That boy’s a keeper

The Center for FaithJustice

Like working for justice? Like seeing faith in action? Of course you do! You’re my blog readers! So go read this blog, a fantastic series of reflections on service-learning, community, and justice-seeking:  The Center for FaithJustice.

It features a couple Domers, to boot!

embracing homemaking

“So when you make a living, do not merely make money. Why settle for cash when joy is on the line? You feel a thrill when you dance, when you sing, when you finish your poem; even when you sweep the room you see order pressing back against the chaos. So when you create, never settle for making a living — at least not the way that the world might define that phrase. When you make a living, you are speaking a new world into existence. You are creating grace within the confines, you are co-signing God’s blank checks.”

via Scattered Thoughts on Making a Living – Busted Halo.

Home sweet home

Sorry for being so absent. Finally living in michigan for good. So much more to write later… But for now enjoy the view from our balcony (crazy, right?)

Let’s Recap

Life’s been moving way, way too fast to blog about it, but I have a free moment, so let’s give it a shot. In the last three months:

1. I got engaged.
2. Matt and I commenced Operation Rapid Wedding Planning.
3. We had a bunch of very full but fantastic weekends: we went to an Engaged Encounter weekend, my maid of honor visited and gave me a bachelorette party all on her own, and some very sweet people threw me THREE wedding showers.
4. Mark got confirmed.
5. Matt finished his last semester of graduate studies at Ga Tech and graduated.
6. Matt moved out of his apartment at Ga Tech and back into his parents’ house.
7. WE GOT MARRIED on May 14th (WOOHOO!)
8. We went on a short honeymoon in Charleston, SC.
9. Operation Pack As Fast As You Can began.
10. We took a weekend trip up to Detroit to find an apartment. The shocked look on leasing agents’ faces when we said we were moving in a week never got old.
11. The bulk of our stuff went into a moving van on June 3rd.
12. My baby brother turned 16.
13. Matt and I drove up to Michigan, stopping off in Kentucky to visit with the lady Matt lived with while he interned for Toyota.
14. We signed our lease and the moving van arrived the next day at 7am.
15. I flew home to Atlanta to finish my contract at my current job.
16. Matt started work at Ford. During his first month, he works on the line at a plant learning how the cars are produced.
17. I moved out of my apartment and back into my parents’ house to spend more time with my family before moving to Michigan.

Phew. I’m exhausted just typing it. In the next 35 days, I will finish my contract and sort through my childhood bedroom. Then I’m moving up to Detroit for good. School starts for me in September. Have I mentioned that yet? I don’t think I have. I’m going to get my Masters of Social Work from the University of Michigan. I know, I know! Skunkbears. But they’re the 2nd best social work school in the country, and you can’t beat the location- half an hour from our apartment. Being married and living apart would be so awful! So I’m going to Michigan. Not rooting for the football team, mind you. And not sporting any large yellow M apparel anytime soon. But I’m so excited for classes to start!

Life has been stressful and fast-paced beyond belief, but Matt and I are incredibly blessed that everything has fallen into place. So many things had to go right for us to be at this point, and here we are, married, with a great apartment, and both of us doing exactly what we want to do with our lives career-wise. Our good fortune takes my breath away.

Well, my free moment is up. I’ll post photos from the wedding when I get them back from the photographer, and I’ll talk more about the wedding then. Love you guys!

Laetare Address- worth a read

For those who don’t know, the Laetare Medal is awarded at Notre Dame every year to the most exemplary American Catholic. This year the recipients were Sister Mary Scullion, R.S.M and Joan McConnon of Project H.O.M.E. Their whole speech is worth reading, but this is my favorite quote:

“It might seem a strange thing to say to people who are about to launch professional careers, but we are convinced we must be people who see beyond what we can touch and weigh and measure and count. We must be people who believe — believe in the essential dignity of the human person.”

Read more at Laetare Address.

My engineer