Hello everyone!! I'm sorry I haven't given an update in awhile! It was so nice to see so many of you over my Christmas break in the tropical island of Cleveland, Ohio! :) It was seriously so nice to have it in the 30s... but I have to say that the winter here is a lot prettier... the sky isn't always grey and the air is crisp so it is at least nice to look at as you fear your lungs will freeze solid if you take one more breath of the frigid air. Anywho.. as I was saying, I am so glad I got to visit with some of you! It was such blessing. I do wish there would have been more time to spend one on one with people, but there really wasn't and I am sorry for that.

So, I'm back on campus now. We moved into new rooms when I got back, so now I'm on the first floor (where it is WARM :) yay! and I have one roomate now instead of 3, so it is nice. My roommate, Sarah and I get along really well. She's from New York and is one of the funniest people I have ever met. Needless to say, we have a lot of fun together and she has become one of my very close friends. She tells me of all the crazy things she finds me doing in my sleep.. like last night supposedly I was angrily speaking some type of jibberish or possibly speaking in tongues??! At like 4 AM. We're thinking about setting up a webcam at night to see what I do. One of the girls found me sleeping in the floor in the study room across the hall from us a couple times I guess but she couldn't get me to go back into my room so she left me there... That explained my back and joint pain the next day. I promise that I fall asleep in my bed.. and I wake up in my bed... but other than that, I have no idea what I do all night. It is kind of scary, but I haven't done anything destructive or locked myself out in the cold yet so it should be okay. Haha. Also, we've started to decorate our room :) It is going to be a Caribbean Jungle theme... a Jamaica/Panama beachy jungle type of thing. We're super excited about it.. I'll send pictures of the finished product. It might be a couple weeks.

There is a January class of interns here at HA North starting on Saturday, so we are all really excited to be meeting them and helping them as they get started on their intern year. :) It will be nice to have some new faces. We are pretty small up here still.. especially now that the Januaries from 2007 are now graduated and gone. As far as I know there are 3 guys and 7 girls starting Saturday! :) Please keep them in your prayers as it is a very scary transition and bold move for them.

We are also going to be starting some new classes VERY soon that I am really excited about! I will post the names of the classes and a description of them later, because I do not have the list with me at the moment. My ministry placement is still in the kitchen, and I love it. We have a really great crew and it is a lot of fun. I'm learning a lot and I am proud to say that my children will be able to have real meat because I have gotten over my raw meat phobia and can cook it now! Well.. at least the boneless kind, anyway. *baby steps* ;)

I miss you all so much already! Especially those of you I did not get to see! :( I am so sorry! It's a fine line between seeing everyone and spreading myself thin.. there's a lot of you and only one of me. It really was too short of a visit, but much better than no visit at all! :) We actually got a few more days than expected, so I am very grateful for the time spent.

I got to hold and play with my chubby crawling hairy teethgrowing giggling monster of a nephew, Travis, take my 8 year old niece and my adopted little sister, Jordan (shes actually my friend's little sister, but I have adopted her as my own little sister) ice skating, and I got to help teach my 3 year old niece, Macayla that she is not a puppy, but a cute little girl. It is a work in progress. I got to hear the first full sentence she's ever spoken to me: "I love you, Aunt MaHa" I went shopping with my mom and my sister, and ate cold but delicious chicken nuggets and sweet and sour sauce with my sister.. LOL they're only 4.99 for a 20 piece!! Want some more nuggets?! hahaha. I love you, Ma.  I was defeated by my Daddy at the fooseball table, and defeat never felt so great. I have yet to find anything close to competition on campus. It felt good to be beat. Also I went to Pennsylvania and jumped out of my best friend's boyfriends trunk and made her scream, run away and almost drop her doggie. It was a good surprise, and a blessing to be able to spend time with her and her family during this time. I got to laugh and play Sardines in the dark with my wonderful friends from school and sock wrestle them and just relax and have a good time with old friends :)     

There are many, many other wonderful moments of Christmas break but these were the first to come to mind. It was such a blessing to come home for this time, and it hurt A LOT when I had to say goodbye again, but I came back to campus refreshed and filled with the love of true family and friends that may never understand what I am doing and why I am doing it, but still support me in the decisions I've made. 

I love you all so much. Thank you for everything.

I will try to update this more often.

My love and prayers,

Marsha Darling ;)

There is the possibility I might be able to come home for thanksgiving! Please keep this in your prayers! Also: Cleveland's Aquire the Fire is next weekend, so I'm going to see what I can do about possibly going to that.. so you should all go to it, or come take me out to lunch or even just come give me a hug and say hi!! :) man i hope i can come!!!

later sweet potaters