My Girls: Now and Then.

Me, Bernita & Jalisa at the Supreme Court, DC.

Time passes by.
Things change.
People grow up.

More specifically, my girls grow up. My senior year in high school I led the 6th grade girls group, and had committed in my mind to be their leader for awhile. I thought at first it was going to be all of middle school – 6th, 7th, & 8th grade. But as I continued leading, I loved it, and loved the girls.

I graduated college with a political science degree and the girls just finished their freshman year of high school. My original plan was to move to DC and do politics, work on the Hill, or whatever. But I remember wrestling with the thought of leaving the girls. I wanted to see them graduate high school, so I got offered and took a job at my church as a youth pastor.

To walk with these girls grow up, mature, change, love Jesus, go through crazy stuff was an incredible experience. I loved seeing the original girls grow up, to see some girls come, leave and come back again, to see new girls be a part of our “group”.

I finished my time as a youth pastor a month after my girls graduated high school. I packed up my bags and moved to DC.

Fast forward two years, and I have one of those girls living in my house with me for the summer. And one night this week, there were two of my girls here in DC. One was days away from hopping on a plane to Afghanistan and the other was weeks away from going back to Everett, Washington. It wasn’t just the fact that we were together, but it was so cool to see how each girl has grown exponentially in the last two years. It was fun catching up, laughing together and reminiscing the crazy events that happened throughout the years.

These connections didn’t happen over one year, or six months, but it was over several years, formative years. In fact, they didn’t always happen in a circle of Bible study. It was going to coffee together, movies together, serving together, playing together, eating at Red Robin together, shopping together, and even TP’ing houses. Some of the memories that they talked about were not the Bible discussions, but the goofy things we did, that will remain unmentioned right now. (haha)

I love these girls, and love my girls now. They have forever changed my life and have made my life a LOT more exciting.