A Daily Post-It With a Bit o' Naming

Oh yes, and for those that were wondering, we have officially named Mr. Giraffe,
 Charles Willis McDonald III - and you can call him Charlie. Welcome to the family.
(see mom, the family name carries on, just like you wanted.)

Hilary Duff

Argh! Hilary Duff is apparently engaged and I can't read about it. Dang you lent!

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This is my text conversation with Josh about it... (please pass over the misspellings. I chalk it up to excitement)

me: OMGOSH hilary Duff is engaged nd I can't read about it!!

Josh: Haha. Who cares. 

Josh: It's Hillary duff.

Josh: Haha

me: Josh!! I care!!

Josh: Haha

Yes, my name is Julianna. Yes, I'm an avid people.com reader. Yes, I gave it up for lent. Yes, it's killing me. blah blah blah, don't judge me people. 

Happy [belated] Valentines

Seeing the Fruit

149 of us from the PCJC were up at Oak Glen for our 4th Annual Midwinter Youth Retreat this past weekend. A used the perfect word to describe the weekend, solid. The staff, the teaching, the growth, the heart of the kids, the weather... everything. Just solid.

1. David Gaulton leading worship with the new youth band. Watching them learn, grow, lead, and love it just makes the process of getting it to that point so worth it.
2. Brandon, Phil, and David for making gooning so entertaining.
3. The Lord for blessing us with no extra snow. =)
4. GymAttic Wifi
5. Cory for leading our first MS/HS split and getting down to it with the MHers.
6. Ryan, for his heart and the way he expresses that.
7. Kimi, for having such a great attitude about the "sickness aura".
8. Kats bringing the Word in a new way that makes its understandable, interesting, challenging, and applicable all at the same time.
9. For the 5 who stood to accept Christ on Saturday night.
10. For the tons who stood to see Christ as more than what He gives to us.
11. Michelle for mobilizing Anaheim. Bless her.
12. My 180 team - Lauren, Lindsey, Arin, and Sydney.
13. Shawn and Pat - wowza, anxious to see what God has in store for them.
14. Brandon for organizing Sunday morning deportation. Perfectly executed.

Not Consumed

Recently I have been reading through Lamentations. The people are crying out for help. Their city has been torn apart by war and the horrors they experienced were unfathomable - massive slaughtering of all generations, starvation, cannibalism, rape, exile, and everything else that comes with war. Through it all I am always overcome by these words, spoken from the very one who experienced the terror and who could still not yet see an end in sight:

Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Lam 3:22-24

Let our faith and hope be so grounded that weathering the worst storm would still have us whispering these same words... "we are not consumed, your compassions never fail, you are our portion, we will wait on you."