Robin Stole My Voice

[the day after getting hired]

I have no voice. Well, that's not entirely true. I have a voice, but I think a frog crawled up in my throat and took mine, leaving his in exchange. Great mental image, right? Mine contained kermit's nephew sneaking into my bedroom, taking on my kitten, and making away mischievously with my beloved vocal pitches... hehehehehe.....

A far more likely culprit, however, is the 80 million phone calls I made and received yesterday. (80 is my current number of exaggeration, by the way) I talked to everyone from my parents, to Don Perini, to Rachel Deater... by the time I talked to Don, I was wiped...

Now that I've actually had time to process the fact that I've actually got a job, let me share with you yesterday's events. Yesterday was pretty outstanding, as you may have guessed.

It was a very productive morning. Ever since NH I've been waking up around 7am (I'm highly adaptable in this way, this is leftover from NH), so by afternoon I was on my way to Keystone to meet with Kyle about me speaking Sunday and maybe help Joann get a few things accomplished. Just as I was pulling into the parking lot Dave from Boylston Home calls, asking me if I had made a decision yet, because he was offering me the job. I was fine for about... oh, I don't know... 3 seconds? When I hung up with Dave I RAN (yes, I run) into Keystone, go into the office, was about to scream and I realize.... n o o n e w a s t h e r e . . .

Talk about a kill-joy! So I run back out of the office and found Gene, the Pastor, who was smiling and giving me a funny look (and probably thinking, "what in the world is that girl up to now??!"). He indulged me, rejoiced with me, and then Kyle came up behind me, I told him, there was more rejoicing and he says, "Let's go into the office and just scream together" LOL. Kyle's pretty great.

I think my favorite reaction came from Rachel Deater who screamed so loud I had to remove the phone from my ear... and by remove I mean, put a distance of about 10 feet between myself and the phone.... my second favorite reaction came from Larry, who let out a very loud "woot" in honor of my need for expressive reactions...

I wasn't able to tell my girl Elysia until 630pm last night... it was torture... she's coming down this weekend to hang out, help me pack, and hear me speak Sunday... Elysia is my closest friend ever and it will be hard to be 16 hrs away instead of 3... I was joking with her that she has to come visit me for my birthday and she says, "oh, haha, I've already been pricing plane tickets..."

My emotions are mixed, as are my friends, but we are all able to acknowledge that this is what God has next for me. And after this? Well, I have a few ideas, but let's just say we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Who knows what the next year or two will reveal about my abilities and passions.

Prayer Requests
+ Provision for getting out to NH (ie, I need someone to go with me, there's no way I can drive 16 hrs by myself)
+ Wisdom & Strength in transition
+ Safe travels
+ Peace (which I have a lot of, in general) specifically about leaving my friends

There you have it and thanks, friends. And, as always, if you have anything you need, please let me know and if I can, I would be glad to help!

-Asher