Surprise at ARISE

Last month, at the beginning of October, Val and Allie had the brilliant idea that Cyrus, Melissa and I should come and visit them at ARISE. We all, of course, loved this idea, but Cyrus had a big test the next weekend, and the weekend after that was a closed weekend at Weimar, and the weekend after that Melissa was busy, and then they had an evangelistic series. So despite the threatening emails, the pleading Skype chat, and our own desire to drive and see everyone, we hit a dead end. 

Then, about a week before the closed weekend, I received an email in my inbox. I had been Bcc'd on an email Matthew sent to the girls' dean at Weimar, asking if Melissa and I could come down for Victoria's birthday! We were surprised and super excited, but we were pretty sure that it wouldn't work out (so we tried not to get our hopes up). Surprisingly, the school said yes! We cheered, we jumped up and down, we packed, we told Cyrus, we cheered again, and on Friday we began the long drive.

8 hours we spent in the car, for our dear friend Tori, and then we finally got there. She came in to see some her ARISE friends holding up a Happy Birthday sign, and then Allie gave her a completely blank card (that we had gotten for her) that said, "The distance between two friends..." on the cover, and then on the inside: "...is never as far as it seems." She was kind of confused, and begin to tear up. "I don't know who I'm supposed to be missing," she said, "but I really miss all of my friends!" Then we walked in, and there was much crying and snapping pictures and recording videos and smiling. It was THE best. Surprising people is my new favourite hobby. :)

Here are some snapshots of the weekend. Sorry for the blurriness in some of the shots, but the memories they capture are worth it. I love and miss you all!

COCONUT cake! Best. Thing. Ever.

This shot is really blurry, but I think it really captures Matthew as his usual self. :)

Tori telling some one on the phone how we had surprised her :)

This pretty much captures why we went - for Victoria, because she is one of our closest friends, and we love her and miss her a lot! Love you Tori! :)