A Full Heart.

So normally I think that weeks like this are "just this week"- you know, busier than other weeks of my life. But I've come to the realization that every week seems to be "just this week." I need to face it....life moves fast all the time. But every once in awhile, it's necessary to slow down my though process and my actions and see the bigger picture.

Tonight I did that. Even if it was for just a few hours...I stopped. I listened. I cried. I deeply reflected on what my thoughts and feelings have been this past month, and where I want to take them these next few weeks.

You see, my job on-campus is a lucky one. There I sit, in the basement, checking out files and testing kits to graduate students. There I sit, reading my textbooks and writing papers (oh, and this blog). But it is also there that I sit and develop a beautiful friendship with my co-worker.

This woman is one of the most talented, educated and inspiring people I've come to know.
She's from Poland, studying here as a international student and this is her last semester before she graduates with not one, but two degrees. She is one who loves, LOVES to learn and explore. She's also one who has some heavy trials, but you wouldn't know that unless you truly get to know her.

And she has become someone very dear to my heart.

While working tonight, my intentions were to study some material that would be on a quiz tomorrow. Instead, I opened my ears and listened to my friend talk about her situation. For seven years she has lived in Provo, and not once has her mother been able to visit.

I would NOT even know what to do with myself if my mom were thousands of miles away, and she wasn't ever able to come to America and visit. So the one and only thing my friend wants for graduation is for her mother to be here, sitting in the Marriott Center, watching her daughter walk across the stage and acknowledging her accomplishment. And she wants this so badly.

Unfortunately, this is a costly thing. Plane tickets, car rentals, gas money, etc....where will she get this money? I won't go into details, but she is struggling, trying to find a way to get her mother here seems next to impossible. So this is what we have come up with: sell plasma, have a bake sale, have a garage sale, and sell some organs..you know a kidney or something.

Okay, maybe not that extreme....but she's that determined.

And as I listen to her, I realize how much the Lord has blessed me in my life. Yes, there have been some serious trials that have taken every ounce of faith to get through, but He never gives us something we cannot bear.

But now I am determined to do something to help her. The question is...what do I do?

You see, there are some people in this world that I want nothing more than for them to be truly happy. And she is one of them. So, somehow I am going to help her mom get here.

Somehow.