So I'm about a week overdue in sharing my consulate adventures...I've debated a lot this past week on how to share this adventures as to whether I should just give a narrative of what happened or if I should simply list some of the lessons I learned and how I learned them through this experience.

Hmmm...I'm thinking the list of lessons and how I learned them will serve best for today...

1. Never - I repeat never - go to a consulate when you have had less than four hours of sleep.  I really did have intentions of getting to bed earlier.  But for whatever reason I didn't get to bed until after 11 - probably closer to 11:30.  And then I laid in bed trying to fall asleep for at least an hour.  And then I kept waking up afraid I was going to miss my 4:30 alarm.  Not enough of sleep and a little too much stress did not help in any way.  So go to bed early, you'll be thankful you did.  (Along with this eat a good breakfast that morning - you'll also be thankful for that.)
2. I now understand why my dad left for work so early when I was young!  Rush hour traffic in Miami is absolutely ridiculous.  I think I've driven in 3rd world countries where I felt safer. (I say all of this out of love for being from Miami - from being the essential word in that sentence haha)
3. Sometimes the third time is not the charm.  Each time I was called up by the lady at the window I kept hoping that would be the time I would have everything correct.  And the third I was relying on the saying...but as it turned out the fourth time up to the window was the charm.
4. God always provides for our needs.  I had the wrong background in my picture...third floor had an office where they made passport pictures using the appropriate background color and I had exactly $15 in my wallet to cover the cost.  I didn't have my papers in the correct order...the amazing man in the front helped put everything in the correct order.  I didn't have the additional unknown fee...there was an atm on the ground floor.  I didn't understand what the additional form I was being asked to fill out said...the amazing man pulled out someone else's and let me use it as a guide as long as I promised to return it before I left.  I needed another paper translated...the same office on the third floor offered a translating service. 
5. Patience is essential.  I didn't learn this because I was patient - no I was frustrated and visibly a little upset.  No, I learned this because the people at the consulate were the most patient people I have ever met.  The amazing man at the front used his own time to help me in every way possible from organizing my papers to just simply encouraging me.  The lady at the window taking my papers never got upset when I didn't know how to respond to her or got at confused at what she was asking me.  They didn't kick me out when it was going to take an hour past closing to get my document translated.  It reminded me of inpatient I am with people or situations.  It reminded me of how I need to be gracious to others.  The consulate was so patient with me when they didn't have to be.  And God is so patient with me when He doesn't have to be.  
6. Don't lose faith.  I got really discouraged at the consulate because I was so afraid it wasn't going to all come together...but it did!  God was so faithful to me when I was so faithless.  The amazing man told me when I returned with my translated document, "See! Never lose faith in God."  God provided over and over during my visit.  He never left me and worked it all out! I think my verse for 2010 is Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight."  I leaned way to much on my own understanding during this appointment but God showed me He is faithful to meet the needs of those who have been called by Him.  
7. Smile. I often cry when I get stressed, so as hard I tried not to I did tear up a little.  As I left with everything worked out and turned it correctly, the amazing man at the front said to me, "Always smile, never cry."  The joy of the Lord really is our strength!  

So God is faithful and I believe He will be faithful in getting a visa in my hand in His perfect timing.  I'm  excited for what lays ahead but for today I want to be faithful in what He's given me in Lake Placid.  

Please continue to pray for God to prepare my heart to serve and please pray for my dad and his continued healing!

And remember He who brings smiles and laughter will be faithful when challenges seem unending.  Even in times of faithlessness He is faithful...for He cannot deny Himself!

Grace and Peace :)

Wordless Wednesday #3

A Thousand Miles in a Million Years

I don't really consider myself a book reviewer.  I might tell someone I loved a book or tell someone else how much I hated another. But I don't normally take the time to review a book.  And this is not a book review either.  It is a "I loved this book and I want you to read it because I hope you will love it and that it inspires you to live out an amazing story" post as well as I want to share some of the awesome truths written on these pages (I hope I'm not infringing on any copyright laws).

After a rough night and an encouraging skype date (see one of the reasons I love Skype :), my dear friend and other-half-of-soul shared an excerpt with me from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller (author of Blue like Jazz).  After she finished reading, I knew this was a must read.  The book itself is about Donald Miller's realization that we were created to live stories - but not bad, boring stories that make you want to put down the book forever or make you regret you spend your money.  No.  We were created to live incredible, memorable stories.  Stories that take our breath away.  Stories that create the desire to do the extraordinary.  

Here are just a few of my favorite lines/passages from this wonderful book (and might I add it's a fun read because Miller writes using stories from his own life - so it's not a boring self-help book).  But here you should decide for yourself...

"When we watch the news we grieve all of this, but when we go to the movies, we want more of it.  Somehow we realize that great stories are told in conflict, but we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are actually in.  We think God is unjust, rather than a master storyteller." (Pg. 32)

"If I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story.  The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you." (Pg. 59)

"We don't want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage.  And if life isn't remarkable, then we don't have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants." (Pg. 59).

"The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is "Do not fear."  It's in there over two hundred times.  That means a couple of things, if you think about it.  It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn't let fear boss us around...But fear isn't only a guide to keep us safe; it's also a manipulative that can trick us into living a boring life." (Pg. 108)

"Growing up in church, we were taught that Jesus was the answer to all our problems.  We were taught that there was a circles chaped hole in our heart and that we tried to fill it with square pegs of sex, drugs, and rock and roll; but only the circle peg of Jesu would fill our hole.  I became a Christian based, in part, on this promise, but the hole never really went away.  To be sure, I like Jesus, and I still hollow him, but the idea that Jesus will make everything better is a liew.  It's basically biblical theology translated into the language of infomercials.  The truth is, the apostles never really promise Jesus is going to make everything better here on earth.  Can you imagine an infomerical with Paul, testifying to the amazing prouduct of Jesus, saying that he once had power and authority, and since he tried Jesus he's been moved from prison to prison, beaten, and routinely bitten by snakes?  I don't think many people would be buying that product.  Peter couldn't do any better.  He was crucificed upside down, by some reports.  Stephen was stoned ouside the city gates.  John supposedly, was boiled in oil.  It's hard to imagine how a religion steeped in so much pain and sacrifice turined in a promise for earthly euphoria.  I think Jesus can make things better, but I don't think he is going to make things perfect.  Not here, and not now.  What I love about the true gospel of Jesus, though, is that it offers hope." (Pg. 203-204 - this is the excerpt that prompted me to go and )

I don't know what stories await me here in Lake Placid or what stories God is preparing for me in Spain...but it isn't it amazing to know that God writes our story...and we need not worry because the story has a happyily ever after...it may not come in this life but when our hope is in Christ it will come...because He is the end of the story...the story that never ends!

Remember you are loved by the ultimate Author...allow Him to write you an extravagant story!