Shmlove

The first two paragraphs or so are a me-history, if you will, so if you are my mother or sibling, you can skip to the bottom for current things :)
My parents both went to UVA, and were involved in FCA there. My Dad was, initially, the only Catholic in the big group of them. Probably to my pastor-grandpa's discontent, he was the guy that my Evangelical Free Church mom fell for. While they were in that FCA, they founded some very, very strong bonds with a good number of people there. The men, especially, stayed incredibly close after college. They called themselves "shmoo"s. They all grew, and were married, and started families of their own. Now, we are 13 families, with some adult children who are second generation shmoos. I am a second generation shmoo, and, as such, have been given an indescribable gift. Since birth, I have belonged to a family bonded through faith and friendship. This past summer, I had one of the best experiences of my life with a number of my shmoo brothers and sisters on the beach. We stayed awake, talking from 2 till 6 in the morning, about everything and anything that mattered in life, in the most encouraging and uplifting ways, bolstered by the love we have for each other.
I have two girls that I have always felt especially close to in the shmoos (although I love all of them more than I could ever say). Their names are Kati and Kali. Kati is a year older than I am, and is not only my sister, but a mentor, and a dear friend to my heart. She goes to school in Texas, and her family resides in Turkey. I miss her lots and lots. Kali is a bit younger than me, but we used to be inseparable when we would get together when we were younger. She is a ball of joy and sunshine and many other wonderful things. Kali and her family were in Orlando this week, and I got to visit them at their hotel-- which was just down the road from where I live! It was very cool. True to our pasts, we stayed up from 11pm-3am talking. Her parents were there for the first couple of hours, but left us to be teenage girls for the rest of it. It was so nice to have family here.
Familiar faces have been a saving grace for me. A couple weeks ago, one of my amazing youth ministers, Nate, and his wife, Margaret, were down here on vacation. I got to spend a few hours with them, too, and it's one of the most encouraging things to just see someone you know.  It also helps that the people that I've seen are people that have always been uplifting influences in my life. Anyways, Kali, if you're reading this... I love you! We shmoos think/know that if we add "shm" to anything it automatically personalizes it and makes it cooler, so I suppose you could call this a "shmout-out" :D. Woops, attempts at cleverness at 3 am. That means I will look at this tomorrow and it will no longer be clever.
I realized I mentioned this earlier with no explanation. Tomorrow (Friday), is my un-birthday. In my apartment, we all either have legitimate birthdays during the program, or we've picked a day to be our "un-birthday", so we all get a special day. So far, they've been lots of fun! Tomorrow's mine, so I guess that's kind of exciting. I will celebrate by scheduling a doctors appointment. And doing laundry. Know why? Because I'm an adult, remember?! That was too much enthusiasm for it being so late at night... Anyways, my cousin, Caity, comes down next week, and I'm so excited! She is, besides absolutely beautiful, a very sweet girl, and I always enjoy spending time with her. I would come up with something clever to end with... but, again, I won't find it clever tomorrow, so I think I'll pass :)
God bless!