Fitting in

Ya know.. as a kid I always dreamed of finding my dad. I never really thought farther then that to siblings and an entire other family. When I set out to find my dad, I wasn't ever even sure that he was going to accept me as his. Needless to say when I met my dad and he welcomed me with open arms, I was overwhelmed with joy and wasn't sure what to think.

Then he told me I had siblings... That terrified me. I was positive that they would hate me taking their daddy from them. They would surely never accept me as one of them. Then I met Katie. Turns out that we share a brain. We are so exactly alike in so many ways that its ridiculous. Talking to the siblings over email, they assured me that they didn't believe in half siblings. It was all or nothing. So I was their sister. Between those emails and meeting Katie.. my fears were calmed slightly. However there was still Dee and Jon to worry about.

Then I got out here to St Louis. I can't realy see myself in Jon and Dee, but we're siblings. Not close ones, but maybe that will come with time. But this entire family- right from my dad's ex and her husband down to the youngest girl- have accepted me as one of their own. I am sharing a room with a thirteen year old girl- my dad's ex's daughter. Her calender had marked "Dina comes" and "Dina leaves :(" on the appropriate days. That is that same level of acceptance I have been experiencing, and I love it.

I love my new family.

In Missouri with my new family!

So Dad, grandpop, and myself packed the three of us into grandpop's prius and drove 17 hours to St Louis, Missouri to visit my new found family. Katie, my 18 year old sister, Katie, graduates from high school tomorrow. So, that's why we're here.

The drive was crazy! I tried to sleep so many time! NO ONE LET ME!! I would fall asleep, then five minutes later, stop at a rest stop. Or I'd fall asleep and get a text, a phone call, or someone would wake me up. Wonderful, right? haha.

So let's see... I really like the family. I come from a good stock! haha. Needless to say... I slept really well last night.

the Beatles

I love the Beatles. I'm sitting here at work, doing tedious stuff- cutting, copying, etc- and I'm listening to my Beatles music. They could do any kind of music, no problem. But they make me giggle... you can almost hear the acid trip in their music.

"Yellow Submarine" came on and I'm listening to it. I thought to myself, "If acid trips had accompanyment- this would be it!" How many other bands do you know of that could put music to their crazy drug indused fantasies? Kudos!

Rain on the roof

It's getting late and I should be sleeping. I have church in the morning. Yet I find myself lying here, comforted, yet kept awake by the sounds of the rain.

I don't know what it is about the rain. Ever since I was little, it has lulled me to a deep sleep. It's steady rythem comforting, it's pitter-patter melodious. I remember as a little girl I would lie in bed and just listen, I could almost feel the worries of the day melting from my body. I felt almost as if the rain wrapped me in its arms and rocked me to sleep. It's how I feel right now- at this moment. The stress is gone, my heart, mind, soul, and body are all relaxed as I lie here ready to fall asleep.

I smile as my eyes begin to flutter closed, the exaustion from the day and the song of the rain finally getting the best of me. pitter-patter pitter-patter pitter-patter

NEW BLOG! YAY!

So it's been a long time coming. A new blog post that is. It's difficult for me to remember that I indeed have a blog outside of my myspace page. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am in fact still alive! Go figure. The best part, I'm not only still alive, I'm living. Two very different things.

"So what is Dina up too?" you ask. I will answer that! This September I'm going back to school! I'm going to be doing a school on, what I consider, ministry development. It's simillar to a discipleship training school (DTS), but with one seemingly unimportant difference. The students at the Promised Land Equipping Center (PLEC) are encouraged to work. The goal of the PLEC is to have students learn how to keep a relationship with Jesus Christ while similtaniously living in the world. This is something I struggle with. In fact, perhaps something that we all sturggle with. So after a year of going back and forther between being a student at PLEC or a staff member in Oregon, I've finally commited.

On top of thid, I've decided to write a book! For now, I'm going to keep the details to myself. Don't want anyone stealing my plot line. *grins*