Thank you

Dear friends,

Last night I was feeling a little anxious as I looked toward today. I wanted New Year's Eve Day to be different and special — to somehow signify the change I've been working so hard toward these last several years— so I determined to make the day memorable.

I've been hoping and praying for snow during my visit to the Pacific Northwest, and since the Portland area doesn't get much, if any, snow I decided I would go hunting for it up in the mountains. But my dad worried that the car (and its southern California driver) wouldn't do well on the icy mountain roads, so that adventure didn't seem like a wise option after all. I settled on a hike in Portland instead. But then those plans fell through, too, so I decided to go on a walk in the neighborhood to soothe my disappointment. 

As I walked, I thought back to last spring. I spent the spring much like I spent the last few years: researching treatments and clinics, implementing medical protocols, trying new doctors, and meeting with old doctors. It was brutally exhausting and generally fruitless. In May, I realized I had been working so hard to get healthy that I hadn't given God much opportunity to advocate for me, and I felt a strong prompting from the Holy Spirit to cancel my appointments at new clinics so He could direct me to life-giving treatment. I cancelled the appointments, and two weeks later, He led me to limbic system retraining.

Since then, I have felt convicted to practice the discipline of waiting for God's blessings — of letting Goodness and Mercy pursue me, the way the Psalmist describes, rather than chasing them with frantic ambition. The more I have practiced waiting, the more convinced I have become that in this season, God wants me to stop hustling, to stop planning, to stop doing all of the things that seem so very sensible so he can provide for me: a Dad taking care of his beloved girl.

As I planned my adventures this morning, it didn't occur to me that today, of all days, God would like to show me his care for me by filling my day with good things, apart from my own efforts. So halfway through my walk, I asked him to make the day special — to mark it with something exciting to signify a new chapter in life.

When I got back to the house, it started to snow.

The big, feathery flakes felt like a reminder of God's attentive care and a symbol of the newness that lies ahead. It was the perfect New Year's Eve gift.

As I look toward 2017, I want to thank you for your support in 2016. Many of you have been faithful prayer warriors on this roller coaster ride, and words don't do justice to my gratitude for your prayer support. Your prayers and notes of encouragement are two of a few things that have mitigated the suffering of the last year. I also want to thank those of you who have contributed financially to my medical fund. Your generosity is a wild and wonderful gift to me. I wish I could give you each a hug in person and explain to you how all of your support has deeply influenced this journey.

My friends, I pray your transition into the New Year is filled with reminders of God's persistent goodness and mercy. There is no god like our God; and there is no better life than a Life in Him.

I'm thankful to be walking this journey with you,

and I'm cheering for you.

Happy New Year,

Sarah







© by scj

Soccer at sunset

I'm in Washington for the holidays and am enjoying time with family. Today, we had a rare batch of blue sky, so my brother, sister-in-law, their cat-who-is-more-like-a-dog-than-a-cat, and I headed to the local soccer field. Brother plays soccer, so he was the only one with mad moves; but boy, we all had fun.

It was a limbic system retraining victory.

Happy Tuesday, my friends!


-SJ



© by scj

FINISHED!

My friends,

I MADE IT TO THE FINISH LINE! I experienced very few neurological triggers this last week and was able to wrap up my doctoral classes with just one casualty:

These poor little sweet potatoes never got to meet the bacon I was cooking up for them. It's too bad: I think they would have had a sizzlin' relationship.

Such are the misfortunes of finals week.

After submitting my last homework assignments Friday afternoon, some dear friends and I braved the frigid Orange County temperatures to look at lights.

Oh me oh my, if you are a girl, then you know: there is little on earth that fills the soul like girl time.

There is a neighborhood in Fullerton that rallies to hang hundreds upon hundreds of glowing orbs from the large trees lining the streets. They go all out to light up their houses, too; and the result is magical — like 1,000 more times magical than this photo:

This is the first week in awhile that I haven't been fighting the neurological flare-ups associated with colds, and I was delighted to realize, partway through our Christmas light outing, that I felt sort of normal.

HURRAH!

I'll write a limbic system retraining update later this month, but for now, this is another encouragement for those of you who are considering trying DNRS: do it. It really, truly is healing me.

Thank you for praying for me this semester, my friends. I am just so thankful for you.

And now, I turn to GRADING!

Continued prayers welcome. ;)

Merry Sunday, friends.

-Sarah





© by scj

A post about online dating

This is a post about online dating. It is a post to help those who are considering online dating; and it is a post for those who have been online for ages and are tired of it. For the former group, I'll describe the online dating landscape and evaluate several different dating apps. For the latter group, I will make some lamentable observations about online dating. Because if you've been online for awhile, then I know you are also lamenting, at least on the inside, which means SOLIDARITY. Sometimes solidarity is more consoling than a carton of Ben and Jerry's.

But first, a caveat: I have not online dated in awhile; however, I do occasionally reactivate dating apps to reassess the online dating landscape. And also to psychoanalyze profiles. Does anybody else do this? These profiles are better than reality TV, Jack. The Real Housewives ain't got nothin' on online dating profiles.

Also-also: this is not a post about the "success" I've had with online dating. (And there has been some success). It's also not a post about the remnant of all of the really wonderful, godly men who are online. I have written about them, though; and I think it's probably important for you to know they exist, if you're a Christian considering online dating. (For a post about some online dating success, go HERE.)

So. Here are some of my observations about online dating.

I've used dating apps in both Portland and Los Angeles and have discovered the dating pools are really different. In Portland, the men are rugged and outdoorsy and tend to work as scientists or employees of Nike. They like craft beer (obviously) and are generally pretty hairy.

In Los Angeles the men tend to be metrosexual entrepreneurs, models, actors, and musicians with their shirts off. These men like to spend time on their yachts and drive around in their convertibles, and they post a staggering number of pillow selfies.

According to their profiles, the men of both Portland and Los Angeles are all positive with a sense of adventure, an aversion to drama, and an affinity for wine, yoga, and live music. A significant number of them are always smiling and want someone who is always happy, which, in my estimation, rules out ALL OF THE HUMAN RACE. Many of them are sick and tired of us posting photos of our yoga poses on the beach.

A side note: in general, a good profile picture is a clear close-up of your face.

Things that do not make a good profile picture:

• Driver's license photos
• Photos that have been blown so much that your head looks like a constellation of pixels
• Group photos in which you are in the back row wearing sunglasses
• Photos featuring your grandma, from which you have been cropped

(And also, it's really nice if you're smiling in your profile picture).

I didn't formally crunch any numbers, but I'm going to guess that for every 250 men online, one of those goes out of his way to profess Christianity. The number of Christians does seem to vary from app to app, though, so I'll talk about that more below when I review dating apps.

I, like most people I know, run across the profiles of friends and exes fairly regularly online. If they are a friend, I shoot them a message to say hello, and haha it's good to see you, and good luck on here.

If they are an acquaintance or an ex, I check out their profile in stealth mode, which ensures they cannot see I have visited their profile. Curiously, many of these men (friends, exes, acquaintances) are Christians, and many of them do not specify they are Christians on their profiles. I'm not sure why this is, but I think it's likely a case of not being super great self-marketers.

A few other bummers:

1. If you dislike texting and emailing, then online dating will be a draaaag.

2. If you are a really busy or tired introvert, then online dating will be a draaaag.

3. If you dislike first dates with people you have never met, then online dating will be a draaag. 

4. Watch out for fake profiles

5. Be careful about the information you provide. All it takes is a first name and the name of your workplace or a school you attended for someone to find you on the web.

5b. All it takes is a first name and the name of a school or workplace to find all sorts of information about someone you're considering meeting. Youtube videos. Family history. Church involvement.

A recommendation: find videos of the potential date before committing to a date. I have discovered that initial attraction is like 95% body language (WHO KNEW!) and a video of a potential date may end up saving you the hassle of going on a date and discovering there is no attraction.

I realize 5b is not a bummer. In fact, I love 5b. There is very little I like about online dating, but I LOVE gathering Intel on potential dates. I chalk this up to a deep value for...research.

And now, for a few encouraging tidbits to balance out the bummers:

Tidbit #1: I once went out with this guy I met at a party. He was selfless, hardworking, and kind, and I knew he would be fiercely loyal to whomever he married. We didn't end up having romantic chemistry, however, so we didn't date. I later saw his profile online, and he eventually met a great gal whom (I think) he found online.

See, you could meet someone just like him online, as long as you're okay with sifting through hundreds of photos of half naked men flexing on their yachts while holding a baby they borrowed.

Tidbit #2: I have had a number of men reach out to me online expressing spiritual hunger. They have been particularly interested to learn about Jesus and the new life that he offers. For this reason, I love online dating.

Tidbit #3: A couple of years back I had a friend who was going on a first date with a guy she met online. She was dreading it, as most of us tend to, so a group of us decided to join her on her date, unbeknownst to her date. We sat several tables away and took seflies with them in the background, and when she went to the bathroom, we went to the bathroom; and it worked so well we decided to make a habit of showing up at each others' first dates.

It was a great system.

Tidbit #4: Age does seem to be just a number among the singles of Portland and Los Angeles. If you are a female in your 30s, the younger guys will want to date you just as much as the older guys. So if you're open to dating younger guys, your pool is probably not as small as you think. (FACT: at one point, almost all of my Orange County girlfriends in their 30s were dating guys 6-9 years younger).
 
Okay, onto the dating app reviews. But first, a note:

Some women are afraid to try online dating because so many women get inappropriate messages and photos from men. I'm not sure why, but I have never gotten either; so it's very possible to have a mostly clean online dating experience.

TINDER:
Swipe right for people you're interested in; swipe left for people you're not. If you both swipe right, then you'll be connected, and either one of you can begin a conversation. Tinder doesn't require biographical information, so a lot of people's profiles are biography-less, which makes it even easier to swipe left. There are people on this app who are genuinely looking to meet their spouse, but they are feeeeew and far between. Generally, this app is full of people looking for hook-ups.

BUMBLE:
Bumble works like Tinder, except only women are able to open a private chat room once a connection has been made. If you are a woman pooped out on online dating, then I'm guessing you won't love this feature.

If the woman doesn't open a chat room within 24-hours of the initial connection, then the connection will disappear, unless someone uses their daily option to extend the connection by 24 hours.

Like Tinder, participants do not have to fill out a profile, and I'd guess about 1/8 of the guys fill in the profile section. When they do fill out a profile, the men of Bumble seem to be more opinionated than the men in other dating pools, and say things like, "Please do not say 'Hi' or 'Hey' when you reach out; if you can't think of anything more creative then I'm not interested."

I find apps like Bumble to be pretty overwhelming. There's so much dizzying swiping, that you can end up with matches you don't remember investigating, and the work to sift through them just doesn't feel worth it. My tactic, when using Bumble, was to only consider the profiles of men who used their 24-hour extension. That limited the pool considerably and was less overwhelming to me.

COFFEE MEETS BAGEL:
This app works a little differently than Tinder and Bumble. Every day at noon participants are sent a profile that they can either accept or reject. When two people accept each other's profiles, then they are connected and can begin communicating. Private chat rooms expire after seven days.

Profiles on Coffee Meets Bagel are more detailed, so it's a little easier to assess initial interest, and I've found there are more professing Christians on Coffee Meets Bagel than on Bumble and Tinder. I also know more people who have found potential dates on CMB than anywhere else, though admittedly, the dating pool on CMB has shifted in the last year or so. I'm just theorizing here, but I think the best time to try an app is when it's brand spankin' new. After awhile, all the Tinder people catch wind of the app and migrate over. I think this is what has happened to Coffee Meets Bagel.

A note: it turns out, if you delete the app from your phone, your profile is still active. You must deactivate or delete your profile in order for it to be removed from the profile pool. Same with Bumble.

MATCH:
With Match, you pay for the service, get access to a pool of people across the United States (or in your area, if you want to narrow the pool), and you can send messages to whomever you want, whenever you want. Of course this means all the men on Match can reach out to you, whether you want them to or not, which may mean you find yourself sifting through a bunch of unwanted emails.

The profiles on Match are more thorough (you have to write SOMETHING), so it can be easier to assess initial interest. 

OKCUPID:
This service works like Match but is free. There are several Christian guys on this site in my area — that's a literal several — though it mostly feels Tinder-ish. Like Match, the profiles are more detailed, which helps with the sifting process.

Welp, theeeeeeere you have it, folks. 

May your dating efforts be fruitful, or, at the very least, entertaining.

Let me know how it goes.

Happy Wednesday.

I'm cheering for ya, Home Skillets!

 -Sarah



P.S. Thanks to those of you who have been praying for me this week. I've not gotten any bugs and have been able to get a lot of work done, though I'm not in the clear yet. Tomorrow and Friday I need to be ultra productive as I work toward a fast-approaching deadline. Please continue to pray!


© by scj

Prayer support

Hi Friends,

I'd love your prayers in the coming weeks.

The last two months I've had back-to-back colds that have often been like lighter fluid on the neurological fire. They have made life extra hard.

As I head into the last few weeks of the semester, I have an absurd amount of homework, along with the usual piles of grading, and I'll need to be cold-free in order to do it all.

Would you pray for protection from bugs and other neurological triggers between now and the 20th? I'd love to be able to finish the semester's race.

Thank you!

Cheering for you,

Sarah


P.S. These are the Jackson girls:

I love them a lot, and I love this photo, which is why I'm sharing it with you. 





© by scj

Grandma Ona

My Grandma Ona passed away last month, and though she had grown old and her health was failing, the suddenness of her passing was a blow.

My grandma was quite a woman.

She was tender, resourceful, active, tenacious, and hilarious. She lugged castaway furniture out of alleyways to give it new life; she cooked with plenty of butter as all good cooks do; she kept her fridge — and other corners of her house — well-stocked with candy (in this way, I always felt she was my kindred spirit), and she never judged me when I wanted to eat chocolate before and after every meal. She raised three kids after the sudden and very early death of her husband; she sent all her grandkids birthday cards every year; and she laughed readily and fully — especially at herself. She was marshmellow and steel, and we loved her for it.

Once, when we were kids, my sister, cousin Emily, and I stayed at my grandma's house for the weekend. We had a hankering for hard-boiled eggs that first morning at her house, so we plopped several eggs in a pan of boiling water, put the lid on the pan, and, before the eggs had finished cooking, we decided to go shopping. My grandma had a knack for finding a bargain and a hunch that the sales down the street would yield all sorts of treasures.

In our eagerness to hit the sales, we forgot about the boiling eggs, and when we returned from shopping, we were greeted with the overpowering stench of eggs-gone-bad. Upon walking into the kitchen, we noted the burner was on, the egg pan was empty, and the ceiling was splattered with the boiled eggs. It was a sulfuric Jackson Pollock, traces of which would stubbornly cling to the ceiling for many years to come. 

When my grandma saw that mess of goopy egg on the ceiling, she laughed fit to kill. Her shoulders shook, and tears welled up in her eyes, and the three of us girls joined her in deep belly laughter. For the rest of her life, whenever we revisited the egg incident, we laughed.

Last week my family sat in a circle and told stories about grandma. We revisited the egg incident, of course, and we remembered our last conversations with her; and when we were done remembering aloud, we planted a rose bush in her memory. When spring comes, it will yield sunset roses with petals of fuchsia, sherbet, amber, and crimson.

My siblings and I with grandma's rose

I think my grandma would have loved it.






© by scj

Thanksgiving

The Jacksons accomplished an incredible feat this Thanksgiving weekend: we were ALL in the same place!

And boy was our selfie game strong.

The sibs

One of the week's highlights was the presence of Copper, the pup my littlest brother and his wife got in early 2016.

Copper is Roo's older half brother.

Do you see the resemblance?

The two pups hadn't met before this weekend, so it was a ball to watch them meet. I was in dog heaven.

With Roo

With Copper

Copper is happy-go-lucky. His tail is always wagging, and every creature is a new friend. Roo, on the other hand, is a bit more cautious. She has to carefully assess a situation before engaging it fully.

Roo (on the left) assessing

Assessment phase #2 (getting more comfortable)

It didn't take Roo too long to determine that Copper was a worthy friend, and the two spent the weekend engaged in puppy play. They romped; they frolicked; and they raced around the house. Copper showed Roo how to stand on her hind legs and walk all over the kitchen sniffing for morsels of leftover turkey (have you ever seen a dog walk on his hind legs without extra support? It's remarkable! Turkey inspires truly amazing things, I suppose), and together, their begging techniques were almost irresistible.

Well, actually, they were absolutely, entirely irresistible. I was a turkey-dispensing softy as long as the two of them were together.

Oh my oh my: a world with dogs is a beautiful world, and a Thanksgiving with pups is the best kind of Thanksgiving.

I hope you had a celebratory and restful Thanksgiving, my friends.

Hopeful, light-filled Monday!

Cheering for you,

Sarah




© by scj