leading.

i have not posted in a while. partly due to business and partly due to laziness. i also have not had much to say lately. life for us has been kind of crazy for us with school, work, young life, and life in general. I have to admit- I literally have not planned a single thing for the wedding since i got the dress. I have thought about it- but i have not been fretting at all. I do feel like i should be doing something but I have not. I did contact a hotel about blocking off rooms for the wedding, but im all new to this and i do not know what is reasonable for the hotel. i mean, its the outer banks and mid-summer on a weekend, it will be pricey but what if it's too pricey? should i look somewhere else? there is not a plethora of hotels down there, nice ones anyways. plus i know from a lot of people that they plan on getting a house. so im at a stand still. what to do what to do? well- i have taken the "do nothing" stance. don't get me wrong, im so excited to throw a wedding and plan it. ive just been off lately and stressed. adding the pressure of wedding stuff would make me cringe. so, winter break- here i come. with wedding plans in full swing. then comes the small details.

this past weekend Josh and I went to Rockbridge fall weekend camp with the Chesapeake area. It was simply amazing. Weekend camp has such a different vibe and feel to it than summer camp. i mean- its 2 days. its cold (for the most part). and how are you supposed to get to know these high school kids within that time? i do not know how, but somehow it works. the Lord provides the time and patience. I got 9 hours of sleep between friday and saturday night. 3 hours on the first- thats nuts! but we do it- with the Lord as our strength we push through it. I got to spend time with some of the sweetest girls. I did not know most of these girls. and it was a blessing to get to do just that. It was also such a joy to watch my closest friends lead. Especially Josh- he is so great at it. If you knew Josh, you'd know he is pretty outdoorsy. At the ropes course he took some of his guys and wondering around exploring in the creek. One of my dearest friends, a high-school senior Katie Carr, said "they look like the lost boys from peter pan." it was so true. and so encouraging to watch. and to watch the patience of my team, matt, thomas, and ryder with one of the guys. And to watch my friends from other schools go crazy at club- youd think that we were in 5th grade the way we act during club songs. It was seriously the best. Most of the girls i led this weekend were freshman and sophomores. Only a small handful of them know Libby. for our boys vs. girls football game, the girls all wore lime green and we all "were fighting and playing and going to win for Libby!" They said before the would start a play "Come on girls- were winning this for Libby!" It was the sweetest thing ever. Even the other schools from our area wore lime green and they do not know her at all. no juniors went bc of ring dance and only 4 seniors went. so it was a fresh new weekend for me to do with these girls and i have so much joy bc of it. the seniors led so well too. i mean truly- other areas get shocked when they find out we have some students leading cabins (the shortage of girl leaders yet again) they do so great though. i walked out sunday morning to the senior led cabin of girls playing signs in a circle in the grass. i cried tears of joy to know that the Lord worked through them like that. so i thank God for the opportunity and privilege to lead- even though it is hard sometimes and i have to fight for energy and patience. So thank you God- so so much.

We are looking forward to this week so much. A little break to go visit Josh's family for Thanksgiving. His sister is having her baby soon (if Emma will hurry up!) and his mom is visiting from Belgium. A break is what we need- especially Josh from school. Plus I miss his family and have not seen his mom since our engagement. So it should be very exciting!!! We can't wait even more for Christmas because his dad and other sister and her husband will be there to celebrate- plus Emma for sure!

Last note- we took our engagement photos last weekend. Matt Benson, my team-mate, Josh's roommate and on of our dearest friends, took some realllllly good shots. I  love them! I can't wait to post them once he is done!

leading.