We're here!

I have a few minutes to kill before we leave for our helicopter tour of the island. This place is absolutely gorgeous. I think we've exclaimed "Wow!!" more times in the last three days than in the last year. Words won't even do justice to what a great time we're having, so I'll just leave some pictures. :)

We got up at 1:30 AM Hawaiian time (6:30 Houston time) after getting into Maui at 9 PM the night before to watch this sunrise.

Here we are about to bike down a mountain after watching the sunrise at the top. We almost got run over a few times!!

Mmmm, mango shave ice!

Okay, that's enough for now ... we're off to see Maui by air!

Put Up or Shut Up

I Corinthians 10:12-13 -- "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

30 minutes after I posted earlier, I found out that he's not coming home today. He did everything in his power, but he has to stay til at least tomorrow morning. I wish I could say that I was totally okay with this new development, but I have to admit that I cried and said things I should not have. After I calmed down, this verse came to mind. How great is our God! He is faithful even when we are not. I spoke about having faith and resting in Him, and just 30 minutes later, I couldn't even do that right. I feel so much like Peter right now. "No Jesus, I'll never deny You!" Ha ha, how human I am. Today has reminded me how desperately I am in need of a Savior.

ALL things

The title of this entry is SO appropriate. I had just typed out a long post on personality types and letting God work on my weaknesses. Then as I tried to change the font, I somehow erased everything I'd written. My jaw hit the keyboard as I realized what I just did, but instead of getting upset, I just smirked and thought about how appropriate it was.

I've really been seeing my weaknesses come out during this stressful week. I am a planner. There are no two ways around it. I love to plan. I've grown to realize that most things don't work on nearly as strict of a timeline as I would prefer, so I've learned (and am continuing to learn) how to be flexible and adapt as needed. That said, many things seem to have gone not according to plan this week, and I've been getting phone calls today from people telling me 1) "I'm sorry, but that won't be ready at the time we promised" or 2) "I know you have a lot to do right now, but I need some help here." Add that I just found out this morning that my fiance has to stay out of town longer and that I won't see him today afterall, and my love of planning and organization is out the window.

I called my dad this morning as he continues to give wonderful counsel no matter how incoherent I may be when I talk with him, and he reminded me of Romans 8:28. The NASB puts it like this, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." As I cried to him about how I didn't know if I could do everything asked of me right now and about how things aren't going how I thought they would, he asked me an important question, "Sarah, does God make all things work together or just the things you want?" Ouch. Right where I needed it.

Why do I forget? Why do I try to take control when I'm never really the one holding the reins anyway? I forget that nothing is a surprise to God. He already knows exactly how this weekend is going to unfold, and since He makes all things work together for good, I will exercise my faith in Him. No matter what happens, I want my actions to bring glory to His name. I want to be so calm that when people ask me why I'm not freaking out, I can tell them that it's because God's in control and that I have nothing to fear!

If He watches the sparrows, I know He'll take care of me.

Cohabitation

Two days ago, three very studly fellas helped to move my fiance's furniture into my apartment. This involved three hours of sweating, grunting, and quoting Anchorman among other movies. I felt bad for these guys because I live on the second floor and because there was so much stuff to transport that it took two trips between our homes before we got all the big stuff. I know they were tired and had much more interesting things to do, but they volunteered their efforts and didn't complain once. I think bribing them with chocolate-chip brownies may have helped ease the pain on the return trip, but regardless of that, I am very thankful for their cheerful hearts and strong arms! (My favorite quote of the night from one of the movers: "Is it bad that I want to marry a girl who cusses?")

My apartment is now filled with reminders that I will soon be sharing my living quarters with a guy. Luckily for me, I lived with a guy for a year during college, so I'm a wee bit more prepared than some of my girlfriends for what it might be like. I have no illusions of my fiance waking up in the morning looking like a bright ray of sunshine (although he's such a morning person that this actually is a distinct possibility). The fella I lived with in college used to walk out into the living room in the morning, scratch himself in some rather interesting places, and let out a large rumble from his booty ... all before he'd even uttered a "good morning." Said roomie also never understood the need to replace the toilet paper roll when it was used up; he figured leaving a new roll on the back of the toilet would suffice. Belching was its own category of humor, and dishes were only done if I took care of them. Yes, living with a guy taught me to get over myself and realize that there are better things to fight about than leaving the lid up. The benefits of my new roommate will be far better than the college guy, and since he'll have made a legally binding commitment to me before he officially moves into my place (not to mention the fact that we're in love), I think things will be at least a little different. I'm not asking for much; I just want him to continue to try to remember to leave the seat down!

(Before everyone is just completely shocked out of their minds, the guy I lived with in college was my younger brother. It was a horrible experiment, and we are much better friends now that we don't live together anymore.)

Counting the days

I've had a blog on Xanga for over 2 years, but I've caved to the pressure and signed up with Blogger. Now I can finally leave comments on people's pages! I spent all day with my sweetie running wedding errands, and we're both wiped out. I left him almost passed out on his couch with our beloved Astros on TV a few hours ago while I came home to take care of more wedding-related emails and other fun tasks. I'm counting down the days! I have 17 days left with my current last name and 18 days until we land in Hawaii -- far far away from cell phones and email accounts. I cannot wait! My word of advice to any unmarried ladies -- DESTINATION WEDDING. :) I'm sure the wedding will be fabulous; I'm just tired of planning. I don't know how I'd do this if I had a real job right now!

Speaking of real jobs, I'll graduate medical school in 52 days and start my residency in 71. I'm so excited and so nervous at the same time. It's going to be so weird to be able to write orders without having them co-signed by someone above me and to be expected to know medicine on a whole new level. I'll be in a brand new hospital in a brand new city with a brand new husband. For someone who is resistant to change, I'm oddly optimistic and am eager to start this new chapter in my life. My beloved and I were talking today about our plans for the future (specifically when I thought we'd be ready for kids of our own), and I've been reminded that God alone knows where my life is going to go. Two years ago, I thought I would be moving to the East Coast and living alone in an efficiency somewhere while I did residency; I even took a trip to Washington, D.C. in June 2004 to check out one of the hospitals up there! Little did I know that my future husband and I would click less than a month later, that he would propose 1 year after I took the trip, and that we'd be moving to another city in Texas 1 year after the proposal. I certainly didn't plan any of this, but I'm glad that His plans are the ones that really matter.