Happy New Year!
If you'd have told me at the beginning of this year that I would be in this place at the end of it, I would not have believed you, and it only would have served to depress me that I couldn't even fathom such a thing. It's true. Had you found me in the CTA station at the corner of Lake & Clark at 4am on January 1st 2006 - with a dying cell phone, no taxi, and a smelly, 6'4 drunk passed out on the bench behind me (one I had to get home with me) - had you at that point in time told me - well, let's just say it's probably a good thing for all of us that you didn't.
Oh the foresight I lacked! The angst I wallowed in that night! Two months later, it was over. Two months after THAT, I knew it was over. And the rest of the year took OFF. I learned so MUCH in 2006! My kids went to camp - and they loved the camp I loved at their age. I spent a month in Costa Rica for WORK - and I there experienced new things I could never have even imagined. I found a church home, and a ministry which seems to have been my whole life in the making. God proved faithful, even after my most faithless season. Hope was restored in ridiculous measures. And I found friends - more than that - kindred souls, who I never could have otherwise known without the honest Jenn that was drawn up from the bottom of my heart kicking and screaming. A week before the end of the year, a lifelong dream began to take shape, as my place on next summer's team to Israel was confirmed. Oh, Mother, where art thou?
So, how is it possible that the last night of the year might top off all THAT? How can I express to Marc & Donna my gratefulness for what turned out to be so much more than hospitality, more than simply allowing me to share in their celebration? What can I say to convey to them the appreciation I feel for the place I found myself exactly one year after the aforementioned nightmare? I struggle to recall the times in my LIFE where I've felt so "at home" - a place where I know I am safe & loved & appreciated without a single ounce of pretense. I call that "family". How do you thank someone for that? How do you thank dozens of people for that? How do you thank God for that?
2007 is set to be the best one yet. This year in Jerusalem. Happy New Year to you all!
Oh the foresight I lacked! The angst I wallowed in that night! Two months later, it was over. Two months after THAT, I knew it was over. And the rest of the year took OFF. I learned so MUCH in 2006! My kids went to camp - and they loved the camp I loved at their age. I spent a month in Costa Rica for WORK - and I there experienced new things I could never have even imagined. I found a church home, and a ministry which seems to have been my whole life in the making. God proved faithful, even after my most faithless season. Hope was restored in ridiculous measures. And I found friends - more than that - kindred souls, who I never could have otherwise known without the honest Jenn that was drawn up from the bottom of my heart kicking and screaming. A week before the end of the year, a lifelong dream began to take shape, as my place on next summer's team to Israel was confirmed. Oh, Mother, where art thou?
So, how is it possible that the last night of the year might top off all THAT? How can I express to Marc & Donna my gratefulness for what turned out to be so much more than hospitality, more than simply allowing me to share in their celebration? What can I say to convey to them the appreciation I feel for the place I found myself exactly one year after the aforementioned nightmare? I struggle to recall the times in my LIFE where I've felt so "at home" - a place where I know I am safe & loved & appreciated without a single ounce of pretense. I call that "family". How do you thank someone for that? How do you thank dozens of people for that? How do you thank God for that?
2007 is set to be the best one yet. This year in Jerusalem. Happy New Year to you all!
posted by JennW7773 | 4:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home