¡Cuatro dias!

Yes, cuatro dias, or shall I say 4 days. In 4 days I will be on my flight to Madrid, España where I will be spending 12 weeks of my summer! Woohoo! Actually for the first 3 weeks, I get to travel around Europe with my mom. And Jacob will be coming with us for the first 10 days. I absolutely cannot wait to go to Rome, Florence, Tuscany, and Venice with those 2. I know that there is going to be so much laughter given the fact that my mom and Jacob can make me laugh harder than anyone. After the 3 weeks of traveling with Pegs and the rest of the fam that's coming to visit, I get to live with a Spanish familia and go to school and Madrid and do lots of traveling and adventuring. I'm super pumped. The thing is, I don't know anyone that I'm going with and I won't meet them until I get to Madrid, but hey. The Lord is a provider and I am totally trusting that He will provide me with a friend. And He actually already has which I found recently. One of my best friends from high school that goes to Vanderbilt is going to be studying in Madrid during the same time! Thank you Jesus, You are the sweetest.

So the past couple of weeks have been quite eventful. My 20th birthday quite possibly could have been the best one yet. I got to have a 5 day weekend, go to an Amos Lee concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville (thanks Jakey), play with the baby goats on the farm, kill my first big daddy gobble head, have a celebration with my fam (piñata and all) and also celebrate with a couple of my sweet friends (Sydney made us the the best sloppy joes ever :)





And then the past 2 weekends I got to go home for Easter and a sick weekend. Ahhh home sweet home. I really love being home.
Over Easter I got to hang out with my peeps anddddd see a couple of my best friends that I don't go to school with, so that was perfect. I got to laugh a lot and topped off the weekend with the tradition of the intense egg hunt with the Dekle sisters. Good job, Nat, you won. But only by a few dollars. This past weekend Jacob and I were sick so we went to Birmingham to try and recover. It ended up being a great trip...we got to rest and watch A River Runs Through It..such a good movie, you should watch it if you haven't seen it! And then we got to eat breakfast with Jacob's sister and brother in law. They are the greatest. Annnnd we got to go to the Avett Brothers concert at Samford which was unbelievable.


My happy thoughts to conclude on...
I have been really anxious this week with finals going on, thinking about what I need to pack for the summer since I leave on Saturday, and how I am going to be in a foreign country with no friends, speaking another language for 12 weeks. I was letting fear and anxiety control me. I had to lay them at the feet of Jesus and ask Him to come and change my heart. And He did. I love the song, He Loves Us. I love it I love it I love it! He loves me with a love that will never fail me. He cares about me. He is faithful. He is going to take care of me. So often, He reminds me of the simplicity of loving Him back. All He wants is my heart, my affection, my attention, my time and my desires. And when He has those things, He works everything out and provides a peace that surpasses all understanding. Yep, He is a good Father who gives nothing but good things.
Matthew 6:33 says it all... "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
I really really believe this with my whole heart.

Next post to come from Europe! Yippie!
Happy first week of May, my friends.