Work is wonderful and difficult all in one. I love, love, love sitting with people and getting to hear their stories. I've just come to realize how much I associate sitting and listening to someone with acknowledging their dignity and loving them, and I get the opportunity to do that every day! The hard part though is balancing that with actually "achieving" something (ie getting their bills paid) because there is lots of paperwork and I feel like I miss out on a lot of their story trying to get the necessary documents and information. It's a fine line. The worst though is when I forget someone's face and they see me and are like "don't you remember me?!" I feel like I really let them down and myself down by forgetting, and getting used to my mind's limits is rough. Anywho, I still love getting to tell people we get to turn their lights back on or pay part of their rent - I get to hug lots of people and hold their hands. It's wonderful :)

We didn't go gator spotting but we did get a chance to go to Pensacola for labor day which was awesome and relaxing and only an hour away! I saw a jelly fish AND baby sharks AND white sand beaches. We also went to a minor league baseball game, and we're on our way to becoming the biggest Mobile Bay Bears fans this state has ever seen.  We had first row tickets, and there was absolutely no one there. It was the first time I've ever been able to actually hear the players talking in the dugout, ha. Another family some of the roomies met at church invited us over for a picnic, and we got to go with two priests (driving w. a 78 year old, diabetic, ADD priest was hilarious after his birthday cake). The one priest was from Ireland and a little strange, but kind. Rather than asking us where we were from and such, he saw "what year did your parent immigrate here?" as a valid get-to-know you question, ha.  Regardless, both are cute old men, and when Fr. Klepac forgets that I'm not catholic, I think he really likes me, ha.

I finally got to a church on Sunday that I really enjoyed - it was sooooo different than anything I'd been to. It's a Presbyterian church, and there are literally like 25 people who meet in a room for a "contemporary" service. 6 or 7 of the people are from the L'Arche community (an live-in facility for people with special needs). Willie, one of the members of L'Arche gets to "play" up during worship (he just strums and mouths words, but it's the most beautiful thing ever). They created the service specifically for the L'Arche community because they weren't getting a chance to participate during the traditional service, so now they have instruments on all the tables and we join hands and sing together. The worship is completely off tune and unorganized, but it gave me a new perspective on what worship is - its not me singing certain songs/words/ in a certain style, but joining together with a community in Jesus' name. It's awesome and I'll definitely be back.

It's a "cool" 90 degree week, and we're still hoping for a baby hurricane. I feel completely out of the loop news wise bc I don't have my computer and rarely turn on the TV. I think someone could tell me that California broke off into the Pacific and I would probably have to believe them right now. All in all - send updates (truthful or hilarious).



Peace,
Em