story. all in all, a great meeting with lots of laughter. i love my staff.

they are all here. (insert contented sigh here)
my staff of 11 seems small compared to the 16 or even 18 that i am used to with the apartment staff.
but like baby bear's belongings, it is just the right size.
i am tired, but my heart is bursting at the seams.
i can't wait for the days ahead. thank you, Jesus.
i am so glad my RAs are here, and we can start this adventure.


and yes, a group photo was taken during our first staff meeting of 30 minutes. shocker, i know. =)

this is for reals.

today i had the realization that this is really happening. not that i didn't realize that before. after all, the drive across the country, the training for the past few weeks, the unpacking of many boxes definitely gave me some pretty big clues about this change. =) but tonight i met two of my RAs who came a day early, and i got so excited. until today, they have just been names on a paper. and my job has been training and getting settled.

but tomorrow, it really starts. my hall coordinator got here on the 12th, so its been increasingly more real this past week as we've gotten to start working together. but today made everything seem so much more real than it has been up until this point. i'm really here, living in pennsylvania, where i am have a job that i am so excited about. thank you, Jesus. i know that this is a blessing straight from you. thank you for giving me the privilege of being in this leadership role. give me wisdom so that i can be a blessing to those i am living among. i trust you for this year. give me the grace and courage to lead well.