blessings

recent blessings in my life and my friends' lives:

• maria and andy are having their first baby in april
• hanna and brian are engaged
• amy passed her board exams
• mariko is coming into town to visit
• grandma thompson's birthday yesterday
• joe's birthday yesterday

there are two praises/blessings that i shared with my small group last night.

• showing love to nat. so, based on the five languages of love book, nat's language of love is physical touch. i've struggled at times expressing that love to nat, mostly because it's neither how i give or receive love. God has done amazing things in my heart of helping me express love that way, and more amazingly, wanting to express love that way!
• family at church. renata came to hang out at our house after lunch on sunday. she's the youngest of our Bible study leaders' (cindy and stu) children. that was so much fun, and unexpected. nat had told me that renata liked me, but i thought she just "put up" with my incessant chatter with her. but when her dad said "i'm surprised she picked to go over to your house rather than come home" in a sarcastic but loving way, it hit me that she liked hanging out with me. it was weird. but anyways, that day turned into hanging out with stu and cindy and their family at their house. it was nice to just relax and eat dinner together, and chat. one thing that i loved a lot, was the fact that it just seemed natural to go over. i didn't feel like we were imposing, nor did i feel pressure to stay when they invited us to. so that was a big blessing.