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I’m writing this from the dorm living room in the dark as we watch Hairspray on a Friday night (after a pitch black game of Zombie tag). Life is back to normal here in Storch dorm! : ) All 17 girls are “home” from all over the world as they returned from Christmas break. While they were excited to see everyone here in the dorm, it’s rarely easy for anyone to leave family and home, especially when they’re in high school. A few girls told me that they tried to be brave saying goodbye because they didn’t want to make their parents sad. Pray that my girls can be honest with themselves, God, and their dorm staff about their homesickness so we can help them through lonely moments. I certainly remember how I hated those goodbyes during my boarding school years! 

And yet as life gets back to normal, it’s been sweet to see the girls have a new love for each other and a sense of cohesion that wasn’t as clear before break. They are truly a family now. : ) And I love them more than ever.

But back up real quick! I got to go on Christmas break too! : ) Erkai and I visited Guinea to spend time with my family. Because we flew out of Paris to get to Africa we had one full day in Paris! So much fun. We were exhausted after visiting Notre Dame, Saint Chapel, Musee D’Orsay, Invalides, Eiffel Tower, and Louvre. And walking most of the way between them. Lol.. but totally worth it.

I'd been to Paris, but it was so fun to visit with Erkai. This is from the Eiffel Tower.

Fam plus Erkai minus David. We sure missed you, David!! :(

Found out these two have a ton of similarities, including their favorite hobby (teasing Sarah ;) )

Climbed to the top of a rock arch in Mali

Christmas!!

One of our break activities included taking this handsome guy's senior pictures

We needed a picture, too. :) 

They insisted I take a picture of them! :)

Love hazy Guinea sunsets

My beautiful Mamma!

Handsome Daddy

Erkai in Guinea

Going on a tour of my city, Kankan

LOVE HIM!!

The arch again!

Visited a zoo in Bamako, Mali. Can you find the lion? lol

So basically, it was a wonderful break, except for missing my middle brother, who was in the States working. Because it was so good to be home, it was a little hard to come back... But since I've been back to BFA, there have been some incredible moments:

-Reconnecting with some of my girls and going deeper with others.

-Getting to see one of my best friends from Cedarville for a night as she is on her way to work on the OM ships... LOVE HER!

KATIE! <3

-Star tipping with some of the girls. Hilarious.

Showing off our mud and battle scars afterwards

-Feeling closer to Jesus

Devos in the car one day! :)

-Seeing the girls be refreshed and refocused after break

Prayer requests:

-Continued growth and unity with Steve, Stacey, and Callie. That's a praise and a prayer request.

-For me to not be too tired. I saw how much more I've loved my life (and the girls) this last week because I'm not so tired...it's wonderful, but I'm not sure how long it will last.

-Have wisdom from God for the girls when they tell me about emotional/spiritual/relational problems.

-One of the teachers at BFA injured her back in a rock climbing accident. She's had surgery, but everyone's waiting to see what kind of motion/movement will return. Prayer for peace and hope.

Thank you for your prayers, financial support, encouraging messages, etc. Love y'all! :)

Fall & Winter at Storch

The dorm is swirling with craziness right now. I'm sitting on the red couch in the main area by the computers, approving two of my girls' Christmas banquet dresses, helping Callie decide what show to put on tonight with the Thursday evening special snack, and looking up homemade boutonniere ideas.

This week has been one of the hardest and best so far. For about three days straight I've literally cried at least three or four times a day for STUPID reasons. But then the next second I've realized how deeply blessed I am... So yeah, I think the crazy emotions are because it's almost Christmas and I'm tired. Literally and emotionally.

But here are some of the beautiful moments I've enjoyed recently that I'm thanking God for:

-I struggled to reach one of my girls at the beginning, but she's started smiling and opening up little by little. 

-One morning I was drinking my tea and realized I could read the three word German sentence on my tea bag.

-My "tuck in" girls love to talk. Sometimes we talk about pop culture, Brian Regan, etc. and laugh our heads off. But other times we talk about marriage, atheism, and God. I never know what to expect night-by-night, but I'm falling in love with these wise and thoughtful girls.

-I'm going HOME to Guinea for Christmas!!!!!!

-I realized I like cooking. This is a big deal because I cook quite a bit now. One of the best parts is being able to help choose the menu! :) 

Side note: We're still using up our 60+ cups of pumpkin! haha... We've made pumpkin spice lattes, bread, soup, smoothies, pancakes, cookies, pies, and brownies. And there's still some left.

Pumpkin soup

-My dorm parents have been very welcoming to let Erkai come and visit me and help out in the dorm a little about once a month. I love seeing him (obviously), but it's even more amazing that he can get to know the girls a little bit and understand my life.

Erkai and I when he visited the dorm

-Christmas is coming! Decorating the dorm for Christmas was super fun. Steve and Sorche even got a fire going in the fire place. Also, the dorm car I love to drive has heated seats and a great Christmas CD.

'Tis the Season! Alice and Mary! :)

Rebekah and Emily hard at work on snowflakes

-Today, Callie and I broke our food shopping record. Every Thursday we make the 20 minute drive into Loerrach to do food shopping. It typically takes us about 30 minutes to fill two carts with food. But today, our time from elevator to check out was 12 MINUTES. (Anyone need a professional shopper? I'm taking applications for my distant future. :P)

This is the veggies from ONE Thursday shopping trip... (But not this week.)

-Weekends off have been really fun this semester. I visited Erkai in Munich the last two months and I have been staying with a German family that Erkai knows. They are so kind to me, and it's been a blessing to meet a German family. (Before you get impressed, they speak perfect English). Also, once we got to travel to Salzburg, Austria, for the day to see where the Sound of Music was filmed.

Salzburg

 -But the biggest blessing is my fun, crazy, loving sweet girls. Please pray that I can develop deep relationships with them and truly pour into their lives. I need prayer for this because sometimes I get to the end of the day and realize that I haven't really talked to any of them. Sometimes because the day was busy, sometimes they don't want to talk, or sometimes I was tired. I don't want to waste a single day with these girls. Pray that I will love them and provide what they need most.

Sillies. :P

Laura and I. This girl has such a peaceful, beautiful spirit.

Thanks for reading! Blessings... Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas (soon!)

Life in Pictures

This month has been crazy, God-filled, humbling, encouraging, and eventful. Hang on for the ride! :)

First, I adore my girls!!! All 17 of them! :) They are beautiful, fun, and full of life.

The first weekend we took the girls to France (about 45 mins away) to shop for school supplies

Mountains along the way

Kandern had a festival during one of the first weekends after school started. It was so fun to experience a little German culture...

Enjoying the food with my friends Julie and Larisa

As an RA, I get to spend a ton of time in the kitchen... I'm learning to love to cook, and I'm also learning how to be better at cooking. But the best is when the girls cook with me!! :)

Chelsea made a beautiful Earl Grey tea cake with raspberries

Every month, each staff member gets one 4 day weekend to rest and/or travel. This takes the place of having regular weekends off, since the kids are obviously in the dorm on the weekends. For my first (and only, so far) weekend off, my boyfriend Erkai came to visit from Munich. He and I traveled with Jordan and Rachael, an RA couple from another dorm, to Lake Konstanz. It's a beautiful lake on the German/Swiss border.

Checking out the map of Konstanz

The beautiful cathedral in downtown

Lake Konstanz

Our hostel

Another part of daily routine in the dorm is that each afternoon, one of the staff members makes snack for the girls to eat after school.

Smoothies!

One warm afternoon, Stacey decided that we should have a picnic on top of a mountain...Callie and I were quite happy to comply with that plan. :)

And...My ROOM! :)

This is a "before" picture

Another "before" picture

 A trip to IKEA and a little love made the room more homey...

I'm so blessed to have a TV! I love having the girls in my room to watch movies.

Little things to remind me of people I love

My own bathroom!

And...back to the door.

My room! Still a work in progress, but I love it.

Another fun event this month was cheering for our brother dorm, HBR, in the annual football game.

The dorm mom, Stacey, and one of the girls

Be afraid.

Ohhh yeahhhh

 Back in the kitchen! Callie got 6 pumpkins from a local farmer's market. Four hours later we had 66 cups of frozen pumpkin in the freezer... Mmm...pumpkin bread, lattes, scones, pancakes, smoothies... It's FALL!

Taking out our aggression on the pumpkins

 This weekend is super quiet because the juniors are in Normandy and the seniors are in Rome! We miss them, but it's also fun to have a "small" dorm and spend quality time with the freshmen and sophomores.

The seniors on our red couch, just before leaving for ROMA!

 Thank you soo much for all of your prayers and love! Please pray for me to have a continued good relationships with other staff members, grace for pouring love into the girls, and a closer relationship with Jesus. Thanks for being part of my life! :)

I'm here!!

The last two weeks have felt like a month because so much has happened! Thanks for your patience in waiting for me to post an update. :)

Erkai and I flew out of the Dayton airport on the same day, but unfortunately not on the same flight. This is us with all of our luggage. (And more of it is mine than is his. lol) It all made it! :)

My airplane in O'Hare as we prepared to leave for London Heathrow

 I arrived in Kandern on August 8th. Then, for one week all of the RAs (both new and returning) lived together in one dorm. During the mornings we had German class, and during the afternoons we had ResLife meetings/training. After a few days, the dorm parents had a meeting to choose their RAs...

....And....

At first I was placed in Liel. I was really excited!! Then, because of a new German law, I had to switch dorms with another RA who had already been here last year (that usually NEVER happens). Each dorm has to have at least one person with a certain kind of degree, and social work was one of the qualifying degrees. The RA who switched with me was very close with the staff and girls in her dorm, so it was a hard transition for her. And of course, I was nervous about the situation as well, since I didn't want to "take over" for an already much-loved RA... However, I sensed that God was in the switch. He knew all along. So I am excited to announce that I will be in STORCH!!! :) I couldn't be happier with my dorm. :)

Storch is a high school girls' dorm!! Just what I had secretly/not-so-secretly hoped for. :)

(Storch is pronounced "stork"...like the bird...)

This is Storch! It used to be a school... Now it's a huge, cozy, homey house for 17 girls and four staff members. Also, we don't actually have flags hanging out the window...just fyi. :) I took the picture from the BFA website. :)

Storch is located in the town of Holzen... It's an absolutely BEAUTIFUL little town, only a few kilometers from BFA.

And this is the view (at sunset) from my bedroom window... :) I love it!!! As you can see, it's right across the street from the church, so I hear lots of church bells. :) And I can watch the storks on the roof... soo.... I guess that's why my dorm is called Storch! :)

This is Callie! :) My co-RA... She is so kind, sweet, and bubbly. I'm really thankful to get to live life with her this year!

This is Steve, my dorm dad, and Callie making pizzas for dinner. 

These last two weeks have been full of learning German, learning which trash can to put things in (there's at least 7 or 8 different categories), driving a stick shift and learning German driving laws, sitting in ResLife training, hanging out with the other RAs.

I've moved into my dorm, and the girls arrive next Sunday!

Prayer requests:

-Continued bonding and communication with Steve & Stacey (dorm parents) and Callie (RA)

-I've been lonely some (esp. the first week). I love having deep relationships, and it's hard to be away from my friends, esp. since there hasn't been enough time yet to form new deep relationships.

-Growing closer to God

-Being a good RA... all of the learning and adjusting that will come with that...

Oh, and my driving test! :o) It's tomorrow!!

As I'm here, seeing the beautiful countryside and meeting the staff at BFA, I'm so grateful for the supporters who have given and prayed me here... Thank you!!

P.S. Stay tuned for pictures of my room...

Packing Up! :)

Going here TOMORROW!!!

Tomorrow is the big day!! :) My flight leaves Dayton tomorrow afternoon. Then it's O'Hare (Chicago), Heathrow (London), and Basel (Switzerland). I'm arriving in Basel around 5pm on Friday!! :) 

So crazy excited. Please pray for wisdom in packing, grace with the ticket agents (I may or may not end up taking a 3^rd bag, which may or may not end up being free, depending on how nice the ticket agent is). 

Thank you to the girls in my house for letting me take over the living room for a few days!

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Erkai and I had a BLAST in Nicaragua... His family was so kind to me, and I felt so blessed by the chance to relax and rest.

Nicaragua! :)

I sold my car.

Kissing Walter goodbye! haha

Please pray for me tomorrow. THANK YOU for the love, prayers, and support so far. I still can’t believe this is really happening. J Next post will be from Germany!

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

--Hebrews 10:23