Putting on the whole armor

"Finally, my bretheren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil...Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Ephesians 6:10-11, 13

Reading this verse right now gives me chills thinking about the power of God and how I have felt His arms lift me up the past 2 months. It brings tears to my eyes as I offer Him endless praise for His hand in everything that has brought me to this moment, all my 26 years. And I feel an incredible, supernatural strength and excitement to go and DO THIS. I guess that's what it feels like to finally, completely, surrender it ALL, and the excitement is knowing that I'm bringing my fish and loaves and I'm going to watch God work. I've told a few of you that I already feel like I've passed because I have exceeded every expectation that I had for myself...and that has nothing to do with the final outcome of this test. I don't know everything, but I know more than I ever thought I would and could and I feel like this is right where I am supposed to be. I've never fought so hard and I was blessed with a wonderful weekend of putting on the whole armor...

Kate and I went out with a bang on Friday night as our last pre-Bar funday. We went to dinner at Hurry Curry of Tokyo by my brother's store and just took our time browsing in and out of little shops and the japanese food market. We went to Blockbuster and begged the girl working to check the back for the first "Step Up" movie since we saw "Step Up 2" the last Friday. We took it as a VERY good sign that the girl was able to find us one in the back despite the empty shelf! It was a great night and I'm so glad that we've had our Friday nights this summer. Kate will be going to Hawaii for 2 months right after the bar and although I will miss her SO terribly, I couldn't be more excited for her. Also, she's going to keep a blog so I plan on being her first subscriber and I will post a link to her blog ASAP. We can all drool over her life in paradise:)

I continued to nest the love on Saturday...talked to my mommie in the morning for about an hour and a half and followed that up with skyping with Aaron for about the same time. My mom surprised me and sent me a card with these instructions:



And a gift, which requires a little bit of explanation. Barbri is all about telling you to just "be a sheep". You want your answers to look like everyone else's and you need to follow what the bar examiners want and so one of our lecturers joked that you don't want to give a "goat" answer. My mom, being the sweetest and best mom that she is, sent me this because she said it was cuter than a sheep:



The lambie is hanging out with another friend of mine who will also be making the trip to Ontario;)

Saturday night, I had Jackie over for dessert. It had been almost a month since our last urth date because the poor thing had been sick and then went to Colorado a bit to visit her boyfriend. Jackie and I had a wonderful night and of course, I was reminded just how thankful I am for her and her wisdom and heart. It also felt so good to "entertain". I have missed doing that this summer! Here was our dessert...big mugs of decaf coffee and guiltless no pudge brownies!



And last, but most definitely not least, I spent yesterday morning with ET and her friend Elizabeth who was visiting from Richmond. We went to church and then had brunch at Marmalade in Malibu. Erin had quite a celeb sighting yesterday morning! She went to coffee bean in Malibu and ran right into John Krasinski and Jason Bateman! As she will tell you, Jason Bateman even talked to her:) Poor Elizabeth opted out of the coffee run and missed out but we were a table away from Brad Garrett (from Everybody Loves Raymond-I think that's his name) at brunch. We had such a great time and Erin surprised me with a way too generous graduation/bar gift and then 3 envelopes for each of the days of the bar exam. I am so overwhelmed by her sweetness!



So, needless to say, I had a wonderful weekend and I could not be more excited to go and take my test. I am leaving today at 1pm because I can't check into my hotel until 3 and it takes about an hour to get to Ontario. I thought I'd share a few pictures of what it looks like around here:

The list that keeps my head on straight:



The all important food bag:



The only test/study materials that I'm allowing myself to bring (carefuly calculated with the help of Kate to minimize the panic):



The actual luggage (how many days will I be gone??):



And, lastly, the Texas packing pile (yes, it made it from the chair into a bag) because I'll get back on Thursday night from Ontario and fly out to Texas at 8:30 the very next morning!



Thank you for all your prayers and good thoughts. Like I've said, I appreciate and cherish every single one. I am planning on blogging at night to record my thoughts and feelings so that you will all know that I'm alive and ok:), and also, per my Aunt's suggestion, I think it will be really cool to have to look back on when this is all done.

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". Philippians 4:13