New Year and New Start

I am finally back in Virginia Beach and geared up to start a new semester. Being home was wonderful. The Lord blessed me with many special moments with my family and friends. It was so good to be at my home church and around familiar sights. The Lord even blessed me with an extra night at home. I was supposed to fly out thursday afternoon, but my flight was delayed and I gained an extra night at home. Some of the cool accounts from home: I was invited to sit in on several court hearings and a "Home for the Holidays" ceremony put on by Judge David Gooding, who is a dependancy judge in Jacksonville. On December 19th, I got to watch about 25+ children be officially adopted. Judge Gooding has a huge heart for children and every year at Christmas, he puts on a festive ceremony for the children and their families and finalizes all the awaiting adoptions. It was so special to hear the parents tell the court why they wanted the child. It was incredibly special for me, because I've seen parents rights become terminated in the same court room. From working at a homeless shelter, I've seen the Dept. of Children and Families workers come take the children. So, it is extra special to see the good things that come out of the court room. In addition, I'm pleased to share that I passed all of my classes, to the glory of God! I also had the opportunity to visit a friend in D.C. for the new year, which was pretty cool considering so many of our policies and laws come from that very area. Seeing the capitol building and the Supreme Court building helped inspire me a little bit when I wasn't so excited about starting the craziness again. Hopefully, that will give me motivation to start strong and stay focused this semester. I'm confident that it will be a good one with many opportunities!