Thankful

It's November and this week is Thanksgiving. This week is a great reminder of everything that God has done for me and there are so many things in my life that I am thankful for! 

To begin with, I am so thankful for my family. We have gone through many ups and downs together that has brought us so close together. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have been able to get through many of the hard times by myself. They have been there to cheer me on when I'm excited or to sit and cry with me when I'm sad. My mom is the strongest person I know. I know if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be the person I am today. My brother well is my brother. Sometimes we don't get along, but we will always be there to support each other and tell each other who's the bigger one (that's me)! My brother also gives me great advice (most of the time) which I appreciate. I know that I can always count on him when I need advice on something. 

             Me and my brother

I am also so thankful for my friends. I am thankful for Gretel, Kassie, and Meredith and their support. I absolutely love getting together with them because it's always a time of so much laughter and fun. I'm pretty sure that we never actually do what we say we are going to do half of the time but that's why they are fun! I love having those long conversations that help me grow as a person. I appreciate that every conversation always leads to God. I have the best friends that I could ever have. I thank God for them regularly. They are such a blessing in my life.

My friends minus Gretel

I am so thankful for the jobs that God has provided for me. This summer, I had the great opportunity to work for CIY. I grew so much as a person. I learned many things and met many people that are incredible. I was surrounded by people who always put God first. They would never tell us to do something unless they would do it or help us with it. The leadership was incredible. I have met many lifelong friends and I am so thankful for that.

My teammates at CIY

I'm also so thankful for my job at Missouri Southern State University Child Development Center. I absolutely love walking into my room on Tuesdays and Thursdays and hearing my 1 year olds yell Hi to me. They are such sweet kids that will always help your day get better. I love seeing their smiles and helping them learn new things. I get to see how much they grow and it's fantastic. This job kinda just fell into my lap and I know it was a part of God's plan for me. I also love my next job. Working with Trachelle is probably the best job ever. I get to spend several hours a day for four days a week taking care of my beautiful cousin Trachelle. She always puts so much joy in my heart. She's always so happy and filled with so much joy especially when we blare the music. I thank God for her and that I get the privilege of taking care of her so often. 

I am also thankful that for the first time in my life I live in the same town as some of my family members. I can always call up Trey, Michelle, or Trent if I need help on something or if I'm at home by myself. I love that we now have the traditional Sunday meals with family. I'm also thankful that they are so willing to be involved in church and help me when I need volunteers. 

This leads me to the next thing. I am so thankful for my church. God truly knew what he was doing when he brought us to Carterville Christian Church. They have welcomed us with open arms and I love that about it. I also love the sermons that Robin preaches. He is never afraid of stepping on anyone's toes. He tells it like it is. I love that. I also love that I have the opportunity to head the guest services tent and be on the C3 College Age leadership team. Being involved in my church has been such a blessing. I look forward to it every week and if for some reason I have to miss, I am so bummed. God is doing some incredible things in the people of this church and I'm so blessed to be apart of it. 

These are a few things that I am thankful for. I know that there are many more such as my schooling (that I'm almost done with!!!). I could go on and on but I will choose to stop here.

Logan, Trent, and I after volunteering at our Easter service

God has been so good to me. He has done many things that have lead me to where I am today. I am so thankful for everything and what it has taught me. 

Kristin

Isaiah 41:10

What A Week

Have you ever had the week that you just wanted it to be over? That was definitely last week! I had many moments of tears but also moments of laughter. 

These moments mostly started on Wednesday but before I start there I need to start from the very beginning. 

My college career has been full of ups and downs. I started out as a freshman at MSSU. It was that year during the spring semester that I found out that my dad had cancer. So the following spring semester, I decided to transfer back home so that I could help my mom out and take care of dad when she was at work. I only had a few classes in class during this time and the rest were online so I didn't have any trouble there. After he passed away, I transferred back to MSSU. When I did that, I lost a year of classes and ended up back to where I was before I transferred. That was just an awful feeling. It now pushed me back a semester and me changing majors pushed me back another semester. So now I'm on the 5 1/2 year college plan. When telling people that when they don't know the back story makes me feel about 2 feet tall, but I know that there was a reason and it doesn't matter what other people think about my schooling. It's annoying but I got to spend time with my dad and I wouldn't trade that time for anything. 

Well, I found out a few weeks ago that a few of my classes conflicted with a few of my other classes. I was very worried about it because if it wasn't fixed then I would be here another semester. That would now make me be on the 6 year plan and that wasn't going to happen, but they said that they would work on moving 2 classes so that I could take the other 2 classes at the same time. Well, now its Wednesday. I got news at 10:00 at the beginning of one of my classes that they were not going to change the classes they told us they would change. I was so upset. I couldn't help but tear up and I definitely was not paying attention in class like I should have been. I left class a little early that day because I wanted to go talk to someone to see if there was another way to help me out. We also were done with the lesson and he was just asking if we had any questions and I didn't. That helped me feel a little bit better about leaving too. So, I walk back over to the teacher education department and the only information I could find out was that the professors I needed to talk with were all in class. So I called  my aunt. (Let me pause for a second and thank her and my uncle. They helped me so much with this entire process. I couldn't have made it through it without them.) So I decided that I would go into my next class and wait for it to start. I had about 15 minutes so what did I do? I played on my phone of course. What else was I going to do? I decided that I would look up stuff for school and while I did that I checked my email. I had just gotten an email with a major paper attached to it. I opened the attachment and the paper that was there was not the paper that was supposed to be turned in. Actually, it wasn't even half of the paper. Instead of being 10 pages long, it was only 2 pages. So that was another thing that I had to deal with during my high emotional state. I had many comments from my professor that basically said I didn't do the assignment when in fact I did do it correctly but the email didn't send it correctly. I had no idea how she got the version she had. So I ran down to her office really quick with the correct copy in hand (good thing I had it). I caught her right as she was walking out of her office. As I talked to her, she wasn't as understanding in that moment as I would have hoped. As soon as I turned around with her, here came the tears. I couldn't stop them so I ran to the bathroom for a second. I couldn't believe that within 30 minutes I had 2 terrible news in my eyes. I had my last semester turn for the worst and now in one of my classes my grade was going to suffer because of a technical glitch. I wasn't sure what to do. I went back to my class, gathered all of my stuff again, and headed out the door of course still in tears. I was so embarrassed mostly but also completely crumbled inside. How could this happen? I headed straight for the daycare where I work. I knew that one of my friends was just getting off work. I wanted to catch her because I just needed someone to talk to and to cry to. We talked and I got to where I wasn't crying anymore. We even made it to class on time and with minutes to spare. 

I realized that even in these moments that God puts people there to help you. When you feel alone like I did, he still helps you through the situation. God also provides people to encourage you that do not even know that you are having a terrible week. I had many encouraging texts from people and it just made my day when I got those texts. They were reminders that God is taking care of me even during the terrible times. 

Friday, I had an appointment with the department head about the conflicts and we got them solved. They were not solved how I originally thought they were, but I'm just so excited that they are solved and now I have that huge weight off my shoulders. I walked out of that appointment with all smiles. I was so relieved and I knew that God had answered my prayers by helping everything to work out just fine. I could not stop thanking her. She even asked if I would feel much better if she enrolled me instead of my advisor (I wasn't sure if she would be back since she was off on medical leave). 

The next situation was solved because I still had the peer edited version of the paper that I had in class the day of the due date. She looked over that and still took it. I was so relieved.

Thursday night was Halloween night. I got to spend it handing out candy and playing Quelf with my brother, his girlfriend and one of my good friends who was not having the best week either. It was great to just put all of our school problems aside and just have some fun with lots of laughters. We also had a great talk after the game about what we were going to need to do for each of our problems at school. It was a great night of just relaxing and venting that we both needed very much.

On Friday, I hosted a BSU girls night here at my house. It was a lot of fun and I got to cook soup for all of them with the help of my cousin, Hannah. We played several games and talked. It was such a great night. It was here that I found out about the shooting at the Joplin movie theatre that I would eventually find out was our offensive line coach here at MSSU. Not only was this quite a shock to everyone. We were not sure what was going to go on because our Homecoming football game was the next day. Although I did not know Coach Moore myself, I know that our campus was entirely shocked at the whole thing. It really has brought our whole campus together. #MOSOstrong Today as I walked through campus, many students were wearing the green and gold.

Continue to keep our football team in your prayers.

Kristin

Isaiah 41:10

Kassie playing Quelf Halloween night!