Working overtime and loving it.

Gosh, its a weird feeling to come home to an empty house. Who likes that in general? (If you live with roommates) But you would think after a long, tiring, weekend I would be stoked! Well...its nice and quiet

...but I miss my kids!

What a crazy realization that I am 100% fully and completely in the perfect job. For how long? Who knows! But I absolutely L O V E these transition age youth. I love everything about them: their stories, their jokes, their ghetto-ness, their smiles, their tears, and their hearts. I spent all weekend with 'em. I miss 'em already.

To sum up a very FUN. AMAZING. and EXCITING week/weekend, I went up to Sacramento for a youth conference about advocacy! The organization is California Coalition for Youth and I'm thinking about applying to sit on their board of directors. I took 2 of my kids from my program and both were stoked to go. We laughed, we sat in conferences, we saw some KiNgs play, we sat in jacuzzis, swam in the pool, walked to the Capitol, talked with Marty Block and other legislative staff, ate lots of food, and spents lots of quality time. I usually meet with my kids (on average) once a week with maybe a phone call in between because they are college kids and for the most part, pretty self-sufficient. Therefore, I was kind of nervous (is that the right word?) about having so much time together. Its like...you either gonna love 'em or you're gonna hate 'em by the time the conference is over....and I. just. freaking. love. them.

My girl I brought was pretty clingy to me and at first, I have to admit, I was kind of annoyed. Then... it dawned on me. She really wanted to hang out, she wanted to talk and tell me all about her, she wanted love, she wanted attention, she wanted guidance. She wanted more of me. It was really interesting to watch this all play out but let me tell you, after a 4 hour conversation last night following the many others... I think all the beans got spilled. :) Tears. Laughs. and God made all that over-time worth it. Its like adrenaline starts pumping through my veins when people start letting walls down. I get this surge of LIFE and energy and PASSION and it feeds me. I. love. people. I love loving broken kids! I will never stop loving them! They need love. Real. Love.

After notes back and forth during seminars about God. Questions. Concerns and Long Conversations of me explaining that God is the only thing that can filling our longing souls for love, relationships, intimacy, our weekend ended with her telling me on the plane today that she stayed up last night "reading the same thing you probably were. The bible" (I showed her mine and told her to start in John)

...I don't think I can describe the eternal reward for this moment but the tears are filling my eyes now as I pray for her delicate, torn heart to be pieced back together by The One and Only Healer of all.