Quick update
I feel much more at peace now about waiting at least another year before possibly entering the monastery. As my spiritual director suggested, I will be offering up this year as a gift to God to do with it what he wills. In the meantime, my roommate and I may be renting the master bedroom in the house of a guy who goes to my church. We met him when we saw the house yesterday, and he was actually the first president of CSU and volunteers with Talahassee Healing Prayer and things like that. It seems like part of what he does is artistic ministry to bikers? When I asked if he was an artist he went into this long spiel about these pieces that have been coming together and it seems like he was kind of the visionary behind them and did a lot of work on them but in many cases also got help with detailing and whatnot. He seems like a cool guy. The room we'd be renting is really huge and not anything I think either of us would otherwise be into (particularly considering the rent, which will be something like 3-4 times our current rent...), but I think it will be a good place to live and a good experience, and will help this guy do what he does. We're still praying about it, though, but our pros greatly outweigh the cons.
My brother and I went home for Mother's Day and surprised our mom. She cried and slapped my brother for not calling her and then continued to cry. She was really happy. It was one of if not the best visits I've had with her, and she kept thanking me for coming. We also visited with our (half) sister, who has found and made contact with our other half brother named Chris! Here's a video of him: click! It makes me so happy! I started e-mailing him yesterday. It's sad because he's going through a divorce and he's really upset, but it's also reassuring that he seems very happy that we have made contact (and that he has a baby grandniece--he really loves kids), though understandably still needs to get used to all this.
Also, my brother has officially been a US Marine (recruit) for some time, now. His official rank is Poolee since he hasn't even been to bootcamp yet and doesn't have a degree. He'll start bootcamp in November and finish basic training next year. My mom seems much more open to it since she said when he graduates basic training we'll drive up to see him.
I feel so much love for my brothers right now! My marine, biological brother (he will beat you up, for realz), the (big brother!) half-brothers I'm learning about, bro-in-law, the ones I will probably be living with (yes--scandalous! jk), and all y'all guys reading this <3 Aforementioned bro Chris just e-mailed me back and asked if I would be able to e-mail him from the monastery if I entered, cuz he enjoyed e-mailing me. So sweet <3
My brother and I went home for Mother's Day and surprised our mom. She cried and slapped my brother for not calling her and then continued to cry. She was really happy. It was one of if not the best visits I've had with her, and she kept thanking me for coming. We also visited with our (half) sister, who has found and made contact with our other half brother named Chris! Here's a video of him: click! It makes me so happy! I started e-mailing him yesterday. It's sad because he's going through a divorce and he's really upset, but it's also reassuring that he seems very happy that we have made contact (and that he has a baby grandniece--he really loves kids), though understandably still needs to get used to all this.
Also, my brother has officially been a US Marine (recruit) for some time, now. His official rank is Poolee since he hasn't even been to bootcamp yet and doesn't have a degree. He'll start bootcamp in November and finish basic training next year. My mom seems much more open to it since she said when he graduates basic training we'll drive up to see him.
I feel so much love for my brothers right now! My marine, biological brother (he will beat you up, for realz), the (big brother!) half-brothers I'm learning about, bro-in-law, the ones I will probably be living with (yes--scandalous! jk), and all y'all guys reading this <3 Aforementioned bro Chris just e-mailed me back and asked if I would be able to e-mail him from the monastery if I entered, cuz he enjoyed e-mailing me. So sweet <3