I was an emotional mess when I first went away to college.  I cried in my dorm room, I cried on my way to chapel.  I cried in the "caf" (aka student dining center), and I cried in the middle of class.  There was not one faculty member who thought that I would return for a second semester...at least I thought.  We had an amazing RD named Sam in Sweazy Dorm.  She did something for me that second semester that changed my life.  God used Sam to make sure that I would stay at The Master's College for the next two years because that was where He wanted me and where He was going to use me.

I started the fall of my second semester without a roommate.  I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened the letter with my room number and roommate just a few weeks before leaving the comfort of my Nor-Cal home for So-Cal.  I wasn't sure that I wanted to be leaving, let alone with sharing a room with a complete stranger.  The only close friend that I had made during my first semester at TMC had chosen not to return and I felt as though I was starting from scratch in many ways.  When I arrived to my room my roommate was no where to be found, but there was a note on my desk welcoming me back to school and letting me know that she had been praying for me and our year together.  I remember the relief I felt as tears began to fall down my face.  It was as though God was whispering, "see, I told you.  ALL things work together for good!"

On a fairly regular basis Steph's roommate from the previous year would stop by to see her.  Slowly Jenn and I got to know each other and I began to realize that I had not only been given the blessing of one roommate who would become a lifelong friend, but two!  I cherish the trips to Wildfire Grill, the beach in Malibu, Disneyland, and the crazy, crazy, road trip to find some snow one Saturday afternoon.  When I first left for college I felt like an orphan being that I was so far away from my family.  With Steph and Jenn I no longer felt alone.  With Steph and Jenn, my homesickness went away.

One day the following year, I suddenly thought of a question that I had never asked myself.  "If Steph and Jenn were such good friends, then why was Steph suddenly without a roommate when I needed one?" It was then that the truth hit me...they had volunteered to split up in order to help me.  Now over 10 years later they are still two of my closest friends despite the distance which separates us.  One-by-one we walked down the aisle to the same song and I look forward to the memories that we will share with our families in the years to come.

I have been thinking about this quite a bit lately because their sacrifice was used by God to direct the path of my life.  Because I stayed at TMC and learned to embrace my new home, I was able to travel to Peru for 3 weeks free from homesickness and serve after the earthquake hit in 2001.  In addition, I was able to form a friendship with another person, Rachel, who would introduce me to my hubby several years later.  My time at TMC changed me life and my heart and in some ways it would also be the place that would prepare me for the journey that Michael and I are now taking towards our son who will be born in Ethiopia.  

Today I still get homesick.  I am homesick when I am away from my husband and I am homesick for a country that I have never been to before.   I am homesick for a son that will not be born of my body but of my heart, and for my friends whom I seldom get to see.  I know that that God keeps His promises because time and time again He has revealed himself to me through the people that He has chosen to bring into my life. As a result of that I choose to embrace this homesickness with excitement and anticipation.  I can't wait to see what He has planned and the ways in which He will continue to work all things together for good!