Class of 2010!!!

So I am finally a senior and I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! Oh the thought of the day where I walk across the stage brings joy to my oh so eager little heart!!! As some of you may know I have been at ORU for four years going on five!! That's way too long! At least longer than I expected. You know a lot of the times you have a plan in your head, you see that it will work out perfectly...then it doesn't! At first it sucked. I mean it turned my world upside down when I found out I did not pass my nursing classes (2 out of 3). But I see the beauty in all of it now.

If I HAD passed I would have graduated with a very competitive class and I would have been working right now. At my maturity level, i'm not quite sure how I would have handled that. Plus I looked like I was 18 and still do!!! Not sure how my patients would have handled that. And honestly I would have not been ready to be the nurse that I was suppose to be.

Now I see that I am becoming His nurse. I feel so much more confident. I went to China twice because of my setback. And most of all I have some of the most AMAZING friends!!

So for me, my senior year in college means so much to me. I am not taking any moment for granted. I am taking advantage of everything ORU has to offer. I am having a blast with my girls. And so last Saturday we were blessed by Caitlin who took us on a photoshoot for our senior portraits. Here are some pics! Enjoy!!!

My tattoo has a lot of meaning. It symbolizes all that God did in my time here and my summers in China and I hope to never forget it. (It translates into "beloved" in mandarin and has a red thread wrapped around the characters. Beloved was a song I sang to the children at the foster home and the red thread is from an old Chinese belief that An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break. Parents who abandon their child will often times tie a red thread around their wrist or ankle.

We love sitting here at night!! One of our favorite spots! (the steps to our dorm rooms)

Look closely at our coffee sleeves!! (well if u can't see it has boxes checked that say our name, RN, BSN)

Love, Jovy

I Will Waste My LIfe...

I will waste my life,

I'll be tested and tried.
With no regrets inside of me,
Just to find I'm at your feet,
Let me find I'm at your feet.

I leave my father's house, and
I leave my Mother.
I leave all I have known, and
I'll have no other.

For I am in love with you,
and there is no cost.
I am in love with you,
and there is no loss.
I am in love with you,
I want to take your name.
I am in love with you,
I want to cling to you, Jesus,

I say goodbye to my father, my mother,
I turn my back on every other lover, and I
Press on, yes I press on.

-Misty Edwards

And I press on!!!! For them, for the hurting, the dirty, and the dying. Because my life is not my own anymore. I will stop wasting it, stop fighting it, stop giving in, stop questioning it. I will only give it. To Him, to them, to my friends, my family. And one day to the man who feels the same way!

Oh and we will go to such great heights! And they will see us waving, "come down now," they'll say, but everything looks perfect from far away, "come down now," but we'll say!

Love, Jovy

Catch It!

So I have a confession to make! I have been living vicariously through Anthony Bourdain from the show "No Reservations" on the travel channel. Can I say Anthony Bourdain is the man! I secrectly wish he was one of my uncles. How cool would that be! Uncle Tony and I sitting on his porch in Vietnam drinking some really cool foreign drink he discovered and chatting about his great adventures. I could listen to him talk about culture, people, and food all day long.

I've always thought, if this nursing thing doesn't work out, I would love to major in Anthropology or anything that has to do with learning about another culture. Understanding our culture and why we do what we do, think the way we think, etc. interests me! But learning about other cultures fascinates me! The more cultures I experience and learn about, the more I see how beautiful this world is and how awesome God's heart for His people is. I've also come to realize, we aren't so different from eachother. We have the same desire to be loved and accepted. We hurt the same. We laugh. We cry. We all want to believe that there is something greater than us at work in our lives. That we were created for a purpose.

This is why I have travel lust.

Knowing that the world is much bigger than the bubble you have been living in your whole life, changes you. There's so much to learn from other people and their homeland. I have my parents, ORU, my summers in China, and the travel channel to thank for showing me that we truly do live in a beautiful world.

So my summer after China has been spent dealing with the fianacial aid office of my university (ORU) and getting addicted to the Travel Channel. I now want to visit two destinations. One visited by Uncle Tony and the other one by Samantha the weekend chick (don't know her last name).

Anthony Bourdain's first love is Vietnam.

Samantha went to Argentina for a weekend.

Its cheap and beautiful. This part of Argentina is called La Boca.

Do you have the travel bug?

CATCH IT!!!!!

Love, Jovy

Wordless Wednesday

The way I see it #76

(Yes I am going to be another one of those bloggers who blogs about the quote from the Starbucks cup: "The Way I see it #76." Bare with me.)

"The irony of commitment is that it is deeply liberating- in work, in play, in love. The act frees us from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life."

How beautiful and so liberating is that! I don't want to go off on a long blog about how I love this quote and what it means to me. I just wanted to post it! It's something I want to keep in my memory. Something I want to think about. Something I want to live out loud.

I say you should drink a hot cup of coffee (or tea, or chocolate milk) and think about what this means to you!

Love, Jovy

Ps. I did not take that picture. I found it on google images. But my friend actually had it on her cup while we were at Starbucks!

Just another blog...

I am currently in my apartment in China.

I took a way too long nap this afternoon (naps for me are never just 15-20 minutes long, sometimes I feel guilty about it, but most times I don't care). Now it is currently 11:42 p.m and the scary thought that I will not hear my alarm tomorrow or that I will wake up later than I desire is racing through my head. About 3 hours ago I decided to create a new blog!!!!! I have a wordpress blog about my heart for China and the times I have traveled here, but I was temped to try out Blogger since I know of many people who have used it! So far it's pretty sweet!!

And so this is my first entry on Love, Life, and God (so not original but it's okay).

I'm not sure who will read this blog. I have another one, maybe 2 is too much to keep up with. I might regret having 2 !!! But this one is different as I am realizing that God is showing me way too many cool things about Love, Life, and His Heart For Me to just keep to myself. I'm also afraid I'll forget it all someday when all of life's "things" begin to distract me. Oh how I dread the thought that someday I'll look at myself in the mirror and wish to be that woman full of passion and love for life and God that I "used" to be. Let's hope that never happens. I hope that one day I'll look in the mirror and see how much my passion for life and my love for God has grown. And then I'll get to look back at all my entries and see how tall I've grown (and probably laugh at myself, maybe cry, and most likely edit all the grammatical errors that I am bound to make).

That's all for now!

Love,
Jovy

"Be like those who stay the coarse with committed faith and then get everything promised to them." Heb. 6:11-12