emily-journal 2

Here's the update with my Best Buddy-Emily

On Wednesday I picked her up from cheer leading at 6. It was so fun to see Emily and her friends doing cheer. They have a whole team through Special Olympics and they compete on the weekends. In fact, Emily competes this weekend in Atlanta. I picked Emily up and headed to our long awaited Best Buddies Event. She has been so excited about this night full of karaoke and dancing. In fact, on the way to the place, we jammed in the car to some of the songs she wanted to sing on stage. When we arrived, I quickly realized how popular Emily is. Everyone knows her, loves her, and accepts her. She's just so fun and full of excitement. I met many of her friends and previous buddies. It wasn't ten minutes since our arrival that I turned to see my buddy already on stage posed and ready to dance. As everyone else was gathering and getting some snacks, Emily was putting on a show. She danced her self-choreographed dance to the Cheetah Girls. She was awesome, and all over the place. She definitely got the party started!! She was the first of many fun dances and performances done by all the buddies. Here's a video of one dance, the Cha Cha Slide. Emily is in the pink shirt.

After Emily had quite the night dancing and singing away, I took her to get some ice cream at TCBY. There, Chatty (my roommate) met us to fellowship over some cookie dough and peanut butter ice cream. Chatty is really good with Emily so I love getting together with her. Emily told Chatty of all the events of the night and then I took Emily home around 8:00.

Thursday-

Emily's mom and sister were both busy Thursday night so I picked her up from her Creative Dance class at 6:30. Did I ever tell you that I have some of the most AMAZING friends? My friends, Rachel and Becca Beers, Lindsay Westlake, Lauren George, Cullen Johnson, Richard Lang met up with us at Laredos for dinner. Emily may have been a bit overwhelmed, but she really enjoyed getting to tell my friends all about her favorite dances, her activities and her favorite Disney actors. I was so impressed with the way my friends accepted, loved, and ministered to Em. From Cullen's conversation about love and dancing to Lindsay's about Greek sing-I really enjoyed watching all my friends in their differences fellowship and enjoy dinner. Around 8:15, Emily, Rachel, and I jammed all the way back to Emily's home. Before she got out, Emily lost her favorite Cheetah Girl's cd in my car. I'm not sure where it went. We have checked the floor, her belongings, the console, but no c.d. has been found. Of course, this is a big deal but I really don't understand where that dang thing went! Maybe Emily is right, the car got hungry-ate her cd.

One thing Emily is teaching me is to really enjoy life. Everyday this friend has multiple activities lined up that she thoroughly enjoys. Dancing, singing, bowling, writing-She does what she enjoys. And, rightly so. She deserves to do things-life is too short not to enjoy it. As do all of us! It's strange to think about how much I really enjoy the things that consume my daily life. Emily really gets the importance of living life to the fullest and experiencing each new day with joy. She finds things that make her happy and people that accept her, love her, and desire her presence, and sticks with them. She brings encouragement to me as I encounter her positive attitude and challenges me in our weekly dates.