Only Ten Days Late...

Bradley turned 21 on July 12th, but he has been loving and sharing Jesus with people in Serbia!

So we finally got to celebrate his birthday this weekend (ten days after his actual birthday)!

Saturday evening I drove to Raleigh to surprise Bradley at the airport.

They were supposed to land at 8:15pm and didn't land until 11:30pm.  

I was a nervous wreck.

I was so happy to see him!

After we got his luggage we wanted to talk.  Not many places are open around midnight that have relatively nutritious food...so we parked at Sheetz beside our church, snacked, and chatted.

My pretzels and hummus container was adorable and very accurate.

He dropped me off at the purple house full of exhausted and revived women...and I woke up the next morning to my best friend in the whole world jumping on my bed fold-out couch! 

So so great.

Trip Lee, Bradley's favorite Christian hip hop artist, preached at Summit!

After church we grabbed Panera to go and went to Duke Gardens!

 I gave him a homemade coffee mug and homemade mint chocolate chip cookies with the 21 reasons why I am glad he was born :)

In the midst of sweet conversation...Bradley got another surprise!

Then we headed to Frankie's!

On our drive Bradley gave me gifts from Serbia!

A beautiful handmade mug, Serbian keychain as a reminder to pray for the country, and about three dollars!

We played a round of putt putt...

We don't joke around.

...except when there's an opportunity to Tebow of course.

We're pretty competitive.

Especially when we hit each others balls into the grass.

We headed to the Brier Creek area and enjoyed some coffee and God's Word.

And later grabbed a yummy dinner and he opened his last gift:

confusion.

It still needs some tweaking with the push pins, but this verse eerily sovereignly relates to what God told him on his last flight home.

I am so grateful for that special time together, since I won't see him for five more days.

I gained a deeper repentance and thankfulness for God's character, design for humanity, and the community He has given me.

Happy Birthday!

Today is this man's 21st birthday!

He is spending his birthday in Belgrade, Serbia building relationships with kids, teenagers, and college students (aka not drinking).  

Since Serbia is so incredibly hostile to the gospel/any sort of religious talk, his group is encouraged to be patient and evangelistically winsome instead of shooting for the Romans road with every conversation (aka it's hard). 

There are several missionaries that have planted their lives in Belgrade along with a few Serbian Christians, so Brad's team is encouraged to cultivate relationships that can be developed with time in the hope that the Spirit would bring them to salvation in Jesus.

Bradley and I got to skype this morning (afternoon to him) and I read him 22 1/2 (I tried for 21 and couldn't narrow the list any more) reasons why I am glad he was born.  

I'll share just a few:

I miss him when he's not with me (especially for 2 months).

He's a good combination of strength and tenderness.

He makes me laugh/is not afraid to make a fool of himself.

He loves my family well.

He's super fashionable.

If you couldn't tell, I certainly love him a lot.

I am confused and thankful that the Lord has given me this man who loves and pursues me so well, yet daily makes Christ the center of his affection.

I am SO excited to hug him soon and hear detailed story after detailed story about how the Lord made Himself known on this trip.

High Five for Friday!

Happy Friday!

This week, I'm linking up with a sweet girl who was in my small group this past year, Lauren!

Each week she hosts a High Five for Friday link-up!

Here are some life-happenings that are definitely high-five worthy:

ONE.
On Monday, Bradley's mom and I helped him move in to this house in Durham:

I for realz want this house.  Pinterest and I would do some serious home decor damage here :)
...aaaand maybe add a stove, oven, and refrigerator.

He will be living here (along with five other college men) for the next week,
spending a week in New York,
returning to Durham for 3 1/2 weeks,
going to Serbia for 2 1/2 weeks,
and spending his last week of City Project here :)
Whew.

I participated in City Project last summer, although our summers will be completely different.
I am thrilled at how God is already working and equipping him in his first three days in Durham!

...he will also be blogging about the entire summer :)

TWO.
Tuesday morning I said goodbye to two of my best friends, Bailey and Leah, who will also be participating in City Project!

Leah and I had a coffee date at Starbucks, and immediately after she left, I could not wait to put my nose in the Word.  Love that girl.

...aaand after Starbucks I went to B & N and got a new journal :)

I swear, I cannot spend less than thirty minutes in that place.  

It's a black hole of beautiful, beautiful books, the smell of coffee, and people with glasses.  Mmm.

THREE.

unedited.

Saturday morning Bradley and I woke up early (like, FIVE AM early), He picked me up at 5:30, and we headed to the rocks at Carolina Beach to watch the sunrise and spend time in prayer.

& he brought me coffee :)

I am so thankful to live in Wilmington.

FOUR.
I am becoming more equipped for motherhood...one cooking experience at a time.

FIVE.
This sweetness.

My mom's parents.
Papa Earl has Alzeheimer's and Nana takes care of him and virtually everyone else in that nursing home.

Sticky Notes & Being Loved Well.

A wise woman in my life told me months ago that she thanks God that her husband fails her, because if he didn't, she wouldn't need God.

I love that--mostly because I love when Bradley is not failing, and am frequently disappointed when he ultimately does (duh, he isn't Jesus).  This leads to excessive criticism because my hope in that moment is in someone who will disappoint me.

I hope Bradley has been thanking God that I fail him lately...because I haven't been so great to him.  Yesterday, I had yet to start a paper that was due this afternoon and was preparing for my first final exam today.  Along with other frustrations that were out of my control, I was downright cranky.

Bradley and I walked to class together yesterday morning, and during that five-minute conversation I managed to vent my frustrations and turn them on him.  

Nooot the sweetest thing to do. 

I didn't even apologize immediately.  I did once I saw him that afternoon--but it stinks to be mean to someone who is being patient with you. 

I met up with him to apologize, and so we studied together afterward.  I was doing my laundry and when I realized my clothes weren't dry enough, and I didn't have time to wait because I had class at 1:30.  He offered/told me he would wait for them to finish and would take them to my room if someone was there to open the suite door.

Well, when I returned to my room, this was the sight:

He covered my room in sticky notes...

He folded my laundry...

He wrote me a poem and pointed me to biblical Truth...

Needless to say, I was crying after I read those items.

And I found more sticky notes today:

...and that's not even all of them.

So today, after I got out of my final exam and last class of the day, he called me and told me he wanted to meet up with me.  I was frustrated on the phone (though I had just finished a final, and felt great about it!)...because my class was dismissed 20 minutes late.

Is there a more lame reason to take frustration out on another person?


I'm even embarrassed to write down how quickly I forget Jesus, how quickly I forget that He is Lord, this life is not my own, and all good things come from Him and not me.

So we met at a swing outside, and Bradley gave me this:

In his precious, 6-year-old handwriting, he wrote (most of) the names that God gives Himself in Scripture.
Yesterday, when Bradley was super sweet to me, of course I was giddy and felt so loved by him...Thank You, Lord that he doesn't stand for that too long.

When Bradley handed me this, he said to me,
"You could not use any one of these words to describe me, yet even these words are not sufficient to capture all that God is."

Ummmm, so does Bradley point me to Jesus, or does he point me to Jesus?

After my selfishness and impatience reared its ugly head directly at him, Bradley obeyed the Spirit's leading to choose to offer me grace instead of reprimand.

I am easily frustrated and critical, and he definitely has his sin patterns and struggles (I love to focus on them, so even recording this is a good discipline for me), but I am so thankful for a man who loves Jesus more than me and who loves me like Jesus first loved me.  

As great as Bradley is, even on his best days--when he is aware of his sin and God's glory, and even when he is loving me well--he is in desperation for salvation.

Jesus' love for me is completely unmerited.  He first chose to love me and He most clearly showed me His love for me by stepping off of His throne, living, dying, and resurrecting on earth, and sending His Spirit to help me in my struggle to love Him back.

I am nothing; He is everything.
My words cannot contain Him and my life is hid with Him.

He delights in me because I am covered by Jesus' blood--and for no other reason.
THAT is being loved well.