Living without Limitations

It's the Fourth of July!!! Happy Independence Day Americans! I wish I was in Hilton Head, South Carolina right now. I love that place. I love fireworks and summer dresses and sparklers and watermelon and cakes with blueberries and strawberries on them to make them look like American flags. I wish I was home for the fourth of July, but I guess it wouldn't make any difference, because I am sick today. I could probably stand about 1 hour of festivities and then have to go find a quiet spot to cuddle up. I hate being sick so much. But the one great thing about it, is it makes me thankful for the days I am not sick (which is most of the year). I was thinking about that when I was hiking last weekend. I was doing the "hard" hike (mainly because it cost more money to ride up the cable car to get to the easier climb), and I just kept thinking to myself "I am so happy that I have the ability to do this." I am so happy to be healthy and have all of my limbs and be able to run and swim and just live without limitations.

And all that reminds me of something I was thinking about earlier today: why am I here? Let's be honest, the main reason I came here was because I didn't have a reason not to. I kept saying to myself: "Why not move to Switzerland for a year?" I didn't have anything holding me back: no job, no boyfriend, no mortgage. And it seemed obvious to me that the Lord wanted me here. I mean, honestly, how many people get a call in a place where they don't get cell service telling them "they HAVE to be an au pair for an awesome family"? That call was made by the wonderful Amy Lazenby, and if the Lord is using Amy to get you to do something, you know you are going to have to give in eventually, because she won't take no for an answer unless you have an really good reason. And, like I said, I didn't have a good reason. So, here I am. And I have been asking myself: "What am I doing here?"

Margot LOVING bathtime!

I keep feeling like this is just a pause out of my "real" life. That I will go back to Georgia, go back to school, go back to living with my parents, go back to work, go back to my friends, basically go back to the life I had before I left...and that was kind of a depressing thought. I want to change. I want to grow. I didn't move to Switzerland to stay the same person. And more importantly, God didn't send me to another place with completely new people and experiences to not show me something or use me in some way or teach me something.

So, I know that, when all is said and done, when I go back home in December, I will have changed...or I will have done something for the Kingdom. Maybe I won't figure it out until I am sitting in class in Georgia, or maybe I will never know. But I am sure that there is something for me, or something for me to do here. Which is exciting. Also, know that you are wherever you are for a reason.

This weekend I was able to talk to my sister, Rachael Mirabella & Beka Adam on the phone. I was sick...so other than going out and buying myself a blueberry muffin, that is pretty much all that I did. And it was SO worth it. If I hadn't been sitting around the apartment chugging orange choice and wasting tissues, I wouldn't have been able to talk to 3 of the best friends a girl could have. I have come to realize a lot about myself while I have been here. 1- as horrible as this sounds, I am NOT a naturalist. Don't get me wrong, mountains are BEAUTIFUL, and I absolutely appreciate their magnificence. But I don't GET anything out of them, does that make any sense? I feel like I am wasting the fact that I live IN THE ALPS, especially when I hear other people talk about mountains. If this probably sounds like blasphemy to some of you, I apologize.

2- I am totally a homebody. When I was talking to Beka yesterday she was like "duh, Kelly, I could have told you that." I guess I always thought I was more independent or something, but talking to people who know me so well, how know me deeply, I get more out of that than out of any mountain range. I like digging in roots, being around the same people, really being known and knowing others. I like people knowing my secrets and wanting to know more. I'm not good at the surface, "get to know you" stuff (I am not that good of a conversationalist). As exciting and fun I find moving to a new, beautiful foreign country, it doesn't touch the joy I get out of the relationships I left behind. And making relationships like those takes time...which no one seems to have in Geneva. Thankfully, I have been blessed with friendships here, but I still learned that friends like I have in Georgia are few and far between, and I am SOO thankful for them.

If you are at work reading this: shame on you, get back to work. (Haha Yen)

Have a fabulous day!!