Far, far, far away

Tomorrow morning, I will wake up, grab my (hopefully already packed) luggage, get in the car, drive to Memphis and begin my trip to Israel! I am so excited! It's kind of weird because right now it doesn't really seem real. I can't believe tomorrow I will be in New York and then Sunday I will be in Israel! It's so crazy how we can travel to far away places in just a few short hours (okay, so a 13 or 14 hour plane flight isn't really "short" but it is alot shorter then back in the old days!).

I have so much I need to do to get ready... I am so glad that Wal-Mart is open 24/7. Really, where would we be without Wal-Mart? Uhh... actually, we would all probably be a little less cluttered with things we don't need and our banks might have a little more in them. Ha. But maybe not.

As I have been preparing myself to get ready for this trip, I have had alot of advice from people. Like, don't forget to bring a plug converter, learn some hebrew, study and learn about the places you're going to visit, pack light (that one came from my dad.. haha... suuuure daddy), and alot of other important small things. But I think the best advice I got was something that was said to me in a letter. Kendra, a wonderful sweet amazing friend of mine asked me to bring her back some things and wrote me a list along with an awesome card she made herself. (picture up top to the right)

She told me to make sure I took time to get quiet time with God and prepare my heart for this trip. Through all of my planning and busyness, I never even thought about stopping and preparing my heart. She told me to be prepared for God to do great things on this trip. Up til now I had not even thought about God "doing" anything while I was there. I mean, I know Israel is the Holy Land and it is the land of God's people, but I don't know why I just never thought about the possibility that this could be a life changing experience for me. Now that I am of that mindset, I am going to travel with my daddy, have lots of fun, but most of all look at everything through the eyes that God wants to do something or show something to me on this trip.  (Picture on the left, left to right: Me, Tabitha, Kendra, all singing Paul the Musical... another story for another blog some other time.)

I feel like I am even more excited now that I have that mindset.. and I think just writing in this blog about going to Israel has made me even more excited! I know it will be a trip of a lifetime!

I will post pictures and tell all about the trip when I get back. I am going to take LOTS of pictures!!

God knows what He is doing!!!!!!!!

"Maybe one day
This will make sense
But until then
I'm trusting You
I'm confused
But You'll come through
You always do
I've waited so long
To see my sun on
The horizon
Feel it coming on
And I'm seeing You"

I passed!

Drum roll please...... I have officially passed college algebra!!!!!!!!!! It is a miracle!!
Why is it a miracle? I will tell you...

Soo, on the day of my last final I was trying not to freak out because, although all of my other finals went as smooth as I could ever wish, I still had to conquer College Algebra. I had studied the entire week and weekend before and my brain was practically fried. As I walked into the classroom, I felt confident in myself. I sat down, the teacher gave me the test, and that is where everything started to go wrong. First of all, you should know that I am a sloooooow test taker. So when I realized that I was only halfway through the test after an hour and half, I kinda started to freak out. On top of that, my teacher called a thirty minute time limit (she said something about 2 hours was all one needed to take the test). That just made me panic even more and so I started rushing through all of the problems trying to work them out. Then, as everyone was finishing up their tests and turning them in, the teacher felt that it was necessary to talk to each one individually and have 2 and 3 minute conversations with them! If you don't know me, I am VERY ADD when it comes to stuff like that and I could not keep my attention focused on my work. So, when the teacher calls time I am just finishing up the second to last problem (and I couldn't even come up with the right answer). So I just marked a letter on the answer sheet, marked something for the last problem and promptly stood up and brought my test to the teachers desk. I walked out of the classroom feeling like I had completely failed.

Three days later when I checked my grades online, I was scared to even look at what I had made. Actually, I closed my eyes when I clicked on "view grades" and then it took me a minute to convince myself to look. Ahhhh I was SOO excited when I saw that I had made a C!!!!!! (I know that a C doesn't seem like a very high expectation, but for me it was HUGE! Math is my WORST subject!!!)
On top of that, all my other classes had A's!!! I was super duper excited!! God is so good to me to give me smarts enough to pass college algebra :)
And, I could have never done it without my mom and dads prayers, the support of Grace and Jacob, Mrs. Amy Blassingame (who so willingly tutored me!) and all my friends and family!! I am definitely blessed!

Now, I am so excited because I can enjoy my entire summer knowing that I, Faith Riley, passed College Algebra :) Oh yes.

Speaking of summer, I have sooooo many plans!! I'm going to start diving into my photography alot more. If you want pictures made, email me at friley@afa.net. Also, I hope to accomplish some other things that I have been wanting to do. I'll keep you posted on what I do with my summer and with the pictures that I take.

This College Algebra succeeder is signing off!!!