Cool article

Saw this article today from the Wall Street Journal (no, I do not read the Wall Street Journal, I found it on another blog haha) talking about the recent increase in Christian families adopting. You should read it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703743504575494263102089970.html

This may be the best idea I've ever heard

Like I mentioned earlier, adoption has been really highlighted at Summit this summer and a lot of families have taken up the challenge of adopting a child into their home. Well today, while I was stalking another blog (I have a serious addiction haha), I was directed to another family's adoption blog, where I found a link to the coolest thing I have ever seen. (did you follow that progression?)

Check out this website,  http://justlovecoffee.com/index.htm. It's a company that sells fair trade coffee and then part of the proceeds goes to a family going through the adoption process! What?! As an absolute coffee addict, this is right up my alley, even more than cute t-shirts. I mean, coffee is something that I would buy anyway, and now I can help someone bring their child home, just by drinking my morning coffee!! That's so brilliant (random, as my roommate pointed out, but brilliant!)

Needless to say, I'm about to order some. And the link to the Summit family's specific page, so that the money goes to them, is http://justlovecoffee.com/TheMcGees. This is seriously cool!

How we defeat the idols in our lives

One more thing and then I'm seriously going to do my homework.

I wrote a novel of a post about one of the idols in my life and unfortunately I have more to come, because I wish that boys were the only idol in my life, but they're not.

But one thing that I've been thinking about is how we truly get rid of them. There are little things that you can do to deal with one, but like I've seen, defeating idols is like playing a game of whack-a-mole. As soon as you get one down, another one pops up. So what can we do to fight them off in general?

I think that the only thing to really do is see and know God rightly and truly be in love with Jesus.

And part of this is spending time with him every single day.

Think about it. If you have a friend that you only talk to when you need something or when your life sucks, what kind of relationship are you going to have? Unfortunately, this is the way that a lot of us treat God. We call Him up when we need something and ignore Him the rest of the time.

I don't want to be like that. The creator of the universe desires to know me and I'm going to tell him that I'm too busy?? That my life and classes are more important than him?? How messed up is that? Spending time with God daily should be something that I love doing and want to do, but for me, sometimes I just don't. I stay up too late working or worse, watching tv, and so I don't want to get up early to spend time with him.

So this week, I'm going to spend time with God. I'm going to go to bed early so that I can get up early and really dig into his word and spend time with him before my day begins.

And I want you guys to hold me to this.

A storm's coming and I can't wait!

Sunday 9-26-10

It looks like it's about to storm in the Hill and I can't wait. I LOVE thunderstorms (especially at the beach, but that's not really relevant) and its been over 90 for the past like week and a half, so hopefully the storm will finally bring fall here. I mean its the end of September and it's been feeling like the end of June and that is not ok! 

PS- it's moments like this that I wish that I had the artistic ability to take really good, cool nature shots or at least a nice camera that could truly capture the beauty of the stormy sky.

The View from the top

Well the 7th floor at least.

Saturday 9-25-10

Spent the afternoon studying in the 7th floor lounge of Davis that I was talking about the other day. Isn't it an awesome view? Don't worry, K, I didn't spend all day there. I also babysat and went to dinner, but I did get a nice head start on work. I started a paper that isn't due for 2 whole weeks!! That's amazing isn't it?!?

Blogging is more fun than Hindi homework

This blogging thing is really bad for my productivity. Just another way to procrastinate on my work haha.

Friday 9-26-10

I meant to take a picture of Lindsey and I while we were actually at the play, but I forgot my camera, oopsie. We had to go see As You Like It for the drama class that we're in (the one who's exam I almost slept through, made a 100 on that test btw, could slept a little bit longer probably). It was really good. Playmaker's Rep Company puts on some really awesome plays here in Chapel Hill. If you're in the area you should try to go see one some time. Tuesday nights are community night, $10 a ticket (which is really good deal).

My life is revolving door of idols, part 1

This post is going to be a little more personal than usual, but its something that I know a lot of us are struggling with and I want to share a little bit about my history and fight against idols in my life. (It's also very long, I'm sorry.)

At Summit, JD just finished going through the 10 commandments and teaching on what each commandment tells us about the condition of our hearts. His kind of overarching point was that at the heart of every commandment is idolatry. For example, we break the 9th commandment, do not lie, because we value people's opinions of us more than honesty and we stretch the truth to make ourselves look better in people's eyes. You get the point. So in my small group we've been talking more intimately about our personal idols and what this looks like in our lives. Idolatry is something that has been on my mind for about the past year and something that I've been really trying to work on, and of course, since I'm trying to work on it, its become so clear to me how deep these idols run and just how many I have in my life and I want to share what I've been finding. 

About this time last year, I began to really question some things in my life. I don't remember what lead to me thinking so much about it, probably JD or something, but I really began to search my heart for idols. I didn't have to look far.

I'm a girl. And as such, I have very girlie dreams about a lot of things. I'm not your average UNC girl, planning out her career and how to get as many PhDs in the least amount of time, not that there is anything wrong with that. God made us smart for a reason and if that's the path that you are on, you have my prayers. But I'm not one of you. I'm going to college, but that's it, as of now I have no plans for grad school and definitely not beyond that. In all honesty, I want to get married, have kids, and basically be a 1950s housewife. That would be my dream.

But what if that's not God's plan for me?

As I've mentioned already on my blog and will talk about a lot more in the future, I'm going to India. God told me 2 years ago to throw out all my old plans and I was going to go to India and teach orphans about Him. And I said ok. I fought it some, tried to work around it, but in the end, I said ok, like I really had a choice. And I have never regretted it. I love India with all my heart. My friends get sick of me talking about India. You will get sick of me talking about India. I wake up and it is one of the first things that I think about (because I have pictures EVERYWHERE).

But, what if my love for India interferes with my desire to be married?

What if I don't find that guy who wants to spend the rest of his life in a foreign country, that as wonderful as I think it is, is very different and will be very hard to live in?

What if God is asking me to be single for the rest of my life?

What if I never get to be a mother?

(I warned you that this was going to be personal haha)

What if all that I ever thought that I would want, I never get?

Will God be enough for me?

This is the realization that I reached last fall.-- no

I want all those things. I was lonely. I had never had a boyfriend and I longed to be loved and cared for in a way that only that special person can do. I dreamed about the boy that I would meet in class or at Cornerstone who would be perfect. I saw people around me holding hands and falling in love (my roommate included) and I felt like I was missing something. And I realized that if God never gave me that boy than I would never be satisfied. 

JD always says that idols are good things that become god things and then are bad things. That's what I had done, let the idea of a boyfriend and romance become the most important thing to me.

I don't really know what to tell you of how I overcame this idol in my life. I think that just realizing it is a huge thing. Now when I start to feel that way again, I know that it is a return of my idol and know that I need to be praying and relying on God even more. And that's really all that I could do. For months, I prayed that God would take away my idol and fill me with comfort. I prayed that I would find my worth in him, not in guys. I know that's not the ideal answer, it wasn't for me either. I wanted a 12-step program to no idols, a list of things that I could do, but there isn't one. It's like JD says, we have to see God rightly and then everything else will fall into place.

I can tell you one thing that I did do and I would suggest for anyone struggling with this. I cut down on the romantic crap that fills our tvs, movies, and books. This was not easy and I didn't cut them completely out. But there were definitely nights when I would sit down and flip through the channels and would land on the Notebook or something and begin to watch and my heart would be filled with the a longing for romance like that, so I would turn it off. And I love that movie and all of his books, I own most of them. But we have to really ask ourselves if its healthy to fill our minds and hearts with that stuff.  If its something that we already fixate on in real life, is it good to be obsessed with it in what we read and watch as well? Now, don't take this to be me saying that we shouldn't watch or read anything with the slightest bit of romance in it, because I still do. I enjoy a good Nicholas Sparks book at the beach, what I'm saying is, if its causing you to stumble than get rid of it. And also, question the expectations that those things are giving you. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "I want a boy just like Edward Cullen!" Well, guess what? He doesn't exist and by fixating on the idea of the "perfect boy," we are setting ourselves up for dissatisfaction and heart-break. (sorry for the tangent, I really hate what Twilight has done to girls, but I'm not going to be self-righteous, because I was swept up in the ridiculousness to and I'm so glad to have woken up from it haha)


This is something that I still deal with a lot. It's a day-by-day thing and some days are harder than others. But, I can honestly say now, that even though the thought of never getting married and having to move to the other side of the world all alone terrifies me to the very core, God is the only thing that I need and as long as I have Him, I will be complete. And I may be scared, but that will not stop me from doing what He asks of me. This isn't something that I could have said a year ago.

Sorry that was so long, but I wanted to share. Unfortunately, this is not the only idol in my life and I will be back soon with the next part to tell you of the next idol that has creeped into my life. I hope that this is helpful for things that you are going through, please feel free to ask me anything. I clearly have no more secrets about this haha.

I want to end with a quote that I'm stealing from a friend's Facebook status.

"Here is one thing I can say with great confidence: the man that you love is just a man. He may be your soul mate. He is possibly your best friend. He may be studly and funny and surprising and strong, but he will never-not in a million years, not if he goes to relationship therapy twice a week and keeps every promise ...written- be enough to fill your soul...he will never make you whole."-Angela Thomas

Frootie in the fridge, my life is now complete!!

Thursday 9-23-10

I've now been away from India for long enough that I'm seriously craving some great Indian food. I don't know what I would give to have some yummy homemade rice, dal, and roti. And to be able to eat with my hands without being looked at strangely and judged by all you people who like forks (what is up with that??). But, the main thing that I have been craving is some mango juice. I've tried some of our wannabe mango drinks, but they just don't satisfy. So, today I went to the India store in Durham and bought some FROOTIE (you who don't know what that is, I'm sad for you and I will have to enlighten you sometime soon)!!!

It will be perfectly chilled by the time I get back from Cornerstone and I can't wait!!!

Every college students worse nightmare comes to life

No picture yet, just a story.

So, if you're in college or have graduated from college you will appreciate this story. If you are like me at all, the thing that you were most terrified of and worried about was oversleeping and missing your exams, right? Last year I would check my alarm like 5 times to make sure that if would actually go off. And nothing ever happened, I never missed an exam.

Until this morning.

Let me preface by saying that I've been sick and I also haven't been sleeping well. So I'm absolutely exhausted and need to sleep for about 12 hours for 2 nights in a row or more.

So last night I take some niquil and get in bed about 1 after studying all day and evening, I feel ready for my drama test the next day, but plan on getting up a little bit early and going to get breakfast and study a little bit more before going to take my test.

I went to sleep and slept great, so great in fact that my alarm did not wake me up.

My tested started at 9:30 and I woke up at 9:45.

Words came out of my mouth that I do not use, I literally jumped out of my lofted bed, threw on the first thing I could grab, brushed my teeth, grabbed my backpack and ran. I was out of my room in 5 minutes.

I live on South Campus, that's about a 10-15 minute walk to class, so I'm walking, borderline running to class. I was stupid and didn't buy my scantron for the test early, so I had to run by student stores and grab one and finally got to my class.

Now all that build is kind of anti-climatic. My professor is really chill and nice and didn't give me a problem at all. I had the whole story of what I was going to say planned out, but didn't need it at all, he just handed me my test and told me to take my time, no worries. Also, it was a drama test about stuff that I learned in high school (thank you Ms. Strong!!) so it was super easy, and I was done in about 15 minutes.

So all-in-all, I'm thankful that my nightmare came true the way that it did.  Better it be with this professor than some jerk who would have never let me take it. Or if it had been a class that was hard and I would have needed the whole time that would have been awful! Now maybe I can stop worrying about oversleeping now that I have.

Alpine makes studying so much better

Wednesday 9-22-10

That may or may not have been my second bagel for the day.... 

sidenote- found a great study spot, 7th floor study lounge of Davis overlooking the Upper Quad community and the beautiful hills of Chapel Hill, was almost distracting it was so pretty.

Honestly though, which would you rather read?

Tuesday 9-21-10

or

And all you nerds out there had better not say the real thing! Although, my first preference would be to watch the real thing- or just She's the Man (which I did).

Joy

Monday 9-20-10

This summer during Summit's ServeRDU, my friend and I spent a day serving at a charter school. We shoveled mulch all day and got to talk to the principal (who goes to West Club) about the school. Since I'm not in any education classes yet at UNC and really want to, I don't know, actually go inside a classroom every once in a while, I've been going over to Joy twice a week for an hour in the afternoon to help first graders with their reading. Its been so much fun and I can't wait to start education classes next year. I'm also working on convincing my friend, Rebecca, that she should be a teacher not a nurse.

What kind of bites do you think these are?

I'm sorry, this is weird, I know. Don't worry, its not my picture for the day, I just want to get some feedback haha. I've been getting weird bites recently, most of them happen in my bed, but I don't have bedbugs, I know that much.

That's what they look like. They aren't really red, but are definitely raised. The back of my ankle actually feels a little swollen. There's 5 of them and  they are about 1/2 inch in diameter. And they itch REALLY bad haha.

If anyone is a bug expert and would know what might be eating me alive every night, I would really appreciate some imput! 

Thanks!!!

A great idea

My friend gave me a great idea on my last post that I should babysit to raise money for the orphanage that is in need. Well I want to expand on that. The idea that I have (still very much in the works, it came to me about 10 minutes ago) is to organize a night where I'll get all my friends together and we'll go out and babysit for families from the church and community around the triangle. Instead of us getting paid, the families will send a check for the same amount that they would have paid their babysitter to Crosspoint of India (the orphanage).

What do you think?

Babysitters out there- would you be willing to donate one evening of working to this great group?

Parents- would you like to go out on a date for a good cause?

I haven't even begun to try to work out the details, I'm just trying to gather interest and see if this is something that could be a good way to raise some money for this wonderful organization. So, if you would be interested in participating, either by babysitting or by going out, please leave a comment or e-mail me (lsdroege@gmail.com) and I'll start to get some plans ironed out. I'm thinking that it won't be until mid-October or even into November.

Ideas Please!!!!

No new picture yet.

Last night, I found out from a friend that the orphanage in India where I have been able to work at twice now is in desperate need of help and prayers. Right now they are housing about 30 girls in a rented home while they work on raising the funds to build out on the land that God has blessed them with. However, they were just told by their landlord that they would have to leave their rented home because he did not want that many girls living there. They have looked around, but no one wants to rent a home to them to be used as a dorm for that many girls, so they have decided to look into buying a home near where all the boys live. They have made an offer on a home at $25,000. Please be praying that that offer will be accepted. However, they do not have $25,000 just laying around to purchase this home, so I'm asking for some suggestions on things that those of us here in the states can do to help raise this money for them. This is a ministry that is very close to my heart. As many of you know, I hope to work for them one day as a teacher and I really want to be able to help bless them in their time of need right now. So, please leave comments with ideas for fundraisers, things that you have done in the past that have been successful, etc.

And of course, I'll give you some pictures haha.

The precious girls who live in the orphanage. 

Please please please please be praying for these girls and please leave any ideas that you may have.

Why I love babysitting

Sunday 9-19-10

You're never too big to play dress up!! I love when I get to watch little boys, especially since most of the people I babysit for have little girls. But, every Sunday night my friend, Elise, and I babysit for a small group in the church with mainly little boys. So much fun! They love the superhero dress up! And they love it when we wear the masks haha. oh and the awkward face was me trying to make an intense Batman face as directed by one of the little boys but also laughing at Elise who was laughing at me and it just ended up so awkward.

You didn't know that Spider-man wore pretty red glasses did you? Learn something new every day!

Bubbles

Saturday 9-18-10

Someone has recently learned how to blow bubbles. I got to spend the afternoon with my favorite girls again. So fun! A tried to blow bubbles too, but ended up mainly just spitting haha. She'll learn soon.

Happy (early) Birthday, Jessie!!

Friday

Jessie celebrated her early b-day on Friday by going to Pei-Wei and then playing lazer tag (yes, like an eighth grader). I had to babysit so I was only able to come to dinner for a little bit and then go, but it was good to be able to see her for at least a few minutes! Enjoy the rest of your b-day weekend. Don't party too much tonight ;)

Two for Thursday

Because I was so bad and completely forgot to take a picture on Wednesday, I took two on Thursday.

Thursday 9-16-10

I spent Thursday afternoon with H again. He LOVES to terrorize their dog, Sam. Here they're playing tug of war with an old blanket- too cute!

What else would we do on a Thursday night after Cornerstone but go to yo-po?

Epic Fail :(

I have to make a confession.... I forgot to take a picture on Wednesday. I wasn't feeling well and slept most of the afternoon and then I was just out of it for the rest of the day and completely forgot about it until Thursday morning.

My Favorite Girls

Tuesday 9-14-10

Tuesday night I got to hang out with the Greear girls for a little while, Baby A is missing from this picture- he was already in bed. I love these girls so much! Also, K gave me my first silly band- my life is now complete!!

Friday Night Blogging Time

I'm not even going to apologize for being behind anymore- I think this is just how it's going to have to work from now on. I just don't have time to post during the week haha.

Monday  9-13-10

I honestly don't remember what I did on Monday, it clearly wasn't very exciting haha. So this is my picture, another one for you, K.

And yes, your face did make it onto my fridge!! Anyway, this will be one of the last one's like this, I'm running out of sides of the room to take a picture of haha. The coffee maker is our favorite part of our room! Makes getting up in the morning so much easier!!

Adoption T

As I'm sure most of you know, the Summit has recently been talking about the churches responsibility to care for the orphans in this world and encouraging its families to pray and consider adoption or foster care. Many families have responded to this call and decided to take the leap of faith and open up their homes to a child in need. Clearly, orphans are very important to me and adoption is something that I am very passionate about. Also, I obviously cannot adopt for myself at this stage in life seeing as I'm in college, 19, and not married, so I'll settle for being excited and praying for the families who are in this process.

One such family, Matt and Catherine Allison, (Matt runs the Route 56 at Brier Creek) are in the process of adopting a little boy from Rwanda and they are selling t-shirts to raise money for the whole process. As most know, adoption is a very expensive process and what easier way to show your support and God's love by doing something as simple as buying a t-shirt (and they're really cute and Carolina blue). Here's a picture of them, I'll be getting one and I think you should too!

If you're interested, e-mail Catherine at catherinesallison@gmail.com. The shirts come in XXS, small, medium, large and XL and the suggested donation is 20$. Also, you should check out the Allison's blog for more info about getting the shirt and to just keep up on what God is doing throughout this journey- http://allisonantics.blogspot.com/


I'll leave you with the verse that is on the shirt and sums up why we believe that orphan care is so important.

John 14:18
I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

Settlers of Catan

If you have even stepped inside my house over the last few months, chances are you've been asked if you know how to play the game Settlers of Catan. We're absolutely addicted to this game. Like ridiculous, play 3 (or 4) times in one night (its a long game), every night over the summer, one time my brother and I even figured out how to play with only 2 people kind of addicted. So what would we do for my dad's b-day besides, of course, invite friends over to play Settlers.

(I don't know what is up with my brother's face in this one, but I liked it haha, besides it was worse in the other one.)

Indigo

I was planning on taking a picture while hanging out with LL watching a movie and stuff tonight. However, the poor girl has an orgo test this week and so is studying like crazy and too stressed out to enjoy a little bit of Amanda Bynes.

So, my picture for today is less of something that I did and more something that you should know about me.

Saturday

(I wrote pretty much this whole post and then deleted it accidentally!!!! AHH!!)

So, for all of you who were amazed that I had made it this far on my blog without talking about India, that's about to end. As I'm sure most of you know, I'm OBSESSED with India, I love it so very much! In fact, I have a post that I'm working on about my time in India and the affect that it still has on me everyday. This tag is one daily reminder of the place that I love so much. As part of the security check-in in the airports, the give you a tag and then stamp it to prove that you were scanned, then they check the tag before getting on the plane (just one of the many security checkpoints, the last of which is checking your ticket while getting off the plane, don't know what that's about haha). I just can't bring myself to take it off haha, I really like it- I know that's silly, but I like the memories. So, that's my thoughts for the day! See you tomorrow, and GoIndigo

Happy Birthday, Dad!!

Ok, last one today, I swear haha!

Today is my favorite Daddy's 53rd birthday!! To celebrate, we did his favorite thing- went for a bike ride and then ice cream. My dad is the greatest and our bike rides are always fun times to chat about silly and serious things- I one time told him the entire plot of the last two Harry Potter books (well that lasted about 3 rides). Happy birthday, Dad! I love you!

Last one for now haha

Thursday

What a healthy snack- oatmeal cream pie and Mountain Dew. Just what you need before hitting the library some more to get some micro homework done (the hw was H's not mine- no way I'm taking micro haha). Or in my case, go absolutely crazy and have the giggles all night long. It was an interesting night last night.

Yo-Po

Wednesday

I got to meet a fun new friends, Chex, who is from China and studying here for the next four years. She joined A and I for dinner and then we introduced her to the Tar Heel favorite, Yo-Po. She loves it now! (of course)

Davis Library

Tuesday

I've been spending way too much time here!!

I'm a little behind

I think that's going to be my mantra throughout this whole thing. Every weekend I will say that I'm going to try and stay on top of blogging through out the week and then the week actually starts and I'm behind again because of school work.

Monday 

I went to a labor day cookout at my friends' pool on Monday. This is a kinda awkward picture of me haha, but I love W in the back. It was fun to see these girls who I don't get to see very often cause, unlike me, they live in the real world (in other words, they've graduated from college haha).

Changes in the works

I'm in the process of making my blog a little bit cuter haha. Right now its just the basic template and I want to personalize it a bit more- but I'm really bad at that sort of thing so its going to take a little while probably. But a big thank-you to my sister, K, who created my pretty picture/ title thingy, I really appreciate it! She is much better with computers than me, apparently. More pictures coming soon!

Comments welcome!!

Also, I really like comments haha. Let's me know that there are actually people reading this (that's assuming there are actually people reading this). So, feel free to leave lots of comments! Even just to say hi!

Hello Mrs. Bradman! It's been a while!

Sunday 

Don't kill me, M, but I really found this picture funny haha. It was so awesome to get to see one of my besties from high school, M. We were theatre buddies together and I really miss getting to see her all the time. But you know, you can come hang out with me in Chapel Thrill any time you want, Ms. B!!! I love you!!!

Also, we went to Nosh, off Erwin Rd., SO good. You should go there if you haven't.