T - 9 Days!

9 days from now, I will be standing in the airport in Atlanta with bags packed and ready to head to Europe!!

How did this come about, you ask? Well... I was standing around one day lamenting the fact that I would soon be turning 30. While I have never been one to get worked up about age, for some reason I was feeling bad about the fact that I am turning 30 and things in my life do not exactly look the way I thought that they might at this age. I decided that it would be a good idea to counteract this with a plan to do something fun for my birthday. So, the ideas began rolling out...including the fact that my roommate has friends that run a hostel in Europe. From there, plane tickets were priced on a whim...discovered to be reasonably priced...purchased...plans made...and here we are - leaving for Prague next Wednesday! From there, we will head to Vienna, Austria and then to Cinque Terre in Italy before returning to Prague via Venice. Hopefully, I will have some amazing pictures to share when I return!

I Saw a Miracle...

A few weeks ago at work, I watched a miracle happen. I didn't recognize it at first. It was a pretty ordinary day. Well, except for the line of visitors coming in and out of one patient's room. He was supposed to go home that day, and several people came by to celebrate. It isn't uncommon to see a patient get discharged - it happens every day. Some discharges are more exciting than others, though, especially if the patient has been in the hospital for a long time, or they have reached the end of their chemotherapy treatment. This particular discharge was special. It was a miracle. This patient wasn't supposed to have walked out those doors. He had been close to death so many times. And yet, God did a miracle in his body. As I watched him and his family walk out the doors, I realized that I was witnessing a miracle happen right in front of me. Though I may never understand God's ways - why this patient was healed while so many others are not on this Earth - I am thankful for this reminder of God's goodness and power. As I think about another patient tonight who is not doing so well, I can hold fast to my knowledge of God's faithfulness, even when circumstances make it difficult to see.