Circle of friends

Have I mentioned in the last hour how thankful I am for my friends? The Lord has blessed me with some of the most amazingly sweet, kind-hearted, godly friends I could have ever asked for. Last night, a whole bunch of us got together (minus Kirstin, sadly, who was hanging out with Nick) and ate, talked, ate more, talked more, ate more, and finally watched a movie. It was a lot of fun just to be together. I'm posting some pictures above about that evening. So that was a neat time. Most of us have been hit hard in some area or other of our lives this week; I think probably all of us have cried at some point in the last day or two. But just knowing you have these girls who watch your back, are willing to drop anything at the slightest hint to help, and are simply willing to listen...well, that in itself is a major blessing! God always gives us what we need to make it through.

Today I woke up not feeling that great. Christina and I were supposed to go work the morning shift for a Habitat for Humanity project, but I had to call and say I couldn't make it. I went back to sleep and slept till about 11:00, then I got up to go eat lunch in the Cafe with Christina. Christina decided to go work the Habitat for Humanity afternoon shift, and as she was leaving we ran into Kirstin. Well, Kirstin had had a somewhat stressful morning, and she was on her way to a hair-appointment. And then her car won't start. The poor girl was in tears. So I suggested the thing that every girl needs to do when she's stressed: go get an ice-blended coffee drink at the local coffee joint and have a good gab fest. In Malaysia, we'd go get an Ice-Blended at Coffee Bean; in this city, you walk to the local Java City for a Java-Lanche. So Kirstin and I did that, and it was nice to get away a little and talk. Then she met back up with Nick, who helped jump-start her car, and I went back to my room. This was at about 2:00. Well, I pretty much stayed in bed all day and watched movies. My head hurt, my stomach was weird, and I was just at the end of my energy supply, so I rested. At about 6:00, I ran to Chicken Express with Christina, and then we came back to eat.

Now here comes the neat part of my day: I actually got to talk with Lance. It was a little before 8, and I was sitting down to call his mom and check up on him. Well, the little Yahoo tinkerbell sound popped up with a text message from him that he'd sent from his cell phone. Basically he was saying hi and said to give him a call if I wanted to (as if I might not). So I called...and I was really surprised, because I knew that he'd been pretty out of things the last couple of days. Apparently today, the pain has been going down, and he's been a lot more alert. So anyways, we talked about a 1/2 hour, and that was really nice. I haven't heard his voice since his transplant, and I don't remember the last time we talked on the phone...and it was just nice to talk with him. It made me feel so much better, too, just to know he was doing ok. He has the CMV virus, which he got from his kidney transplant, and stage-4 esophagitis; the doctors are thinking that hopefully the pain was simply a result of a combination of those two things. Hopefully he can go home soon; he will have to be on an IV of some meds for 21 days for the CMV virus, I think, but they hope that might be all he has to do. Anyways, that was a definite praise and a bright spot in my day.

So, of course, I immediately called all my friends to let them know I had talked with Lance and that he was doing better; all of them have definitely been praying for him. I think they were all about excited as I was. I want to publically thank Christina, Kirstin, Melissa, Rachel, Ashley, and all my other friends for their incredible friendships, love, and support--ya'll are my angels and gifts from God! I love you guys...and I send out my love to all my other family and friends around the world. Each of you bless me in such a special way. May the Lord bless you in a special way today.