My big sis.

My darling big sister is in Australia just now.

Last time I saw her was 20th September 2011 when she was saying good-bye to me as I headed off to California.

There were some tears.

She is the best sister a girl could ask for.

I am missing her lots just now.

Thankfully we get to Skype it up.

Today she climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, while I had a Disney duvet day.

Both I think are equally awesome, well maybe her day topped mine a little bit.

But Tarzan, Aladdin and Hercules were pretty good company for this girl too.

Anyway. Sister, I wish that I could watch Pocahontas with you and sing along to it and laugh uncontrollably at how hilarious we are!

But we could watch any movie and I would be happy.

There is nothing quite like time with you.

I miss you more than you know and can't wait til the day that I see you again.

It is going to be one special day.

I love you, and I am so thankful for our friendship.

This photo was taken a year ago at our baby brother's passing out parade.

We had been sitting outside for about an hour, it was so so cold.

It cracks me up everytime I look at it.

I treasure it.

Linking with Emily today. You should too! Go grab someone you love and take a precious photo with them.



News.

I was doing so well with my posts, until I wasn't!

Anyhoo, here I am nearly a month after my last post.

And I have some news.

A couple of weeks ago we received the great news that my visa application has been approved!

So there has been a lot of emotions going on around here.

First and foremost, I have been praising God.

I can see His hand in all this and trust that this is His perfect timing.

But...there has also been some freaking out.

There are a few more details still to be worked out, I have to go down to London to have an interview at the U.S. Embassy where they will stamp my passport.

I have been told that I have nothing to worry about there because our case is strong.

But I am a little worry wort so that is exactly what I have been doing.

I have been reading this verse, over and over.

Praying it, asking for this peace.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus - Philippians 4:6-7, NIV

There have been lots of tears.

Tears of joy, and tears of me just being dumb.

Thankfully, the Lord has blessed me with so many wonderful people who have been great this past week. Telling me I'm being stupid, encouraging me and praying with me, making me laugh.

Seriously, my friends bring me such joy.

So, right now, I am waiting for some documents to get to me.

After that I will be heading down to London to (hopefully) get that stamp in my passport.

I'm praying and praying, knowing that the Lord can work out all these little details.

I am a happy, thankful girl just now.

Truly grateful for all that the Lord is doing in my life.

Excited for what's to come.

 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. - Ephesians 3:20-21, The Message.



Memories.

My brother went back to sea (not even) 2 weeks ago.

I miss him.

We had a lot of fun while he was home, as I have said many times before. 

I spoke to him a couple of days ago and it was soo good to talk to him, and laugh with him.

He is such a blessing. 

I am going to share some photos that I took the day before he left. 

He was not cooperating, as usual.

I look super, duper tired (cause I was!)

But they are fun, and they are still memories. 

...and these are the best that I got! 

One day I am going to get a lovely photo of the two of us! 

Even with all his weird, pretend-to-be-sleeping faces, I sure love him. 

Next week I am going to post photos with my sister, because I love her just as much! 

(She is in Australia this year which makes it pretty difficult to get any new photos with her!)

Linking up with Emily today. 

Delight.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with my dear friend on Skype. 

(I know I say this all the time but, seriously, it is the best) 

Anywaay. 

We were having a conversation about the future and my hopes. 

I was telling her about a conversation that I had with another friend last week 

*I hope you can keep up with me, I do have a point* 

We were talking about our future and in particular marriage and families. 

She said something that got me thinking. 

"what if this isn't what the Lord has planned for us though? and we sit here talking about it dreaming about it. I want to be happy with whatever the Lord has in store for me."

I had never looked at it in this way before. 

I have always, since I can remember, looked forward to having a family and children one day. 

What if this isn't what the Lord has planned for me? 

SO back to the other conversation on Skype.

*I don't know if I can keep up with this story so there is no hope for you!*

As I said, I was telling her about this conversation.

And she said something that really got me thinking.

"I think it is too much of a desire of your heart for the Lord not to give it to you" 

This of course lead me to this scripture. 

Delight yourself in the Lord, 

and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

Pretty simply. We delight ourselves in the Lord and He gives us the desires of our heart.

Except, what does it mean to delight myself in the Lord.

I have been going over and over this for the past couple of weeks.

Delight.

Here are some definitions of this word. 

- a high degree of pleasure or enjoyment, joy, rapture

- something that gives great pleasure

- great pleasure, happiness or satisfaction

This challenged me.

In everything I do, do I take great pleasure in the Lord? 

Do I portray a high degree of joy in the Lord? 

Do I seek happiness in Him?

If I am being honest, no.

This makes me sad. 

Why shouldn't I express great joy in all that I do?

I am richly blessed.

Recently I have been occupying my thoughts on LOTS of other things.

They are not necessarily things that I shouldn't be thinking about but the definitely shouldn't be coming before the Lord. 

Because I am spending time dwelling on these things they are bringing me down and this affects my attitude. 

My heart was full of joy and love for the Lord, but I wasn't always expressing this in my attitude and actions.

So all these things that I was worrying about and that were consuming my thoughts I handed over to the Lord. 

By handing over my burdens I am freeing myself up for the delighting part!

By releasing ourselves from these things we are able to work on showing our joy in the Lord. 

I don't want to delight myself in the Lord in order to get the desires of my heart. 

I want to do it because I love Him and I do find happiness in Him. 

I delight to do Your will, O God, 

and Your law is within my heart.

Psalm 40:8

We need to set our affections on Him, and desire Him more than anyone else. 

I think the key to delighting in the Lord is spending much more time in His word and in prayer.
 By doing this we learn more about Him and become more dependant on him.

So that is exactly what I am going to do. 

I am going to change my attitude and show great joy in all that I do.
I am going to seek happiness in Him, in His friendship and love. 

So this is what has been on my heart for the past few weeks. Something that I have been thinking about, praying about and working on.

Weird faces.

At the start of the week I shared that I spent a couple of days with my sweet friend.  

We wrapped up and went out for a lovely walk one afternoon and I took my camera.

I wanted to get some photos of the two of us together because I don't know if we have any. 

Actually I can think of one photo that we have. 

But one photo for 10 years of friendship is bad. 

These photos are the best that I got. 

This girl does NOT like to smile for photos. 

She is nearly always making a face. 

She cracks me up! 

They make me smile. 

And the 2nd photo was not planned. 

We just made the exact same, weird face because we are awesome like that! 

I'm linking up with Emily today. 

Go and check out what she has to say about getting in front of the camera and capturing memories! 

Music.

I love Christmas music. 

I get quite upset when Christmas passes and I have to start listening to "normal" music again. 

(I do occasionally sneak in a cheeky, wee Christmas song!)

So I have been listening to Christmas music since November. 

And I don't mean after Thanksgiving, I mean like November 1st. 

I know the rule - no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving.

I'm sorry, but not really. 

I am from Scotland and we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, therefore I can start whenever I like.

Glad we cleared that up! 

That is 2 months of solid Christmas music. 

(which is basically 2 months of solid joy!)

If I listen to anything else during this time I feel really bad and feel like I cheated on Christmas. 

I realise that this sounds like I have a problem, but this girl just really loves Christmas and celebrating the birth of her Saviour!

The other wonderful thing about it is that because I haven't listened to other music for a while it now feels like I am hearing it for the first time! 

I have been listening to a lot of Kari Jobe. 

If you don't know who I am talking about please go and look her up. 

She has some beautiful songs.

Her words really speak to my heart. 

Over the past few days I have been listening to one of her songs over and over. 

I find it really hard to listen to her music and do anything else because I get so lost in her words. 

You are for me. 

You can find a link to this song below. 

I don't know about you but sometimes I have to remind myself that God is for us.

You fill me. You see me.

You know my every move

and You love for me to sing to You.

God knows our every move, and knows what lies ahead. 

Lord, I know that You are for me. 

I take great comfort in that. 

p.s. I will share what else I have been listening to soon. Some of it hilarious, well not really but it is stuff that my brother listens to and we he had it on when we were driving all over the world last week! It is not at all what I would normally listen to but I got a kick out of it! 

Tyres and slippers.

Last was my baby brother's last week home before he goes back to sea. 

His 5 weeks went very quickly. 

So he was trying to divide his time between everyone, we all know that is hard! 

His girlfriend started back at Uni so he was driving back and forth to Glasgow during the week. 

This is really his story but we were all feeling it with him so I am going to write about it. 

He was on some back road going to Glasgow on Tuesday and he saw a lady with her car pulled over at the side of the road. 

He stopped to see if she was OK. 

(He really is a good egg)

She had got a puncture and was waiting for the road recovery people to get there. She said they were going to be another hour yet. 

Fin said to call them and tell them not to worry about coming, he would change the tire for her. 

See, GOOD egg. 

She showed him this massive pothole in the road that she had driven through and that was what gave her the puncture. 

She was going to get in touch with the council and let them know about it. 

So all was good, Fin changed the tire and they both went their separate ways. 

Fin was the hero! 

He had a good couple of days in Glasgow with Corrie (the GF)

He was coming back from Glasgow to hang out with me.

I got a call from him to say that he was late in leaving Glasgow. 

He was on that same back road coming home. 

You might see where this is going. 

He hit that pothole and got himself a puncture.

He was so mad, and mad with himself.

He said that as he was coming down the road he suddenly thought 

oh, I better steer clear of that pothole

Almost as soon as he thought that he hit the pothole. 

Poor kid. 

So he changed the tire and went on his way, a little annoyed to say the least. 

He had just got a new car too and this was going to be an expensive tyre to replace. 

I don't know much about tyres, in fact I don't know anything really. Except that they are round and they turn.   OK, I will stop being a girl.

But I do know that it shouldn't look like this! 

I am told that this is buckled. 

(The one below I just put in because you can see my cute Christmas slippers on the left!)

Fin took these photos, in case you were wondering. Not me. 

He managed to find a guy in Crieff that would be able to fix this for him. 

At first he wasn't going to be able to do it because Fin needed it before he drove back to Plymouth on Sunday. 

The guy called back and said that he would do it in his own time. 

He did it on Thursday night and called at 9.30pm to tell Fin that he managed to fix it. 

He was such a good guy. 

So Fin was going to pick this up when we were on our way back on Friday. 

This is not the end of the story...

On Friday, before he set off home, he got another puncture. 

I didn't believe him when he called to tell me this. 

My poor baby brother sounded so disappointed. 

I think he was just done with spending money on tyres and wanted to get home. 

Looking back now we laugh but at the time it was far from funny. 

I don't think I can talk about tyres anymore.

But I wanted to share that story for a couple of reasons.

My brother has such a big heart.

When we were driving home in the snow a few weeks ago there was a car stuck in the snow and this old many pushing the car up the hill. 

Fin pulled over where he could and got out and helped the man. 

He makes me a very proud sister when I see how he is growing up. 

Also I just loved that this man really helped my brother out by working during his spare time. 

I was encouraged that this guy would go out of his way to help someone that he didn't know.

It challenged me to think about how much of my time I give to others. 

You will be pleased to hear that he made it safely back to Plymouth with NO punctures. 

I was almost expecting to have a phone call saying that he got another puncture and that I would have to laugh at that. 

When I told him this he wasn't too happy!

Miss you already, Fin! 

Thanks for a fun 5 weeks filled with lots of laughs and love. 

Love you.

Now, I have told you before how hard it is to get a nice photo with Fin.

This was after a long, busy week and we were both tired.

Fin was no cooperating at all, he wasn't actually sleeping though! 

I have quite a few interesting photos that I will post sometime this week. 

But will leave you with this one just now. 

And I know that you all want to see a better photo of my new slippers. 

They are so pretty, I know! 

1 Corinthians 10:31