happening things

eating @kingofpops | flavors blueberry lemonade and grapefruit orange blossom

things are happening over here, like:

-we played marco polo in our pool for the first time (the apartment pool–we did not install one)

-it is getting really hot and was 98 out today. gross. sweatiness. eww. why is ac not free??

-we just went to arkansas to celebrate matt’s dad’s bd, while fishing in a river that was literally in our backyard. it was good to see family outside of a holiday environment–just mixing it up trout-style…

-with much peace, we have decided to fully pursue the adoption route. this has also concluded our foster care path temporarily (since our foster care agency would not send our home study over to our adoption agency without closing first). it was a scary step, closing down 2 years of waiting, time, emotions, and work, but we felt it was a good step. our dear friend works at this adoption agency, and has been encouraging us for some time to head in that direction. it wasn’t until lately that it felt like a serious option. while our docs have just concluded we could start down the infertility treatment path, i don’t think my heart is yet ready/prepared to start down the seemingly endless slope of more testing, doctor’s appointments, treatments, etc. for now, God is leading us in another direction.

-matt only has 6 MORE SEMESTERS LEFT!!! AND NO CLASSES! at least that are required… (shaking head).

-our 6 year anniversary is saturday. wow. crazy. long-sweet time.

-in two weeks from tomorrow we’ll be headed towards berlin. matt is always looking for new summer classes and this year he actually (with God’s total grace) received two grants that are taking him to vilnius, lithuania to study yiddish (a mix of german, hebrew and other eastern european languages/russian). st. paul’s is giving me a couple of weeks off to go with him before he starts his classes. we are going to visit: berlin, dresden, prague, vienna, bratislava, kraków and warsaw. this will be our first vacation alone (longer than 3 days and w/o family/friends). it will be good to take a pause and just be.

the summer life.

swimming at our pool. matt practicing flips. #childhood #warm #neighborhoodpool

3 days of rain. when it rains–it rains. #ga #atl

new trash finds to refinish. #love #midmodern

church getting a make-over. #workday #nasty

waking up. #pinkhair

life has been busy with my new job. i am the new office administrator at our church, st. paul’s presbyterian church. naps have been occurring more frequently as my mind starts to shut down around 3 in the afternoon after staring at emails and papers all day. at 24, i finally am not being paid hourly. it is a new feeling. not bad, but new. the Lord is showing me patience and how to take one day at a time.

a friend shared a quote the other night concerning–it is not about what we achieve in a day, but how we can be transformed through what we encounter/are given. this has been something to mull over–since my lists seem endless. like the pen could keep on writing the small check boxes on the side of my notebook. my dreams of goals, tasks, accomplishments–don’t always look up to par with my standard. but it is in how i deal with them. how i look at them. how i thank God for the work that is there that matters.

so here is to a mountain. a mountain of work. hope y’all are doing well.

oh, and we are finally getting assigned an adoption specialist–this meaning, we are finally going to start home studies!!! 😀

summer projectos

i worked on these t-towels this summer while i was gone in yosemite and massachusetts. maddie sketched them out for me this before i left. she is a wonder.

coffee

boating

flowers in vase

last night card fest

power time

the met

matt and i wished the met was designed more so like an ikea…

the metropolitan museum of art was absolutely stunning. but with the amount of space and vast amount of displays, we had to start making a list of what was most important to see–early european art, statues, modern art, american, etc.  we both agreed that the met is like a maze, and that it should be more like an ikea: one entrance, one path, one end. therefore, you don’t have to wind up retracing your steps through half of the museum to find a different exhibit.

one of my favorite exhibits was “china: through the looking glass.” the exhibition,

“explores the impact of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion and how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries.”

it was beautifully put together with dresses from dior to yves saint laurent. the best room “moon in the water” featured dresses that were arranged on black reflective stone. a wooden walkway led you around the center of the room, almost as if you were walking around a still, quiet pond. the dresses were elegantly arranged and reflected on the stone like water.