Graduations, and stuff...

Hey All,
So, hopefully this will be brief, though I always say that, so no guarantees... Anyway, after the San Juan tour I got to go home. I left Wednesday morning and got in early afternoon. Man, was it a crazy few days. I hung ut with friends/family Wed. night, Thurs morning, thurs. night, friday afternoon, graduation friday night, two times Sat. morning, graduation party Sat. night, and family breakfast Sun. morning. Yeah, it was busy! But it was good to see people.

Anyway, I left Sunday after breakfast and was about half way back (20 miles outside of Issaqua) when I blew a tire coming through the pass. That was a bummer. Luckily, my dad had taught me how to change a tire, and a fireman pulled up to help out. Between the two of us, we got my temporary tire on, and then he made a bunch of calls to figure out what tire store would be open on a Sunday. Then he followed me to my exit, at which point he passed me and I followed him to Costco. I was so glad to have him there. And I was stuck at Costco for a couple of hours, but it got taken care of, so that was cool. At first I was all frustrated about the whole situation, but then I sat down at the outside food court thing at Costco and pulled out my Chronological NIV Bible in a Year and started catching up on my reading. As I read, and eventually as I started writing in my prayer journal, it dawned on me that I was exactly where God wanted me. For the first time in a long time, I had no friends, family, or coworkers close. I had no car, no internet, no cell phone (my battery was to low to call someone just to talk). All I had was my Bible and God. And, quite frankly, I had not been near as strong in my walk as I wanted to be. So, those couple of hours were phenomenal. It was so good to focus and to clear my head a little bit. BE praying my relationship continues to strengthen.

So, I ended up getting home much later than I wanted to, but I was in one piece so that was good. Monday we started park orientation. Oh my goodness that is a terrible experience. As interesting as the info is (well, some of it), 3 solid days of it just kind of makes me want to run away screaming. However, some of the stuff, especially the few hands on classes, has been good.

Anyway, before I sign off, I have one more story that is another God-thing. Kayla is my 4th roomate and the 3rd intern. I don't think I said much about her the last post because I had just met her. Anyway, she is awesome! As different as we are, it seems like we have a lot in common. So, Monday night we were driving the government rig back to the house from work and we were discussing different things we wanted to do this summer and in general. Well, it came up that we both wanted to hit the hotsprings that are a few miles up the road from us. She was like, "Dude, let's go right now!" So we did. We stopped by the house and changed into swimming suits and grabbed towels and headed up. By the time we parked, it was like 8:30 at night, and it was a 2.5ish mile hike to the hotsprings. Well, we took off and eventually we found a pool that wasn't occupied and we just chilled for awhile. Finally, it started getting dark and we were like, "oh, shoot, we should probably go." She thought she had a head lamp in her pack, but when she went to grab it, it wasn't there. So, we were stuck hiking back without a light as night was falling. To make things worse, as we crossed one of the bridges, I noticed wet boot prints, which meant someone was near by. A couple minutes later, she saw some too, so at least we knew the person was a head of us. A little further, we saw a light on the trail. We got pretty close before they saw us, and it ended up being a couple of guys. I was already nervous, and two girls running into a couple of guys on the trail a couple of miles from the parking lot just wasn't helping. Well, they ended up being fairly young Navy guys, and we all walked back together. It was honestly great because it was pitch black by the time we reached our car, and I felt a whole lot safer with them, and it was fun just to talk. The coolest part, though, was that I had prayed for God to protect us, and it wasn't until I was crawling into bed that night that I realized they had been an answer to prayer. Albeit, not the answer I was expecting, but an answer none the less.

Anyway, that is about it from my end. Pray that I would be strong in my walk and my witness. Love you guys, and talk to you soon.

Later,

Amanda