Day 5

Day #5: The story of your life in 250 words or less

Nothing like 250 words to share 23 years of life. I am struck by how impossible it is to really capture the perfect and not so perfect little moments in my lifetime that have formed me and brought me to today. The good moments and the not-so-great moments that rock you to your core. I am thankful that I have the most grace-filled parents God could have given me and a family that embraces the messiness of life because really when you live with 8+ people and personalities there just isn't another option. I love the close friends that have become family that I have made over the years - and especially that my story + Adam's are soon going to get to start in a new way together. 

Each day I wake up adds to my story. Each person I meet adds to my story. Each time God shows me a new way that He loves me adds to my story. Each time that I am reminded that my story is not really mine, it's God's - I am humbled and thankful for the blessing to live His story out each day.

The obvious place to start I suppose would be birthday - June 3 - My parents were in the middle of a dinner party with some of their close friends when I decided I was ready to come into the world! Here is my Godmother, myself, and my Mom at a bridal shower recently - Ms. Lynn was right there with my Mom as she was realizing that she was in labor. :) I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for all the prayers My parents & godparents pray on my behalf. Seriously. 

Best parents in the world [I'm only partially biased]

The story of my life from that day [my birthday], grew to include the addition of 5 younger brothers - Isaac, Luke, Peter, Tommy, and Jacob. There is no casual way to mention to people who have just met me that I have all brothers [and 5 of them at that] - but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love all my brothers so much and being the only girl is not all bad, more perks than anything else! At one point I did have sign on my bedroom door advertising that I had brothers to sell, but have since out grown that phase :)

The early years - clearly I had awesome taste in pajamas!

Life growing up included lots of adventures with these boys - Mom was never a big fan of the words "I'm bored" being spoken so I usually took it upon myself to come up with something for Isaac, Luke & I to do...we had an awesome backyard that in mind my was huge [no idea if it really was or not, but from a kid-sized perspective our backyard was endless]. Thankfully, I could also usually persuade the boys to join in whatever adventure I had come up with for the day. 

Yup - love these man-boys :)

As the oldest kid in my family I got to really blaze a trail for how parenting would shift with the addition of a teenager to the family. One way or the other my parents, brothers, and I all survived teenage Kyla and I headed off to college.

[So at this point, I'm over 250 words - wahhhh. Read on at your own risk haha]

College brought a whole set of new adventures, both during the school year and in the summers when I  had the opportunity to work for a Summer Camp one summer and a Mission-trip organization during the rest of my summers in college. Add in some world travels [Argentina & Japan], getting engaged to Adam, and starting an internship and you will have covered some of the bigger life-changing headlines from the last 5 years of life...Now I am graduated from college and 58 days away from marrying my best friend in the world. 

Love.

What this breeze through of my life doesn't include are the countless stories, adventures, and life lessons that have happened up to this point - what I do hope that has come through is that God has continued to work through others to love to me and through me to love others - as best as anyone can this side of heaven. My prayer is that I never lose the wonder of what it is to be blessed to wake-up every day and do life.

Day 4

Day #4: Your favorite photograph with a friend & why

Ahhhh. 1.5 hours left of today, and I literally almost forgot about this challenge. That kind of thing is basically a huge part of why I am doing this challenge in the first place, to regain a little bit of the beauty that is self-reflection - even on the craziest of days. Like I said a few posts ago, Vacation Bible School at work started on Monday of this week so this week is a little manic to say the least.

Ok - enough excuses, the point really is that I am here and have a topic to tackle :)

Similar to sharing a quote yesterday, sharing a favorite photograph with a friend also meant a fair amount of decision making for which photograph to share. In the end I actually realized that it is not ONE photograph that to share, but a special series of photographs that are favorite with friends & special to me.

Once upon a time, there were 3 college freshman who [through a series of events & living in the same dorm building] became best of friends. Hint: Adam, Kevin, & I.

Adam and Kevin lived on the same floor, and I lived upstairs in the same building. By the time freshman year was coming to a close we were all nearly inseparable. The last day of that college year came to an end and we all helped each other move out of our respective dorms. For whatever reason we ended up taking a group picture all together before we went our separate ways for the summer.

True life: I literally started crying somewhat hysterically the second my Mom & I pulled out of my dorm parking lot that day, knowing that it would be a whole summer ahead of me, minus two of my new greatest friends. I know, what a girl. Judge away, but I'm just telling it like it was!

From that move-out day on, I have always requested that we take an end-of-the-year picture of the 3 of us. Adam & Kevin have always [mostly happily] cooperated - and the result is a series of pictures that literally mean the world to me. It's so fun to see how little & young we were our freshman year & how far we have come! Each picture reminds me of the many ups & downs our lives faced for that given year - and how most importantly - we still came out together at the end.

To some this whole thing may be sappy, but to me, these are favorite pictures, with friends, one who is soon to be my husband [59 days!!!!] - why? Because these pictures represent a whole series of priceless memories. The following is the progression of pictures - there are 2 from the end of this "school" year - one with Adam & I in our cap and gowns - for the very last picture we went back to the front our our freshman year dorm building to re-create the picture from that year :) 

End of Freshman Year

End of Sophomore Year

End of Junior Year

End of Senior Year

End of Internship Year

Full Circle: Re-creation of our Freshman year photo :)

Day 3

Day #3 - A favorite quote and why you love it

Definitely excited about today's topic - the only exception to that excitement is that I enjoy quotes A LOT so picking a singular favorite is kinda tough. I mean seriously, I have a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to quotes that I value. To me there is something so empowering about discovering a set of words that speak to the soul of who you are and how you see life.

All of that to say that my favorite quote changes often depending on the kind of day/week/month...etc that I am having. With today being my birthday on top of "share a favorite quote blog day", I feel that maybe I should share something more profound or reflective since birthdays are milestone events, but I think my favorite quote still fits - "Goals are dreams with deadlines" -Diane Scharf Hunt

 Just let those words sink in! I found this quote last fall when I was training for my first half marathon. I just feel in love with the pictures that this set of words always brings to my mind! I love setting goals for myself and working towards them (ahem...30 days of blogging anyone? ha.) so this quote just added an even bigger image of how magical it seems when a dream can be lived out in real life. So I guess that's the birthday thought too then, as I start year 23, I can't wait to keep dreaming bigger goals and seeing what God has in store for them. Yup - kinda awesome and exciting all at once. A year ago if you would have listed out what has happened from birthday 22 to now - I wouldn't have believed half of it, but here we are, birthday 23 - with all kinds of dreams & goals ahead. I like the sound of that.