A week of Cho Friends :)

My friends from Cho-Yeh are amazing, but we none of us live real close to each other, so the time we get to spend together is often few and far between. Not this week!!

Monday-went down to Clear Lake and spent the day watching Chovideos with Carley

Wednesday- getting ready to go to lunch with Erin!

Thursday-rodeo. I'm going with my family, but I know Cameron, Lindsey, and Carley are all going to be there soon, so hopefully we will run into them for a little while.

Friday- Carley and I are going to Kristen's soccer game.

Saturday- Carley will already be in the Houston area so might come to my polo tournament!

AH! I love these friends, and value every second I get to spend with them!!

Still a Gramma

This thought made me so absolutely happy today when I thought of it! One of my friends from school was checking up on me, asking how I was doing and holding up.

How many children go to Heaven before their parents, before their grandparents? It is a sad thought, but it's reality. Between Layla Grace and all the other innocent children who pass away from cancer, and between Clay and all of the kids that are lost because of accidents, how many are there? I don't know, but I know there is some.

In Gramma's bulletin at her funeral, there is a saying that I got to help pick out that was printed on the bulletin. The last few lines read,"When you must come this way alone, I’ll greet you with a smile and say “Welcome Home”."

That is just the kinda thing my gramma would do. I can picture her standing at Heaven's gates, being the gramma for all of those children who come to Heaven without their parents or their grandparents to meet them. Gramma will. She will take them in her arms, love them, bake more cookies for them than they could ever need, and play with them for hours. And when I do make it to Heaven, I know she will be there waiting for me too.

She's still a gramma. Now to more than her 4 grandkids, now she is a gramma to hundreds of children who walk into Heaven's gates. She is still a gramma!

Swimming at Luther

When we were in Iowa, I missed 5 days of school. To exempt finals at the end of the year, you are only allowed to have 3 absences, no matter the reason for the absences. So, we cheated the system a little, and I took 2 college days while in Iowa.

On Thursday, Mom, Aunt Sandra and I ventured from the little town of Postville to the a little bit bigger but still small town of Decorah--home to Luther College. We talked to an Admissions Advisor, who told me that it wasn't too late to apply. He bragged about their education program and small classes, and I tried my best to be interested. After a while, it was kinda a genuine interest, but nothing serious. It was interesting to compare and contrast A&M and Luther... HUGE state school vs. itty bitty town private school.

After the meeting we went on a tour through campus. It was FREEZING, but a beautiful campus. My favorite thing to see was the pool. I think some of the high school pools in my high school district were nicer. Actually, I know they were. A&M's blew the ROOF off of that pool. The are about to start an $8 million renovation though! The thing I found most interesting was the pool records. Some were easily attainable! More excitement began as soon as I looked up how well Luther did at their championship meet this season where they competed against every other D3 school.

WELL--they won the meet for the 5th time in a row.
AND... I would have finaled (top 16) in almost every event if I would have swam my best times as of the end of my junior year.

18th place in the 500 free
15th place in the 200 breast
14th place in the 50 free
14th place in the 200 free
14th place in the 100 breast
12th place in the 100 free
10th place in the 200 IM
8th place in the 200 back
6th place in the 100 back

For a few minutes, I was actually considering starting swimming again. By a few minutes, I mean a few seconds. I think if I would have seriously considered the idea throughout my high school swimming career, my decision might have been different.

BUT, as I came back home to Houston, back to my friends, back to the WARM weather, my excitement for A&M picked back up, and I am still very happy with my choice of playing water polo here in Texas at A&M. :)

Snowy Morning

I woke up to a snow-covered world this morning in Postville, Iowa. I groaned this morning, knowing what a hard day this day would be in my life: my gramma's funeral.

I dragged myself up the stairs to a happy, loud, and hyper 4 year old who was wanting to play. I grabbed some cinnamon bread, and gave Leah a few airplane rides.

At 8:45 we head out the door to go to the church for the funeral. On the way there, it was snowing like crazy, and I was not very happy about the cold weather and the standing in the snow.

I was curled up in a ball on the seat in the van staring out the window, looking into the bleak cold and snowy weather. I remembered this Christmas sitting in front of the window with gramma and watching it snow when she told me "You know, the snow is really pretty and I enjoy sitting here watching it, as long as I don't have to go outside!" After that, the snow seemed to be a lot prettier. I know that gramma would have loved mornings like this, she would have spent the day sitting by that window watching the snow fall and blanket the Earth. At that moment, it seemed perfect that it was snowing.

Today was a hard day, but I know that gramma was looking down on us from Heaven, watching the snow from a whole new perspective.

Not now, but for eternity

I was thinking today of all the things that I still have in my life that my grandma will not be able to experience with me. Things like my high school graduation, my wedding, my children. I actually got really upset thinking about this earlier.

There is no way that she will be here on Earth for those events. But I know she is in Heaven laughing at my blondeness, cheering me on at polo games. I know she will be clapping, whooping, and hollering as I receive my diploma in June.

She many not be able to be here to experience these things in my life, but I know that when it is my time, she will be standing at Heaven's gates welcoming me Home at which point I will be able to spend eternity with her in Heaven's perfectness.

Not now, but for eternity.

Grandma is Dancing with Jesus

Carley and I had a great time at the Hillsong concert, dancing and singing our hearts out. Hillsong had TWO encores, and all of my favorite songs were played. It was the first time all week that I felt like everything was right in the world.

When I got home, I found out that my grandma had passed away right before the concert began. So as I was dancing and singing praises to my King, she was dancing WITH our King! She even got two encores. How many new members to Heaven get that?!

Maybe why the "everything is okay" feeling existed was because I knew that my grandmother was in a better place. I am so thankful that I had those few hours of happiness and peace before arriving home to the hurricane that now stands before us.

Please continue to pray for my entire family, this next week is going to be especially trying for all of us.

Cho-Family

This week has been so emotionally exhausting. I haven't been sleeping at night, and then just napping throughout the day trying to get as much sleep as I can before the dark and the silence sets in. The emotional hurricane of the my grandmother being given a 24 hour window, and not having my dad here was hard enough. Add in a massive lack of sleep, and I was doing good to just be functioning.

I stopped returning phone calls, I stopped replying to texts. I stopped answering phones, or even just letting it ring until voicemail picked up, I would simply ignore the calls. I would get on facebook to update my status' as a simple method of updating everybody else, but for the most part I went into hibernation.

I honestly think the only thing that has allowed me to get through this week has been the constant support from my Cho-Family. They were the first ones to get that phone call on Sunday night, they were the ones to listen to me bawl, they were the ones who woke up at various intervals that night to shoot me an encouraging text message. They spread that frantic text message begging for prayers for my grandmother and my family. People I didn't even know that well at the end of the summer were sending me simple messages with the words "praying for you". They wrapped me up in their arms, and positively encouraged me to keep pushing through this week. The assistant summer camp director spread out a prayer chain for my grandmother and my family when she read the news. Everybody jumped on the bandwagon and stormed Heaven's gates for my grandma.

Cho-family. They are more than coworkers, more than friends. They are the people you can go months without seeing, and can pick up right where you left off. They are the people you laugh with, cry with, and pray with. They are such a family and security net that I do not know what I would do without.

I have heard people call the Cho-family amazing, and prior to this week I would've stood by that without a doubt. They were my best friends and second family. After this week, I can honestly say that I have experienced that. I know that a huge reason I have been semi-functioning this weekend is because of them, because of their prayers, and their constant support.

These past 4 days have been extremely hard. There are good hours and bad hours. I can hold myself together when there is noise, commotion, and things to be done. It's the silence and the dark where I begin to lose it. Maybe that is why my radio has been moved to within a foot of my pillow, the noise is constant throughout the night. I still have Cho-friends that text in the middle of the night even though things are slowly getting better. Not an hour goes by when I don't think about my grandma, not a day goes by when I don't break down. I know that without my Cho-family and their constant support, this week would've been even harder. I am so grateful to be in that wonderful support system!