A great week always includes sushi, bacon, bbq and friends!

I love those weeks that are just refreshing. This was almost one of those weeks! Here are a few things that have been happening in my life.

Yesterday morning, while looking at our finances we started talking about Rosalia, the girl we sponsor in Guatemala. We had written her a letter a few weeks back – but still hadn’t heard back from her. Anxious as we were to know if she wanted to communicate back, I said out loud “Come on, Rosalia, we’re helping put you through school – at least write us back!” I said it somewhat joking because even if she didn’t write back, we still wanted to give to help her. We moved to the kitchen and started frying some bacon for an appetizer we were taking to the Open Life BBQ. (I know, Bacon isn’t just an appetizer, it is everything.) On the way out of our parking lot to go to the BBQ, we decided to check the mail. In it was a letter from Rosalia! So cool to hear from her! I can’t even explain how it feels to see the handwriting of a girl that we are giving a better life too. Finding out about her school, her dolls, how she gives her mom a big hug when she leaves for school. Our prayer is that we will be able to watch her whole family come to have a relationship with Jesus through our relationship with Rosalia.

The Open Life BBQ was refreshing as well. So good to hang out with people, in community, who are willing to share their lives with each other. To have the Bartlett’s willing to open their home to  an unknown number of people shows the hospitality spirit that Open Life desires to live out in the Bonney Lake community. We had yard games, meat, laughter, kids, conversation and just a grand ol time!

Rewind a few hours to Thursday, and you find Thad, myself and Sheena sitting at the bar @ Sushi Town next to the Regal Theater in Bonney, enjoying an all you can eat sushi adventure. It’s pretty close to heaven, I’m sure of it. Nothing better than getting to know each other in the presence of raw fish. I left full and happy. Full mostly because of the sushi, happy mostly because I am grateful to be surrounded by people who are truly loving. My friend Thad and I may have different personalities, but to know that we are brothers in this journey of faith, both with a heart to see others enter into a growing relationship with Jesus and living in his kingdom is refreshing.

Sheena and I had a convo with a mortgage company on Friday as well, working on our preapproval for a home. It was refreshing to look at our finances and realize that we have been blessed financially. Not in the sense that we have been given a ton of money, but that we have been fairly responsible with what God has given us. Finding out that our credit scores were both above excellent, the debt we carry is very minimal and limited to a small student loan, and the reality that we could find ourselves living in the community of Bonney Lake is refreshing!

I say almost a totally refreshing week because in all of the incredible blessings we have been apart of this week, I’m also diving in full time into real estate courses. And honestly, sitting through hour after hour learning about deeds, contracts, laws, etc…kinda puts a damper on the mind! Add to it my 10 page rough draft for my research paper, a different document giving a research overview, a microsoft access learning exercise and prepping for an MIS exam sure doesn’t help matters! And yet, I somehow still find time to write this blog, drink more coffee, play wordsfree on my phone with a friend and update my foursquare religiously!

I end this post with a thank you to my many friends and acquaintances who continue to be my encouragement in faith, hope and love! The only thing that would have made this week better would have been to be on a cruise ship in the Caribbean…