Sundays

Every Sunday I go to church and sing in the choir. This page is for videos from the worship services and testimonies that happen.

 

 My Story:

Welcome, my name is  Forest . This is my story! Step into my world and see my years up to now.

We'll begin way back to the earliest memory I can remember...

The earliest memory I have is when I went to a theme park (probably Busch Gardens) with my parents. I was in a stroller still and the rest of my family was playing in a water area. I was adopted years ago by my family. I can't say I know a difference between being adopted and...well, being not. I do know however, that no matter if we are adopted or not there really is no difference. I was too young to remember what the adoption process was like but even being told I was adopted doesn't make me feel any different. Many kids think their parents don't love them as much because they are adopted but that is not how it is. I know they love me the same. Right now we are living in Eaglecreek but I want to take you back to where the journey begins. Back in Foxview at our old mobile home. Even though I had lived in a mobile home longer than I've been living in a house I don't enjoy them more. To me I prefer a house because it feels safer and more like a home (Probably cause our mobile home wasn't really the safest place). As a younger child I lived in one place for about 12 years of my life. One of the things I enjoyed about living there was all the neighborhood kids. There were so many so it was like everyday you had at least one friend to play with. I remember most days I had a schedule I would repeat every single day. I'd wake up, go in the living room, eat breakfast and watch TV, eat lunch, do school, go play in my room or play the computer, go outside, play with some of our neighbors, come inside, play in my room or watch TV until dinner, eat dinner, get ready for bed and go to bed. I did those same things everyday except Saturdays and Sundays, also Wednesdays! On Saturdays it was always room cleaning day (the day I least enjoyed). On Sundays we would go to church, come home and have lunch (usually hamburgers), dad would watch the football game, mom would go to choir practice while we played outside, then when it was night we would go inside, have dinner, and go to bed. On Wednesdays we went to church. One of my most fun things to do everyday was play with my friends. I loved it so much because it made me happy. I remember the feeling I use to feel after a day of cleaning my room. I'd spend hours (most of the times only 30 minutes) getting my room clean, then mom and dad would inspect the room and say it was clean and then I'd be so happy because it was finally done. Seeing how clean the room was always brought joy to me. I especially remember on Sundays every morning before I left I would play in my room usually playing with my fake food. Then we would go to church and on the way there I would think to myself "I can't wait until after church to play in my clean room!!" On those days it seemed like church took forever, and at that point church wasn't that important to me. After church we would go home and eat lunch. When lunch was finished I'd rush into my room and play for hours. Have you ever felt the joy of playing in a clean room? There's something about the cleanness that makes it more fun. Cleaning days weren't always so bad. I have a lot of fun memories from cleaning, like: sometimes when I would clean I would turn it into a game. The game was to see who could pick up the items the fastest and I'd play against imaginary friends. Another memory I have is when I would listen to my radio while cleaning. It made the time more enjoyable. My room was special to me. It had bare white walls but what made it special was the two windows, the closet on the right side of the room, and my pink flowered ceiling fan that was shaped like a flower. My most favorite memory of living there was during Christmas times. The family would come see us at our Christmas cantata that my mom directed every year, then after the show some of them would come over to our house. We'd hang out while drinking some hot cider, eat a delicious Christmas meal and open our presents. The saddest part was saying good bye. One year I remember we had our Cantata and then Nanny K and Grandpa came over. We drank hot cider and sat on the couches to talk for a bit. Then we ate our Christmas meal, opened presents and Nanny K and Grandpa stayed for just a bit longer after that. That year Grandpa had given me a baking set. I was so happy. Finally it came time for Grandpa and Nanny K to leave so we said good bye and they left. I remember I always felt sad when they would leave (it always is isn't it?). The reason why the baking set gift meant so much to me was because I enjoy baking. One time we had gone over to a house that Nanny K and Grandpa were renting for a vacation and we stayed a few nights there. We would go fishing in the afternoon and at night Nanny K would read us a story. One day while we were there I wanted to make some cookies with Grandpa so he said we would look and see what we had to make them with. He found some Bisquick and some other ingredients like milk and sugar and we made some shortbread cookies. Ever since that day I have found a love for baking.  One of my favorite parts of that trip was fishing because it made me enjoy fishing. We also got to watch Star Wars and that's when I first began to like it.  My most favorite winter memory is whenever it would get super cold there would be frost on our backyard and we'd go walk outside and it would be so beautiful...but so cold. I would walk out there and look at the frost on the ground that was shining. It seemed to make the trees and grass more beautiful. When it got too cold I would rush inside by the fire. We would have news paper lying out so I would stay a distance from the fireplace and roll the newspapers up and throw them into the fireplace. It was so much fun. Although winter was always cold I wouldn't change a thing about how it was. I also remember one time during my moms choir practice she let me sing a solo in a song. I was really nervous but also excited. I sang the solo and people told me I did a good job. Life living here may have had it's downs but it was great. My parents had been talking about moving for a while and I had been feeling many mixed feelings about it. I was excited at first, then I was completely against it (terrified of what it would mean). I felt it would be like in the movies when the character finds out their moving and they lose their friends and their school! After a while I was convinced it would be great. "It will bring great change!" I thought. We searched for many houses in many different communities. We came to one community named Rivertree (where we're at now) and the maintenance guy showed us the home we are now living in. I remember we walked into the house and it was completely empty. No furniture, nothing.That Sunday morning my parents decided on the house and signed the papers. The moving process was never easy and took many hard working days.  Finally came the day we were ready to move into our new home for good. We finished our last load and said good bye to our friends and neighbors.  "This is good" I thought to myself. It was our first day of officially living in the new house. The morning turned out great but when it became Evening it wasn't as great as I had thought it would be. It was late afternoon and it was clear there was not many children in the neighborhood, atleast not around my age. I became bored so I decided to swing on our swing set that we had gotten. I found many days went just the same to where I soon realized my hope and dreams weren't coming true. Months passed by and they weren't any better. I started to feel it happen, the reason why I was so against the move in the first place. "It was like in the movies and it was only a matter of time before I would lose my church and my co-op, I've already lost my friends" I thought to myself. Soon the thought became true. We quit going to our church, then we left our co-op. I saw everything I was afraid of happen right before my eyes. I was so sad, lonely, and my dreams were shattered. Many months passed filled with days of crying and feeling alone and nights of crying myself to sleep. It's not ideal but it was my life. One day I had lost it. I couldn't take anymore of it. It wasn't fair what was happening to me, and I needed to know why it was. I had been upstairs crying and just thinking about all that was happening to me. I was raised going to church so I had the belief in God for a while, but I hadn't been where I should have been in my relationship with Jesus. I cried to God and said "If you really love me , then why are you doing this to me?" I sat and just cried for a few minutes before turning on my mp3 player to listen to some music. When I was upset I knew The Joy FM always cheered me up so I turned it on, and just as I did a song came on and the words made me pause and think...really think....The song "Before The Morning" came on by Josh wilson. Those who know the song know just what the first verse said but for those who don't I'll share it with you. The songs first verse goes like this:

"Do you wonder why you have to feel the things that hurt you, If there's a God who loves you...where is He now? Well maybe there are things you can't see and all those things are happening to bring a better ending. Someday Somehow you'll see."

As soon as that part ended I knew it was an answer from God. It made me realize He has always been there. Those days I spent "alone" crying, or those nights I was "alone" crying myself to sleep. I had never been alone, He had been there the whole time. I was too mad and hurt to see it. I was too busy blaming Him for it all that I couldn't tell He was helping me through it. That song made me realize that He had been in my life or atleast trying to come into my life and I wasn't letting Him. I cried, realizing all that I had done. I prayed and I told God " you have tried to come into my life and all I've done is blamed you for everything. I am so sorry. You didn't do all this to me. I promise to give you my life and live for you, and I accept you into my life" and I ended the prayer. A new joy came to my life that I had never experienced before. Months went by since that day and nothing really changed, except my perspective of it all. Not having any friends, leaving a church, leaving co-op, it all didn't seem so bad anymore. One day we were going to start going to a new co-op. I wasn't so sure if I wanted to go to a new one. It just wouldn't be the same. I decided to give it a try and I can say it was a very good decision that I did. We also started a new church with some of our old church friends and I'm also glad we started that too. Things started looking up for me again. I can say the best thing that happened through all of that was learning the most important lesson in my life, that everything has a good reason. It may have taken me many hours of crying and nights of crying myself to sleep to figure it out but I'm glad I did. Now, a few years later, we still go to our co-op, and we still go to our church. I have made many new friends who I enjoy being with every week. We started going to a youth group every Wednesday. I heard their choir singing one day and it looked like something I would like to do. My dad encouraged me to join so I did. I am so glad I did because I still sing in that choir every week and it is such a blessing to be there. Choir is so important to me because music is a big part of my life, it's how God answered me one time. When I sing it's a time for me and God to spend time together and I enjoy it so much. Living in this new home is quite different from the way we use to live in the other home. Our Sunday tradition is I go to church in the morning, and in the evening our whole family goes to church. On Christmas we wake up, open our stockings on the couch, eat breakfast in the dining room, go in the living room and open presents. On Christmas we get to eat as much of our candy as we want. Just last week was Christmas and it's hard to believe it's over already. If you were to ask me if I miss my old home or old life I would say "I do miss some things about how it used to be but I am very glad for how my life is now." When I look back I realize I really wasn't the person I should have been. I didn't know God like I know Him now. My life plan is to spend my life serving and living for God. For all that He has done that is the least I could do. I let God lead my life. If He thinks I should get a high paying job then that's what I'll do, and if He thinks I don't need a high paying job then I won't get one. I believe God is leading me to be a youth pastor, it's something that is on my heart. Money is not a worry of mine because I trust God will provide the opportunities I need to get the money. For some reason I have always wanted to travel to Italy. It must be to try the food. I'm not quite sure, but it's been on my mind for years. I think you can already guess one of my favorite things to do is listen to music. That is just one of them. I have many so I'll just name a few. I enjoy writing stories because it's my way of sharing lessons that I have learned with other people. I also enjoy being around animals. There's something about them that make me so happy. Children are so fun to be around and I think they feel the same way. Reading is another thing I really enjoy doing. Reading takes you into a whole new world, it's awesome. The last book I read was "Growing Up Duggar" by the oldest Duggar girls. I have also read, "Heartland After The Storm", "And A Bride Wore White", and the Baxter family series. From the Baxter series I have read "Forever", and "A Baxter Family Christmas." I have watched many movies. "The Santa Claus", "A Cinderella Story:If The Shoe Fits", "A Cinderella Story", "Another Cinderella Story", "Descendants", and "A Heartland Christmas." My favorite songs are "Call It Grace" by Unspoken, "Trust In You" by Lauren Daigle, "More Of You" by Colton Dixon, "Lost Get Found" by Britt Nicole, and "Sing In The Rain" by Moriah Peters. I hope to become a singer so I can share my love for God with other people. I also hope to become a writer so I can share my stories with the world. My favorite quote is "Maybe there are things you can't see and all these things are happening to bring a better ending." -Before The Morning by Josh Wilson. I also like "There is good in everything." -Forest

My most terrifying moment was when I rode the Tower Of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I was expected a calm fun ride which turned out to be just like a rollercoaster, which I do not like at all! Nobody and nothing could ever get me on a roller coaster. I really do not like them and I never really have. The most fun I have ever had was probably at Winter Jam. It's always so much fun.  I was most surprised when I ended up getting an electric guitar for Christmas this year. I didn't expect it at all. The most disappointed I have ever been is probably when my brother was in a band and I wasn't. I am most looking forward to Winter Jam. I really hope to go. It's every second Saturday of January and I'm excited. My saddest memory is when I felt alone. Delicious desserts make me hungry and watching Food Network does too. I deal with anger pretty well. I try not to get angry easily and it's hard to make me angry. I try to ignore when others get angry but it can be hard. I forgive well. I do sometimes have problems forgiving though. I think I am so unique and different from others from my love of God. I try to do things completely different from others. I think the emotion I have the most is happiness because I am usually focused on God. I enjoy when I get to talk to mom or dad one on one. I think how I act makes me stand out from the rest of other people. Many teenagers would rather go out and party together, I'm more content with staying at home spending time with God or even  family. I think my best character traits are my love for God, my obedience, my value of purity and my spirituality. I'm good at finding bible verses, memorizing scripture, serving, and teaching others. I would describe myself with three words, love, patience and kindness. I could definitely work on my kindness and on positivity. I hope from my story others learn the things I have learned. That is why I wrote this. Everything we go through has something to teach us and even something to teach others. Thank you