Libby’s Birthday!

Believe it or not, it’s Libby’s birthday! And as her loving character, I have gifted her an ENTIRE POST for herself. So without farther ado (Marissa, I did see your comment, and watch for a GYH Guard Your Heart post coming up soon :D), everyone welcome…. Libby!

Hi everybody! Thank you to BRB for being so generous! I raised you well. XD

So yes, today is my birthday. I’m 18.
Comes as a surprise to a couple of you, but not too many. You all are such faithful followers I know you through email as well, so you already knew that. But to those of you who didn’t, there you go!

I’ve been so amazingly blessed in my life this last two years of my life, but this last year especially, and I think it’ll be fun to do a little review of what’s been happening in my life outside of the blog. 

JANUARY 2017

• I turned 17 January of last year and had my first boy/girl party. Not everyone I invited was able to make  it, but my 5 closest friends represented by: Darcy, Ethan, Tanya, Joseph and Lily (and Kate of course) were there, and that was so much fun.
• My church did a Foundation Youth Conference that was epic and amazing, and here is a link to the audios of that conference. They did it on the 21st, and it was very much a blessing. The link takes you to a page that has audios for both FYC 2016 and 2017.
• I started going to the real “Ethan”‘s Bible studies and they changed my life so much. The passion and genuine love that flows from him as a person, and when he teaches. It’s contagious and he really challenged me to love Jesus. To realize WHO GOD IS.

FEBRUARY

• My family and I did the Whole 30 diet. It was really good, really energizing and cleansing. We were able to stay off (of XD) our food sensitivities and our health generally improved. It was really good for all us all. I can’t say it was easy or fun, I really really had a hard time staying off grains and staple foods, because even though Whole 30 allows potatoes, I have a sensitivity to them, so that was really difficult. But we did it!
• I made a decision to have a “Bad Breakup” with my old self. That’s a quote from Spencer’s session in the FYC “Dying to Live.” I had been striving to die to self, but I found myself clinging to the parts of the old me that I liked. So I decided to strive to breakup with all of the old me.

MARCH

• I had my first Youth Group get together. So I know BRB has mentioned a couple of times that she hosts Youth get together once a month, she got that from me. I hosted 23 friends that Sunday and it was such a blast! We had lunch and played Ultimate Frisbee (my first time ever, if anyone was wondering. Turned out it’s actually a lot of fun) and had worship and a Bible study. It was really a blessing and after some encouragement from “Ethan” and my family, I decided to make it a monthly thing.
• I started my training to be the official Sunday School Teacher in my class. Although I was under age as the standard, my class was pretty much desperate, and so Pastor’s Wife came in and blessed me. She was so helpful, giving me tips and trick and other helpful ideas on keeping 3-year-old minds busy and learning.

APRIL

• My family went on a big trip. We made a full donut around the state of Nevada. We visited Montana (stunning, I didn’t realize how amazingly beautiful it is there), down into Idaho and visited Idaho Falls. We wanted to make it to Yellowstone Park, but it was closed due to weather *sad face*. Then we drove right along the border of Wyoming through Utah and into Salt Lake City. We didn’t enjoy the vibe of SLC, being that it’s so saturated with the Mormon religion there. Sadly, we didn’t actually get to see any of the famous Utah Arches. We got into Arizona and stayed on Route 66! We spent the whole day at the Grand Canyon, and then drove through Phoenix. We stopped to take a photo in front of the Mexican border, but it was too scary, so we didn’t actually get out of the car. Next we went to the San Diego California, and visited the San Diego Zoo. They had Otters!! Those are my second favorite animal next to dolphins. *cough* oh, same with BRB? Oops. We pretty much ended up driving alllll the way up California stopping in Sacramento, and LA. We also stopped in Portland Oregon, and visited Washington. It was a pretty amazing trip, and definitely full of memories.
• During that trip Jesus sent me an opportunity to grow and trust His plan. “Ethan” stepped down from teaching his Bible studies, and that upset me. Those Bible studies were the highlight of my week, beside teaching Sunday School. I had to surrender it at Jesus’ feet and keep myself from fighting to take it back. I see now what He was planning (Ethan and Tanya married, and now lead Friday night kid’s school at church so they are too busy to have a Bible Study) but then it was upsetting.
• We tried Chick-fil-a for the first time in my life! I couldn’t believe how fun it was! We happened to visit during a fundraiser, and the people were so nice and fun, and the atmosphere was awesome. We had breakfast at any Chick-fil-a available for the rest of the trip.
• Ethan and Tanya got ENGAGED!!! I squealed really loud when I found out.

MAY

• I went to youth group a bunch of times. Had fun. Had a youth get together.

JUNE

• I started asking Jesus for things in my life. I sought His will, but let my request be made known. And I saw Him do some amazing things. They weren’t life altering, but I could see the way He was working in my life and I was so excited. It was a step in my relationship with Him.
• Continued to grow my relationship with my friends and really got to the point where they were so special to me. I didn’t know that friends outside of family could be so amazing and fun and cool, and so I learned that.
• There were so many birthdays it was almost mind boggling. But I guess if you look at it, August has more birthdays. I guess June was mostly friend birthdays.
• Julianna went backpacking in Europe with her friend and I got a genuine Paris postcard from her. Which is awesome cause I collect postcards.
• VBS was announced and I was granted with the privilege of writing all three day’s puppet skits! It was soo stressful, but I did my best and worked really hard at it. It was a chance to use my gift of writing to bless the body of Christ and I was gonna do the best I could.
• I was just looking through my journal for June and during the get together for that month, someone asked if everyone has a guardian angel, and we came to the conclusion that heaven is huge. XD I had to share. That made me laugh.

JULY

• My sister got baptized. It was so cool.
• Ethan and Tanya got married. WOoohooo!
• VBS!!! Vbs was crowned best week of 2017. I had sssooooo much fuuuun! I was teachers helper and Pupperteer (the skit story was good, the skit itself was sort of eh.) and then my family and cousins ended up staying after VBS for the day was over, so we were at church from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for almost a whole week. We got to hang out and help our friend that works at church too.
• Went on a hike with family and a couple of friends and discovered $0.25 soft served ice cream cones!!! Does it get any better then that?!

AUGUST

• Got to hang out with friends.
• I got to see a partial Solar Eclipse! Where we were it was not completely covered, but it was still a little creepy.
• One of my best friends left at the end of August to go the California for Bible College. It was really sad to see them go so far away, but that’s where God led.
• Another of my friends from Vancouver got married and I got to be at her wedding. She was so pretty.

SEPTEMBER

• School started again. I’m a senior this year!
• I started writing my novel Dewdrops and Butterflies

OCTOBER

• I missed the get together this month, but I did get a lot of writing.
• I was trained more and more to be the main teacher in my SS class.

NOVEMBER

• November is one of the favorite months in my house. We get to start listening to Christmas music.
• Wait for snow, and get a small load of it.
• Decorate our windows with paper snowflakes.

December

• I helped out with a Christmas Morning Bag thing our youth group did for the homeless men’s shelter and that was really a blessing.
• “RINA” CAME TO VISIT! She came for Christmas break and I forgot that she was coming and when I saw her she’s like “Hey Libby” And I was like “Hey Rina. — RINA!!!” It was awesome. Lol
• Bible College Kid came home for Christmas break, which was super awesome cause I missed them.
• The whole group was back together. Back when I started youth group and my group of friends, they were all together, but they were all growing up, getting jobs, going to college. So when we all got together for Christmas, it made my heart sooo happy.

So that is what happened in my life this last year.

It was really a blessing, and you guys are so encouraging. Special shout out to Mariah, Lydia, Diana and Kenzie for being there for me and being such encouraging friends. You’re really special and I love you all.
And thanks to all my followers! You’ve really been so fun to write for and seeing your guys’ comments and seeing that my stuff actually gets read. It’s really a lot of fun.

And above all, Thank You Jesus for being my God and my Savior. Thank you for teaching and guiding me through this maze called life. I wouldn’t be able to do anything without You and I’m sooo thankful that I don’t have to.

~Libby