It's been a while...and I'm not even sure who reads this...but I felt like writing!  I am becoming aware that I am enjoying who God made me to be.  My character, my life, my way of doing things...God knew it was just right for who I am and what He has for me.  He doesn't make mistakes.  I am who He designed me to be!  Everything that has happened in my past has help shape who I am in my present...and the things happening in my life now will shape my future to be as God has crafted it to be!  How incredible!  I am enthralled with God!  How can He take me, and all of my quirks and faults, and use me?  And yet He chooses to...what a priveledge, an honor, an OPPORTUNITY!  I tend to get bogged down in life's messes without remembering that God is still at work...but each struggle, each separation is meant to make me lean on Him more.  I'll probably forget this in another hour or two after I have a chance to feel discouraged again (so keep reminding me!), but for now I have joy.

Latest on Evelyn:  one of my parents have been the hospital at all times for the past weeks.  We've been encouraged by Evelyn's progress and had hopes that she could return home sometime this week.  My parents just had a meeting with the doctors involved and discovered that they want to keep Evelyn in the hospital until she reaches 40 kilograms again (a process that could take up to 3 more weeks)...during this time they would also do further tests to see if there are any more problems they can identify and fix.  I have no idea how my family can do this - we've been stretched to the limit and I don't know how much more we can take.  Life has been upside down for months and its starting to show.  Please pray!  If you are on this side of the ocean, visitors are allowed and ENCOURAGED!  Evelyn is getting lonely and bored and would appreciate hearing from you...if you send me notes for her I will make sure she gets them. 

I love you all so much...

katie

        This past week and a half has been quite crazy - I went on a spontaneous trip to Paris with Melissa, James, Deanna, and Evelyn, got my top braces off (YAYAYAYAY!), lost my dog, found my dog, stayed up till 3 finding constellations on Melissa's ceiling, lost my voice, sang in an absolutely incredibly Youth Rally (hence the lost voice), went to the Music Museum, taught Sunday School, watched it snow on the daffodils today, said goodbye to my parents again as they left for their second week-long absence in the past month and a half, and then got sick.  Dehabilitizingly and frustratingly sick.  I'm thoroughly exhausted and have a mile long list of stuff I absolutely must do...but I have a sneaking suspicion that somewhere down the road my present miserable-ness will be pretty much forgotten in the wealth of amazing experiences and memories that I've accumulated recently.  So I refuse to be too depressed!  To lighten my mood I'll put some pictures up of what I've been up to - and if you don't have a facebook and haven't seen my 120+ pictures of our Paris trip, check out the two bottom links on one of Melissa's recent posts.

at the Louvre

drinking Starbucks and playing with the camera while waiting for everyone else to finish eating...

entertaining ourselves and amusing the passerby...

I won the card game, got impatient, and started taking pictures...so here is another sister-sister pic!

Place de le Concord...absolutely stunning place for pictures!

all the girls...

...the guy...what a poser

Hey, WE'RE IN PARIS!

being silly...

playing cards in McDonald's :)  this was after about 7 minutes of lessons in how NOT to cut Deanna out of the picture!

This is what our car looks like on a Wednesday night...how crazy and how fun!

the band minus james

Happy Birthday Madelyn!!

the whole party gang!

caio all - have a wonderful week!

~katie

     Last night I found myself wrapped in my sweatshirt, armed with my fuzzy, warm socks, and plastered against a heater...while sipping freezing cold ice water.  It's funny how our world is built around opposites...I crave ice water when trying to keep warm, the comfortable silence between friends makes the conversation worth while, and after the mountain comes the valley.  The end of an era marks the beginning of a new, the deepest joy is found amidst the greatest sorrow, and light is far more glorious when surrounded by darkness.  We must die to ourselves in order to experience true life and we must become slaves of righteousness in order to be free.   

Katie's rambling again...

I'm feeling a bit bittersweet - trying to remind myself that beyond all of the endings there are new beginnings...and since I'm having a hard time putting it all down in a less-than-melancholic way, here are some hardly-before-seen pictures to add some cheeriness to this post!  :)