Since October, I have been staying with my older sister, Nichole in her apartment in New York City. Crazy, huh? Yeah, I told y'all I had alot of catching up to do!
Well, about a year ago, we found out that she was pregnant! A few months after we got this news, she invited me to come stay with her and Frank and the new baby in New York for several months. And, after much thought and prayer and consideration, I said...maybe. It depended on if my scholarship for school would dissapear. If that happened, then there was no way that I could take 2 semesters off school.
The good news is, the TOPS people said yes! They said there are certain exceptions that they'll make. Since I'm a theatre major and New York is basically the musical theatre capital, they viewed it as an experience that would enhance my education. And, it's enhanced my education in many more ways than theatre.
On July 9, 2010, Emma Lucia Crocco was born. She came 7 weeks early and had to stay in the NICU for about a month. She was very tiny and sometimes forgot how to breath. But, by the time I arrived here in October, she was perfectly healthy and getting a little chubby!
I had hesitations about coming here to New York, though. I knew that it would be lonely and difficult. And I knew that it would be cold for mostly the entire time of my stay here. (I hate cold.) But, I also knew that there were some really good reasons for being here.
I was so afraid of leaving home. It was very, very hard. The goodbyes (or as Shelli said, the "see you laters") were a bit heart wrenching. I didn't know how my friendships, that I care SO much about would last after 8 or 9 months of living in another state.
October 12th was a tearful Tuesday morning (of course, because Tuesdays never fail to be the day that I'll have a bad day, if I am to have one). Mom and Dad brought me to the Lafayette airport. They waved at me once I boarded the plane and kept waving until my plane was out of sight.
Flying again was very exciting! I used to be pretty afraid of flying, but when I went to Africa, we had 8 flights in all, there and back. So, I learned to enjoy it. And also learned that napping on airplanes is perfect. I had a 2 hour layover in the Fort Worth/Dallas airport. Then I had the longer flight up to New York. Y'all are never going to believe my good luck! I ended up on a row of 3 seats and nobody else on my row showed up!! So guess who stretched out and took a very, very relaxing nap? Me!
When I woke up, it was dark. When I looked out of the window, I could see city lights everywhere I looked. I knew I was close.
Sure enough, soon I landed. Nony met me at my baggage claim and helped me carry my things out to the car. And that's when I got my first glimpse of Emma Lucia. That precious baby girl was sleeping soundly in her carseat.
The first week in New York felt like 2 months. When I had only been there for 2 weeks, it felt so much longer. Time was just crawling by. I cried alot. Adjusting was very difficult. I just couldn't figure out how to be happy up here. That lasted 2 1/2 months. Until I went home for Christmas. Sometimes it was better, sometimes it was worse, but mostly I just couldn't find a way to be "ok". I was just sort of mopey alot of the time.
But there were some wonderful parts too! Of course, getting to know my sweet little niece has been so great. And watching her learn and grow so much! Spending extra time with my big sister Nichole is awesome too. Although, now we know exactly how our personalities can clash... And I'm getting to know Frank more and more. And his family! His parents moved to the US from Italy a few years before Frank was born. Being around the Italians is definitely fun (and different...and loud...and I never ever ever leave with an empty stomach!!!) I've gotten to spend time exploring Manhattan and our neighborhood in Jersey City (which is "technically" in New Jersey, but really, it's another section of NYC...everybody who live in JC works in Manhattan and there's a subway that goes right into the city and everything. It's basically the same as if you lived in Queens or one of the other 5 sections). Nony and I went to see Chicago in November! That was a very fun night out!! Frank treated us :)
And, of course, all this time I've been learning so much. God has been using it to teach me more than I could have imagined. Most of those first few months were just plain hard. I think I just had to be completely broken and discouraged for Him to get through to me...(why am I so stinkin stubborn?) But I'll have more on that later because I'm writing about the broken and discouraged portion of my NY adventure. I knew all that time that God was teaching me to just be OK without being surrounded by my friends. And being happy with being alone sometimes. And especially that I needed to be turning to Him and trusting Him and depending on Him for things that I was going to my relationships with people for. I knew all of that in my head, but I just couldn't figure out how to apply it to my life.
I started going to a church in the City called "Graffiti". Mandy Trammell (she works at the BCM at LSU and went to Africa with us) got me connected with a girl named Danielle who went to LSU, but is living in NY now. So, I decided to check out the church, cause Mandy is awesome and I trusted her to be referring me to a worthwhile place ;)
Turns out, I was very right! It has been a highlight to my week to go to church and fellowship with the people that go there. I've actually made a few friends! I usually only see them on Sundays, but it's very refreshing to have our young adult small group every week after the sermon. I love just sitting and talking about God and what He is doing in each of our lives for an hour.
Then, in December, Mandy brought a group of about 30 students from LSU for a mission trip in NYC!! She'd told me about it months before I even left to come here. And I definitely wanted to be a part of that mission and serve with them. They arrived December 11th in many different groups. Mandy was the first to arrive and I went to meet her to make airport runs and we got to be the welcome crew! I immediately started making new friends with these people. I'd met 2 of them before, but most of them I didn't know. It was so wonderful to be around Louisiana people!! Pretty much all of the serving that we did was through the Bowery Mission, which is a ministry for homeless people. Let me just say this, it is SUCH a blessing to get the extreme privelege to be used by God to be His hands and feet.
And a few days after that came the highly anticipated December 20th! Nony, Frank, Emma, and I boarded a plane headed for New Orleans, Louisiana! Mom, Lydia, and Claire picked us up from the airport. From there, we got muffulettas and beignets, then went to Jade and Jennifer's house for supper and finally, HOME!!! Home, sweet sweet SWEET home!!
I was busy almost every single day of the 3 weeks I spent in Louisiana. I got to spend time with my family, Natalie Sibille, Ashley, Wiley, Caitlin, theatre people (and witnessed Duncan's proposal to Angie!), Mom's side of the family for Christmas Eve, Kaelyn, Shelli and Sydney (who live all the way out in Pearl River...what's that? you never heard of it? yeah that's right, cause it's pretty much all the way in Mississippi....haha), then went to Passion 2011 (which is a whole nother paragraph, so just hold your horses) where I got to spend 10 hours on a bus going to Atlanta Georgia with Mandie, Chelsi, Dano, and a few new friends, then once we got there saw Sloan and Megan Rogers and Whitney and Jordy and Michelle and lots of Africa people: Mollie, Cameron, Polly, Claire, Brittany, Cassie, Rob, Lynn, Shaun, Morgan, Kyle, and Jesse! (wonderful reunion, by the way! I hadn't seen most of them since June!), then came back to Louisiana and got to see Mary and Melanie before I left!
Okay, Passion 2011. There are not words to describe what God did in me those 4 days. But He was definitely there in Atlanta doing alot of work on alot of hearts. About 22,000 hearts. It never failed to completely blow me away when I went into the Philips arena for worship and saw the place packed with people praising and worshiping my God! It was beautiful and amazing and nearly gives me chills to think about it. It must be just a teeny tiny taste of what Heaven will be like! Also, the things that God taught me through the different speakers made me change the way I see and feel about things. I finally understand how much of a selfish awful person I am without Him. And I understand what His amazing grace is!! It's so incredible that He can love me! SO incredible.
I'm back here in New York now and things are going so so SO much better. I decided that I was going to have a good attitude this time. It's allowed me to be so much more open to the things that God is teaching me. I think the mainest thing is selfless love. (okay, yes I know "mainest" is not a word. I just like it and it gets my point across, so hush, Nony...sorry, my big sister is a grammer nerd :-P) It's so amazing to see how God is changing my heart. I've been trying so hard and He's been helping me to do things that I never could have or would have done. It's definitely very small baby steps, but I'm growing and I can see that.
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