I love our refugee friends.

And I hate change.

Our dear Samira, whom we saw through two years of American high school and witnessed her graduation and nudged along toward a career path, is getting married.

Her older sister, Soher, is also getting married. I'm guessing it will be a double wedding; that seems like it would fit in their culture.

I just can't believe it. Samira is only 20 years old...But the guy she's dating (I admit I Facebook stalked him) has a cute, mischievous smile that makes me actually think he's a really good fit for her.

But I so wish I had known she was dating. I so wish I had been there to witness the whole process. When they left us back in 2010, Samira was, like the wonderful, intelligent girl she is, determined to focus on her studies rather than getting distracted by boys. And she is an RN now. I am so proud of her and can't express how much I wish they still lived here, near us.

And I've had enough of crying and almost-crying today already. Today at brunch we (me, Stephen, and Stephen's family) heard about the shooting in Colorado. (A movie theater? The opening of a Batman movie? I just don't understand...) Then they started talking about other awful evils in the world and I just about started crying right into my French toast. I would have, had I not been with Stephen's family...Not sure they're ready for crying Stephanie yet.

Then we came home from a week at a beachside town with Stephen's ENTIRE family (there were 12 of us altogether!) to our empty, way-too-quiet apartment, which was, like, instant depression. Even our cat couldn't fill the void left by other human voices.

Thankfully my family rescued us for a couple of hours at least. My cousin is in town and she, my mom, my aunt, and we had dinner together.

Then we didn't want to go straight home, so we went to rent a movie and found that the Blockbuster near our apartment had totally closed down. Then I DID cry, because I thought that was the end of all movie rental places, and movie rentals (VHS, even!) were such a huge part of my childhood.

And then I came home to find our dear Samira is engaged (and her sister--but we were closest to Samira). That's just a lot for a girl to handle in one day.

Tomorrow I go to work and hopefully will have a sense of normalcy reestablished. Right now I need to go and recenter my focus on God, and His sovereignty, because He is my anchor in the middle of this tempestuous sea of life changes.

(Yeah, that was a bit cheesy, but that is how I feel about everything at the moment. Besides, tempestuous is a great word. :) )

-Stephanie

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