my girls.

Between Young Life and Hope church, I spend a good 60% of my life either thinking about, worrying about, hanging out with or planning things for high school girls. When I think about that in light of the fact that I didn't love high school with any great passion, that I wasn't all that "cool" in high school and that I'm a little bit of a hermit at heart, I sort of lift my eyes and laugh.

Yesterday two of the girls who were in my cabin at YL's Crooked Creek last summer, who I've spent the past year becoming quite close with, came over to sit on my porch for two hours in the afternoon. Syd and I rocked on the two white chairs for a while, waiting for Cam, talking about her recent mission trip to Jamaica with McC, friends, college, boys and the joys of high school sports teams. Cam called, 45 minutes after their scheduled arrival time, to frantically report that her haircut had gone over, the dresser had hacked off "all" of her hair, and that she was on her way (and would we please tell her we LOVE her haircut even if it looks "TERRIBLE." End quote).

Of course her haircut was adorable, very NYC, though she swore she was going to go into hiding until the next morning when she was scheduled to fly north for her assignment as a workcrew server at YL's Timberwolfe Lodge. Syd and I tried for about five minutes to convince her it was a great haircut, an attempt we eventually abandoned. We sat and talked for a while, took a little trip to Sonic for Cherry and Strawberry Limeades, came back and sat a while longer on the porch until we realized we'd been there two hours and we probably had things we needed to get done.

As we sat there I was hit by a small sadness that this year, as I head to Sharp Top Cove, it won't be the same because my girls aren't going to be there. And yet, thinking of Syd and McC in Jamaica and Cam at Timberwolfe, in light of this past year of us studying Jesus and his life, for them for the first time, I was also struck by this incredible awe at how God has directed their hearts toward him and that I've had the front row seat for the whole thing. It's funny to think that these friendships could simply have never existed. And yet, they do and I can't let them go!

On Wednesday a few girls from the church Youth Group (which is my job) went to see Eclipse. I picked up J, who had been texting with me about how excited she was to see JACOB, and we discussed the finer points of the third novel in the Twilight series and the fact that Bella has no personality. We drove to the theater and laughed the whole way there. We had a blast! These girls are the BEST and I love being with them.

When I started as a Young Life leader and as the Director of Youth for the church, I didn't anticipate any of this - and now I can't really picture life without these high school girls, who will not always be in high school. I am a work in progress, realizing that life isn't mine and that the best best things are not what I would have thought. Not what I would have imagined at all.