Being a fairly introverted person by nature, I often find it hard to branch out and meet new people when I move to a new place. But one of the ways that God continues to show His faithfulness to me is through the new friends that He brings to me.

Here in Merritt that friend was Elise. She had just started working at my office one week before I did, so I met her right away - and we quickly became friends. And she is so awesome! It's actually pretty cool the similarities that we have - she is from Ontario, but she also went to school in Waterloo (at Laurier), and we overlapped on our time in Waterloo by one year. She moved to BC a couple years ago to Powell River, a little city on the Sunshine Coast of BC, to work with their Junior Hockey team. She ended up marrying a guy from Powell River this past summer, and moving to live with him in Merritt, where he had been working for the past couple years. Strangely enough, Powell River was another place that I seriously considered for my job, and flew out there in the fall to check it out. Sadly though, she and her husband moved back to Powell River last month. I miss them so much!

It's kind of cool to see that Elise is just one of those people who would have come into my life no matter where I ended up deciding to move to. I met her sooner in Merritt, but if I had decided on Powell River, I know that ours paths would have crossed there, and we would have become friends there as well.

She was such a refreshing person to be around. She radiates joy! And she's a big dreamer like me - I can tell her my biggest dreams for what my life will hold, and instead of feeling dumb for going against the norm, she's full of nothing but encouraging words. During the few months that we both lived in Merritt, she was someone who would come over just to visit and have a cup of chai tea with me, or watch a movie, or go for a hike - and that's what I really needed in a new, unfamiliar place.

I miss having her around Merritt - but having her back in Powell River gives me a good reason to go and visit in the summer! And I'm also slightly jealous of her right now - she's in Vancouver volunteering at the Olympics. She was at the Opening Ceremonies last night, and is at Hockey Place for nearly every one of Canada's hockey games. Okay, I'm actually a lot jealous!

These couple pictures are from a hike that we went on one afternoon a couple days before Christmas.