I'm in DC! Prepare for a long post....

Let me start off by telling you what an amazing last few weeks i had in Raleigh... camp was phenomenal- so thankful for all the new friendships i made over the summer. I crammed in as much time with friends in the evenings as possible- some nights were especially memorable thanks to certain people (they know who they are).

The night before i left was no doubt the most spectacular- what amazing friends I am blessed with that put like a months worth of planning into a farewell party for Courtney and I. ANNNNND i almost ruined it by trying to have a party of my own on the same night. Luckily said friends are extrememly good at lying and deception and managed to derail my party without me knowing.

I shall repeat... without me knowing. A ton of people seemd to have thought i knew something was going on, but i assure you, i had no idea. When the lights came on in the barn and everyone that had bailed on my party was there... complete shock. Everyone who came out, thank you. So amazing. So blessed.

James, Christie and Brian helped to put together a video for Courtney and I... of pictures, video, adn some especially touching footage of people that knew us telling us goodbye. I cried. I cried a lot.

Barn party was fabulous-- got to hang out with everyone, climb on haystacks, take pictures in old carriages, DJ BMac had music going... wayyyy better than my party would have been.

After most people left, some of us stayed (well, i didn't know i was staying- little did i know i'd been kidnapped and Margaret had packed me stuff to sleep in) for a sleepover at James'.

Last surprize/lie of the night- the boys had set up a bonfire for all of us... We looked at stars, James played guitar and Ty played the djembe... it was pretty amazing.

---Time out. I write this and realize that there is no way i could possibly convey what really happened that night. I just remember being really overwhelmingly happy. I remember being amazed that so much time and planning, and well, love went into the whole production and how much i didn't deserve any of it. And maybe if you saw it you understood, but its hard to descirbe something indescribeable.----

At some point that evening, I broke down... and realized that I was ready to go. For the previous weeks i'd been dreading moving and leaving all the people that had come to mean so much in my life. And while i'd known it in my head, my heart was finally prepared to leave. I had nothing to fear- the people i loved obviously loved me in return, and had no reason to doubt that they'd stop.

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The next morning I went home, scrambled to pack all of the stuff i'd failed to the previous evening- literally throwing things into boxes. Ah, how very... me.

Dana, Emily, and Lindsay actually all drove up to DC with me, i wasn't totally sure if they were going to, but then they did after all. Reasons I'm glad they did:
1)All my crap filled up BOTH cars
2) Having deep converstationswith Em in the car is way better than riding alone
3)moving all those boxes/parking all of a sudden was half as difficult.
4)i didn't spend my first night in DC all by myself
5)When I had an 'oh my gosh, what am i doing here' moment, they were there to talk to
6)They actually met a fellow CF (Community Facilitator- what they call RA's here) named Stephanie, at church and had lunch with her. When i met up with them, i realised that we'd actually met at our interviews. So in the first day i'd already met a christian girl that goes to Capitol Hill.

So basically, God sent them with me so I didn't have a complete meltdown.

They left on Monday morning, and literally 45 minutes later I was on a bus with the other CF's to Mount Vernon. A little geography: The central campus at GWU is located in Foggy Bottom. Yes, Foggy Bottom. Which is where I am. Mount Vernon is an off-site campus for GW thats like 15 minutes away by shuttle. But here's the thing, Mount Vernon doesn't look like its in the city at all. No tall buildings in sight... there are trees, adn grassy fields... it looks like North Carolina on a campus like Meredith College. Granted, i wasn't really sick of the city at that point, but now i know there is this place really close by that if i just need a little dose of home- there it is.(BISCUIT!)

we stayed at Mount Vernon for three days of rather intense training- the best part for me was getting to know some of the other CFs in my configuration (My configuration is two buildings: The Aston-where i live, and City Hall. There are 8 CFs in my configuration, and like 100 or so for the entire university)

So here is a quick rundown fo the people in my configuration...
Stephanie... is from Minnesota and a Junior. She dyes her hair red adn looks a little like Nicole Kidman. She's the one I really talked to first and we really hit it off. We're pretty different but i think our personalities match pretty well. She's aslo never been a CF before, so we kind of comfort each other since we don't really know whats going on.
Jessica.... was my roomate for the three days we spent at Mount Vernon. She really knows whats going on and is great about answering any questions I have. Really personable adn fun to be around.
Spencer... is actually friends with Stephanie- the CF that goes to Capitol Hill. Foudn out from her that he's actually a christian (a rare find in DC). One of the absolute nicest people I've met.
Heath... the other guy in our configuration. Really funny and sarcastic. Likes sports. Not gay... also a rare find in DC.
Titi... is from Nigeria. Spent all her life going to American and British Schools in Nigeria and then came here. Really involved with a lot of campus activities. Really like talking to her. She's also a christian (!) and was jsut as excited as i was to find out.
Miki... is from hawaii. Sweet girl. Laughs a lot.
Nikki... i don't actually know that well. She was a CF last year in Thurston- which i've learned was once named the second most sexually-active dorm in the country. (gross)

and these are basically my friends in DC thus far. haha.

What's really interesting is that Titi, Spencer and I are all Cf's in the Aston... If you hadnt noticed, we're all the christians. In one building. Perhaps it isn't mind blowing to you, but it was to us. Pray for what God has in store for The Aston this year.

So that's basically what i've been doing since i've been here. Lots of training for being in the dorm and bonding with the people i'm going to be working with.

So far, its been so great. So much better than expected. I've been so busy, i really haven't had time to get homesick. I think my attitude has been really good-- it's just so evident that i'm supposed to be here. I've known all along that I was, but God is just continuing to be faithful. It's been very convicting at times, how doubting i was... but too many things have happened at all to purely be coincedence.

Before graduating, I decided to listen. I decided that i couldn't do it by myself, and for quite a while i've held "the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps" close to my heart. And it worked. It takes so much to be confident in the Lord, i was resistant so often. It wasn't enough when I was told I got the CF position- which meant free housing and a part time job. It wasn't enough when i found a church in DC that I loved. It wasn't enough when I got into GW, even when it wasn't the only place I applied....

Then the night before i left... i realized i wasn't leaving anything behind that wouldn't still be there for me.

And He sent with me two people that had been my roomate for three years, and who became some of my best friends despite being strangers when we first moved in together. He sent them with me so i wouldn't be so alone in a huge city.

He reintroduced me to someone I'd already met, a member of a church that i'd already been to.

He gave me Mount Vernon, a home away from home.

He gave me two Christians living mere floors apart.

And he came with me and plans to stay.


so blessed. -meredith*