admiring.

ameliamaile{markham}

the story: i was at a conference called passion last year and spotted this really awesome girl in my "family" group (smaller subdivisions of the the 22,000+ passion crowd). i met her on the last day of the conference, and she told me she went to this really small college in a town that i'd probably never heard of. turns out, i lived down the street from that college. we instantly connected over our hatred of social injustice and "radio rock" and have been declaring our love story to the word ever since.

your {soundtrack}: "roll away your stone" by mumford & sons, "semi-charmed life" by third eye blind, "99 problems" by jay-z, "the warmth" by incubus, "grace" by hoyle, "ashes and flames" by john mark mcmillan.

your {rough draft}: to kill a mockingbird by harper lee, blue like jazz by don miller, tuesdays with morrie by mitch albom, ephesians by paul, the giving tree by shel silverstein.

your {inspiration}: stories of redemption.

words to {live} by: when i get honest, i admit i am a bundle of paradoxes. i believe and i doubt, i hope and i get discouraged, i love and i hate, i feel bad about feeling good, i feel guilty about feeling guilty, i am trusting and suspicious. i am honest and i still play games. aristotle said i am a rational animal; i say i am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer. to live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. in admitting my shadow side, i learn who i am and what god's grace means. as thomas merton put it, "a saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of god." {from the ragamuffin gospel by brennan manning}

you {believe} in: restorative purposes.

your {origins}: destin, florida. a lot of people come there and they have fun and think it's pretty, but then there's this whole secret side that you can only know when you drive down old 98 in january with your windows down, blasting the heat and screaming yellowcard and dashboard confessional song from middle school. the salt air is subtle, far from crisp. but it's holy.

your {fondest} memory: surfing all day with my dad and buying quarter pound burritos and that lavender rain-flavored gatorade from tom thumb afterward.

your {sites}: post secret, brooke fraser, to write love on her arms, lila dillon.

your last {purchase}: a two-dollar meal deal from taco bell. always classy.

your {location}: oh, having my earth shaken by the great winds of mercy and undeserved favor as i beebop around columbia, south carolina. my major is intercultural studies at columbia international university, and i work with a super special group o' middle and high school hooligans at a church up the interstate. 

your {childhood ambition}: sonya (my sister) and i got a drum machine and microphone for christmas one year. we wrote songs and did rap performances for my mom. our singles didn't quite make it out of our basement, though.

your most {embarrassing} moment: in second grade i would run my sweatshirts and jeans through the dryer before i'd go catch the bus in the winter. one particular day there were already clothes in the dryer, but, pressed fore time, i threw my sweatshirt in there anyway. i went to school and after running around rampant in p.e., we came back inside, i took off my sweatshirt, and from my sleeve dropped my little mermaid panties. needless to say, i was mortified.

{surprise} us: i have thought about and prayed for britney spears literally EVERYDAY for the last five years. i believe in a thing called love and one called hope, too. 

amelia, you are the sun. of course you are half hawaiian and of course you play guitar and of course you hop trains to salvation mountain and of course you speak spanglish constantly because you are amelia. you are the definition of a free spirit, but you are also the definition of a bondservant to our jesus. i've never loved someone so instantly as i loved you. keep burning bright, mi amelita.

you are {delightful}.