Roots

I can't believe it's here. I leave in 5 days and it still feels as uncertain as it did a year ago when I began planning this adventure. I love that this trip is coming at the beginning of a new year, as if it somehow marks the beginning of a new season of its own. I am starting fresh for the first time in a while, wiping the slate clean with new people and a new place to call home for a few months.

Although I'm scared, I know I need to leave. I can feel it in my bones--this desire to to run, to stretch my legs is stronger than my fear. It is strange to crave unsettledness.

2012 was sweet in ways I could not have imagined last January. The Lord has done so much work in this little heart of mine, and I feel changed in an entire self kind of way. Rooted...Strong. Ready.

And so, God has called me on this grand adventure, far from all these things I consider comfortable. Far from where I've put down my roots. 

I spent the last week in Austin and Waco, getting filled up by the people who know me the best. There is truly nothing like leaving a place to make you realize how much of your heart other people will be keeping there. How sweet it was to be reminded of how much love I get to come home to in 3 months, to be reminded of the things that won't change within the span of a semester.

I am getting used to the idea of things here moving forward without me, and am praying that I will come home changed also.

It's when I draw too far inwardly that fear creeps in, so I am praying for vision this semester--for "the big picture" kind of eyes as I see so much more of the world and so much more of people.

There is so much waiting for me.