Married with Children.

Tonight, I felt extremely young. I went to a dinner party where most of the people were married....and had a baby. whoa. I guess feeling young is cool, though...in a lot of ways, I should be extremely grateful for my ultra flexible life and my "quiet/empty" apartment when I got home tonight....
the part was great fun though, played two new games...which, as we all know...I'm always "game" for such things ;-)

OK, so that's all the chitchat I can afford. Its 11 and I've got to be at work early tomorrow and we've got another exciting Influential/inspirational person tonight! :-)

Carmi
I dont really remember my first impressions of Carmi, but I'm guess they were something like, "she's loud"...because, that's really true...but, whatever, that doesnt matter because my later impressions of her are so very vivid it doesnt matter what the first one was....I think I'm going to start with the day God began are friendship, or at least in my mind.
It was at "Boot Camp 2003" in Christchurch, which was this meeting with different Cutting Edge groups for the CE leaders....anyway, after one particular teaching session I felt a really big burden to pray...the next thing on the agenda was dinner and so I invited anyone who wanted to to stay behind and pray with me instead of having dinner. Carmi was the only person to stay. While it was probably disheartening to have such a bad reception, such reception was pretty common when it came to prayer...it was always a fight.... but at that moment God gave me a partner in crime. Carmi and I had an amazing Holy Spirit filled prayer time, and we were both extremely excited to share with the rest of the group when they got back.

I'll never forget that night. It was that night that Carmi and I shared time in prayer that my heart met her's, for real. We had a few more random prayer times that year, they all come up in my journals...I was excited because she was moving into the flat with "my girls" the next year, and I could already tell it was going to be a good thing...boy, was that an understatement.
Some of the things I learned about Carmi in the next year was that she's got the greatest laugh, ever. Its contagious. She's also the best "party buddy" ever...because we can both be funny and the center of attention without feeling bad about it later ;-)
Seriously though, along with the pure fun, Carmi was a God send for my prayer life. It seemed that countless times last year I would hit a brick wall and I could call up Carmi and we would spend three hours or so ( she's the only person who I've met, who can go on and on with me without getting bored or wanting to stop) praying together and the wall would just crumble. its true about the verse "where two or more are gathered"...I've always been inspired by Carmi's heart for missions and I have such faith in her. I know where her heart is...and MY heart is in agreement. I dont think I realized how important it is to have someone who you agree SPIRITUALLY with, but God gave me that in Carmi. I've also realized at times when I havent agreed with something with Carmi, that ultimately our spiritual friendship covers up any possible misunderstanding or hurt that could EVER happen...an amazing thing.
Another really interesting thing I learned from Carmi, something I just put words to not long ago, is being able to pray for someone, give advice to someone...but ultimately trusting GOD to take care of things. Carmi has been such an example of that in my life. I have always been able to turn to her for sound advice, and she is always faithful to tell me when she thinks things are just "her talking" and she's always been faithful to give me a Word from God no matter how tough it might be. I know I can trust her to the utmost.
I am also grateful for Carmi because sometimes if you spend TOO MUCH time with your own worries and frets you start to think they are a REALLY big deal. Carmi never fails to bring me back down to the real world where "everyone is that way"....sometimes its really comforting to know someone else is there struggling right along with you, and Carmi has always been honest about her struggles. For that I truly respect her.
Carmi has been an encouragment, a helper in battle, the perfect comedian, and just the right amount of quirky that I could ever ask for. She is truly a sister I could not have done without. And I am thankful for everyday of this future life, for I know she is there in Spirit. :-)