Friday, December 5, 2008

50 Days And No Stress......Ok Maybe A Little

My first blog!!! For those of you reading this that don't know this is my blog for my semester to Italy. Here is where you can find updates about my trip as often as I can get them on here. Also please forgive any grammar or spelling errors, I'm not trying to be perfect, I'm just trying to let you all know how I'm doing.



So the last 8 months has been pure crazy! I never realized that signing up to be an exchange student took so much work! (Maybe thats why not that many kids do it) To even begin to explain the last 8 months would take me days so I'll just put in the more important things. One thing that I have definately learned through all of this is that even though it is extremely hard, patience is the key. I turned in my application in April and then worked and waited till I got accepted. On September 29th I got the letter saying I was accepted to AFS USA. Then on October 20th I was sitting in Younglife when my advisor called saying I was finally accepted to AFS ITALY! I was so excited I didn't sleep at all that night. Now all I'm left to do is wait again for a family, visa info, travel info, and all the rest of the stuff AFS sends us.



But now on to the happier things. Even though to the majority of people money is where they get depressed, it is where I get so excited! To help you understand my extreme excitement here's a little story.....

It was November 25th, and my bill of approx. $8,000 was to be paid by that coming Friday.(3 days away) But the worse part was not only did I not have the bill but I was still about $1,800 short. Everyone knows to come up with that kinda money in that amount of time is almost impossible. So as you can guess I was freaking out! So I called my advisor and she said don't worry you don't have to pay it till it comes. So I took a deep breathe and headed to work. When I got there everyone was gathered around the front counter waiting for me. When I came around the corner there was a lil cake and a card. Emily (my boss) said that they didn't want me to worry about not getting enough money so they took donations. She then poured out a bucket of money in front of me, $225.20 worth! Then she turned the bucket around and it said "Help Send Tanya Budler To Italy! The Cafe Will Match All Donations Made Today" So Emily pulled out her check book and wrote me a $225.20 check. Of course I just started crying because this means so much to me and they just so humble helped me out. But i'm not even close to finished. Then Emily put a paper in front of me with all of the donations people were mailing to here. So in total they made over $850 for me in one day! I love them so much, I mean who has a boss and co-workers like that? They will never know how thankful I am for them. Now just sit back cause God just continuely showed up and showed off in my life that day. So i get home and didn't even get a chance to tell my mom about it all and she hands me two envelopes. I opened them and the first was from my financial advisor for $105! Praise the Lord! Then the next was from my church and it had to checks in it. The first was out of the missions fund for $200 and the second one, oh the second one. I looked at the number a couple of times before it actually sunk in and I dropped everything in my hands and fell against the wall. I uncontrollably cried as I looked at the $1,660 check in my hand. Less than 12 hours ago I was worried about not having $1,800 and now I stood in my living room with over $9,000 to my name. But hold on, God has more! The next day my advisor called again and she informed me I got the full $700 in scholarships from AFS based on merit! So at this point I'm just like wow God, you are just so amazing! I'm never going to doubt you again! I can't even begin to describe the feeling of having tuition completely paid for when you've spent every waking moment working toward it. Praise the Lord, He has done more for me than I've ever deserved!



So as you can see, its not impossible, especially with God. Saturday we finally got the bill in the mail and it was only $7,450 so I just wrote one check and i'm done...Pretty much the greatest feeling ever! lol But that is just the begining of all the amazing things God is going to do through this trip. Now i just wait for my family and to leave! Only 7 more days of school and 50 more days and my dream will be more of a reality than ever!

1 comment:

Coach B said...

Hey Your Blog is to long to long to read.