i sat down to write this blog post and decided to listen to Sandra McCracken which i don't ever do and the first song that played is called Grace Upon Grace and that's what this is all about. Guess it was meant to be. this week has been full of blessings on blessings on blessings on provision. it started out with a lot of anxiety and worries and fears. i have been anxiously seeking housing for when i move to richmond in 6 little weeks. i replied to dozens of craigslist ads and weighed my options. this meant i weighed Casual pot smoker vs roommate with no job vs smokes pot every day but made me laugh in emails exchanged. needless to say, not many great options. some great ones though. then, megan asked me if i would seriously want to live with her and noah in a 4 bedroom house. i still thought she was kidding. then we had a skype meeting where we actually talked about it. then after an hour of conversation we all put our hands in and shouted roommates and that was that. instead of Roommate Wanted ads on craigslist I switched to 4 bedroom house available. I like those ads better. so, all at once i had a roommate. more than one. that i already knew and who probably won't turn out to be axe murderers. so that's a plus. the next day i had a little freak out anyway. at about 3 am i woke up and couldn't go back to sleep thinking it was too fast and wondering if i had made the wrong choice and thinking that all my dreams of living in a house of sweet girls was gone and i would never make any friends in richmond. then around 3:38 i remembered that God is really really good and that he desires good things for us and that this was not as shocking to him as it was to me. he knew that i would live with noah and megan. he knows the house we will have. he is not looking at me shaking his head saying oh crap hannah messed this up real bad. so then around 3:43 i went to sleep and my stupid fears were gone. the next morning i was telling chelsea all this and she happened to remember her pal zippy is moving to richmond to work at a church. i told her this was a fine time to tell me this. then she also remembers it is northside church where sam and kelly and christine go. so that is real nice too. i message zippy and it turns out we are actually the same person her skin is just a little more brown than mine and she can have dreads and it doesn't look stupid on her like it would on me. we laugh and confide in each other that we both are nervous about moving to richmond and want to make friends and she will live in a house of girls that i can hang out at often. so god provided friends for me less than 12 hours after i had laid awake scared i wouldn't make any friends. some of the craigslist potential roommates have turned out to be cool too and have become friends so life is good.

on thursday 4 interns came (see previous post about girl named taylor) and 2 are living with me. Baily and Taylor. and they are great. thursday morning the power was out so i couldn't do any office work so i hung out in Diana's house and got some quality time with sweet girls and asked if they would still love me that night after taylor arrived. they promised the would. i was almost sick with worry and anxiousness and probably lingering jealousy and the past 4.5 months have lead up to them coming! then they arrived. and we hugged and breathed sighs of relief together and it was so good. i am so happy they are here. it's been great. god is so good. i don't get to live in a house of girls in richmond, i get to live with my family, but the next 6 weeks i get to live in a house of girls and serve and love deep and laugh together with them and that is good. friday night we all cooked dinner and watched modern family and it was the best and most normal friday night i've had in over 4 months. praise the lord.

extra provisions from this week:
-getting to pray with and cry with Diana because sometimes life doesn't make sense and she let me carry some burdens for her and i am so grateful
-Yasmin wrote me a letter and gave me a pencil case covered in cats
-I ate some good cake on tuesday and my favorite little buddy Joao came to the office and wrote me letters and then ate my cake
-chelsea prayed for me a lot this week
-my family is still always really funny and great
-i learned how to make tapioca and it was really fun
-i get to do dishes, write notes, and buy treats for people all in ENGLISH and not portuguese.
-my dad mailed me a vegetable peeler so making v8 juice this week only took like 40 minutes instead of 3 hours.

i'm so grateful. week 18 was good ya'll.