Decisions, Dust, and Dispatch

Decisions:
I have decided to stay in SoCal, though my family is moving up north to Redding, CA. This may be a long or short-term situation...I suppose we shall see how hard it is to be so far from my family. But for now, the Gallachers, a dear family from my church, have agreed to let me stay with them for awhile. Which brings me to...

Dust:
Seriously, twenty-seven years of stuff collects a LOT of dust. But here's the question: Why do I have SO MUCH stuff???????????????? Well, I have so much stuff because I keep stinkin' EVERYTHING! Seriously...I have book reports from 2nd grade. This is not good. I don't have room for all my homework from college...but how can I get rid of it? Notes from Bible classes...of course I'll need those some day! Textbooks from Music History...I hated that class, but I might want to look something up sometime...I totally need those! And the syllabus from Children's Literature...well, I can't get rid of that!
It was actually really fun to go through some of my old memorabilia with my friend Heather Kern. Heather and I have been good friends for more than a dozen years, and so many of my memories have her in them: pictures from a Counseling seminar, curriculum from Children's Institutes, pictures from summer camp, a Thanksgiving play that our families wrote one year...so much fun! Thank you Heather for being such a wonderful, faithful, fun, encouraging, comforting friend! And also, thank you for helping me pack and move! You are the best EVER!!!

 P.S. You are totally worth more than $599! :-)


Dispatch:
To dispatch is "to send off to a destination or for a purpose." My family is being dispatched...and I am sad to see them go. I'm sad that I won't be able to pop by and visit them whenever I want. Sad to say goodbye to the place I have called "home" since I was 4 years old. I guess I just thought that wherever I went, I could always come back here. Well, God had other plans, and though I'm sad, I'm also excited to see what God has in store for me and my family. As much as I dislike change and turmoil, I know that God often uses them to draw us closer to Himself. So, I choose to find joy in the unknown, and I choose to be excited about this new adventure, and I choose to trust that God will be glorified in this.

Shaina

¡Ay Muchacha!

Well, it seems that I have returned to the United States of America. My trip to the DR was amazing and absolutely life changing, but you can read all about that at www.americanamuchachas.wordpress.com . They warned us a lot about transitioning back to the states and going through culture shock and all that jazz, but quite frankly I haven't had time to deal with culture shock. While Jennifer and I were in The Dominican Republic, my father made the tough decision to put our house up for sale. Shockingly, the house sold within a week of being on the market and went into a 45-day escrow. Everything happened so quickly and I was in a completely different country and I couldn't deal with this impending change! As mentioned in previous posts, I am not a real big fan of change, and I feel like I've been dumped into so much huge change! So, the last several days since I've been home have been filled with prayer and conversations and trying to determine what the next step is that the Lord has for me.
Basically it breaks down to two choices: 1) Move to NorCal with my family, live with my grandparent's for a time, find a new job and a new church, or 2) Find a place to live here in SoCal, continue working for Pacific Camps, and stay involved with Lighthouse Bible Church. There are so many reasons to go with both choices, and I have never been a really good decision-maker. I have less than a week to figure out what I'm going to do with myself. Meanwhile I am catching up with friends here, packing and trying to put together a presentation of our trip for church. Incidentally, if any of you are interested, the presentation of our trip will be this Sunday, August 8th at 6:00pm at Lighthouse Bible Church 4910 Cochran St., Simi Valley, CA 93063. Please come by! There will be lots of pictures and stories :-)
Well friends, thank you all for your prayers and friendship!