Sarah.

Guess who's graduating today...

[Starting a big year off together ;) ]

This girl!!!

Sarah, you are such a favorite!!

Mom or I or someone else may have told you this story countless times before,

but this is my blog, so I get to tell it again :P

When I was a little girl, I really wanted a baby sister.

Jerry was great and all, but... not quite the same ;)

So every day before naps and every night before bed, I would pray for a baby sister.

And then one morning I woke up, the precocious 5-year-old that I was,

and marched into my mom's room to tell her I had had a dream the night before

that Jesus told me she was going to have a baby girl.

What she hadn't told us was that she was expecting

and that baby, which she would come to find out was a little girl, was you!

Now, I can't imagine life without you

And I'm so grateful that Jesus answered that prayer :)

 

As I've mentioned, you are one of the funniest people I know!

 

[Stunning]

And even though we're 6 years and one brother apart, I have so enjoyed the past several years as you've become one of my dearest friends.

[We were babies :P ]

 Shortly after you came on the scene, I came to the realization that, one day,

this charming little girl was going to pass me up.

And I don't just mean in height (that's no great feat).

But I mean, I've just always known you would be a stunner!

Seriously - those big blue eyes and sleek blonde hair?

Ridiculously hot babe material!

And then that day came a while back where there was no more denying it.

And I don't mean this in some competition sort of way,

just more of Lord-help-the-Mister-who-comes-between-me-and-my-sister way ;)

 

[Seriously though... you've keep getting MORE stunning!!]

And on top of all that, you are wonderfully talented and creative.

You have the patience to make all sorts of things beautiful and personalized.

[Via]

Graduating just marks the beginning of a new adventure.

And I think you're going to have SO much fun!

[Love us!]

Love you tons!  I'm so proud of you and can't wait to celebrate :)

Loves,

Samara

fourteen.

So incredibly grateful for this guy:

[Josiah and I on graduation day 2012]

My brother Josiah is one of my absolute bestest friends!

Fourteen years ago today, he was handed a death sentence, a diagnoses of terminal lymphoma.

But God is so incredibly good and He interposed and gave Josiah life.

Fourteen years later, we are celebrating his graduation from college and now he's preparing to pack up his car and move off for grad school (which would be sad if it wasn't so exciting)

He is off to have some pretty amazing adventures and I'm so proud of him! But... I will miss him like the dickens!

Whether he's being silly, quoting disney movies, or cracking Boadicea jokes, Josiah can make me laugh like no one else.

[New Years 2012]

And it will be strange without him around.

[October 2011 - Husky homecoming with Dad's letterman blanket]

[September 2011 - Last, first day of school together]

[Jeremiah's MC graduation]

[Summer 2010 - a Summer visit to campus just before he started there]

Josiah, you've become such a deep person. No, not just in the sense that you can confuse mom with big sounding words in your (published =) articles. I mean that you are truly thoughtful, spirit-sensitive, knowledgeable, and compassionate. You have literally amazed me over the last several years by branching out to new types of people, working so incredibly hard, attaining things that seemed impossible. I'm so proud of you. And I'm so grateful for you!

Just wanted to take this day to appreciate who you are and the simple fact that you are here.

So grateful that God had plans for you on this earth that would take longer than 11 years to achieve. I'm so excited to see where those plans take you next.

Love you tons,

Samara

[via]

I look up to the mountains;

does my strength come from mountains?

No, my strength comes from God,

who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

He won't let you stumble,

your Guardian God won't fall asleep.

Not on your life! Israel's 

Guardian will never doze or sleep.

God's your Guardian,

right at your side to protect you--

Shielding you from sunstroke,

sheltering you from moonstroke.

God guards you from every evil,

He guards your very life.

He guards you when you leave and when you return,

He guards you now, He guards you always.

- Psalm 121, the Message

For those of you who have been asking about my interview yesterday... here's the lo-down. I thought I was interviewing for a specific position, but it turns out it was a firm that gets paid by a lot of other companies to hire quality people for them. So, a very nice lady at the firm has my application and resume and said she would get back with me as soon as she finds a good fit. She told me I was "darling" [still not sure if that's a good thing or just a polite critique] and that I "wouldn't be on the market long." Hoping she's right about that.


But for now, I'm back to job hunting. Kinda fun... kinda overwhelming, exhausting, and difficult =)


Today, though, I took a break from all of that to graduate. The English department graduation was rather fun and I loved seeing so many friends--especially Miss Lois!! Just lovely =)

[finally reunited with Lois =]

[Katie - love her! Her thesis topic: George MacDonald and Percy Shelley]

[Beks <3 ] 

[Josiah, myself, and Suzzallo]

[Hannah! My main Honors-partner-in-crime]

There was much cheering and hugging. [I've officially decided that Academics don't do enough hugging. I don't need a hug the day I graduate, I needed a hug the day you told me my paper sucked... but I digress.] One of my friends told me my hair was "immaculate"--especially meaningful coming from an English major. Oh! And it was productive, I had a very good (and extremely necessary) chat with one of my professors about my scholarship process this summer. All that to say: 

Samara Surface

cum laude, departmental honors,

phi beta kappa member, annual dean's list

Bachelor of Arts, English

Wow!! I can't even believe it! So in awe of all that God has done. I'll try and post more pictures later, because it really was a fabulous day.

Now, tomorrow, I face a completely different type of challenge: I'm teaching second grade. All day. All by myself. I'm taking over my mom's class because she has jury duty. =/

Pray for me, if you think of it. There are only five, adorable kids, but its just a bit nerve-wracking!! Hopefully I will have plenty of fun stories to tell on my next blog post =)

[via Esther]

Just finishing up my last night of homework for UW...

C'est tres bizarre!!!

After my Philosophy final tomorrow, I am celebrating with a ( last )= Monday Date with Julia, a book from Magus, and a movie with Beks (who is finally home!! =)

I am also meeting with my advisor for the scholarship process this summer. To be honest, I've had a bit of a hard time preparing myself for a summer of chasing hard after dreams. I'll probably be working nearly as hard on academics from now until January as I prepare multiple scholarship applications, study and take the GRE's, and apply to 9+ universities. Yikes! After some setbacks (both academic and emotional), I've been struggling to have faith in such impossible dreams. I was--not disillusioned--but, pretty deflated. Honestly, I felt a bit like this:

"I can't even fly out of the window!"

Ok... maybe not that bad, but it's been hard to believe in something so daunting. I've felt so small, so inadequate to accomplish the big things--or even all the little steps to get to the big things.
Well, today Pastor Norm shared something that blew my mind and revitalized my soul. He said:

"The more we discover about favor, the bigger God gets, the smaller we become. That's good news! We can be as small as we are. We don't have to psych or puff ourselves up. We get to walk in favor which means Christ overrides the rules of the natural and gives us special advantages and a special dispensation of grace."

WOW! I. so. needed. that. I am small, but He knows that. He's going to use my itty-bitty person and He can do miraculous and marvelous through me. Selah.

Alright... well with that encouraging thought, I'm heading to dreamland and preparing for the end of one season and the beginning of "the unknown new."