Glass.

I had to get glasses this week. I made the mistake of not getting anti-glare or scratch resistant so it feels like I've always got glare from 50 different places on the glasses. It's going to take so, so much getting used to.

Speaking of glass. I'm trying to get a new set of glass for my camera. I don't have any other lenses than my original kit lens, and there are a few in particular that I've been wanting to get, specifically for portraiture. Here's to hoping that I can get some soon.

Cope.

A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine died. She's the closest person to me to have ever passed, and to be honest, I haven't been able to cope with it well.

I hadn't seen her in a couple years; her family moved from Utah, so she no longer came here to visit, and I was never able to find a good time to make my way up to Oregon to visit her. But we still talked often on facebook and texting. And she still meant so very much to me.

I have so many pieces of art from her. She was always someone that made a point of brightening others' day. I honestly can't explain how much this has affected me, but it's far more than I ever would have anticipated. And I don't know how to keep myself together. I really don't know how to keep myself together. I miss you Kori, more than words can describe.

Easter

This post is mainly a post for my parents. So here you go. Easter festivities with the family, and an adorable baby to boot.

hope for my second home

For weeks I've been hearing about the turmoil in Ukraine. I have a lot of friends who are there, living in this now dangerous place. Having lived there for 5 months, I grew to love these people. I love my sisters and cousin. I love their culture. I love the food. I love their idiosyncrasies (despite how crazy they may seem). I love the friends I've made. I love the children that I taught.

And as it came time to leave, I found myself more sad to come back to America than I was to leave it. And I've become friends with those Doug knew from his mission that now live in Kyiv (that I have come to love and adore as well) who have a child only days younger than Emmett. 

Sseeing all the destruction going on in that nation's capitol makes saddens me greatly. I love them so much. Each of them. 

The kids I taught are now 8-10 years old. I have a couple friends there now who have children themselves and I have so much hope for those kids. I hope they grow up, knowing that there is hope for a full and free life. Freedom isn't free, but once gotten is such a wonderful thing. I hope my Ukrainian friends know they're being prayed for and I wonder if the children understand what it means. I hope they know a brighter future is there. I hope they all know how much they've changed my life and how proud of the Ukrainian people as a whole I am that they are trying to change their own. 

There is hope. And I have a lot of hope for what I have come to feel is my second home.