[Enter blog side note statement AGAIN: I'm going to keep justifying the unorganized look of these posts until I figure out what I am doing wrong. Does anyone have pity for me and want to please tell me why the spacing is so ridiculous even after I change it? Why is this so difficult? Why? Why?]
Those numbers and letters represent all of my general addresses during my 4.5 years in college. My freshman year of college marked the point in my life when so many of my ideas of true relationships were turned upside down. That primarily began with my relationship with Jesus. To this point in my life, I had known Jesus. However, I had known Him as my "church" friend, as the one to turn to in crisis, as the one my parents recommended that I trust, and as the one who told me what to do and what not to do. I'm not even sure how I survived that relationship filled with rules and my idea of who He was. It took my relationship with the girls of B1 to change this.
My inaugural month at DBU was trying, as trying as trying gets for an eighteen year old. I had fallen in love with my nephews and niece throughout high school and was certain they would never remember me as I left them behind. I still frequently remind my nephew, now a ten-year-old who is getting too cool for auntie hugs and kisses, that he was my high school sweetheart. And I mean that--no boyfriends, all Gage! Anyway, I was definitely the girl that missed her parents also, though in college you act like you're cool and "loving" the new freedom.
I'm always shocked, amazed, astonished, and perplexed at how the Lord knows just what we need at just the right moment. The key to that is realizing that what He knows we need and what we think we need are often two very different things. (I'm still working on that "key" part.) However, when I moved into B1, He gave what He knew I needed and what I didn't know I needed then, and for the rest of my life. These ladies changed my idea of Jesus and cured my homesickness. We bonded like someone had poured Elmer's down our hallway. This time it wasn't Elmer's in its tangible form; it was the Elmer's that comes from the heart of Christ.
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17
Ashley A. was my roommate on B1. Who knew that a simple gap long-sleeved, striped shirt could bring together best friends for life? She's incredible in every sense of the word. Ask anyone who knows her!
From the left:
AMY, with current and precious baby bump, is one of those people who is constantly smiling. She is such a kind-hearted person, and we are certain that she will be an amazing new mommy.
I'll tell you about ALICIA in just a couple of more pics.
ASHLEY D. is my solid, deep-thinking friend. She is a woman of God's Word and has been as long as I've known her.
ASHLEY A., you know what I think of her!
CORTNEE is one of the most thoughtful people that I know and is a girl of details which I love.
Poor Cortnee and I didn't get the A-name memo.
Here we are in all our "four years out of college" glory. We had some crazy, sweet times on B1. We did indeed!
My sophomore year we moved up in the world (not really, it was basically the same room: square, tiny, old, tiled, ghost-like, haunted by Mary C. Crowley--normal dorm attributes) to D2, which we lovingly called R2D2. We lost sweet Ashley to UTA but were never really without her because she was our frequent, sleep- head-to-foot-with-me guest.
Alicia was my new, adorable, patient-with-my-moodiness, roommate. In the first month of our rooming, she saw me through, with tears flowing daily like faucets, my first (and only) real breakup. Then, two years later, the Lord allowed me to return the favor. She is one of the most laid-back, caring, and loving people that I know. She has traveled the world and back to tell people about Jesus, and now she's sending others to do the same.
When we moved in to apartment 3307, we were certain we had made it to the big leagues. The big leagues of Dallas Baptist University, that is. We lost Cortnee this time to off-campus living. She visited just about as frequently, but wouldn't agree to the head-to-foot sleeping arrangements. Strange...
At apartment 432, I had made it full circle and was back with Ashley again. This time, minus purple carpet and twin bunk beds.
You want to know the best part? When we met up this weekend for a reunion, all of us in different cities all over Texas and in California, it was just like being back on B1. All that I could think the whole time as we giggled, reminisced, and celebrated the good and bad was that that Elmer's glue, it's more adhesive than I ever thought or dreamed.
Thank you, Jesus, for these incredible girls that You have used to mold me to look a bit more like You.
2 Comments:
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Thursday, May 28, 2009 9:07:00 PM
Hannah you are the glue that keeps us all together! Thanks for the sweet shout out and I am glad that I got to spend three glorious years of such huge growth above you in a bunk bed!! I love you more than you know!Friday, May 29, 2009 9:44:00 AMHow lucky you are to have such great friends, but I think they would agree that you are the best!
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