Messed Up Knee Caps: We're Still Blessed

From October 15 - 19th, the kids left us an empty dorm as they hung out with families in the community for MEA weekend. It was a great and much needed time for Ibrahim and me to catch up on some sleep and extra projects around here, but the dorm did feel unusually quiet, . . .  it was a gift to have their crazy and noisy laughters fill the gathering rooms again come Sunday evening.


 The week went on pretty normally until Tuesday night. It was a volleyball game far away, so the girls didn't get back until late, but the time was stretching about an hour past the time I figured they would be home. Soon I learned why as Aleyna came up the stairs on crutches, a knee brace, and a wrist band saying she came from the emergency room. Aleyna twisted and fell on her knee, dislocating it and creating a good amount of damage during the pre-game warmups.

It was great to see the way that she still wanted to make Jesus known and leaned hard on His strength as they took her by ambulance into the hospital. She was quick to breathe out Philippians 3:14 as she needed that strength during some intense pain.

We took her to the doctor again this past Tuesday, and we learned that she doesn't need surgery. Praise God! :) What a major blessing! It will take 5 plus weeks to heal, but we're counting down! Please pray for her as you think of it, that she would have joy during the pain and the readjustments she has to make to everyday living.

 Back Row (L-R): Danae, Alicia, Amy and Dimon
Front Row (L-R): Serena, Aleyna, Joyce, and Katie
We missed Maya! She had to take her TOEFL on Sat. morning.

On a BETTER note though, that following weekend after Aleyna's injury, Alicia Olfert and Amy Fast accompanied us to a Billings trip that they orchestrated so wonderfully. Our trip centered around a Beth Moore conference happening in Billings. Someone so graciously donated tickets so that all of us could go. It was wonderful. Here's a video recap from the conference: http://vimeo.com/87212009. If you watch closely enough, you'll catch some of our girls near the end. :)

Beth talked about how we are BLESSED.

We may be crazies, but we are BLESSED! ;)

Bountifully
Loved
Extraordinarily
Saved
Supplied
Empowered
Delivered

She talked about how no matter what comes our way, we cannot be cursed. It's too late. We've already been blessed by God, His loving Word spoken over us, and His Word is action.

Beth gave us a chance to write out all of the curses we've been given, the curses that we hear, that we speak to ourselves. Over it, we were to write: "I AM BLESSED." Our blessing outweighs any curse. How powerful!

After the conference ended on Saturday afternoon, we headed to Cafe Rio for lunch. How delicious! We did some shopping and then headed back to the hotel where Alicia led us in a debrief, ending with us sharing what we love about each other, giving each other blessing. Speaking blessing and truth over each other is so powerful.

We went for frozen yogurt that evening. We had planned on going out for Asian food, but we were still stuffed from the delicious Mexican food, so frozen yogurt was PERFECT. The girls stopped and got some noodles at a grocery store before the night ended. They love their noodles. ;)

On Sunday, we went to Alicia's home church in Billings: Harvest Church. What an encouraging service! The Pastor talked about "ruthlessly eliminating hurry from our lives" in order to follow Jesus, loving Him and others well. It was a really convicting message for me.

Afterwards, the girls and I piled into our 15 passenger van, made a quick stop in Walmart and then headed to Panda Express for lunch. They are pros! Look at them and their chopsticks. ;)

We drove the long way back. We had a great time, but it was definitely nice to be heading back home.

Chen had also been in Billings, taking his TOEFL. He arrived back shortly after we did, and he was very excited to show us his brand new
Billings purchase.

Maya also had something to show off. ;)

It's true . . . that short, black hair looks pretty classy on her, and she fooled several of the guys until Chen pulled the wig off and her natural hair came through.

We laugh a lot around here. :)



The worst thing to come home to was Nathan's absence. Nathan headed back home due to some unforeseen circumstances on Saturday, and sheesh, it's sure hard to have him gone. We miss him very, very much! We really love him . . . always will.

A Montana sunset . . . so beautiful around here!
Pictures are poor excuse from the real beauty of them.

A special thing to come home to was meeting our newest member to the dorm family, Etien! He is a sophomore from Indonesia, and it's wonderful to have him. He arrived on Friday, and I'm excited to get to know him more!

Tomorrow, the girls volleyball team will play in the district tournaments. They will play their first came against Saco/Hinsdale at 11:30am, and their next game will be dependent on the final score. It is so crazy that their season is coming to an end.


So much has happened within two weeks. A messed up knee cap, one of our guys gone, one new one joining, a Billings conference. Hopefully we'll hear more about the guys' weekend without us girls. They had some good adventures too. :)

Even in all that has happened, some things have not changed. We have still been given a blessing . . . we are still loved. God still speaks peace and love and hope over us. It is so comforting to know that some things don't change . . . even on the struggle days and on the much-laughter days. He is good.

Chen modeling his Superman outfit. :)

Serena videoed Dimon's new chopstick talent. :)