Where We End Up

There are those people you remember forever because you loved them to pieces... My second grade teacher was the sweetest one ever. Like, no seriously, she was sweeter than your second grade teacher. Now she is raising children to love Jesus and posturing her heart to take in those who otherwise wouldn't have a home...and I still love her.

There are those people you remember forever because something about them etched itself on your memory... where in the world is that high school girl who tickle attacked me non-stop, when I was in elementary school and what in the world was her name?

There are the people you just plain forget...

I laid in bed last night, thinking about how this all pans out. Take a look:

Two or three years ago, when Constant first came out, I called #6 "The Harmony Song" and would play it over and over again, singing that harmony line. I had no idea that a few months later I would be sitting at the Cone's dining room table being introduced to almond butter by the guy who's now one of my now closest friends in KC. I've long ago confessed to him that I don't actually know how to sing his song, only the harmony. :)

The first time I went to a Call staff meeting, I knew one person and felt like a fish two-thousand miles out of water. I remember Katrina walked in wearing one of those grey onething shirts with the blue diamonds up the side. She sat on the wall to my right, with her legs crossed Indian-style under her, massive computer on her lap. I remember thinking "who is that girl and what is that personality that's pouring out of her?" Now we've been down, up, and all around the country together, shared ROARING laughter and deep emotions, and I know why she bought a laptop with such a big screen.

Randy, Kelsey, and family were a picture on a refrigerator to me when I got off the plane in Kansas City. Liz had kept their invitation to their adoption banquet for Zoe's adoption on her fridge, and I had viewed an infant Zoe in Kelsey's arms on a previous trip. I knew they had three sons and I knew Randy was bald. One facebook message and an impromptu meeting in Lou Engle's empty office later and I was on Randy's team. How could I begin to describe how dear these people are to me now? I've traveled with them, watched them add three more precious girls to their ranks, and absolutely fallen head over heels for this family. I will never be able to think about how my heart has been moved toward adoption without thinking about these people. I hope someday there will be little ones in my family who became a glimmer in my eye after the Lord planted me to run with the Bohlenders.

For some strange reason, I felt like I knew Truman before I actually did. My sister Elizabeth is an exquisite scrapbooker, and that plus her life of world travels leaves you happy as a clam if you get an hour in her house to just sit down and look through all her pictures. Years before I moved to Kansas City, I had seen pictures of young Truman's then-toothy grin plastered on his face that was topped with an off-center yamaka, getting dedicated in Jerusalem on a trip to Israel that my sister was on. Thanks, Liz's scrapbook, for introducing me to one of the world's greatest pun-ners.

It's interesting how relationships come, and it's interesting how they go too. When I was starting kindergarten with Genesis, we were way more concerned with what color we would make the triangle than the fact that we would go through all of school together. Then there are people I totally don't remember, like, uh...those ones I don't remember.

I could go on and on. About the first time I made Christina laugh (at our hotel in DC), or how Tim played at my sister's wedding and now I'm on his worship team (and he tries to get sneaky deals out of me playing Settlers)... The stories are all just so fascinating! I love what the Lord has woven even in my own life.

On a closing note, I would like to highlight one particular part of relationships ending that I am very thankful for. Thank the good Lord I will not be marrying any of those boys my over-excited 8th grade emotions thought I might. Amen. Let's stand.