I'm not who I was...

It's weird living in a place where almost all of the people I see every day have only known me for the last 5 months. My friends here have very little of an idea of where I came from - both literally and figuratively. They know what I do now, who I am today and how I came to be here, but not much beyond that. They haven't been a part of the first 30 years of this monumental journey that I've been on called life - which is true of me in their lives as well. I only know them as they are now - they're last 5 months of life and what they've shared of their pasts...

When I look at pictures of me now, I am still surprised that it's me. I'm still working to have my brain catch up to where my body is. In my head, I'm still who I was before - 80 pounds ago, unable to run a mile, unhealthy and unhappy but not sure how to make it better. The thing about making a new start in a new place is this - I've essentially been rebranded by proxy - my new friends know me as a runner, as a health conscious calorie counter and at the size I currently wear.

What I'm learning is that God makes all things new and He makes all things beautiful. A lyric from a favorite song of late says, "You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of us." God is making me beautiful and I'm just now beginning to understand what that looks like and how He loves me so much that He changes me from the inside out. I'm finally in a place where I really want my outside beauty to match that inside that God has already made knew... And here's a taste of the result.

For those of you who have known me longer, you know how unusual it is for me to dress up (in an actual dress), wear makeup and jewelry, paint my nails and the like. Even just a year ago, I'm sure I wouldn't have had the confidence to pull off the ensemble I'm about to show you. :) But, I'm not who I was...

At my office Christmas party - Makeup, heels, nails!