The Ramblings of Denira

Yesterday was my last day at Holston. It was very bittersweet. I was sad to leave the people, but am very excited about my upcoming position. I didn’t think that it would be so hard to leave yesterday, but after many tears I finally did it. Later today we are headed up to Big Ridge State Park’s group camp to hold out Fall Retreat for the students. We are so excited abou this! I think it’s going to be such an amazing weekend. Please keep us in your prayers that God will change some lives this weekend!!!

Deena and I spent Saturday with one of our other small group girls. We spent the day taking pics. These were tons of fun and we had a blast just hanging out with Allie. Here’s some of our pics we took!!! Thanks for hanging out with us Allie!!!!

Don’t you just love those times when you are going through something and you just know that God is teaching you so much. Now is one of those times for me. When I graduated college with my Masters, I thought I was set. I was so naive to think that I would just graduate and the perfect job would be waiting for me….I quickly found out that it doesn’t always happen that way. I waited 2 months before I was able to even find a job, and it was no where near what I wanted to do. When I first started at Holston, I hated it. I was even looking for a new job during training! Over time it got better, but it still was not a place where I was completely happy. For the past year and 1/2 I have applied and interviewed for job after job. Many of these jobs I was 100% qualified for, but was still not offered the job. The ones I was offered had something about it that I had to decline the offer. There were so many times that I just wanted to give up and just be miserable and accept that it was the way I was going to be forever. My husband, who is such a teacher and leader to me, told me that he knew that God was in charge and was going to work things out and that I just needed to be patient! Well he was right!!!

Now…1 year and 7 months later I am finally going to be starting a job where I feel like I will get to use my degree and do what I’ve always wanted to do. I will have a school schedule, which means that when my high school small group girls are out of school, I am too. It means that I will not have to ever worry about attending summer trips and events with our student ministry. i am sooooo blessed and thankful for this opportunity.

The best part of it though, is that I can look back right now and see why God allowed me to stay at Holston as long as He did. If it was not for my experiences there, I would not be qualified and ready for this new job. I would not have been able to confidently answer the questions in my interview, thus resulting in probably not getting the job. I also met so many amazing people along the way and have made such great friends, whom I know will be life long friends of mine, like Jodie. I know that I am a better person and a more confident person because of my time at Holston.

Because of this experience, I have learned that God really does want the very best for us. I think I’ve always known that, but it’s really sunk in now. He knows what is best and will give us that. He does not just make us wait because He can, He does it because He knows that in the end, what He wants for us is way better than what we could ever imagine. Psalm 37:7 says “Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him” , and this is one lesson that I have learned and will continue to try and live out every day!

I’m so excited!! Today I was offered a new job and I accepted it. Starting Sept. 4th I will be working with Roane County Schools as an At Risk Counselor. I’m so excited about this opportunity. Since Feb of 2006 I have been on call 24/7 and having to drive long distances, the 2 parts of my job that I hated the most. That will be no more!!!! I’m soooo excited and thankful that God has given me this opportunity by answering this prayer!!!

So tonight was so much fun. My friend Deena and I had the chance to take one of our high school girl’s senior pictures. We took her to downtown Knoxville to take some of the pics. We arn’t through yet, we still have some more to shoot, but we ran out of daylight. It was so much fun just spending the evening with Selina and being a part of something that she’ll always have to look back and remember her senior year!!! Here’s a few pics that we took tonight!

After Carrie’s shower this weekend, I went and spent some much needed time with my family. I started out by going over to my grandmother’s house and then headed down to my parents house. I do not get to see them as often as I would like, and I hate that since I only live an hour away. It was a great day just getting to spend time with some of the most important people in my life. The only thing that would make it better would have been if Bobby could have been there too. Here’s some pics of my niece and nephew….I can’t resist taking pics of them!!!

Saturday I got to FINALLY hold little Logan Wayne. This is Carrie’s (human) son. For those of you who do not know, he was born 14 weeks premature. After a long stay in the hospital and some surgerys, Logan is doing great. He’s so precious!!! Saturday I attended a shower for Carrie. Since he came so soon, she didn’t get to have your traditional showers so we got to do one a little late. It was a lot of fun. I loved seeing Carrie get so much stuff and celebrate with her about how well her son is doing. It was also a great time to hang out with some old high school friends!!!

So, pretty much all my life I’ve heard all kinds of terrible stories about people’s inlaws…especially the mother n laws. I was always so scared that the man I married would have a monster of a mom. But thankfully, I’ve been blessed with the most awesome in laws that a girl could ever ask for. Tonight I had dinner with my mother-in-law and my soon to be sis-n-law. On my way home, after 3 hours at the restaurtant just talking, I started thinking about just how blessed I am to have gotten to marry into such an amazing family. They mean the world to me and I am so thankful that they have taken me in as a part of their family.

so I love LOVE LOVE taking pictures. If I had the talent, I would love to be a photographer one day. I don’t think that will happen, but in the mean time I still love taking pictures!!! Here is a picture that I took a couple years ago and I LOVE it. Just thought I’d share it with everyone!!!

Just wanted to take a quick moment to say thank you to my dear friend Deena, who over the weekend gave me her stomach virus. ) So for the past few days I’ve been feeling pretty rough. I’m doing nothing but resting tonight….and hopefully that’ll make me all better…but who knows since I’ve had it since Saturday. Other than that…the weekend was good. i had a blast hanging out with my friend Susan the night before her wedding. Jason and Susan’s wedding was so much fun to!! I also got to spend time with our good friends Chris and Melis, which is always a blast. So I’m just kidding Deena….it’s not your fault I got sick…and the weekend was still good despite that!! Now i’m off to sleep!