Becoming Me

Decisions and Healing

2010-11-09T09:35:00.004-06:00

Currently, I’m sitting on the floor (sorry, Mom) of a cushy hotel in Ambo, Ethiopia. Why is Olivia cushin’ it up across the ocean, you ask? Well, Sarah has been sick off and on (okay, mostly on) for the last 2 months. I’ve already posted a blog about our various ailments, so I won’t bore you with those details again, but Sarah finally got bad enough for long enough that we realized changed needed to be made. First of all, we did a few health seminars for the orphanage kids. We taught them the importance of washing their hands before meals, after using the bathroom, after touching animals, etc. After distributing toothbrushes, we covered how to properly brush teeth and had everyone practice. We discussed the value of showering often and made a schedule for the boys and girls. There were several other things we covered, all over the course of three days. The kids were doing great at implanting the changes, but Sarah’s immune system was so beat up that we knew a break was needed. The plan was to spend 2 weeks at Gimbie Adventist Hospital (where Taylor is), attempting to fully recover and boost Sarah’s immune system. While the Oregon missionaries were here, we spent a few nights in a hotel 20 minutes from the orphanage. We wanted to help with the health lectures, etc., but knew that Sarah needed to start recovering. They left yesterday morning, and we are now waiting for a Gimbie-bound car to pick us up and take us to the hospital. Though seen as frustrating by some, the delay in departure has been wonderful in my opinion. Last night granted me a full night of uninterrupted sleep, today brought yummy food, a hot shower, time to write letters, a trip to the Post Office (which I adore!), a stroll to a material shop (which made Sarah’s day), and time to relax. I haven’t had a day this relaxing and rejuvenating in a long time and am enjoying every second of it. Anyways, your prayers are greatly appreciated. We are in the valley of decision as to what changes need to be made to secure Sarah’s health and well being. I’m embarking on Week 3 of being healthy! YAY!!! We had a blast with the Oregon missionaries, were sad to see them go, and are already missing the kids. I’m terribly in love with them these days. Sigh. In truth, this blog was inspired by the mastery of my cousin Emily’s writing. She is a hoot and I could not quit laughing while reading her stories of being in Ukraine. No, this blog is not funny like hers, but I was merely inspired to share what’s been going on lately. Also, Mom noted that I had not blogged in a while. So, here it is—the saga of my time in Africa. I miss you all dearly. Hugs!

Of Gluten, Bookshelves, and Chocolate Silk

2010-10-29T08:33:00.003-05:00

Today was a monumental day in my life. Pull out the record books, folks. On this very day, October 29, 2010, Olivia Leigh Weber made gluten from scratch for the first time! There are five missionaries Oregon visiting us this week, which has been a blast. When Sarah and I were gone last week, they made gluten for the other visiting missionaries. When we heard they planned to make it again this week, we begged to be taught. And so it was that this morning after school Sarah and I headed to the kitchen for a gluten lesson. Chantele had already mixed the flour and water, but I got to get my hands “dirty” kneading the mixture to perfection. It was loads of fun and Sarah and I thrilled with the prospect of eating gluten on a more regular basis.

Another week is drawing to a close and life is slowly falling into a routine. Sad to say, this was our first week to teach all five days to all four grades. Between sick days, airport visits, and our mini-vacation (not to mention the late start of school), we have always missed at least one day a week. So, it is with a sense of accomplishment that we complete our week. In other exciting news, the group of missionaries from Montana built us two new bookshelves for our room. I am overjoyed! One bookshelf went in the storage closet in our room and will be used for organizing the bukoos of books, games, and art supplies that have been haphazardly piled there since our arrival. We attempted to organize it all soon after our arrival, but the lack of storage space made organization impossible. The other shelf sits in our room and now houses all of our books, movies, magazines, school supplies, food, etc. Having space to neatly store all of our stuff makes me more than a little happy.

Chocolate silk was another highlight of our week here in Guder, Ethiopia. Mom’s latest package was (as usual) filled with all kinds of goodies, but we were surprised and elated to find a new delicacy in the mix. Three, small containers of Silk Chocolate Milk were nestled deep within the box. So far we’ve only indulged in one carton, taking turns savoring the sweet goodness.
Yes, it’s been a fantastic week. We are worn out from teaching, Sarah’s still a little sick, and we are eagerly awaiting Sabbath, but God is abundantly good and this week was extra full of blessings. I hope that this blog finds all of you healthy, happy, and abiding in the beauty of a relationship with God. Hugs and smiles from abroad!!

African Women

2010-10-27T06:28:00.000-05:00

Written October 25, 2010

“We’re actually living in Africa.” The thought dawned on me once again this evening as Sarah and I were watching a documentary about three “Lost Boys” from Sudan. (Fascinating documentary by the way! It’s called “God Grew Tired of Us.” Watch it if you get a chance!!!) That thought randomly occurs to me from time to time. It’s strange to be living the life of a Student Missionary. It’s just like a former SM told me before I came over here: “When you get to the mission field, you’re still you. You’ll still have good days, you’ll still have bad days. You’ll still be Olivia.” Nothing could be more true. As I grow up, I’ve found that the big changes in life never feel the way I expect them to. I feel that when I reach that “next level” of life, I will feel different; that in a way, I’ll be a different person. Graduating high school, turning 18, going to college, becoming a Student Missionary—all of these are milestones that come with certain expectations. Every time, however, I find that I am still me. Different circumstances, different challenges, but the same me. And so it is with living on another continent. “Life in Africa” sounds exotic to me. But it’s not, really. Yes, there is an adjustment period and things are different. But the more cultural barriers I overcome, the more I realize that life here is not all that different from life in the States. I do still have wonderful days, days where I see all the love and beauty of the people and places around me. And, yes, I still have rotten days—days where life is overwhelming and I wish for different circumstances. Anyways, I feel like recently my blog entries have been musings on the irony of life—probably not too fun to read. Guess I’m just trying to process life and all the things it is teaching me.

On a (hopefully) more interesting note, life here in Ethiopia continues to chug on by. Tomorrow marks week TEN for Sarah and I here in this little orphanage. Outside of our normal “routine” of teaching, clinic visits, and orphanage time, we’ve had time with other Farenjiis over the last week. There are two groups here right now working on the orphanage, one from Montana and the other from Oregon. The main project has been to build a small library under the water tower on campus. They also hope to work on a garden, do more construction on the new boys’ dorm, in addition to other odd jobs. It’s been fun to have them here. Also, last week, Sarah and I joined Taylor for a trip Southeast. He had business in Addis and then in Adama, which is an hour South of Addis and invited us to join him. Since a two-hour bus ride is much easier than a nine-hour one (the length of a bus ride to Gimbie, where he lives), we decided to take two days off and join him. We also hadn’t been feeling 100% and were eager for some time to rest and recuperate. So, after school on Wednesday, we caught a bus to Addis Ababa and our vacation began. We spent the first night in Addis, and enjoyed INCREDIBLE food at a Greek restaurant in town. Real pizza, delicious bread and olive oil, and much more. Yum! Games and a funny video finished our fun evening and we were off to bed. Our trip to Adama began early the next morning. While in Adama, we enjoyed more tasty food, lots of much needed sleep, fun friend time, as well as being “adopted” by a local Adventist couple, who showed us their schools (which were INCREDIBLE—future SMs, contact me for more info), took us to lunch on Friday, vespers, church, Sabbath lunch, and had us over Saturday night to their friends’ house for food and fellowship. The trip was just what we needed to rejuvenate and get ready for another week at the orphanage. And so we’re back—back to real life. Missionaries will be here for two more weeks, and then we only have a few weeks on our own until Thanksgiving, which we’ll spend at Gimbie. Time is flying by. Life isn’t easy, but God is good. I was sad to come back to the busyness of life here on Sunday, but being mobbed with hugs by the kids upon our return helped ease me back into it. Blessings to all of you around the world! Thanks again for the emails, letters, and packages. Hugs to you all!

Faithful

2010-10-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

This blog was written October 16, 2010

I cannot think of a non-redundant way to start this entry. God is so faithful! His power to restore is beyond description. As my previous entries attest to, life has not been easy as of late. Discouragement levels have been high and energy has been low. We’ve seen God at work in powerful ways, though. After an intense, emotional week, God blessed me with a beautiful, refreshing Sabbath. A good talk with Mom and Dad yesterday afternoon began rejuvenating process. Next, I wrote my previous blog entry, which was very therapeutic for me. Kim called that evening, which made my day and only served to boost my spirits even more. By the time Saganta (vespers) came around, I was feeling a joy and love for the kids and life here that I hadn’t felt in a long time. This morning was equally wonderful. During Sabbath school, Sarah and I began studying the book of Hosea. We were blown away by the reality that God’s call is not always easy and at times does not make sense, but that God is constant and will walk by our side through everything He calls us to do. We realized anew that we can only see a fragment of the massive plan God has for the world. Church was a blessing, as well. Although we couldn’t of course understand the service, Dejene (one of the boys) told us the passages that were being read so we could look them up. Through this translation, God gave me another gem. 1 Peter 4:12-13, 19. Look it up. Powerful! It never ceases to amaze me how God gives us what we need to get through our current struggles. A new week is rapidly approaching and the thought of teaching and working with the kids can still get overwhelming, but God has reminded me in major ways this weekend that I am in His hand and He will carry me through if I’ll cling to Him. As the sun sets this evening, my heart is full--full of joy, full of hope. Thank you all for your love, letters, and prayers! May God’s faithfulness be your strength and comfort through this new week…

Broken

2010-10-17T07:49:00.001-05:00

This blog post was written October 15, 2010

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
Ephesians 6:12-13

The desire to be a Student Missionary has been heavy on my heart since I was in the fifth grade. Around that time, my cousin served as an SM on the Island of Yap. His time of service changed his life in such a huge way that I knew I wanted the same for my life. I continued to see the power a year of service can have in the lives of those around me as I grew up. In essence, Student Missions wasn’t something I really considered—it was merely a part of my future that would inevitably happen. As a result of this dream, I began researching locations for service at the beginning of my Sophomore year of college. The journey to my Ethiopian mission field is far too lengthy and complicated to share in this post, but it was definitely much different than I’d ever dreamed. Before long, Spring Break was over and SM class began. There were continual ups and downs in my journey, and the fast approaching reality of leaving my family and all that’s familiar grew more and more overwhelming, but I knew SM was God’s plan for my life and dove into SM preparation as much as possible. During SM class, former SM after former SM warned us to “expect the unexpected,” that “nothing can prepare you for your SM experience.” We were assured that our 9-12 months of service would most likely be “the hardest thing we’d ever done, but also the best.”

I’ve now been in Ethiopia for over 2 months and these statements could not have proven themselves more true in my experience. Like my last blog explained, I’ve been through countless illnesses (the most recent being Sinusitus and a mild case of Bronchitus), been through the ups and downs of culture shock, experienced terrible boughts of homesickness, and felt overwhelmed at my inadequacies on a near daily basis. The cultural barriers and slow pace of life often make me question my effectiveness and the reason God called me to serve here. Just when I reach my lowest point, however, God gives me glimpses of His love, mercy and plan for my life. Each glance comes in a different form, but each is just a precious. Sometimes the glimpse comes in the form of a new child with a tragic story that is placed in my path, giving me the opportunity to share the hope and joy God has given me with a simple hug or smile. Other times He takes me to just the right scripture at just the right time. Today, for example, I was struggling with intense discouragement and God led me to Psalm 51:8: “Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.” How beautiful to be reminded that God can bring joy and gladness out of the pain, loneliness, and struggles I am encountering! And still other times, God speaks to me through music. Listening to songs describing the sacrifice Jesus made for me remind me that He is by my side. I appreciate His sacrifice more than ever before. I get overwhelmed missing my family and friends—He left Heaven. The thought of being away from home for 7 ½ more months is overbearing—He was away from his Home and Father for 33 YEARS. I wonder if I’m making a difference and get discouraged—He was despised and rejected. Realizing the enormity of His suffering and that He was willing to endure it all for me makes me long to serve Him with all my heart. And finally, He encourages me by taking me to rock bottom and reminding me that He alone can give me true joy and contentment. That, I believe, is the irony of Christianity— by being broken and crushed, we can find true healing, fulfillment, and purpose.
In closing, I refer back to Ephesians 6:12-13. My journey as an SM has revealed to me in a greater way than ever before that the battle we fight is truly not against flesh and blood, “but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” I realize that I, to quote David Asscherick, “cannot even lift my head off the pillow without Jesus Christ.” This battlefield is the most dangerous and scary I’ve ever been on before, and yet I realize more with each passing week that my General has the perfect battle plan and success is guaranteed. Sure, there might be battle wounds along the way; there will be treacherous ground and tough conditions to endure, but in the end He will be victorious. This assurance gives me hope; the ability to press on. So, my precious friends and family, keep fighting. Even when you feel overwhelmed, when you wonder if you are capable of making a difference for Christ, cling to the knowledge that Jesus is Conqueror and will carry you through. By His grace, we can learn to find joy and gladness and rejoice in the “bones” God has broken.

Sick Days

2010-10-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

Written October 4, 2010

At Southern, I never missed a day of class. Getting sick was not something I did often. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I felt really nasty while at school, and I still never skipped a class. Lizzie warned Sarah and I that we might be sick here a lot, but after making it 3 full weeks without feeling even a little bit sick, I assumed that we’d escaped the worst of it. Wrong! When Sarah’s brother, Taylor, arrived in Ethiopia to work at Gimbie Adventist Hospital, we joined the Gimbie-bound crew for a few days in the mountains. While there, I developed an interesting, circular welt on my neck. “What’s on your neck , Liv?” Sarah questioned one afternoon. “Is it red?” I asked, “Probably just another bug bite,” I decided. But as the itch intensified and the bump got larger, Sarah took the opportunity to ask one of the visiting medical students about it on our walk to town. “That looks like ringworm,” one of them suggested. The other one was not so sure, but Chris persisted, saying he’d had it several times in the States and it looked similar. Those of you who saw all of the medical paraphernalia I brought to Ethiopia won’t be surprised that I had actually brought cream for this very purpose, but alas it was in Guder and I was in Gimbie. Sebastian gave me some cream to start treating it, and I resumed treatment the next day when we got “home.” Ringworm was only the beginning. Sleep-deprived from the trip back to Guder and still experiencing fairly intense culture shock, our immune systems were not up to par. I came down with a cough and headache the day we got back. School’s beginning was again postponed, and we spent the week hanging out with the kids. The following Monday evening after a trip into Ambo, Sarah and I spent nearly 2 hours doing a massive load of laundry that had accumulated since before our Gimbie trip. Before we finished washing, the temperature dropped substantially and we began to get chilly. We were both exhausted from our trip to town and the vigorous washing, but fought to the finish and completely our entire load. My cough had not gone away, and I began to feel a little achy and cough a little more. We threw a Fall party for the kids that night, as promised, which was a BLAST, but afterwards when we collapsed in our room Sarah began complaining that her face was super sore, like she’d been smiling too much. We joked that she was coming down with the Mumps, as many of the kids have had Mumps while we’ve been here, but knew that was ridiculous since she’d been vaccinated. Much to our surprise, however, the next morning she woke up with the right side of her jaw twice it’s normal size and in intense pain. That began several days of her resting in bed, me “nursing her back to health” as best I could. At this same point in time, there was a little girl who required medicine around the clock, and Sarah and I had been waking up at midnight to give her medicine. With Sarah out of commission, I took up the night medical calls by myself. This wouldn’t have been a huge deal, but the two orphanage dogs had been keeping us company from about 10:30 PM to 4:30 AM since we got back from Gimbie, and sleep was already scarce. The lack of sleep was just what my worsening cough did not need, and during a coffee ceremony at the Principle’s house one afternoon, I went to a coughing spasm so bad that I had to excuse myself early and come back for medicine. I spent the next few days in bed, coughing so bad I nearly threw up every time. Through phone calls to the US, we finally came up with a solution to begin eliminating my cough. The medicine helped, but the dogs persisted. Sarah’s mumps were gone and I felt good enough to teach, so began school with everyone else that Tuesday, exactly 6 weeks after arriving in Ethiopia. We made it through the week of teaching, but the dogs were the worst they’ve ever been that weekend. We hardly slept at all. On Sunday, I called one of the orphanage directors and asked him what we could to about the dogs. He apologized and took care of it right away. The problem was immediately fixed, but alas the damage had already been done. That evening, after a day of incredibly stuffy noses for both Sarah and myself, I came down with a fever. Both of our heads felt like they might explode. My entire face ached and I could hardly breathe, and Sarah wasn’t doing much better. Thankfully, the dog problem was fixed and the extra sleep worked wonders, but we both woke up Monday morning feeling too pitiful to teach. I had already taken two “sick days” during the week before school started (we had very, very relaxed school days with only a few classes for three days the week before school really started) and felt terrible skipping again, but did not have the energy to get out of bed. The medicine Mom had suggested during my 4:45 AM (don’t worry, it was 9:45 PM her time) phone call had helped decongest us, and we felt worlds better, but still far too miserable to have the energy to teach. So, I gave in and agreed to stay in bed, feeling that one more day of relaxing and another night of uninterrupted sleep would renew me to my pre-illness state, rather than pushing myself and postponing my recovery. The day indoors has worked wonders for both Sarah and I, and we are eager to head back to school tomorrow with renewed energy and health. Yes, the “mission field” has thrown curves at us that we never would have expected, but God is good and we are falling in love with the setting and the kids. So there you have it—Ringworm, Mumps, a nasty cough, fevers, and head colds—and here we are, nearly 3 weeks after the first sign of sickness, almost as good as new. Kudos to those of you who made it all the way through this post, or “book” as Sarah christened it when she looked over my shoulder and saw the length of this thing. Ha! Blessings to you all! Thanks so much for your prayers, letters, and FB comments (which we hear about from family). Love and miss you all! Hugs and smiles from a “foreign” land!

Added October 5, 2010: Should have Internet more often soon and hope to do better at updating this, but we'll see how the new connection works!!!

An Exclusive Sarah and Olivia Update!!!

2010-10-05T09:48:00.000-05:00

This post was written October 3, 2010
Hello again, friends and family! Can hardly believe I’ve been living in Ethiopia for nearly 7 weeks already! The days are long, but time is flying. The first 4-5 weeks here were extremely tough for me, but God is faithful and I feel like I have stretched, grown, and changed a lot over the last 7 weeks. Am truly starting to fall in love with the kids, the country, and the pace. The more I get to know the kids here at Addis Tasfaa (the orphanage), the more amazed I am. They are some of the most genuine, fun kids I’ve ever met anywhere. The school kids are a slightly different story. I love them, too, but they are a little more challenging and require a little more prayer to work them into my heart.

Speaking of school, it finally started last week! We’d been waiting and waiting to start teaching English, but the beginning of school was delayed multiple times. We’d planned to only have 2-3 weeks to adjust before starting school, but alas did not start until the day that marked the end of our 6th week in Ethiopia. God’s timing is, as always, perfect, though. Sarah commented to me this morning that she was amazed at how God had worked everything out. “I was not half as nervous to start teaching on Tuesday as I was last Wednesday when we thought we were starting,” she added. I wholeheartedly agreed. We thought we knew what was best, but the truth is if we had started any earlier we would have felt much more nervous. It has taken a good 6-7 weeks in this country to deprogram my Type A, OCD, planning tendencies. By the time school actually started, we both felt pretty comfortable, at home in Ethiopia, and much more chill about having our own classrooms. God is so good!!!

More school specifics: I am teaching English to Grades 3-5, all separate classes, and Sarah has Grades 1 and 2. She will eventually be teaching PE, too, but we are still getting into the swing of things and waiting for an actual schedule. I adore Grades 4 and 5! The students are all super bright, eager to learn, and fairly obedient. The 4th graders are energetic, but respond pretty well to the rewards system we’re using and are super enthusiastic about learning. 3rd Grade is my toughest class, for several reasons. First, they are my last class of the morning and I’m usually pretty worn out by then. Even when I push my exhaustion away and force energy for them, though, they are still tough to inspire. Most of them are slow learners and the boys love talking way too much. Finally, the concepts I’m teaching them are much more abstract and difficult to teach. In Grades 4 and 5, I’m teaching things like months of the year, numbers, adjectives, etc. In Grade 3, however, most of the information is conversational and is difficult for me to present to students who have a difficult time staying on task. God is good, and with much prayer and perseverance things are getting better every day. Just think that class will take a bit more prodding and patience. Sarah, on the other hand, has classes that fit two extremes. Her 2nd Grade class is full of angels. Seriously. Sat in on that class one day and was blown away by how sweet and precious they are. Her 1st Graders, however, are wild! Walked in to borrow a pen one day and was literally all but mobbed. They are full of energy, don’t obey very well, and can’t understand much English to take instruction. One of the other teachers talked to them, which helped a little, but they are going to be rough stuff. Anyways, teaching is definitely going to push us both out of our comfort zones and force us to grow up, but should be fun overall.

This is getting super long. Since I last blogged, Sarah and I have experienced a terrible bought of homesickness and loneliness, recovered from that, Sarah has gotten and recovered from Mumps, I have survived a terrible cough and cold, and we have settled into life here at the orphanage. We truly feel like we are on the upward climb of the Culture Shock chart. We definitely felt the desire to come home, the unattachment to the place, etc., but have been amazed at how prayer, support from home, and time have helped us settle into life here. I am really beginning to fall in love with the place and will greatly miss the environment and pace of life here when I come home next summer. Home. That word makes me feel so strange. Some days I miss my US home more than words can express and would give anything to be in my parent’s house, eating “normal” food, and visiting with friends and family. But more and more, the thought of leaving these kids, this place, this way of life, makes me sad. Growing up is a strange thing. Have a long way to go, but am so grateful God is holding my hand and guiding me along this confusing, difficult, and yet wonderful journey. Thanks a billion to those of you who have sent snail mail! It makes my week! Hope all my responses are making their way to your mailboxes!

Mom comes on Tuesday (which is when I hope to post this) and Sarah and I are STOKED beyond words! Will try to blog more while she is here to send back with her and have her post. For now, hugs and smiles from across the ocean!

Added October 5, 2010: We're in Addis waiting to pick up Mom!!!! So stoked! Also, school update. God answered our prayers and Sarah is now teaching 2-3 English, and I have 4 and 5. God is so good!!!!

On A Positive Note...

2010-09-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, yesterday's post sounds so dismal and depressing. That's what happens when you are homesick and decide to write a blog. Haha! Yes, I have been homesick. But my time at Gimbie has been wonderful. Some of the highlights include, but are not limited to:

Incredible, American food!!! Helped bread and fry homemade gluten the other day, which was served alongside garlic mashed potatoes and fresh green beans. To DIE for!!! Thanks, again, Trudy!!

Other Farenjiis- Had not realized just how much I missed having an English conversation and being able to understand what's going on around me.

The GORGEOUS mountain view- It is insanely beautiful here! For real! Will try to post pictures in the next few weeks/months. It is an optical paradise here.

Spiritual Encouragement- Being able to understand spiritual discussions and hear testimonies of other missionaries has been a blessing.

INTERNET- Glad I don't have internet available every day at the orphanage, but have felt so blessed to be able to fill everyone in, catch up on the outside world a little, and talk to the Mom every day. :)

Those are just a few of the luxuries Sarah and I have enjoyed over the last few days. We're sad to leave this wonderful place, but eager to get back to our kiddos. While they are energetic and often exhausting, we love them dearly and are eager to be with them again. This break was just what we needed to remind us how blessed we are.

In closing, I want to share a miracle story that happened today. Sarah and I headed into Gimbie town to get something to eat. We walked in with two other volunteers, but after drinking a cup of coffee, they ran some errands and left us to head back after our food. Not a big deal. The trip back to the compound was on the main road, and Gimbie is a much easier town than most we've been through. We weren't worried at all. On our way back, however, we met with our first scare. A man started walking toward us and hollered something in Oromifa. We normally just avoid eye contact, walk confident, and are left alone for the most part. This guy's shout startled me and I jumped. We ignored him and kept walking, but he began to follow us. Every few seconds he'd let out another loud "command." The one time we accidentally made some sort of eye contact, we realized he is just a crazy man, probably with no intent of hurting us, just out of his mind. Still, we were less than thrilled to have a loco man following us and yelling at us. After several minutes of this (don't know why it took so long for us to think of it), Sarah said "Dear Jesus, please help this man to quit following us." "Yes, Lord, please make him go away and help us get to the hospital safely," I added. Immediately after this, we noticed that the shouts stopped. We waited several moments before one of us was brave enough to peek back and see if he was still there, but to our relief he was no where to be seen. We looked at each other, stunned. Both of us commented that we'd never seen an answer to prayer that tangible, that fast. God is so faithful. He gives us reminders each and every day that He is with us and at work in every aspect of our lives, if only we will tune in and receive them.

Well, friends, God is good and we were able to get a bus ticket back "home." We leave tomorrow morning-- one day late, but grateful to have gotten one at all so close to the Ethiopian New Year (yesterday). Won't be blogging for quite some time, probably, but feel free to keep the emails and snail mail flowing on in. Mom reads me the emails and the snail mail is the highlight of my week. I love and miss you all, and am eternally grateful for your prayers. Goodbye until I find another Internet connection and time to write! Blessings to you all!

Growing Pains

2010-09-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

I love to try and write eloquent blogs, blogs that give my readers a taste of what I'm experiencing. I want my readers to see, hear, taste, and feel what I am experiencing. But today, I'm at a loss for words. It's Sabbath here at Gimbie Adventist Hospital, and I'm sitting in the quiet of Petra's office journaling, posting pictures on Facebook, and filling all of you in via this blog. Gimbie has been a much needed break for Sarah and I. The setting is incredible, a mountain paradise, the people are wonderful, and the food has been more than tasty. But Gimbie has also given me too much time to think. I am so grateful for the hospitality of everyone here and have had a fantastic time, but the solitude and "taste of home," has made me miss family something terrible. Also, unfortunately for me, my character was in pretty bad shape when I left the US, so God has been working double time on me over the last month. I don't want to sound pessimistic or dismal, but life here has been very overwhelming for me for a number of reasons. I feel as though I'm a completely different person today than I was when I left my house a mere month ago. Culture shock, too much free time before school starts, and a boatload of personal issues have made the last month one of the most difficult I've ever experienced in my lifetime. That being said, I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is where God wants me. He is growing me to lean only on Him, and to trust His plan for my life. Have tears been shed? Yes, many. Have days been hard to wade through? You better believe it. But I know God is by my side, and I know that when I can look back on all of this one day, I wouldn't change one single detail. The days are dragging, but time is flying. This Tuesday will be one month since we left home. WOW. 8 1/2 months to go. Sounds like a long time, but when I think about how fast this month has gone by, I'm thrilled and saddened to realize how quickly I'll be boarding a plane for the States. Anyways, this blog post has been mere ramblings, an attempt to write another blog before being away from Internet for possibly another month or two. My reason for writing this is two fold: First, to thank those of you who have been praying and ask that you keep it up. Second, to remind all of you that God is faithful. Life will throw us curve balls we are not prepared to handle, but God is by our side through them all. Hang on to Him and let Him change you into the person He wants you to be. Love and hugs from Ethiopia!!!

He is Faithful

2010-09-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

This blog was written August 31. It is the most recent blog I've written, but I'm hoping to write one more while here at Gimbie. Praise God for Internet!!!

“Enough,” the bus driver said to me, as he patted my leg, motioning for Sarah and I to get off. We’d been told to stay on the bus until the last bus stop, and then call Julia upon our arrival. When the bus only made one stop and the minibus emptied, we were unsure of what to do. The bus driver’s insistence helped us make up our minds quickly. As our feet hit the sidewalk, we were instantly caught up in a sea of people, bustling to and fro. Where were we supposed to go? What should we do? I called Julia, our incredible new farengii friend, only to discover that she’d just gotten on a bus. “I’ll be there in 5 minutes,” she informed me. “Just step inside a café or something and wait for me. It’s better if you wait inside.” As we were hanging up, we had our first hopeful rush up to us. “Money, money,” he insisted. “Baka (enough),” I replied as we pushed past him and into the first restaurant-looking building we saw. You’d think our smelly, travel-worn persons would give him a hint as to how much money we had on us, but our skin color automatically labels us as good donors. After plopping down into two chairs and motioning to the waitress that we didn’t want anything, we realized we were sitting in some kind of a bar instead of a café. We discussed leaving and finding a better place to wait, but the thought of facing the swarms of people again was more than I could handle, and Julia had told us not to go too far because she knew where we were. “It’s only for 5 minutes,” I reasoned out loud. Thankfully, it was morning, hardly anyone was there, and we were stationed close to the door. Five minutes turned into twenty and we began to wonder if we should relocate. Come to find out, a fight about bus fare had broken out on Julia’s bus and she’d had to find another bus. After nearly 40 minutes, she finally made it to Mercado, where we were waiting. I quickly realized that I am no fan of Mercado. Julia said no one is. The rest of our day was much better. Although everything took hours to accomplish, by the time we left Addis we’d picked up a package from Mom (the reason for our trip) which was extremely exciting, eaten incredible Italian food at a nice restaurant, and gotten on the Internet (a major, special treat!). Julia helped us catch a bus back. By the time we got back to Ambo, it was dark outside. Not the best of ideas, but thankfully Suliman is amazing and had taken care of us. One of his friends, a taxi driver, was waiting for us by the hotel we have visited several times, and took us back to the orphanage. If we ever do Addis again we will either leave earlier or spend the night. Things just take longer in Addis than you think they will. I am so grateful for Suliman and his kindness, connections, and generosity. And I’m thankful for Julia, who has roughed things on her own, figured out the ropes, and was willing to show us around so we’d feel less overwhelmed. Walking through the doors of our little orphanage was a breath of fresh air. To top of our adventure-filled day, we plopped down onto my bed to open the prized package from home. Mom, you are the greatest! We are eager to dig into the veggie meat (once we find a can opener), will savor the cookies and candy, are oh so grateful for the hand sanitizer, can always devour more pasta, and are thrilled to use the stickers with our precious kiddos.
The main reason I chose to blog about this particular experience was to give my friends and family back in the good ‘ol US of A a picture of the adventures God has been guiding Sarah and I through. My first week here was super rough. I love the kids, no question about that, but the culture shock has been pretty tough to swallow. We have continually been put into circumstances that force us to step out of our comfort zones. I realized very quickly that I am a spoiled-rotten, American brat, used to being take care of and avoiding situations that make me uncomfortable. All of that has been stripped away from me here. Like I said, the first week was pretty miserable. I was overwhelmed, homesick, and frustrated. Over the past week, however, God has been teaching me how to lean only on Him and filling me with a true sense of joy. Sure, I still get overwhelmed (yesterday morning in Addis) and homesickness isn’t gone for good, but I am learning to take one day at a time and let Jesus lead me through. No, I’m not alone here. I have been blessed with Sarah, 40 precious children, a wonderful house mother, a very kind, helpful boss, and a wonderful farengii friend, Julia. But I’m no longer depending on my parents or friends for everything (although I don’t mind the daily phone calls from home!!). One of my favorite quotes that I’ve been living by since we landed in Ethiopia is from a talk given by Pat Gustin at our Student Missions Exit Retreat. “As an SM, you are out of your comfort zone—away from all that is familiar. You have two choices: it can be you alone, or you and God.” I realized right away that I cannot handle this 9-month adventure by myself, and am comforted to know that as long as I ask Him, God wants to lead me on this journey. The Bible passage that I have said under my breath countless times every day comes from James (yes, Bible memorization group, those verses do come back when you need them most!).
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4
For the first time in my life, I have been put into situations that are truly trials for me. I’ve wanted to throw a fit, give up, and go home. But by choosing to lean on Jesus, I have found that I’m already learning to go with the flow and take one day at a time. I have a long way to go and am nervous about the character growth to come, but I find peace and comfort knowing that my God is a surgeon, not a butcher. He cuts to heal, not to kill.
Thanks so much to all of you around the world who are praying for Sarah and I. We are so blessed. I wish each of you could come visit our little haven. Standing in the field by the school today, I paused to once again take in the splendor of our mountain view. I am attempting to savor every aspect of this experience: the rambunctious children, the mud of rainy season, the breathtaking view, and best of all, the hilarious situations Sarah and I find ourselves in. You know, the ones that are fairly miserable while they’re happening, but hilarious when you can sit in your room and laugh about them. Plenty of those!
Well, this post has been fairly hodge-podge, but it encapsulates what has been happening in my life, on my journey to become the woman God wants me to be. Hugs, blessings, and laughter to each and every one of you!

PS- Thanks to all of you who have emailed, sent snail mail, contributed to my "Homesick Letters" project, and lifted Sarah and I in prayer. News from home has carried me through this adjustment period. I love you all! And I promise a snail-mail response to anyone who writes me a snail-mail letter!! :D

Adjusting

2010-09-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

This was written August 21
“You reed e-story an kees goo-nie? Like Lee-sie?” Kiyaa requested. My heart leapt at those words. I’d been hoping to start reading to the kids and spending more time with them, but since I am still adjusting to the schedule and cannot communicate very well yet, I had not known how to suggest this. Needless to say, Sarah and I were more than happy to oblige. Friday was a delightful day, full of new experiences. Only our second day in Ethiopia, it started out a little rough (note my previous blog entry), but kept getting better and better. Sarah pulled out our Amharic dictionary and conveyed the message that we want to help. “Come,” replied Sinbatu, whose English is nearly non-existant. “Market,” she told us. So Sarah and I followed Sinbatu and four others (I know how to say their names, but not how to spell them) off the compound, down the road, and into the tiny town of Guder. The scenery here is BEAUTIFUL and our walk was delightful. Nothing, however, could have prepared us for what awaited us at the market. All eyes were on us the entire time. Children swarmed us, trying the very few (and I mean very few) English words they knew, touching us, and laughing at us. There were many vendors sitting around on the ground--some under branch structures, others in the open air--selling their various goods. It was a very unique, fantastic experience, but more than a little overwhelming. We met the Kindergarten teacher while we were there, and she kept an eye on us. At one point, we lost track of everyone except her due to the flock of children surrounding us. Thankfully, she was super helpful and protective, otherwise I’m afraid we would have panicked.
Everyone here is so helpful. They are very protective of Sarah and I and take care of us. When we first got here, our shoes got very muddy. It is rainy season and it is nearly impossible to step outside without getting your shoes coated in mud. I wanted to rinse my foot off because it had gotten drenched and was squishy. I attempted to turn the spicket on and rinse my foot off. Before I could get my foot out of my shoe and under the stream of water, two little hands were holding it and rubbing the dirt off. I began to protest, but she smiled at me and told me “Yes, okay.” By the time she was finished, both my feet and my shoes had been relieved of all of their mud. The people here thrive on being helpful. It is quite humbling. Sarah and I are trying to find ways to help them, but we find ourselves being helped more often than not.
After the market, it was time for lunch. Injera and wat. We couldn’t do it. I had been praying that God would help me to be able to eat it, but after two bites my stomach was turning more than I could ignore. Sarah was already feeling iffy and did not even attempt to eat it. More on the injera issue in a minute… The afternoon was spent playing with the kids. Around 4:00, the kids led us to the school (which also serves as the church) for vespers. Dinner was our first yummy meal. Rice! Yay! Following dinner, the kids turned on the TV and watched some Sabbath programs, while Sarah and I got ready for bed and chilled in our room. As they were turning on the TV, we got the request for the story and kisses. “After TV?” they asked. We were wiped out and were afraid we’d fall asleep before they finished watching their program, but thankfully we made it. It was a priceless experience!! We went into one of the girls’ rooms (the one Kiyaa is in) and read a chapter out of a book to them. When we were finished, we made the rounds, kissing all of the girls goodnight. Priceless. We’ve only been here two days, and I am dreading the day I will not be able to make my nightly rounds.
And that brings me to today. We slept like rocks—much different from the night before, thankfully. Breakfast was a delight! Bread and tea. In the states I’m not a big fan of tea unless it contains more honey than water. Here? Delicious! We savored the tea and ate as much of the bread as we could. It is good, but there is a lot of it. Sabbath school and church were fun to watch, but sitting for three hours on rough wooden pews and listening to a language you don’t understand make staying awake a bit difficult.
And now I come to my exciting Injera story. This morning during devotions, I read about the time Moses held up his rod and the Israelites one their battle since Moses was praying and kept his rod in the air. Patriarchs and Prophets commented that the reason Moses was successful was because he relied on the Holy Spirit, but also did his part. My specific prayer this morning was that God would do His part and help me not be repulsed by injera. I promised to do mine and eat my obligatory two bites. Also, Sarah and I prayed together this morning that God would help us to like the food, or at least be able to eat it. Lunch was served and we dove right in. While we didn’t like it, we were able to handle it! The wat was spicy lentil mush instead of the sweet cabbage from the day before, and the spice helped lessen the repulsive sour taste. Praise the Lord! We were only able to down about half of it, but felt victorious none-the-less.
More church programs followed after a few hour break. This evening was filled with more laughing, playing, eating, and cuddling. The kids are watching a musical show right now. Sarah and I are not big fans of the TV, so while we snuggled for a few minutes at the beginning, I decided to come in here and blog before heading back out to read them a story and make my nightly tuck-in rounds. Sigh. Yes, I’m falling in love. I’m still anxious to learn the language, which we’ve been practicing constantly, and nervous about teaching English, but in the meantime I’m falling deeper and deeper in love with these beautiful children. Hugs to you all!!!
PS- Ms. Leasa, I opened your letter today. It made my day! It warmed my heart and made me laugh out loud. Such wonderful memories and kind words! I love and miss you!!! Hugs!

Settling Into the Routine

2010-09-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

This blog was written August 20, if I remember correctly...

Day 2 here at New Hope finds us confused and slightly overwhelmed. After playing with the children for a few hours yesterday afternoon, we spent the evening unpacking. We felt a little rude holing away in our room, but feel much more at home now that everything is settled and organized. Lizzie assured us that the kids are used to it and will not be offended. Thanks for the phone call, Lizzie! Helpful Hint for Future SMs: take Tylenol PM the 2nd night in your mission location, even if you don’t think you need it. Sarah and I took forever falling asleep, and then around 3:30 AM, one of us woke up to the other’s tears. We both found ourselves homesick and unable to sleep. Our morning was spent talking, wishing we could go to sleep, but knowing that Tylenol PM at that point would knock us out for too long. Around 6:30, we finally decided to face the music. Our shower has warm water! Hoorah! Unfortunately, it only comes out in a trickle, so we’re (okay, I’m) going to have to work on showering faster. When we ventured out of our room, everyone was milling around. We offered to help, but no one can understand us and we can’t understand anyone yet. So, we walked around the grounds taking pictures and getting muddy (it’s rainy season), before heading back inside for breakfast. The simple way of life here is definitely enticing and could become addicting. Once we get used to it, that is. Breakfast was better than I had imagined it would be, but it’s plain taste and interesting texture are going to take some getting used to, especially with our currently flimsy stomach conditions. I helped wash the dishes after breakfast, and Sarah helped sweep. I think we are kind of in the way, though. The house mother took the broom from Sarah before she was finished. So, as I type this, we are sitting in our room attempting to figure out how on earth we will teach English in a few weeks, and updating all of you on the goings on here in Guder, Ethiopia. We had hoped to go into town this morning to have some Internet access, but don’t want to offend them by leaving so soon. Also, the boy Lizzie suggested should walk into town with us said he will take us next week. Sigh. I think we are going in Sunday for the Peace Corps camp and should be able to check email and blog then. Let the lessons in patience begin! This pace and lifestyle are very appealing, but are definitely going to take some adjusting. I am not used to having a laid back schedule. We have not figured out where to be and when. How to make them see we do not want to be lazy when our efforts to help are not always understood? Alas, the adventure continues. Our characters are just beginning to be broken and remolded. I believe we have a very interesting journey ahead of us. Stay tuned for more updates from a little town in the middle-of-nowhere Africa!
PS- Thanks to Kate and Allie Wallace for the beautiful pictures you drew for me. Yours was the first “homesick project” letter I opened. The pictures (including the photo of you two) are now hanging on our wall. Thanks for brightening my day!!!

The Beginning

2010-09-09T08:36:00.003-05:00

This blog was written right after Sarah and I arrived in Ethiopia, but I just now have Internet to post it...

The silence was tangible. Sitting on our respective beds, Sarah and I stared blankly at each other, occasionally glancing around our small hotel room. What to do now? Our flight was uneventful, our bags had all been claimed (Praise God! Specific answer to prayer), Suliman had welcomed us heartily at the airport and checked us into our hotel, and there we sat. Everything was finally happening. Our 6 months of dreaming, praying, planning, and more praying had culminated in the beginning of the biggest adventure of our lives. And there we sat. “Are you scared?” I asked Sarah. She paused. “No… I just feel very strange.” I couldn’t have said it better. We both knew that God had called us to this foreign land. He had answered prayers time and time again throughout the previous months. He’d convinced our parents that this was His plan for us and gotten all of our passports, visa, and shots delivered just in the nic-of-time. His protecting hand had gotten us over a huge ocean, through a busy airport, past government officials, to all of our luggage, into the care of a trusted leader, and finally behind the locked doors of a safe hotel. Through it all—the frenzied packing, the countless questions, the tearful goodbyes—we’d had a peace; a Divine knowledge that we were following God’s plan for our lives. That same peace had followed us to Ras Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and we knew that it would be our constant companion for the next 10 months. Yes, there were some tears that flowed that night. We miss our families and are anxious about the unknowns that lie ahead. But God is so good. We survived our first sampling of Injera the next morning (bleh) and successfully maneuvered four suitcases, two backpacks, and two purses down the hotel stairs and into the lobby, where we were eventually picked up by our faithful guide. Suliman took us to the ADRA headquarters and the Adventist Union, where we met a few of the workers, who welcomed us with big smiles and warm handshakes. He also took us to an Ethiopian monument, where he explained some history to us and let us take a few pictures. Next, we exchanged some of our money and began our search for cell phones. This took all of our morning, as it was necessary for us to journey through a maze of streets and shops, looking for the shops with the best products and lowest prices. By noon, we were the proud owners of Ethiopian currency and cell phones, and were ready to head to the orphanage. Let me tell you, having a communication device in my hand, even with as rare as I will use it, calmed my nerves immensely. I found it quite unnerving to be in a strange country with no access to anyone I know and love. What a blessing to have Suliman to help us sort things out! Our bus ride to Guder was beautiful. The weather cooled down, the stinky smog vanished, and the scenery turned mountainous and green. We ate lunch in Ambo, which was much tastier than I would ever have imagined, with Suliman and a Peace Corps worker name Julia. Talking to another American was a treat. We plan to help her and other Peace Corps workers with a camp they are putting on in Ambo this next week. Sounds like it will be a unique experience! After finishing our meal, which included a phone call home (!!), it was time to meet the kids. Their greeting is one that will forever remain etched in my mind. They were all lined up in two lines, and singing a song about how glad they were to meet us, how much they loved us, and welcoming us. The two little girls in the front, Xibabee and Cali were holding petite bouquets of yellow, purple, and white flowers to give to us. The walk to the orphanage was muddy, but the children held our hands and led us to our new “home.” Since arriving, we’ve toured the house and grounds (bird house and kitchen), been fed much more food than we could eat, enjoyed many smiles, and settled into our room. We are in love with the children, the view, and the hospitality. Yes, we know there are tough days ahead. The food will get boring, the bugs will get bothersome, and the routine will at times be mundane. But for now, we are savoring the blessings God has heaped on our plates. And during those days that are difficult, we hope to look back on these blessings and remember that God has led us in the past, and will be our constant companion. Thanks to each and every one of you who is praying for us and thinking of us. We love and miss you all, and cherish each and every letter and email that comes our way. Blessings!

Ethiopia Bound

2010-04-19T17:59:00.006-05:00

Well, the blog has been given a facelift and is ready for life's upcoming adventures. I'm in pre-finals week here at Southern and life is CRAZY. In fact, at this very moment, I should be working on homework. But since our blog urls are due tomorrow night at SM class, I decided to take a break to polish mine up. The story is lengthy, and I obviously don't have time to share it right now, but I am excited to announce (to those of you who have not already heard) that I will be spending next school year as a student missionary in Ethiopia. I am nervous, stoked, terrified, and thrilled all at the same time. Hope to be able to share the full story on here shortly! In the mean time, stay tuned for accounts of summer adventure and then... 10 months in Ethiopia!

Christmas Musings

2009-12-25T18:54:00.006-06:00

Christmas Break could not have come at a better time for me. I am one one of the many guilty college students who allowed myself to get caught up in the rat-race of college life. Each semester begins with new resolutions to live a perfectly moderate life, with all my priorities straight. Unfortunately, this semester unraveled much like the previous two: started beautifully and ended with a tired, brain-fried, girl with priorities slightly (okay, maybe more than slightly) out of whack. Break has shown me just how crazy I had allowed my lifestyle to become. Thankfully, break has also reminded me just how patient and gracious my Savior is. Rather than looking back on these last three semesters and their short-comings with despair, I am choosing to look at the rich blessings God loaded each term with and am more determined than ever to resume school with intensified commitment and renewed dedication to the moderate lifestyle God wants me to enjoy.

Due to strong Type A tendencies, I frequently attempt to overcome the obstacles in my life on my own. If I have enough willpower, surely I can overcome! Precious devotion time and a good book have reminded me of the obvious truth: I cannot do anything on my own. Not anything lasting, anyways. I may stick to my guns temporarily, but without God's strength I will eventually crumble. The good news is, my God IS stronger. My Type A tendencies are not too much for Him to handle. By His grace and strength, I can live the moderate life God has called me to. Although I am nervous to enter the race again, I am more determined than ever to cling to Jesus, trusting on His power alone to carry me through.

May the New Year find each one of you leaning on God more each day! Blessings to you all!

The Perfect Place for a Picnic

2009-08-22T16:48:00.004-05:00

The gentle evening breeze was a tangible reminder of the many reasons I love Tennessee. My suitemate (and former roommate), Emily, and I were making our first trek of the school year down our precious Greenway. “Oh, I love this spot!” I exclaimed upon seeing one of my favorite scenic points along the path. “I wanted to have a picnic here last year and never got around to it. We’ll have to do it sometime this year,” I added. Emily nodded in agreement and said we’d have to make it a priority. Our conversation immediately moved on, and our picnic plans were forgotten… by me, at least.

The next morning, I was busy at work in Talge Hall, the men’s dormitory. Just as I was beginning to wonder if any of my friends would be at the café for lunch, my phone vibrated. A text from Emily; always a treat! But what I saw was a complete surprise. “Want to meet me at the pretty spot on the greenway at 1215? Come hungry :)” the text read. Once again, I was amazed at my dear friend’s thoughtfulness.

Now, one would assume that the story ends with a delightful picnic in the grass surrounded by majestic trees covered in vivid, green cudzoo… but this is where our tale takes an unexpected twist. My favorite spot is about a 10-15 minute walk from the parking lots. With only one hour for lunch break, I was walking as fast as my flip-flops would allow. I was running a few minutes late and was sure Emily would be waiting. About five minutes into my walk, however, my phone rang. You guessed it: it was Emily. “Wait up, silly! I’m trying to catch up with you,” she said. I turned around to see Emily heading towards me with a picnic blanket and bag full of food. Right as she caught up with me, it began to sprinkle. We looked at each other and laughed as Emily opened her bright blue umbrella and we continued our walk. The rain began to fall harder and we realized our picnic in the grass wouldn’t be a possibility. Standing under an umbrella that barely covered both of our heads, picnic gear in hand, we contemplated our options. Just before our desired picnic location was a covered bridge under the train tracks. So, with only about 40 minutes of our break left (and a 15 minute walk back to the parking lot) we spread the blanket out on the sidewalk under the bridge and consumed our yummy lunch.

As we cleaned up the remnants of our lunch and sped back to our cars, we decided that we’d had much more fun than we would have if our perfect picnic spot had worked out. A noisy train overhead, amused joggers carefully avoiding our blanket, and the sight of pouring rain all around us had us in stitches all throughout our meal. We laughed almost the entire time we were together and will cherish the memory of our rainy-day picnic forever. Thanks for your thoughtfulness, Em! We’ll have to try for the special spot again sometime. Who knows what might happen then?

Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound...

2009-07-02T13:25:00.008-05:00

Today, I was listening to my iTunes music and Judy Collins rendition of “Amazing Grace” came on. As I was enjoying her unique voice and the beautiful arrangement, I was struck by these oh-so-famous words:

“‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear

And grace my fears relieved”

What a profound thought! I have sung those words hundreds of times without so much as attempting to understand the message buried within that simple phrase. But today, sitting still listening to those words, I was overwhelmed at how accurately they describe such an important, inexplicable Christian truth. God’s grace is so abundant and generous that, when experienced to the fullest, it strikes fear into the heart of the recipient. His grace is so awe-inspiring that it reveals the magnitude of my sin. I am stunned that all of my sins, in their mass of ugliness, can be wiped clean. This causes me to tremble at the thought of falling again. I dread the next time I will hurt His heart and wonder if it is even possible to live up to the standard He desires. It is at this point however, that I realize that I am not capable. I cannot live up to His standard… without his help. “And grace my fears relieved.” At the very moment I am engulfed in my fear of failing again, realizing how holy God is and how defiled I am, God speaks to my heart. “Olivia, I will be your strength. I will help you to stand. Because of My sacrifice, because my blood covers you, you are worthy to receive my grace. It is enough for you. I am enough for you.

Amazing grace. It teaches me to fear God because of His awesome power, all the while reassuring me of His faithfulness and redemptive love. Praise the Lord for His amazing grace!

Vacation in Vermont

2009-06-26T14:39:00.017-05:00

My family seems to live in one speed… fast. Only five days after moving into our Georgia house, we loaded our suitcases back into the car and headed for the Atlanta Airport. Every summer, the company Dad works for takes the company executives and their families to some nice vacation spot. This year, we have been privileged to travel to beautiful Stowe, Vermont. It’s been seven years since we’ve been to this part of the country and it is sure a pleasure being back! To top things off, a visit from a dear friend helped make the beginning of this trip extra special. Temple lives only 2 ½ hours away in New Hampshire and made time to drive over here and meet us at our hotel Friday evening. Everything is more fun when Temple is around. Sabbath, we enjoyed a Sabbath school service presented by Don Jernigan, President of Adventist Health Systems. For the past three years, my family, along with a couple of other families, has come 3-4 days earlier than everyone else to practice choral music for the following weekend’s meetings. 30-40 hours over 8 days are spent learning and practicing music. Sabbath after worship service was their second practice, so Temps and I went for a hike. We couldn’t find the trail we were looking for, so our hike was shorter than we had hoped for, but still great fun. After lunch, our family loaded into the car and drove around, stopping in Smuggler’s Notch for some sight seeing and photo ops. Dinner that night was hosted by the Jernigans at the delicious Fox Fire Restaurant. The setting was picturesque, the company fantastic, and the food delectable. Sunday, Temple and I went swimming while Mom, Dad, and Dave went to music practice. By the time we had showered, they were finished with practice and ready to go. We started out with a ride up the ski lift and down the alpine slide. Next, we loaded into the car and headed over to Shelburne Museum. We’d visited there seven years earlier and enjoyed it, so it was fun to check out the fun exhibits again. Also, another favorite for me were the Peonies. Peonies are my all time favorite flowers, and the Peony gardens at Shelburne Museum were luscious and to die for! Temple had to leave as soon as we got back to the hotel. And Sunday night, it was back to practice for the other three members of my family. Monday morning was spent mostly in music practice. Following lunch, however, the Bechards, the Cook Family, the Madisons, and our family embarked on a river journey. Most everyone rented canoes, but Dave, Jake, and I decided on kayaks, David and I going tandem. We had a blast! The scenery was spectacular and the river’s speed perfect. By the time we finished, our stomachs were empty. The Cook and Weber families chose Pie in the Sky pizza parlor, recommended by Temple, for our dining location. The Cooks are such neat people! We always have a blast together. Practice started again at 7:00 PM, so we went straight back to the hotel following dinner. Tuesday after practice and lunch, Mom, Dave, Ms. Linda Knutson, and I headed into Burlington to look through little shops while Dad spent the afternoon in meetings. That evening was the Service Award Banquet for all of the AHS executives and their families. I made the tough decision to skip the banquet, even though I wanted to see everyone, so that I could babysit the four adorable Ottati children. Those kids get cuter and more fun every year, and we had a ball together. We swam, sang songs, and marched through the hotel so they could take a peek at my family’s hotel room. I left their room exhausted, but surprisingly recharged by their energy and childlike joy. Wednesday morning, David and I were chaperones for the Ben and Jerry’s tour. While the Dads were in meetings and the Moms were enjoying the spouses brunch, most of the kiddos loaded onto buses and made our way to the Ben and Jerry’s factory for a tour and some free ice cream. The Ottati kids were assigned to me, so I was privileged to spend my morning with them. When we got back, Mom and Dave were full, but Dad and I were starved. Pie-Casso had been a recommended to us by friends as a great place to eat, so Dad and I chose to eat there. We spent the afternoon hanging out as a family before Mom, Dad, and Dave headed off to practice music again for the evening. I spent the evening on the phone with Vivian Seiler, the YFJ girls’ dean, planning worships and the like for Youth for Jesus. Thursday morning was laid back due to practice being directly after lunch. Once Mom and Dad were done with practice, Dave went mountain biking while Mom, Dad, and I went for a ride around the countryside. Deryl and Linda Knutson took us out to dinner at the fabulous Fox Fire. The food was delicious, as usual, and the company was marvelous. Following dinner, there was a party in the Cook room. We played several hilarious rounds of Mafia and spent most of the evening laughing hysterically. And now today, Friday, the other three member of my family have already spent two hours practicing music. Dave is now working on his sermon preparation while Mom and I play Farkle. This afternoon, we plan to rent bicycles and enjoy the wonderful walking/biking trails around Vermont. Tonight is the special music performance.

It is now Friday evening and I am about to make my way down for the vespers program. Our bike ride was exhilarating! I only wish we had more time to ride around this beautiful town. Happy Sabbath one and all!

Here is a boatload of pictures for those of you who have been waiting:

Temps and I before our hike

Smugglers Notch

Those of you who truly know me know how much I like being tickled...

Temps and I on the ski lift, headed for the Alpine Slide

At Shelburne Museum

Our River Adventure

A Chaco picture for Shannon

An Afternoon on Bicycles

A Texas Farewell

2009-06-16T08:58:00.002-05:00

Tears streamed down my face as Mom maneuvered the Mazda down our beautiful driveway for the last time. Six and a half beautiful years had been lived in that home. Since our move from Burleson when I was 12, we had been a part of Pathfinders, performed with the Captains gymnastics team, Dave and I had both graduated from 8th grade, I graduated high school, mission trips had been experienced, and life lessons had been learned. Most importantly, friends, no... family, had been made. God filled the 6 1/2 years my family lived in that house with more blessings than many people experience in a lifetime. Dave and I had our first jobs, got our first cars, and preached our first evangelistic meetings while living in that home. "Drive slowly, please," I asked Mom as we began to pull away for our final time. To some people, it may seem silly to be so attached to a house. In fact, we questioned whether or not it was wrong to "cling" to an earthly possession in such a way. But I don't think so. You see, my family believes without a shadow of a doubt that God has called us to serve in Calhoun, Georgia and it is with great joy that we follow His call. My feelings are difficult to explain. The tears that I shed at leaving Texas are indeed tears of sorrow. I will deeply miss that house, community, and those friends. But at the same time, they are tears of gratitude. It was during the time my family dwelt in that home that we truly grew to know Jesus. As Mom and I were discussing the pain we felt at pulling away from a mere earthly dwelling, we realized what a sanctuary it had been. “It was a haven,” Mom said. And that it was. The sparkling green pastures that surrounded our home provided the perfect environment for spiritual growth and family bonding. Due to the provision of this haven, I was able to make many difficult choices I believe would never have been possible had I been constantly surrounded by others with different priorities. So you see, although I am sad for selfish reasons, it is with great gratitude and fondness that I depart from the home of my youth. I praise God for the location he provided for David’s and my most critical growth years and for the memories he gave us during that time. In closing, I want to share a slideshow from our last day in Texas. Our final Sabbath in Texas was spent with some of our nearest, dearest friends, who we will greatly miss. In the following slideshow you will see pictures of Kim and Denny Sexson, their three girls (my “sisters”): Mickynzie, Brenna, and Shaylee; Wayne and Shannon Mitchell and their kids Zac and Ashley (David’s girlfriend), and our cousin John. These people are more than friends. They are truly family. We will miss them all terribly and are so thankful to have these photos to cherish. To view the slideshow CLICK HERE. (There first few pictures are of the van pulling away on Friday).

Utter Nonsense

2009-06-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

While in the car on our trip home, David, Ashley, Mom, and I got bored and tired. It was due to these circumstances that we decided to create a random, confusing story similar to the one our friends (Bonds, Webers, Cortes, etc.) made up. By rotating in a circle, each person only adding one word a round, we came up with this story:

BEWARE: It is only for people who enjoy laughing at randomness

Once there stood thousands of puppies on huge mountains of rock. These little termites grappled angrily to find cheese. Alas, the Scottish mothers winced at the terrible smell. So, Crisco plantations suddenly sprang forward into humongo piles of marshmellow. Next, however, wolverines frolicked in the powerful, pink poutlinouches. In December 1843, all the raging meatloaf played songs of horrific joy. However, not fourteen but seventeen doilies and washaroos were primly kissing. “Oh, how fantastic,” they said. When sleighbells chuckle, their voices squeak. Tulips smell rotten to ungrateful men, except standing monochrome, laughing ducks teeth. Japanese monkeys still lambast trillions of toothbrushes until landlords destroy the heart during their autumn reign. Ashley knew her window couldn’t be helped. Limping, miniscule Olivia tried to compete with her neglected, robust toy pet snowman. Grass that withers shreds my evil twin, Celtic Karen. David tried donuts 200 times a month and discovered how gypsies snorkel across America. Freezing coals that shimmered frenetically under the moonlight started weeping tears of Saturn. Merrily caroling up magenta mounds of waterfalls mixed with yummy rodents, mosquitos, snakes, and lakeloons, toddlers and adults deceived clowns that tried flipping eggnog on their foreheads. Sadly, discovering the pinnacle of marmalade, they predominately witnessed the arrival of 77 babies. Teenagers shrewdly gasped in nitrogen as Pinoccio grabbed his nailgun while also running pleasantly. Petunia decided “Hello, Jasper” was frolicking together. Juxtaposed courtyards were very sanguine until suddenly his fruit buried in honey was kidnapped. Aggresively, John, Lily, and Brad Pitt hit the skit bit. Gorillas swearing prettily, undressed themselves of civilian lipstick. Unfortunately, they catapulted tarantulas through their hoops. Death grasped at life until it vanquished fervor and destroyed meaning readily forever. The total and wholehearted tragic, deceptive skipping beginning and end of the lavishly, exalted, ultimate crazy end.

My Georgia Journal

2009-06-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

This entry was written June 4, 2009 in the car on the drive to Texas. Warning: It is extremely long! This is my "journal" of events from our week in Georgia. Read it if you dare!

Well, it’s several days into June already and Mom, Dave, Ashley, and I are in the car again headed back to Texas. I cannot believe how quickly summer is flying by. I mean, I realize that time flies by, but didn’t we just finish finals? Wow. This past week has been a fantastic one. Last Friday, bright and early, Mom, Dave, and I loaded into our Mazda and drove to Burleson where we picked up David’s girlfriend, Ashley. The five us spent the next 13 hours in the car. Destination: Calhoun, Georgia. For the next 8-12 months, my family will be renting a home in Calhoun while we build our own. My Dad is the new CEO at Gordon Hospital in Calhoun and has been living in Georgia since the beginning of May. We sure have missed our Daddy, and it was wonderful to spend a week with him. The house we are staying in is such a blessing. While it feels a little funny to be living in someone else’s house, it is a very nice home and will be a wonderful place to live for the next several months. And the coolest part is that the piece of land we are purchasing is only 5 acres away! It is a beautiful plot of land. We are all very excited.

Upon arriving at the house, we squeezed Dad before collapsing into bed. Sabbath morning we slept in a little and then got ready for church. Camp meeting was in Collegedale so we drove an hour to Southern’s campus to attend the church service. It felt so strange to be there without classes to attend and friends to see! The sermon that day was phenomenal! We were blessed to enjoy lunch with my Uncle David (Mom’s brother who is a pastor in Tennessee) in the cafeteria before heading back to Georgia. When we got back, Sveta, Michael, and Elise Taylor came over to our house for a hike. That is probably the most exciting aspect of our move for me. Our new house will be approximately 2 miles from the Taylor residence! The house we are renting is located on a mountain, which is where we hiked that afternoon. Near the middle of our hike, we came upon a bench swing. I raced over to it and plopped down, and David quickly joined me. No sooner had he sat down than I let out a yelp. Thinking he had poked me with something, I looked up but lo and behold, a hateful wasp had stung my arm! We decided to head back down the mountain and were nearing the house when we saw something that made me ready to pack my bags and leave for Texas post haste. Or somethings, I should say. A big, black rat snake sat coiled near the end of the trail, and another non-poisonous snake was slithering up a nearby tree. Several people tried to comfort me with the fact that they were not poisonous, but they are all poisonous to me. After our hike, we loaded into the cars and headed to the Taylor home to swim. Hannah, Heidi, and Isaac were so excited to spend time with us. We had a blast! By the time we got out, the sun was almost setting and we settled into their living room for sundown worship. Once the little girlies had gone to bed, the rest of us played farkle and rummikub. Fun times! But all fun must come to an end. Before long our first full day in Georgia was over and we headed off to bed.

Sunday we spent the majority of our time driving around looking for land (we hadn’t found our land yet). After sleeping in, enjoying devotions, and eating breakfast, we loaded into the car with one of our kind new neighbors, Darrell, to look at land. He was so helpful and insightful. What a blessing to have such wonderful neighbors! Gondoliers was our restaurant of choice for lunch, then we headed back to the house. It was on this second day in Georgia that we had our first visitors. The Jackie and Justin Bowyer, Chelsea Foster, and Ashlie Stephenson were on their way to hike part of the Appalachian Trail and stopped at our house for the night. It was great fun to spend time with them. They are on quite a journey, spending approximately one month on the trail. It was neat looking at all their gear and hearing them share their plan with excitement.

The hikers were off early Monday morning, and we were up with them to say goodbye. After they left, we got ready for our day. Lunch was a blast! Mom, Dave, Ashley, Michael, and I left Georgia and drove to Chattanooga to have lunch with Southern friends. Emily, Shama, Phoebe, Karie, and Steve-O met us at Panera, where we ate delicious food and had a great time catching up. Dad even drove up after his meeting and joined us. After lunch, Mom, David, Michael, Ashley, and I made our way to the Chattanooga Aquarium. Ashley had never been and it was fun to show her around. The jellyfish exhibit is my unparalleled favorite. When we made it back to the house, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing. It was definitely and amazing day.
All of our mornings were fairly laid back and slow paced. It was very refreshing to take our time in the mornings—kind of a foreign concept for me. Tuesday was no exception. When we were finally finished with our morning routine, Mom, Dave, Ash, and I visited Dad at the hospital so I could meet some of his co-workers. He works with some wonderful Southerners. From there we headed back to Collegedale to give Ashley a tour of Southern. Boy, did it feel strange to be in those buildings and not be heading to class. And the dorm felt so strange and empty. Mom had been running errands the entire time, and picked us up after a walk through of the Wellness Center. I took a nap after our hour drive back to Calhoun. When I woke up, I gathered my camera gear and headed out the door for my very first Calhoun photo shoot. Dad’s co-worker, Amy, has a son who will be a high school senior this coming fall. She saw my website and immediately asked Dad to find a time for me to photograph her son. Tuesday night worked best for our schedule and worked great for theirs, as well. Caleb was super laidback and fun to shoot. His Mom, Dad, and sister went with us for the evening. They are such a nice family! To see some of Caleb’s pictures, visit www.olivialeighphotography.com/blog. Dad, Dave, and Ash drove around in Dad’s old 55 Chevy and ate out for dinner. By the time we all made it back to the house it was time for worship and bed.

Wednesday was probably my favorite day in Calhoun. I spent the morning working on Caleb’s pictures, while Dave and Ashley chilled. Mom had plans to eat lunch with Dad and then spend the afternoon taking pictures of houses she liked. David, Ashley, and I weren’t too thrilled by the thought of spending another day looking at land and house, so I gave the Taylors a call. Within one hour, David, Ashley, Michael, Elise, Hannah, Heidi, Isaac, and I were loaded into the Taylor’s 15-passenger van and on our way to the Chattanooga Creative Discovery Museum. We had a blast! We splashed in the water exhibit, painted our faces, experimented with musical instruments, acted goofy in the theater area, worked in the “doctor’s office,” and climbed around on the big playground. We all acted like little kids and spent much of the time laughing. On our way back home, we stopped at Taco Bell. I felt so sorry for the poor girl that took our confusing order! When we got back to our house, Mrs. Taylor was inside visiting with Mom and Dad. After filling them in on the days adventure, we pulled out Apples to Apples for some more fun. Evan and Joni Owen drove down from Collegedale to join us in our fun evening of games. Mrs. Taylor took the kiddos home after a while, but Michael and Elise stayed for a few rounds of A to Z. What an incredible day we had!

Today, Thursday, we packed our things up and loaded them into the car for our trip back to Texas. We’ll spend the night in Monroe, Louisiana and finish our journey tomorrow. The next nine days will be spent packing, and then Sunday, June 14, is the day of our big move. We are going to miss Texas greatly, but this wonderful week in Georgia reaffirmed for all of us the great years in store for us in Georgia. Kudos to any of you who made it to the end of this post! I can’t say that I would have made it through if it was not my own. Blessings to you all!
I was terrible at taking pictures while in Georgia, but finally remembered to pull my camera out for our museum day. So, here are the pictures from our wild and crazy day at the Children's Museum:

David and Isaac, excited about our trip to the museum

Michael, Hannah, and I preparing for our sea voyage
Dave and Ashley realized how smart we were and suited up, also
I find this sign hysterical, considering the activities we participated under here: clanging toy dishes, banging each other with cushions, and laughing loudly
I love this picture
Michael spent some quality time learning how to read

And then, it was on to the face paint

Can you believe I am related to this clown?

The whole motley crew (Heidi and Isaac opted not to paint their faces)

Dave at his doctor visit

Hooray for cheesy smiles!

A Night as a Southern Belle

2009-06-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

Texans are crazy, fun people! The weekend following my return from Ecuador, several families near and dear to our hearts threw a goodbye party for us. Many tears were shed, but I think the majority of those tears were accompanied by hilarious laughter rather than sorrow. Hilarious songs, skits, and poetry were displayed by many. Sweet words and songs were spoken, as well. With each performance, our family was touched by the reminder of the amazing people that have surrounded us for so many years. Although we look forward to meeting many new friends in Georgia, we will dearly miss our precious Texans. I only have a few pictures to share. Before I do, however, an explanation is required. In the invitation the attendees were told to dress Texan. We, on the other hand, were told to dress Georgian. We opted to go Southern Belle and Southern Gentlemen, renting costumes from a local shop. Here are a few pictures from the night of the party. Thanks again to all our dear, Texan friends! We will miss you dearly.

A Southern Family

Dave, Mickynzie, Brenna, Shaylee, and I

The Adventure in Ecuador Comes to a Close

2009-06-03T09:00:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, I was running on very little sleep on Thursday. Sarah, Sterling, Holly, Dawn, and I spent the morning together waiting for our plane to whisk us off to Miami. Miami was there final destination, but my journey was only half over. I laid over for a while after making it through customs (the roses took a little time for TSA to examine) before boarding the plane to DFW. It was so wonderful to see my family! Nothing like being with the ones you love. The trip was a blessing, but it feels great to be back in good ‘ol Texas for a while. Well, this is where my Ecuador adventure ends. God is all knowing, planning our lives even when we don’t understand His reasons at the time. I am so thankful He led me to Ecuador May 2009 and cannot wait to see what He has in store for my future. In closing, I’ll share a picture of “my girls” in the shirts I got them in Quito. Blessings to you all!

Adventure in Ecuador- Day 10

2009-06-02T09:00:00.001-05:00

We ate breakfast in the hostal and then headed to the Middle of the Earth… literally. Our first stop was the Equator. Our tour guide showed us different historical aspects of life in Ecuador followed by several experiments to prove we were on the middle of the earth. This experience took up most of our morning. Before heading to lunch, however, we stopped at the other location, thought to be the middle of the earth until GPS proved otherwise, where a large monument was located. We had about an hour in Quito to eat at the restaurant of our choice. I ended up back at the Magic Bean with Sarah, Sterling, and Lissette. The drinks that had been so marvelous the first visit were disappointing, but the guacamole I had was too die for! Our next stop was the Basilica that Ryan, Clayton, Audrey, and I had visited the previous week. The market was next on our list. Here we purchased all of our Ecuadorian souvenirs. It was a neat place to experience. Our final stop for the night was the florist, where we were able to purchase 2 dozen roses for $3.50! I stocked up on the beautiful flowers to share back home. Crepes and Waffles served us a delicious meal for dinner. Everyone left there satisfied with great food and fellowship. Once back at the hostal for the night, we all gathered in the living room area for our final worship together. It was powerful and a great way to end the trip. Following worship, several people turned in for the night. Although we were all tired, six of us decided to stay up for games. When we were all Dutch-Blitzed out we went back to the living room and spent time trying to connect (unsuccessfully) to the Internet. Our silliness level was high and against our better judgment the camera came out and a photo session ensued. We finally said our goodbyes and headed off to bed… only two hours before the first group had to leave for the airport. I ended up with approximately 3 hours of sleep total, but the friend time was priceless. Mission trip #1 to Ecuador had been a smashing success. Churches were built, friendships made, culture experienced, and, most importantly, spiritual walks were revived. God is so faithful! Tune in for one last episode regarding my journey home from Ecuador…

Me and my, uh, friend at El Medio del Mundo

Our group standing on the equator for a picture

We ladies at the middle of the earth

Sarah and I

A priceless picture of Ryan

The world in our hand... scary, huh?

Cheesy smiles: Dulce and I showing off the certificates we received for balancing an egg on the head of a nail on the equator

Our last meal together in Ecuador

Adventure in Ecuador- Day 9

2009-06-01T09:00:00.002-05:00

Tuesday was another bus day. We left that morning for our ride back to Quito. Another fantastic meal was served at CADE at the half way point. We arrived in Quito in time to quickly settle into our rooms and head to El Maple for dinner. Several of us headed back to use the Internet (yay for Wi-fi in the hostal) while others stayed up and talked. While not too much happened this day, it was fun to get to know each other better. A busy day of touring awaited us the next day…

Adventure in Ecuador- Day 8

2009-05-31T09:00:00.002-05:00

With all the churches finished, Monday was freed up for outreach. Two medical teams headed out into the community, one crew found two houses that needed fixing up and painted them, and Sarah and I spent the morning planning a VBS program. Oh, I cannot forget to mention our faithful kitchen crew who prepared lunch and food for the agape feast. What a blessing they were! In the afternoon, Sarah, Trista, our translator, Andrea, and I rode back out to Coaque and held a VBS program in the newly finished church. This program went even better than the one in Cojimies. We had more variety in our choice for supplies and the kids were enthusiastic about the craft and listened attentively to the stories we told. When we got back to Pedernales, we had free time to swim in the ocean, run to the Internet café, or get Pina Coladas. That evening, we all grabbed a handful of grocery bags filled with food, drink, a large table cloth, and towels and made our way down the beach to a quiet spot. Once there, we spread everything out and enjoyed tons of delicious bread, fruit, and crackers, and sandwhiches. Chelsy opened the floor up for testimonies. It was such a blessing to hear the ways God had worked in the lives of those involved in the trip, whether they realized it or not. During this special time, we also enjoyed singing and a slideshow of pictures. No one was ready to go to bed when we got back to the hotel. Knowing it was our last night together in Pedernales, we all stayed up until close to midnight. Some of us killed time talking, others played games, still others enjoyed one last Pina Colada. Finally, there was no more putting off sleep. We all separated for our last night in Hostal Stephani.

This little boy was non-too-sure about Sarah

Trista, Sarah, and I on a Moto-Taxi, headed to do VBS shopping

A Set-Apart Lifestyle

2009-05-30T09:00:00.004-05:00

It’s Friday afternoon. There are clothes to be folded, groceries to be purchased, rooms to be cleaned, and a meal to be made. Your week has been full and hectic, but then again that’s not out of the ordinary. There’s always one more event to attend, one more errand to run. You are ready to drop from exhaustion, but Sabbath is quickly approaching so you race around in an attempt to have everything ready for Sabbath. Since you accepted an invitation to supper at a friend’s house before sundown everything has to be completed early. Traffic slows you down on your way home from the store, giving you even less time to prepare for Sabbath. By the time you speed out the door for your dinner appointment, you are frazzled and completely worn out. Although you are relieved for a break and glad the day of rest has arrived, your busy lifestyle has you so worn out it is difficult for you to enjoy it to the fullest. Sabbath flies by and before you know it Sunday has come and the rat race has begun again.

Weeks like these are all too common in my life. My schedule is usually so packed and surrounded with busyness that it is difficult to find time to breathe. It is extremely difficult to find time in this sort of lifestyle to stop and listen to God’s voice; difficult to build a deep, intimate relationship with our Lord and Savior. God has called us to live our lives completely dedicated to Him. It is extremely difficult, however, to live a life dedicated to someone we know on a casual level. Someone we see once a week at church, or once a day for 30 minutes in the morning. God wants us to walk with Him every hour of every day and build our entire schedules around falling in love with Him.

Since arriving home from Ecuador, I have been doing little other than preparing for my family’s move to Georgia. This has given me a lot of time to think, read, and, well, sit around. At times it has been extremely difficult for me since I usually run from place to place like a chicken with my head cut off. While enjoy being involved in all kinds of activities and have missed them this summer, I have realized the importance of pulling away and connecting with Jesus. As Christians, I believe it is easy for us to get so wrapped up in spiritual activities and to feel that we have to be involved in constant service that we don’t make enough time to pull away and spend time with God. We need to learn, as Jim Hohnberger states, to give up many good things in order to have the best.

Upon my arrival home from Ecuador, God led me to a wonderful book written by the dedicated Christian author, Leslie Ludy. Authentic Beauty has made me reevaluate my priorities and given me many practical steps for living a life completely set apart for Jesus Christ. Her view of God’s plan for femininity is inspiring and has challenged me to make many changes in my life. I have, as we all do, a long way to go in my walk with God. But I am eternally grateful to Him for the ways He has been leading in my life as of late and am excited to see where He will lead. If you have not read any books by Leslie and/or her husband Eric and are looking for a new step in your spiritual journey, I encourage you to journey through one of their books. The message they have to share will challenge you and help you take your relationship with Jesus to a more intimate level. Blessings to you all in your walk with the Lord!

Adventure in Ecuador- Day 7

2009-05-29T09:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday we began work on our final church: Coaque. This site, about 20 minutes from our hostal, had one tiny shade tree, which was shared throughout the day, but was also very hot. I think the most sweating was done at this site. Unfortunately, there was little to no breeze at this site. Several team members were feeling under the weather, but minus Ryan, who was still stuck in bed, we all continued to plug away at the remaining work. By lunch time, everyone was worn out. Food and shade revived most of us. Two people had to head back to the hostel, but the rest of us gathered our remaining energy and put our all into completing the church. It was an exhausting but fun day. We ended our day with the usual activities, dinner and worship. Another adventure packed day in Ecuador was complete!

Adventure in Ecuador- Day 6

2009-05-28T09:00:00.001-05:00

Sabbath morning we got to sleep in a little, which was welcomed by all. We enjoyed breakfast prepared by Dawn and her crew and then loaded the Moto-taxis for church. The small church was very friendly and was filled with adorable little children. Of course we all enjoyed lunch, which we consumed back at the hostal. Our afternoon was spent hiking a nature reserve. The trail was pretty but very warm. On our way back to the hostal, we made a quick stop at a nearby beach. Although our hostal was directly across the street from a beach, the one near us was crowded and noisy. The beach we stopped at Saturday night could not have been more picturesque. The sun was setting behind the water as we pulled to a stop. After quickly changing into our bathing suits we made a dash for the breaking waves. The cool water felt incredible. What a beautiful way to end the Sabbath. Dinner and worship were beautiful finishing touches to our day. God blessed us with an incredible day of rest.

Dulce, myself, and a group of kids at church

The beautiful sunset we enjoyed

Chels and I after our swim

Adventure in Ecuador- Day 5

2009-05-27T09:00:00.001-05:00

Friday was a busy day. Period. We had worship and breakfast early, then loaded Moto-Taxis for the short drive to Nuevo Pedernales, our building site. Oneil and Javier were already hard at work when we arrived, and we all hastened to join them. The sun was true to fashion: scorching. Fortunately, there was usually a little breeze. I had to visit my waterbottle every 10-15 minutes to ward of dizziness. In spite of the miserable heat, it was still exciting to participate in the construction of this church. By lunch time, we were all so wiped out that we opted to drive the 10 minutes back to Hostal Stephani for lunch in the shade, rather than eat on site. Our lunch break was brief but much appreciated by everyone. Work in the afternoon heat was grueling. By 5:00 we still had roofing left and only an hour and a half before sundown. Since no one would be able to watch the supplies over the weekend we had to finish. And so the race to the finish began. At 6:20, ten minutes before our precious Sabbath began, we loaded into the Moto-Taxis leaving behind a finished church. In just the nick of time we got the roof finished, sign hung, photo in front of the church, trash picked up, tools put away, and essentials (water bottles, sunglasses, hard hats, and sunscreen) packed up. Showers felt miraculous after our day in the blistering sun. Not many team members escaped nasty sunburns. Although the mosquitos were vicious and the sunburns painful, we were a bunch of content workers, knowing that another church was completed and the Sabbath had arrived. Also on Friday we were joined by Matt Kenworthy. An airline pilot, he was not able to join us until this point. Friday also found our fearless construction leader, Ryan, very sick. By the middle of the afternoon, he felt so bad he had to sit off to the side. Holly was also sick that day, having to sit out from helping her mom in the kitchen to sleep. The rest of us were in good health and ready for a beautiful Sabbath day.

Chelsy helps on the roof

The pile of roofing that Jonathan and I spent a couple of hours peeling plastic off of

Church #2 Finished

Adventure in Ecuador- Day 4

2009-05-26T09:00:00.002-05:00

Thursday morning, the men headed back to the site to put finishing touches on the roof while the ladies split into two groups. Several of us prepared a VBS program for that afternoon while the rest of the ladies sorted, bagged, and labeled medicines. The medical crew ended up skipping lunch in order to put in more outreach time. We VBS people ran to town to purchase supplies then ate a quick lunch before beginning the program. I set up the supplies in the newly finished church, while Sara, Sterling, and our translator, Maria, spent a few minutes inviting children to come. The program was a little chaotic, but very fun. And, considering how little forewarning the kids received, was well-attended. Reports from the medical team were wonderful. They were all blessed by the experience of ministering to children of the community through health, and were able to greatly help several of the kids. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 5:00 PM sharp for Pedernales, but was a little late. The loading process was quick due to all the strong men on our team, and we took off around 5:45. In Pedernales, I was able to visit an Internet café and chat with my mother. What a blessing. While we were away, the cooking crew visited the market and the rest of the group got Pina Coladas. Trista and I wanted to experience the delicious drinks the others had enjoyed, so Trista, Clayton, Dave, Sterling, Dulce, and I headed across the street. Although we ordered the drinks “sin alcohol” (without), the drinks had a very strong, bitter taste. Although we were at the same place, a different guy made the drinks. When we asked him if there was alcohol, he assured us there was none. Trista choked her concoction down, but my $3.00 drink was remained full. Dawn was our incredible cook in Pedernales. While everyone enjoyed her tasty sloppy joes, I put the finishing touches on my worship thought for the evening. That night, I tumbled into bed with thoughts of another exciting day of church building ahead of me.

Dawn and Chelsy prepare medicine for medical outreach

Sterling helps with roof construction

Our first church: FINISHED

VBS in Cojimies

Our transportation to Pedernales

The view on the way there...

Adventure in Ecuador- Day 3

2009-05-25T09:00:00.002-05:00

Wednesday was our first official work day in Ecuador. Chelsy Jourdan shared a powerful worship thought with us before we ate breakfast and headed to the job site, which was about a two minute walk from where we were staying. Maranatha’s incredible worker, Oneil, and his apprentice, Javier, were ready and waiting to instruct us on how to construct a one-day church. Our group was split into two teams, Team #1 worked on the structure, while Team #2 worked on the construction of trusses for the roof. The Ecuadorian sun warmed us up quickly, but thankfully there was a wonderful breeze most of the day that kept us from being too miserably hot. We took a break for lunch and then headed back to the site for a few more hours. We had to call it quits a little early because the manager of our hotel scheduled an excursion for us at four sharp. After quickly changing into our bathing suits and grabbing our towels, we loaded onto a mototaxi and into the back of a jeep-like vehicle and rode the few miles to the beach. Two small boats awaited us and we loaded into them for our trip to… Love Island. We were told it was a special island because, for some unknown reason, there was fresh water on an island in the middle of the ocean. Once we reached the island, however, and made our way into the water, we discovered it was not fresh water as we’d been told, but salty! We never figured out what was special about the island, but we sure had fun running through the sand (sometimes sinking knee deep) and swimming in the shallow water. Showers were a welcome blessing back at the “hotel.” Chelsy’s worship was a blessing, as usual, and dinner followed. Most of us were not quite ready to turn in for the night and the silliness ensued. Sterling was our “jukebox” for a hilarious game of musical chairs. Next, we attempted to do a trustfall with Sterling. A plastic chair was hardly high enough to require much trust, but it was the highest platform we could find. We tried to play the hand game but could not get our hands tangled enough to make the untangling challenging. The favorite game of the night was Head Moose. I had never played before, but found it amusing and hysterical. A bunch of tired people + a silly game = lots of laughter and goofiness. Before long, the reality of another long day ahead of us began to sink in and we all headed inside for some good sleep.

Church Site #1

On the way to Love Island

What's in a Summer Day?

2009-05-24T09:00:00.003-05:00

Summer days. To many people, this implies sunny afternoons spent reading, sun tanning, sleeping in late, and staying up late. A typical summer in the Weber household involves few of these. Our summers are usually spent flying from state to state, often country to country even. When we are home we have so many events and projects running that there is little time to just “be.” This summer, however, while being similar to the previous ones in ways, has been a bit different for me personally. Yes, as soon as I finished school I packed my bags for Ecuador, but since returning from this trip I have had virtually nothing to do. Zilch. Other than help my mother keep our house clean in case of an unexpected showing, I have had lots of free time on my hands. And the funny thing is, I’ve not known what to do with it all! With our move quickly approaching there is no time for photo shoots, due to the processing and ordering that would ensue. Two weeks in Texas is hardly long enough to get a job and most of my friends are gone for the summer. The first few days back was extremely difficult for me. I’m a type A, task-oriented person and having nothing to do does not sit well with me. God is all-knowing, though, and this two weeks has been just what I needed. He led me to an INCREDIBLE book, which I will be sharing about in a future post, which has revitalized my walk with Him like never before, and has been teaching me to experience Him. I’ve had time to re-prioritize deep devotional time and daily exercise, which are things I have greatly missed. I’ve had time to sit down and read. Helping around the house has been much easier to juggle, not to mention the fact that I’ve been enjoying extra sleep: 8-10 hours a night! Ya-hoo! It’s been a joy to spend extra time with my girls, too. Since I’ve been home we’ve been to the park, the zoo, and they’ve come over for a swim. Although I definitely could not get used to life in the slow lane forever, I am so grateful to God for slowing me down long enough to reevaluate my life and reconnect with Him. I am enjoying blogging again, and hope to keep the updates flowing. Here are some pictures of my summer since Ecuador… Blessings to you all!

Brenna and Shaylee enjoying the slide

Me and my girls

Shay after our exhausting day of fun

Fun at the zoo

The World's Two Most Amazing Moms

Adventure in Ecuador- Day 2

2009-05-23T09:00:00.001-05:00

Our bus left at 9:00 Tuesday morning for Cojimies, Ecuador, a small town near the coast. By 1:00 PM, we had reached CADE, the Adventist school between Quito and Pedernales. For a very inexpensive price, we were served an incredible, delicious lunch. CADE made probably the best food I had while in Ecuador. Amazing. It was neat to see the campus and meet a couple of student missionaries who were finishing their terms there. Following lunch, we visited a village of Colorado Indians. Here we saw herbal steam treatments, berries used for hair and face painting, tribal dances, and spear throwing. The red berries used for hair painting were fascinating. Our tour guide had recently painted his hair red and it looked as if he was wearing a red hat. When he informed us that the red “hat” was his hair we were all shocked. Chelsy even asked to touch it. She said it felt hard even though it wasn’t completely dry yet. With several hours of our journey to Cojimies still ahead of us, we boarded the bus once more. Since the sun rises at 6:30 AM and sets at 6:30 PM yearround, the sun had been set for a while before we arrived at our destination. To call it a hotel is not an accurate description. There was a large wall-less hut with tables and couches where we ate our meals and had worships. The sleeping quarters consisted of three different buildings. The mens’ quarters was a two story tall hut with a tiny little balcony off the second floor. Building number two had one bed and bathroom and was shared by Dawn and her daughter, Holly. And the final building was broken up into three rooms, shared by the ladies of the group. We ate a late dinner before turning in for the night.

Lunch at CADE

The red "hat" (hair)

Our "hotel" in Cojimies

The Beginning of an Adventure in Ecuador- Day 1

2009-05-22T16:42:00.007-05:00

"The first part of the blog entry was written in Ecuador, the rest finished back in the good ‘ol United States. I will be posting these entries over the next several days. They will be posted in increments of trip days. So prepare for multiple updates!

I’m not sure when I will be able to post this but I don’t want to get behind and forget details. I’m currently sitting on my bed in Cojimias, Ecuador, getting ready to go to sleep. The trip has been amazing so far. I must admit, it has been far greater a blessing than I ever expected it would be. Audrey and I enjoyed our evening and morning in Quito preparing for the others and then headed to the airport Monday at 2:00 to pick up our first two people. Ryan and Clayton had traveled 17 hours from Alberta, Canada! From there, Maria (another amazing translator) and our group of four headed to the hostel where we dropped off the boys bag before making our way to Crepes and Waffles, a delicious restaurant where the serve…. Drum roll please… crepes and waffles! ☺ There were also yummy fruit drinks and pita “sandwiches” which were more like pita pizzas. We still had about two hours left before our next trip to the airport and were fortunate to experience a trip to the Basilica in Quito, a huge Gothic church. Suffice it to say, it was gorgeous. We had to race through it since they were closing for the day, but it was incredible. There were several tall towers you could climb to the top of. I went to one of the lower, but still amazing, vantage points to get my view of the city while Ryan, Clayton, and Audrey scaled the utmost height. Here at the Basilica, I learned a new Spanish phrase: “Tengo miedo a las Alturas.” Translations for those of you who do not speak Spanish: “I am afraid of heights.” Clayton and Ryan took a taxi back to the hostel since they hadn’t slept for over 24 at that point, while the Audrey, Maria, and I were shuttled back to the airport to greet our next arrival. Jonathan was the next to arrive, followed shortly thereafter by Lissette. Sarah, Holly, Dawn, and Sterling arrived not long after. Loading all of the luggage unto the top of the van was an interesting process, but before long we were all packed into the van and on our way back to the hostel. It was a lot of fun meeting people at the airport. Clayton, Sterling, and Sarah were hungry, so while Audrey went back to the airport to retrieve our final four team members, I took the three hungry ones to get some food. Not many places were open at 10:30 PM but we found a burrito place where their hunger was satisfied. Chelsy, Dulce, Dave, and Trista were the final four to make it in around 11:00 PM.

Inside Hostal Arupo, our quaint hostel in Quito

A delicious waffle at Crepes and Waffles

The Basilica

A Morning in Quito

2009-05-04T11:56:00.003-05:00

Audrey and I have spent the morning running errands in preparation for the arrival of the rest of the missionaries. We enjoyed a simple but yummy breakfast here at the hostel before embarking on our errands with Andrea, our translator. She has been such a blessing already! We went to the travel agency to secure our bus for tomorrow’s transportation, and then headed to the mall to purchase water for the group and minutes for Audrey’s Ecuadorian phone. A taxi brought us to back to the hostel to drop off the water. We are currently speaking with our translators figuring out how to schedule the rest of our day. Our first two people arrive at 2:00 and then we have a break until around 6:00. Quito is a charming city with a lot of personality. Although parts of it have a big city feel, there are many parts of the city that have cobblestone streets and small buildings. I am enjoying my time here and look forward to our voyage to Pedernales tomorrow. Dios le bendigo, amigos!

*I tried to load pictures onto my blog but it took to long. Instead, I posted pictures on Facebook. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Hola from Quito!

2009-05-03T21:02:00.002-05:00

What a fun and busy weekend I have had! My cousin Aaron graduated from SWAU today so our house was full of people all weekend. My cool cousin Ethan and Uncle Mike flew in for it and all our great Oklahoma relatives were here, too. We spent all day Sabbath relaxing and catching up. Saturday night several of us went to CTA’s gymnastics homeshow and then I had to finish packing. So I was up until 1:00 AM and then had to wake up at 5:45 AM to head to the airport. Needless to say, I slept the entire flight from Dallas to Miami. In Miami, I met up with the wonderful Audrey Whiting. After enjoying some talk time it was time to board our plane to Quito. The flight was 4 ½ hours long but was over before we knew it. Immigration and customs went smoothly and were at our hotel soon after. Everything was dark by the time we landed as the sun rises and sets at 6:30. After “checking-in” to our hostel, a quaint little place owned by a French American woman, we made our way to a restaurant Audrey scoped out on her planning trip. The Magic Bean had delicious fresh fruit smoothies and a very exotic atmosphere. Audrey had interesting stuffed pepper while I opted for some pizza. The food was good, but I must say that the smoothie was the best. I enjoyed fresh strawberry while Audrey drank the tomato de arbol. We are both exhausted from a long day of travel and little sleep, but are enjoying our stay in Quito thus far. Tomorrow we will be joined by 13 more people and will spend one more night in this lovely little hostel. Then Tuesday, we’re off to Pedernales. I hope to post pictures soon, but will not have much Internet after tomorrow night. My eyelids are closing on me so I better take their hint and get some sleep. Thank you for the prayers! Blessings to you all!

Spring is Upon Us...

2009-03-22T13:22:00.002-05:00

It is another Sunday afternoon at Southern. The weekend is approaching its close. In less than 6 weeks we students will be packing our bags and heading to our various summer locations. Can it be that my Freshman year has nearly come to a close? College always seemed so far away, something our parents did. And now here I am, almost 1/4 of the way through with my time at college. Most students are thrilled that summer is almost here. I, on the other hand, have very mixed feelings. Being with my family and traveling around will be wonderful! But being apart from my friends for four months will be sad. Who knows where God will lead us all in the months to come?

I spent some time this morning (yes, I should have been doing homework) reading through blog posts from two years ago. It was so much fun that I decided to give this thing a try again. Since my business blog is not keeping me too busy I will try to "journal" on here a little more often for all of you at home.

Two 5-8 page papers are in the making for me right now. I need to get busy on them again before heading to a birthday party tonight. Life here at Southern is busy. Have a great week!

Christmas Break Thus Far...

2008-12-24T17:19:00.004-06:00

Christmas is upon us once again. It seems like we were just opening presents and reading the Christmas account. My break from school is already flying by. Here's a little update...

I took a test at 9:00 AM Wednesday morning then headed to the Chattanooga airport for a 12:20 flight. Needless to say, I hit the ground running. It so nice to be back with my family for a while. GYC was exhausting but of course rewarding. God really spoke to my heart through the message presented. Most of the weekend I ran around working in different locations. While being busy was tiring, it was such a blessing.

Sunday was a long day of travel but that night, at long last, I collapsed into my very own cozy bed. Monday morning I slept in for the first time since finals. Boy oh boy did it feel good! Since we've been home we have eaten at favorite restaurants and lazed around. I've gotten to play my piano frequently, which I've thoroughly enjoyed, and have even tackled one of mom's cupboard/pantry organization projects. Last night, our family headed to the Songy home for a Christmas dinner. Dale and my Dad have been best friends since college and Ryan was born five days before me. So Dale, Julie, Lauren, and Ryan are very dear to our family. Dinner was delicious and the fellowship was great. This afternoon, Dad, Dave, and I built a blazing fire in the backyard. Once we had it going strong we started playing with Dave's camera. To see pictures of our fun visit my facebook page

A Shelter in the Time of Storm

2008-11-04T19:06:00.006-06:00

For those of you who don't know me too well, I tend to be a worrier. That is a slight understatement. God is continually working with me in this area. As I was talking with a friend last night, I realized that today, November 4, was election day. Knots began to form in my stomach. Although I am incredibly uninformed when it comes to politics, I feel quite unsettled at the thought of either of these candidates becoming our country's president.

And now here we are. Election day. The first part of my day was spent in a disoriented daze. Try as I may, I could not focus. My thoughts continually turned to the election and its candidates. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't pray for our country as much as I ought, but today my prayers were frequently focused on the upcoming change for our nation. After praying with a few friends, I grabbed my "Personal Promise Bible" and headed to Christian Beliefs class.

With seven minutes until class, I flipped to the section entitled "Fear." Verses such as Psalm 91:7-10 and Psalm 31:24 were like embraces from God. There were pages of promises. Each verse I read filled me with greater peace. As Dr. Parker walked through the door to start our class, I whispered a prayer of surrender, asking Jesus to fill me with His peace and to help me trust in Him day by day.

Friends, Jesus is faithful. He has carried me through the rest of this day. I write this tonight hoping that someone out there might find comfort, not in my words, but in our faithful Savior. No matter what you are going through, He can and will carry you. Psalm 55:22 says "Cast your burden on Me, your Lord, and I will sustain you. I will never allow the righteous to be moved." Cast your burdens on Him, friends, and He will sustain you. Blessings!

Refreshment

2008-11-03T18:43:00.008-06:00

About four weeks ago my mother called to inform me she found a decently priced airline ticket and was coming to see me. A week later she let me in on another big surprise... my cousin, Emily, would be joining her! Needless to say, I was overjoyed. Plans began to formulate and before I knew it several of my girlfriends had gotten permission to join us. There are way too many cool people at Southern so I was not able to invite all of my amazing friends, but the few that did come were such a blast. Friday evening we started off with chili, cornbread, and apple cider. For worship, we studied the book of Haggai and received a major blessing from that.

The next morning, we ate a scrumpcious breakfast before heading to North River for church.

A large and delicious haystack lunch (can you have any size other than a large haystack) greeted us upon our arrival at the house we were staying at. We allowed our lunch to settle a little before heading back to Southern for a hike of the Biology Trail and a tour of the Student Missions Expo. Both of which were a blessing.

This picture is terrible quality but documents our nice walk
We were almost back to the school when we stumbled across these wonderful leaves. A pile of leaves was soon created and "war" broke out. So much fun!

Later that evening, Shama, Shannon, and I "relaxing" back at the house
Following a wonderful vespers to close the Sabbath, we ate once again and then played some fun games.
One of our fun games was Sardines. Notice the great hiding place...
The next morning, we all looked lovely for our fantastic breakfast
Emily was a little excited...
Shannon and I were hiding our "morning beauty" from the camera
God blessed us with an incredible, refreshing weekend. I am so grateful for my Southern friends and my amazing family. God is so good!

Home and Pumpkins

2008-10-20T19:03:00.008-05:00

This past weekend was midterm/fall break for we Southern students. Wednesday afternoon I boarded a plane and flew to my homeland, Texas. The weekend was PACKED FULL. Talk about fun! Friends, amazing food, a photo shoot, a special baptismal service, a fall picnic, and family made my weekend extra special. Unfortunately, I was so busy I forgot to take very many pictures, but here are a few:

Me and "my girls" at Antonios

My brobee and me
Me and my girls at our pajama dinner/vespers (love the red eye!)

When I arrived back in Tennessee Sunday afternoon, my amazing roommate picked me up from the airport. On our way back to the school her dear sister, Elisa, called to invite us over for a fun-filled evening of food and pumpkin carving. Nothing like pumpkin carving to celebrate fall. Needless to say, we were more than happy to accept the invitation. After re-organizing our room (switching out summer clothes for winter clothes) and doing a little homework, we headed over to Elisa's. We had a ball and ended up with some... interesting... creations to say the least. :-) Here are a few photos:

Andrea and Elisa caught "red-handed"
Andrew decided to make this photo... special

The end result: Elisa carved a globe, Andrew carved a mountain scene, Andrea carved a flower in jail, I carved a polka dot pumpkin, and Emily carved beautiful hearts and scrolls
Note: We only had two tea candles so we took turns viewing them lit-up
And now, back to the books! :-)

Life at Southern Adventist University

2008-09-22T15:08:00.011-05:00

Yes, ‘tis true: I’m back! Now that three weeks of school are behind me I’ve actually found time to blog. Life here at Southern is incredible and overwhelming all at the same time. The homework intensifies with each passing day and the weeks fly by at breakneck speed. Since I last posted I’ve been through numerous quizzes, a test, my first essay, read several hundred pages, not to mention various other assignments. Believe it or not, in between all my studying and homework I’ve found time for a few social activities. Emily, my roommate, had a birthday at the beginning of September, which we celebrated at her sister’s house. There was great food, fun friends, and a mean water balloon fight. The morning of her birthday Temple, Shama, and I prepared her delicious breakfast consisting of biscuits and gravy, little links, pineapple, banana, apple, and banana muffins. God has blessed me with the most amazing roommate and suitemates!

Temple and Shama cooking away...

Make a wish...

And here are a few pictures I snapped of Emily and her brother Andrew...

Pictures Andrew snapped of Emily and I

Yes, we are quite pitiful

The highlight of my month here has been the last two weekends. Friday, September 19, my beautiful mother flew into the Chattanooga airport for a visit. As I walked into the airport I felt the anticipation swelling within me. My pace quickened as I made my way to the baggage claim area of the tiny airport. Spotting her instantly as I rounded the corner, I broke into a run. Tears streamed from her eyes as we held each other close for the first time in three weeks. Oh, how strange it felt. Words cannot describe how odd it was picking my mother up from the airport to visit me, her daughter living in another state. That weekend flew by. Friday evening we attended vespers, Sabbath we got some much needed rest before heading to Lenior City, TN to hear Uncle David preach. MJ, Mom, and I spent the afternoon with Mom’s family relaxing, eating, and playing with 6-month-old Lily. Ms. Lily is such a cute baby. As she splashed around in her tiny pool I couldn’t stop taking pictures.

Mom and I at P.F. Changs

This past weekend Mom, Dad, and Dave all flew in to see me. Once again, the weekend was over before we could blink. It was so much fun introducing my family to many of my new friends. SEYC (Southeast Youth Conference) took place this past Wednesday through Saturday night so we enjoyed those meetings immensely. Saying goodbye was difficult but I look forward to visiting home very soon. Hopefully I will find more time to write again soon. But, until then… I miss you all and love you! Blessings!

Busy, Fun Filled Weekend

2007-10-07T19:19:00.000-05:00

Dad and Dave headed to Athens, TX on Thursday afternoon so Dave could play guitar with Josiah and his band for camporee. So mom and I had a rare girls weekend. Even though we had a blast, we're sure glad they're rare. :-) Thursday afternoon we got our nails done, which was a fun, special treat, then mom had a massage while I went to a meeting. I met several SWAU students at West End Grill for dinner and a meeting about a Bible study team we are forming. I am one of the three priveldged girls that is getting to help. At this point we're a team of six and are evenly divided. The meeting was great and I'm excited about all the work to be done.

Friday morning was SO NICE. SWAU was on fall break so I had no class! Yipee! Mom and I took it easy all morning for the most part. I did a little studying here and there, but mostly took it easy. We ran some errands, ate lunch at Olive Garden, then headed home. We were at about to turn left on 67 and head home when Mom asked if I wanted to check out Cleburne as a possible photo shoot spot. Always eager for great new shooting locations, I was eager to go. To see what we found, check out my photography blog (link on the side bar). That night we relaxed together and hit the hay.

Sabbath morning we went to Burleson church for Sabbath School then left and went to Keene for church. At noon we ran home to change clothes then headed for Kim and Denny's place. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing with them and the Tharps. Of course this was a blast. The girls get more and more fun all the time. Brenna called me last night after we left to tell me her exciting news. When I answered I thought it would be Kim, but my ears were greeted by the loud exclamation of a 6-year-old. "Guess what Mimi did!" she enthusiasticly asked. "What?" I replied. "She pulled my tooth! And it came out on the second try!" Also, the other morning Mickynzie called me to tell me she thought her kitty was sick. By the time I called her back, they had realized it was fine. I feel so honored that "my girls" think to call me when they are scared, excited, or just want to say hi. Hope they do it more and more as they grow up!

That night Mary Jo, Alyssa, and Lorina came over and watched "How Great is Our God," a really neat video on the majesty of our God. Then they left and Mom and I went to Braum's. This was the end our exciting girls weekend. We had to get in bed fairly early so I could get up WAY too early.

5:15 came much too quickly. After showering and getting ready, I ate a quick (early) breakfast. I spent a few minutes in prayer then drove to pick up MJ. This morning was the last segement of our SAT junk. WE ARE FINISHED!!! FINALLY!!!! :-) After four grueling hours MJ, Alyssa, and I ate lunch at Olive Garden. As Mary Jo put it we had to "eat enough to replace all the cells we lost during that test."

I came home and spent some time with the fam since Dad and Dave were home then went to SWAU library to study for tomorrow mornings test. Speaking of which, I really need to study.

In closing, when I got home Dave and I celebrated my SAT finale with some Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. (I was going to take a picture but... the food was calling) We then went for a walk, fed Jamie's horses, and I am now going to study. God bless you all!

Heritage Sabbath

2007-09-29T17:24:00.000-05:00

A day with my girls or a church service in the country with people I’d never met? The decision I’d pondered all week. The E.G.W. research center planned to host a Heritage Sabbath event at the first SDA church in Texas for any interested students. The flyer advertised an “old-school” service and for the students, by the students. After potluck there would be “discussion and debate” time followed by communion and foot washing. However, yesterday was Kim Sexson’s birthday so Sexsons and Sorkes were both coming for lunch to celebrate. The church service sounded so neat! But how could I miss a day with my girls? I wavered the entire week. Mary Jo couldn’t go with me. Alyssa and Lorina couldn’t go with me. Emily couldn’t go with me. I only knew two people going, and I don’t know either of them very well. But… they only do this Sabbath once a year.

“Do you mind if we put more people in your car?” Alex asked me through my rolled down window. I told him I’d be leaving early but would love to help on the way there. Jinny and Eliza piled into the back seat while Annie hopped in front with me. Alex handled some more passenger assignments before climbing into the back with the girls. “Where are you from?” What’s your major?” What year are you?” “Are you going to GYC?” These, along with many other questions, helped the hour long drive pass by quickly. Annie is a freshman-nursing student, who formerly attended Oklahoma Academy; Jinny is from Korea, has lived in the Philippines, and is a sophomore-nursing student; Eliza, from the Virgin Islands, is a freshman majoring in business management; Alex is a theology student from Colombia. I had met Alex before several times, but all the girls were first-time acquaintances.

Scenery on the way to the church was incredible! Everything was so green and lush. As we pulled up to the church, Annie, waking from her nap, exclaimed, “That’s the church? That’s it?” We all laughed as we caught our first glimpse of the Norse SDA Church. Situated in a field in the middle of nowhere, the Norse church is about the size of two Sabbath school rooms. It’s tiny!

When we arrived, people we already there setting up tables outside for lunch and getting the church ready for the service. Within minutes, the five of us had piled out of my car and were hard at work rearranging pews, opening windows, putting out fans and hymnals, setting up the E.G.W. Research Center Board, etc.

Church started a little late, but nobody seemed to care at all. The weather was perfect! Sitting on the pew, the refreshing breeze flooding through the open windows, I could only think of one thing. “How great my God is.” The business of the week, the hectic racing-around-the-house, last minute Sabbath preparation, the to-do list for the following day; all of these thoughts vanished and my mind was drawn to thoughts of a wonderful Savior.

Ben Burkheardt, Chelsy Jourdan’s co-speaker at Youth for Jesus, presented the message.
He talked about our Adventist Heritage, focusing especially one 1844-1850. The message was especially interesting to me since I am taking History of the SDA church. It was neat to hear things I’ve learned recently, and to hear other details I hadn’t heard before. I enjoyed the message and was thouroughly blessed by it.

The song service was energetic, the testimonies inspiring, and the sermon thought provoking. I left the building more determined than ever to grow closer and closer to Jesus.

Lunch was delicious! Of course, by the time we ate it was one thirty, everyone was famished, and I think most ANYTHING would have tasted good. ☺ The potluck really was great. During lunch I got to know several of the students and now actually have some awesome new girl friends to invite over for Friday night dinner. I will no longer be completely outnumbered by the guys. ☺

When lunch was over there was going to be a discussion and debate time, followed by a Holy Communion Service. I wavered, almost deciding to stay, but ended up opting to come on home and see my girls.

The girls are so much fun! Add the Sorke boys to that equation… We had a great time! We rode around on the “manger” (as Shaylee calls the Ranger) then came inside for some cuddling and talking.

I planned to get this posted last night, but we left for Emily’s part as I was starting to type. More fun! Emmy had planned the whole thing and she did a great job. We sang lots of songs in their front yard followed by prayer and food. Then, the games began. The first game was a blast. The rules are as follows: take this un-sharpened number two pencil, be safe, knock on different neighbors doors asking them to trade that pencil for something of greater value, return within thirty minutes, whoever has the best item wins. As soon as they gave us the “Go!” my team was racing for Uncle Dale’s house. Okay, so we used our connections. ☺ Dave, John, Denny, and I pounded on Songy’s door before walking in and explaining our “dilemma” to them. After evaluating many different objects, Julie allowed us to borrow her wedding ring, with real diamonds. Yikes! I clenched the fist with the ring on it until I took it back! ☺ Other teams ended up with a book, a rock, a Victoria Secret magazine, and superman+beanbag. (And just so you know, we weren’t the only team that used our connections; Alyssa went to her aunt’s house) ☺

Many more games made for lots of laughs and loads of smiles. Emily is such an awesome person, and I feel so blessed to have her for a cousin. It has been so neat to watch her grow closer to Jesus and I can’t wait to see where God leads her after graduation in December. Love ya, Em!

By the time my head hit the pillow I was gone. What an incredible Sabbath! Lots of friends, family, and special time with Jesus. Could it be any better?

God bless you all!!

Good 'ol Haslam Fun

2007-09-26T13:08:00.000-05:00

Dancing around the living room, Abby shot a smile in my direction as I walked through the door. Ally giggled and smiled a Taco Bell-bean smile from her highchair across the room. Mary gave me a brief update on the girls while Dennis preoccupied the girls. After "mom and dad" headed out for the day, I tackled the task of getting Ally to sleep. She is usually sleeping when I get there, so I was apprehensive as to how she would do with me putting her down almost as soon as I got there. Everything went great, though. We read our books, said a prayer, sang our song, and little Ally snuggled into her bed for a refreshing nap.

Abby and I spent the two hours of baby's nap playing with Playdough, doing "tricks" in the living room, and "doing homework." Around four I heard Ally stirring. I peeked into the room to make sure she was awake before walking to her crib and scooping her up into a big, wake-up hug.

"Who wants to go swimming?" My quesiton was answered by an energetic "I DO!!" from Abby an adorable smile and exuberant nod on Ally's part. I had promised Abby we'd go swimming when Ally woke up, and both girls were eager to see this promise carried out. We scuttled around grabbing bathing suits, sippy cups, and shoes. Once the girls were suited and had their shoes strapped on, we headed for the van.

When the girls were settled into their car seats, we paused their DVD for pre-excursion prayer. "Let's pray, girls!" I exclaimed. The girls folded their hands and closed their eyes. Before I could begin praying though, Abby started a prayer of her own. Her prayer was mirror of the ones she's heard me pray on previous trips. It was precious!

Our swimming pool adventure was lots of fun. My mom and I took turns helping Abby walk back and forth across the length of the pool, while the other one of us sat on by the steps with Ally. I attempted to coax her farther into the water, but she was content to sit with her feet barely dangling in the water.

After about 30 minutes, we dried the girls off and brought them inside. We ate a small supper and explored the house a little more before piling back into the van for the ride home.

The fun, however, was just beginning. We raced inside and changed the girls out of bathing suits and into play clothes, set the rest of our things inside, then hurried back outside for more good times. Abby and Ally played on in, on, and around their mini-jungle gym, chased after balls, and swung on the hammock. Meanwhile, I alternated between chasing after Ally and racing back to see Abby's newest funny face or "trick" , the whole time snapping pictures in an attempt to capture a fraction of our fun.

I'm sure Abby would have stayed outside for many more hours, but Ally began to get tired. Not only that, but we had played so long and hard that it was tubby time already. The girls helped me put away sidewalk chalk from earlier, then we went inside. Bath time went great and both girls were rewarded with a gummy bear.

Abby entertained herself in her room, while I put Ally to sleep. "Angelina's New Baby Sister" and "Chrysanthemum" were Abby's books of choice. We usually read more books, but Abby just wanted two this time. Next, it was cuddles and tickles time. After about two minutes of snuggles I asked Abby if she needed tickles before I left, but she was already out.

I finished the evening off with homework. What a fun, exhausting day! My morning had been filled with school, school, and homework. The above activites combined with school made for one tired Olivia. Sleep was wonderful! Too short, but wonderful!

Class went great this morning. School took forever this afternoon. Now in an hour or so Mom, M.J. and I leave for SAT class. Better get some more accomplished! God bless!

Settling into the Routine

2007-09-24T21:11:00.000-05:00

Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months. Life continues to fly by at break-neck speed. Even my long days seem to be over just as soon as they start and, thankfully, the weekend always gets here before I can blink. I have sure been horrible at keeping up with this blog but, as usual, plan do be more successful at it from now on. :-)

I am finally beginning to get the hang of things for this semester. Took me long enough, huh? :-) A typical week in the life of me: Monday- college class, school, piano lesson and homework; Tuesday- school, homework, then babysit Abby and Ally Haslam until bedtime; Wednesday- class, school, homwork, then head to Plano, TX for my SAT prep course (get home around 11:00 PM); Thursday- school, homework, and... WHATEVER I WANT!!!; Friday- class, Sabbath prep, homework, and whatever else; Sabbath- Praise the Lord for Sabbath rest!; Sunday- homework then at noon head to SAT class, around 7:30 PM get home and finish up my day.

Between SAT homework and History of the SDA Church Homework, I do plenty of that stuff! :-) Luckily, the SAT course is over in less than two weeks. I take my actual SAT two weeks from this past Sunday. I'm almost finished! Nothing too exciting has happened lately. Just the usual. Hope to update soon AND put pictures on as promised. God bless!

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow

2007-09-15T19:26:00.000-05:00

Happy Sabbath one and all!

Praise God for knowing ahead of time that we would need the Sabbath! It is such a welcome break from the business of life! Last night, my cousin Alex and another friend of ours, Eamon, came over for dinner. When we were done eating, everyone else headed down to watch a neat video while Dad and I went for a motorcycle ride. Alex was just leaving and Eamon was still here when we got back. He left soon after and then we all got ready for bed.

Today we went for prayer group and Sabbath school at Burleson, then to Joshua for church to visit the Sexson family. Their church was showing Doug Bachelor's sermon live, and that was awesome. He is such a gifted speaker! We ate lunch as a family, then Jamie and Erin Yeagley came over for the afternoon. We talked, rode four wheelers, and talked some more. I went to Mary Jo's for a while and now Jamie and Erin are on their way back over for worship and games.

It's been a great weekend so far! Hope everyone else is doing awesome, too! God bless!

Ready for the Weekend

2007-09-14T17:25:00.001-05:00

I started typing a really long entry to post on here, but after updating four days worth and realizing I had hours of typing to go I decided not to bore you all with each and every little detail. Instead, I will try to keep up weekly so that no one gets too overwhelmed. :)

Basically all that's happened between now and the time I last wrote an entry is my SAT class, History of the SDA church at SWAU, and school at home. I have had SO MUCH HOMEWORK. I am finally getting into a routine and finding time to spend with family and friends. It only took me a month! Lol.

Most of my life has been hectic with school. However, at the beginning of September there was a major highlight. Uncle Mike, Aunt Wanda, Caj, and Blu came for a visit! Grandma and Uncle Connie decided to make an occasion of it and cam as well! We had a great weekend! Those girls are too cute!

Today I had my first test at SWAU, cleaned, helped mom around the house, and met Alyssa and Lorina for lunch. Nothing too out of this world has happened. Life is great and God is good!

I'll blog some pictures later!

God bless!

It's Me!

2007-08-23T12:33:00.000-05:00

I finally found a spare minute to update my life. It's been pretty crazy around here as of late. We started school three days after returning from Youth for Jesus. Not much time to get re-adjusted, but we survived. :-)

My weeks have consisted of school, photography, and other odds and ends. Last Friday, I was talking with a friend's mom and she mentioned and SAT prep course that my friend is taking. She was able to give us more details and I got signed up on Sunday. So starting this Sunday I will be driving an hour both ways twice a week. The class is in Plano, TX and is three hours long. This means two days a week I will have a five our chunk taken out of my day. AHHH!!!

This week I will also be starting a class at Southwestern. That is three days a week for an hour. I am taking to homeschool classes, along with piano. The first week of Sept. I start a babysitting job for a family from our church. Abby and Ally are 1 and almost 4.

In a nutshell, my life is wonderful but crazy! :-) Tuedsay night, one of my friends from Gentry, AR got her with her mom and dad. She will be going to SWAU this year. So we've been doing a lot with them the last few days.

On an exciting note, my Mom's birthday was yesterday! She opened her presents in the morning, then last night I made dinner for her and the Bowyers (along with the rest of my family). We had pasta, bruchetta, salad, and dirt dessert. Yummy! We are so blessed to have her as a part of our family!

Well, that's all for now! I'll try to do better at keeping you all informed! God bless!

DESSERT (with two s's for a double portion)

2007-08-15T21:10:00.000-05:00

Today I celebrated one year (minus a week and two other occasions) of NO DESSERT! August 15, 2007 I made the commitment to abstain from desserts for one year. I DID IT!! YAY! So, to celebrate here's what I did...

A year with no dessert taught me several things: 1. Once the moment of decision is past and everyone moves on to something else, the craving tends to go away 2. Dessert is great! for the five-ten minutes it lasts (okay maybe fifteen if you strech it) :-) but then it leaves you feeling fat and full 3. Dessert isn' all that it's cracked up to be. Sure, I think I'll still be able to manage to eat it plenty often, but I found that most of the time I didn't even miss dessert. When everyone was doing it I was more tempted, but on a regular basis I didn't even miss it. Who would have thought? Dessert QUEEN not even tempted? :-) 4. Perserverance is so rewarding!

There are many more things I learned, but I am tired and ready for bed. :-) Any of you people crazy enough to consider this depravity, DO IT! :-) It is one of the best things I think I've ever done! It taught me so much and proved to me that with God's help I can resist anything!

God Bless!

Youth for Jesus 2007

2007-07-26T06:08:00.000-05:00

I don't have much time to write as I need to shower and get ready, but I just wanted to give you all an update. Things are amazing here at YFJ! I have been working at the Pewee Valley SDA church with approx. 10 other youth. Speaking has added a level of stress I didn't have last year, but also a major blessing I never had. I've had the opportunity to pray with different people after the meetings and talk to them about what they're going through. That's been a huge blessing!

One thing I have missed a lot this year is visitations. I have been on three and have been so blessed by each one. Patsy, one our contacts, has been coming almost every night. About a week ago after one of the meetings as I was hugging her goodbye she told me to come see her whenever I wanted. We have an after-meeting every night when the seminar is over to pray and talk about what's going on. When this was over, I told Janelle (one of my Bible workers) that I really wanted to go see Patsy. She said we could go the next day, but she wanted to go after lunch rather than at outreach time. Neither of us knew why the time mattered, but decided to do it that way.

We prayed before getting out of the car to talk with Patsy, then headed up to her door. When she opened the door, there were tears in her eyes. They had just had their electricity turned off not to mention lots of family problems that were weighing her down. Come to find out, she was leaving in about 5 minutes. If Janelle and I had waited for outreach time Patsy wouldn't have been home. We were able to share promises with her, offer her help, and pray with her. It was a major blessing for me!

There are several other stories that I can't wait to write about but I need to get showered and ready for another day! Love and miss you all! God Bless!

More Quebec Pictures

2007-06-30T21:07:00.000-05:00

Our Hotel

Another Perspective of Our Hotel

Allie Werner

My Sweet Daddy

Me and My Daddy

Bella Fulbright (today was her birthday)

Me and the Fulbright Girls

The More Mature Folks

Quebec Skyline

More often?

2007-06-30T21:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, don't ask me what happened to those "more often" updates. I don't even know where to start in updating. The highlights of the week have been lunch with Allie Werner and Dave, ferry ride to ice cream with about 40 people from our group, 2 hour boat trip, and hanging with a bunch of little kids. Today, Dave and I went to the aquarium with the rest of the Sabbath school group. After lunch we went on a boat ride, then came back for mom and dad to sing. They did such a beautiful job!

Mom and Dave went to go-carts after vespers but Dad and I opted to stay and go on a date. We had Italian food and a walk around the town. It was great to spend some time with him.

Well, Mom and Dave just walked in. I'll post some more pictures, though!

God Bless!

Comments

2007-06-26T08:37:00.001-05:00

BTW, no pressure, but I sure do miss all you guys. So, just thought I'd let you all know you CAN comment on my posts (at least say hey). At the bottom of the post click on comments and say hi to me. So no pressure, but would love to hear from you guys! :-)

God Bless!

Pictures of Quebec City

2007-06-25T10:12:00.000-05:00

Here are more pictures from our trip:

Leaving the hotel

Downtown Quebec City

View from the wall

Our hotel from a distance

Inside the Catholic Church

The Funiculare (you can ride the Funiculare from old town Quebec to main street Quebec

Another view of our hotel

The remains of St. Jean Baptist Holiday

Joan of Arc Gardens

Joan of Arc's Lions

Greeting from Quebec City!

2007-06-25T08:47:00.000-05:00

Quebec City is great! We got here around noon on Friday. What everyone says is true: It does feel like being in Europe. French is the main language here, so youhear it everywhere you go. When we got here Friday we were pretty hungry. La Primavera was our restaurant of choice. Delicious! We ate cheese pizza and the most incredible bruchetta. It most certainly “hit the spot.”

Across the street from this restaurant was a Pentecostal church. It looked really neat, so we headed over to check it out. It looked so European! The stained glass windows and huge, elaborate organ were so neat. The lady working there told us there was an organ concert coming up and we were welcome to come back for it. To kill some time, we went into a little Catholic church across the street. That church was also spectacular. We went back to the first church and had just sat down in the balcony when the organ concert began. It was beautiful! Those old, ornate organs have such an awesome sound.

We walked around the little shops in old Quebec City for a while. It was during this time that I confirmed my fateful decision. Hang on… are you sitting down? I decided to have an ice cream cone!!! To some of you this may not seem like a big deal. But for those of you who know me really well, you know how huge this is. I have been since August 15 with not one bite of cake, cookie, ice cream, candy, etc. After having my wisdom teeth out at the end of may I had one ice cream scoop. But this was my first dessert for no special reason. I hereby declared this week my official vacation. Vacation from work, school, so why not add from no dessert? Lol. I intend to finish off the year after this week is over, but wanted to experience full vacation. Wow! How liberating! ☺ Here is a picture of me committing my sin: (it was peach flavor by the way) ☺

Mom and Dad had music practice that evening. Dave and I went and said hi to some friends then went back down to the practice room for a while. I “hung out” with Julia Cook, a six year old cutie that reminds me so much of me at that age, for a few minutes then went back to my hotel room. YFJ is getting here fast and my sermon prep time is important, so guess what I did? Practiced a sermon! ☺ That was it for the night. Mom and Dad finished and we all hit the hay.

Sabbath breakfast was provided for us by AHS (Adventist Health Systems). It was fun to visit with people while enjoying our scrumptious meal. There are only a few people here so far. About 15-20 people came early to prepare choral music for next weekend. The rest of the group arrive today, tomorrow, and Tuesday. After a devotional thought from Dr. Jeringan it was time for the adults to practice their music again. David, myself, Jacob and Julia Cook decided to go for a stroll. We wanted to walk on the wall, as it feels more Sabbathful than walking among the shops. We found the stairs up to it and walked for about 10 minutes before reaching a dead end. Just as we were turning to head down a hill, Julia fell down and scrapped her hands and knees up. We couldn’t think of anything else to do and she wanted her band-aids, so we headed back to the hotel.

Cooks, Werners, and us went to a small French restaurant for lunch. I don’t like eating out on Sabbath, but we didn’t have any options so we went. We had a good time together and the food was okay. We couldn’t decided what to do Sabbath afternoon, but finally settled on a drive. Poor Dad, within 15 minutes I was asleep and Mom and Dave followed suit. We ended up coming back to the hotel and doing some “lay activities.” ☺ It sure was wonderful!

Nothing else exciting happened until 8:00. Mom and Dad have been meeting once or twice a day with the small choir to practice. The president of AHS and his wife took the entire choral group (and their children) to a fondue restaurant for dinner. I had never had fondue before and wasn’t really looking forward to it. I’m not big into chocolate on my fruit, and didn’t know what else there was going to be to eat. I was in for a pleasant surprise. My favorites were bread dipped in cheese, coli flour dipped in cheese, and this little potato patty filled with cheese. Delicious! For dessert, yes I had dessert ☺, my favorite thing was maple-dipped bananas. They were to die for! I was quite full by the time we were finished.

Our walk back was an adventure as well. When we were walking to the restaurant crowds of people were forming everywhere. Sunday was St. Jean Baptist, National Quebec Day. It is the equivalent to our 4th of July. Well, on Sunday they celebrate in Montreal. But Saturday night is like New Year’s Eve and they celebrate in Quebec City. How fortunate that we chose that night to eat out. ☺ By the time we left, the people were everywhere. In fact, as we walked out of the restaurant a bus was stopped by the curb. There were three people on top of it and more people opening the windows. I think they were starting to climb out, as well. They were also throwing beer bottles out of the bus. Well, right as we were approaching the police were making everyone get off the bus. This was our first taste of the insanity. Everywhere you turned, people were drinking, drunk, or stoned. I am now officially able to distinguish the smell of marijuana. Great, huh? We were traveling in a big group and made it back fine, but I sure don’t like being in huge drunk crowds. Can’t imagine wanting to be a part of it! ☺

Saturday and Sunday nights there were proms here at our hotel. We are staying at the nicest hotel in Quebec City, so this is where a lot of the proms are. It was kind of neat to see all the huge dresses and fancy suits.

Yesterday, I actually got the energy and went to workout before breakfast. Impressive, eh? ☺ It felt so good! After breakfast, I finished getting ready then Dave and I met the Cook boys in the lobby and headed to the citadel for the changing of the guard. It was kind of boring since we don’t know French,but it was neat to get the cultural experience. The tickets included a one-hour tour, but none of wanted to stay. We were ready to get back to the parents, who were almost finished singing. My family opted to eat some lunch. Our restaurant of choice? La primavera! ☺ We had the same delicious pizza and bruchetta and enjoyed them both just as much as the first time.

Next, we walked up several blocks, and I mean several, to the Joan of Arc Gardens. They were so pretty! Mom and Dad stayed in hotel right by them 10 years ago and knew Dave and I would love to see them. I took lots of pictures and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. By this time our stomachs had settled a little bit and it was time for dessert. Pitiful, I know. We shared three Beaver Tails and three ice cream cones. ☺ Even more pitiful, huh? ☺ For those of you that aren’t privileged enough to have sampled a Beaver Tail and are wondering how an animals tail is dessert, allow me to elaborate. Beaver’s Tails are made out of the same type of dough as funnel cakes, but are long cookie shapes. These are whole wheat with your choice of topping. You can do chocolate, cinnamon sugar, chocolate with bananas, etc. But my family’s personal favorites are the Avalanche and maple butter. Avalanche is cream cheese frosting with chocolate and caramel chips on it, and a little chocolate drizzled on top. Rich, but fabulous!

Enough about our growing stomachs. ☺ It was almost time by now for my parents to practice again. We all chilled in the room for a while, I preached a sermon to Dad, and then Dad and I went on a short walk to a nearby park. We sat and talked for a while before heading back to sing. While mom and dad sang, I talked to M.J. and Alyssa, signed up for the President’s club (gaining this wonderful free internet), and walked down to the pool to visit with friends. Ally and Cam Werner and Julia Cook were swimming, while Kelly Werner made sure they didn’t drown. I talked with them for a while then headed back to the parents once more. It wasn’t long before they were finished and we were all in our own beds. I slept so good since I hadn’t had a nap that day! I was exhausted!

So far today I’ve worked out, eaten breakfast, and typed out this blog. Now I better work on a sermon and then mom and dad should be about finished. Since I have free internet finally, I will be updating more often.

Miss you all! God Bless!

P.S. I am currently looking for my camera. When I find it, I will upload pictures. ☺

Bonjour!

2007-06-21T21:26:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I had typed up a longer entry, but it got deleted and I don't want to re-type it. Sorry! :-) So in short, I am in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada for the night. Tomorrow my family and I drive to Quebec City and will be there for 10 days. We arrived safetly and enjoyed a nice dinner at a local restaurant. Pizza, salad, and french fries. Mmm...

Our waitress was really nice. She tried to talk to us in her broken English mixed with French. It reminded me of my Spanish. :-)

Having fun so far, but tired! :-) Write more when it happens! God bless!

Another day in: The Life of Liv

2007-06-19T09:39:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was an awesomely, wonderful, extremely crazy busy day! :-) After working out with Alyssa and Lorina I got straight to work on my sermon prep. Youth for Jesus is getting her so fast! It's so exciting yet nerve wracking at the same time. When I finished my study time for the day, I worked some on a powerpoint for my dad. He had a board presentation this morning on Honduras, so I helped him pick out pictures and put them on powerpoint.

Next on my list was photo shoot preparation. I had two photo shoots yesterday afternoon and spent some time doing research on different poses. (I'm still majorly learning) By the time I finished, I had to get my equipment ready and then my first peoples were here. We had a fun time, but the wind and the heat fought against us. By the time I shot Jennifer and Chris at the duck pond, it had cooled down a bunch! The lighting was perfect there and we got some incredible pictures! To check them out, visit my website or photography blog. I absolutely love shooting couples. They are so much fun!

By the time we finished, I looked terrible! I was a sweaty mess. My family and I have been going to some awesome Revelation seminars at the fitness center. This means I had 20 minutes to get ready. I managed to pull myself together half-way decently and then we were off.

Doug Mitchell did an awesome presentation on the judgement. When we got home Jennifer and Chris stopped by to look at there pictures. It was fun to share with them.

Today is going to be another wild busy day so I better get moving!

God Bless!!

Busy, busy, dizzy

2007-06-17T17:42:00.000-05:00

Time just keeps speeding by! Is it just me or am I always saying that? :-) Since I last wrote, I've gotten to spend lots of time with family and friends. Ever since we got home from Central America I've gotten a much needed summer break. This time at home has been great! I've gotten to do some special friend things, spend some time in family worship again, and get things taken care of around the house that get neglected when you're in a foreign country.

This weekend, actually since Thursday night, Devin and Justin Bowyer stayed with us while their parents were out of town. Poor Devin was sick, so he slept most of the time. But Justin and David had a fun time together. Friday morning Alyssa, Lorina, and I headed to Hulen Mall to finish up our YFJ shopping. I bought a suit to preach in a didn't have anything to wear under it. I found two shirts I know will work and one I think will. Yay! The three of us had so much fun together. Praise the Lord for awesome friends! :-)

Friday night we hung out here and had a great worship.This week we've started something new for worship. Dave picks a story in the Bible and reads it to all of us. Then we go back through verse by verse and discuss what we see, hear, and feel in that particular story. It's really amazing! It makes the Bible come alive more than usual.

Sabbath morning prayer group was very special. Prayer time usually is. What a priveledge to come openly before our Savior! Church was longer than usual. VBS was held Monday-Thursday this past week so the first 30 minutes of church was given over to them. It was long, but neat to see the kids getting involved. The sermon was great! I love Pastor Moore.

After church there was a going away potluck for David and Sherry May. Sherry taught kindergarten at BAS (the church school) and had since before I was kindergarten. She was my teacher for 6 weeks before we moved. What an incredible woman! David taught at KAES (another Adventist school) for the past several years. About 6 years ago, he was principal at BAS and also a teacher there. Needless to say, they've both had an incredible effect on many people, myself included. They've accepted a call to the Orcas Islands of the coast of Washington. They will be greatly missed, but we are all glad they are listening to the Lord.

Sabbath afternoon was FULL of... relaxing! I ended up taking a two hour nap. Boy, did that feel good. Alyssa and Lorina came over at 6:00 and we lazed around a while longer. We had sundown worship around 8:00 and then they left. I drove David and Justin to the video place to pick up a movie, then came and hung out with mom and dad. I ended up finishing the movie with the boys before heading to bed.

This morning has been filled with getting things done around the house and preparing for Canada and Youth for Jesus, both of which are rapidly approaching. We took Dad out to lunch for Father's Day, but other than that he and Dave have been working outside. That is a major Father's day gift to him. He loves getting stuff done!

In about ten minutes we're headed to Ft. Worth for Pastor Petty's evangelistic meetings. He has been such a support to our family in our efforts and we are looking forward to returning the favor. Please pray for the meetings! Doug Mitchell (Alyssa and Lorina's dad), and Pastor Brad Cauley are co-preaching with him.

Well, I will try to write more when it happens. I was supposed to do two photoshoots today but those plans were changed due to a torential down pour. One tomorrow night and one Tuesday night will be all I do until August.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

God Bless!

I'm still alive!

2007-06-13T19:47:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone!

Yes, I am still alive. :-) It has been forever since I last wrote. Time is flying by way too fast. As soon as we got home from El Salvador we hit the ground running. My life has been filled with photoshoots, family time, sermon prep, and lots of much appreciated friend time.

Nothing too exciting has really happened. Life is going really awesome and I am having a blast! I am still living in denial as far as being a senior goes. I graduate in December! Ahhh!!! Can it be? My family and I leave for Canada next Thursday and will be gone for over a week. Then we get home, do laundry, and re-pack. Mom, Dave, and I leave the next day for a month of Youth for Jesus. Wow! Summer will be over before I can finish blinking! :-)

Hope you're all doing wonderful and would love to hear from you! To see my recent photoshoots (what's been eating most of my time) check out the link to my photography blog.

God Bless!!

More Mission Trip Details

2007-06-05T20:18:00.000-05:00

Emily and I finished using the internet and went to put our computers back. No one was at the guesthouse, so we the search for a key began. We walked from house to house but couldn’t find anyone. We finally saw Mom, Dave, and Joel (the man that runs the place) walking towards the guesthouse. We tried to holler at them but they were too far away. I had already put my computer in Emily’s room so we had to run back into the house and grab it. But, when we got to the guesthouse they weren’t there! We did another loop but couldn’t find Ely. Next, we asked someone if they had seen mom. They pointed us toward the office. From the office, it was to ECAS (the school). And guess what? They were at ECAS! Yay!

While on our way to ECAS Manuel, one of the older boys, asked Emily if he could use her camera. She didn’t want to go back to get it and asked if I minded if he used mine. I didn’t, so while we were at ECAS he took some pictures. There is a small construction project going on at the school and Manuel was interviewed on the Adventist radio today. He wanted pictures to give to them. I needed to load these pictures onto Emily’s computer so we went back to her room. We only had 15-20 minutes before our ride to the hotel was supposed to be there. We hooked it up right away but it took forever! Her computer was reading them really slow. As soon as we finished we unplugged it and headed for the guesthouse. The cars were already waiting! Mom was running around looking for us. Pastor and Mrs. Burgos and Manuel and Evila Loza were there to pick us up. Burgos’ had come to house four (where Emily lives) and they said we weren’t there. They had been waiting for 10-15 minutes already! I felt so bad! But we went straight over there. I only wish I’d had time to get pictures with the little kids. Oh well. Maybe I’ll go back sometime!

Alright, time for details about our trip to the orphanage. That was this afternoon but we’ve done so many things since Sunday afternoon! ☺ It has been so much fun! We got to Escuela Hogar Adventista around 5:00. Joel and Jenny invited us in for some dinner. We had pupusas and tamales. Joel, Jenny, their two sons, Benjamin and Josue, and their daughter, Ashley are the caretakers/managers of the whole El Salvador project. They were very hospitable.

At 7:00, we walked up to the multi for worship. The multi is a big gym where they play basketball and football (soccer), have church and worships, and anything else. Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday nights they have group worship. The rest of the week is just house worships. Anyway, it was group worship night so we joined them for the service. The kids were so cute. Before the meeting, we met Emily. She’s a 21-year-old student missionary who’s been here since January 31. She leaves this Thursday. In talking to her, we found out she works at the bakery on campus. Ely asked if we’d be in the way if we joined her, to which she replied not at all! She said she would love to have the company and her boss wouldn’t care at all.

So after a good night’s rest, Ely and I got up around 5:30, showered, and headed to the bakery at 6:00. We had so much fun! Maestra Sandra (the boss) was so nice to us and let us help with everything. We made all kinds of pastries! Chocolate filled, pineapple filling, cherry filling, cinnamon rolls, etc. Delicious! By far the best thing made in the bakery was the torte de zanahorias. Those of you that guess carrot cake win the prize! ☺ It was absolutely delectable! We worked in there from 6:00-9:00. Since we were there when most of it was finished, we got to help deliver the goods to the office and ECAS cafeteria. At ECAS there is a small side room for pupusa making. The ladies asked us (through Ely of course) if we were coming to help them tomorrow morning (today). We said sure, half jokingly. Before we left, they had us come in and make two pupusas each. It was fun! As we were leaving, they handed us a bag with our four pupusas in it and some sauce for them. Alright, for those of you who are dying to know what on earth a pupusa is… here it goes. A pupusa is like a tortilla, but it is filled with beans and cheese. So when you make it the cheese and beans are in a little “pouch”. Very tasty!

Ely y yo had skipped worship since we went so early, so we went back around 9:00 to get ready and have worship. At 10:45, Joel came to give us our promised tour of the grounds. It is such a beautiful place! Truly a present day miracle! I am going to bed now, but will pick up from here tomorrow on the plane. I’ll also explain the system the orphanage runs on. Nighters!

Right now I’m on the airplane waiting to take off from Houston to Dallas. Everything has gone super smooth so far! Praise the Lord!

The tour of the orphanage was great. It is such a beautiful place! There is a bakery, a house for the pastor, a house for the baker, an office, a gym, the caretakers house, and seven children’s homes. The children’s homes are amazing! All but one house has a dorm mother and father, whom the kids call Mommi and Poppi.

Wow! This is way late! It’s already Sunday and I still haven’t finished and uploaded. Ryan Kochenower, my cousin, married Elisabeth Marguerite Murphy-Monclin last night. So, we’ve been in Tennessee for the wedding and I’ve been preoccupied. But I will go ahead and finish up. ☺

As I was saying, each house has a mommi and poppi. Each house is occupied by approximately 20 kids. Well, the five large ones have that many. The two smaller ones only have 10 or less. The houses also have a tia (an aunt) who helps out with the cooking and cleaning. It is a really neat system.

Three evenings a week they have group worship. Every other morning and evening they have a group worship in their houses. The kids work 2-4 hours a day, depending on their age, attend school, and help around the house with cooking and cleaning. They all wash their own uniforms every day and keep their rooms fairly clean. ☺

Back to our first full day at the orphanage. We finished worship and went on the tour. It was fascinating! Joel explained to us all the troubles the orphanage has been through and how God has worked everything out. We got to see the fields where the grow most of their food, all the extra buildings, and anything else there was to see. ☺ The compound itself is beautiful! There are tons of trees! Palm trees, along with many others. It is all very well kempt.

We ate lunch with Joel and his family then went back for an afternoon siesta. Boy was that great! The kids were all in school anyway so there wasn’t much for us to do. When we woke up we hung out outside for a little while then went to play with the little kids in house 7. That must be a tough house! It’s fun to visit but is full of tiny people so would be hard to live in, I’m sure.

Casa four had invited us for supper so at 6:00 we went over there. It was delicious! We started with worship. We sang songs in English and songs in Spanish. Then Mom told a story. After dinner we went back to the room for bed.

The next morning we helped a little in the bakery, but they were mostly finished. So we decided to check out the pupusa work again. The ladies were so sweet and allowed us to help for around an hour! It was so much fun! I actually got pretty good at it! Nowhere close to as good as them, but they were turning out nice. We realized we were slowing them down when things got busy, so we left and let them finish up. What a blast!

We packed then went back to Casa 4 for lunch. We really got pretty close to those kids because that’s where we spent most of our time. They were all so nice!

We left around 4:00 for the airport. It was sad to leave. What a neat place! Nothing too exciting happened at the airport. We just hung out, slept, then left. Ely left first. We followed about two hours later. We made it home with no glitches! Praise God! We actually were home about thirty minutes to an hour before we had planned. It was great!

Thursday was spent doing laundry and catching up with friends. The wedding was pretty and it was great to see family. But I have to admit I am ready to be home! ☺ This weeks promises to be a fun one!

God bless you all!

Coming Home!!

2007-05-29T15:37:00.002-05:00

In about two hours we begin our voyage home. I am sitting under a shade tree at Escuela Hogar Adventista in San Juan Opico, El Salvador. Dave and Ely are swinging on at the playground and Emily (the last SM here) is sitting here with me.

Sunday's meeting and consecration went very well. The de Lazo family had us over for lunch following the meeting. Delicious! These people can sure cook! The Burgos family and the de Lazo family had a wedding to attend so we headed out here. I didn't want to come. I've been so ready to get home that I wasn't really looking forward to it. But I am so glad we came! The kids here are great. In fact, all the people have been amazing!

I am pretty hot right now, so I will update more tonight in our hotel, but just wanted to let ya know I was headed home soon! We are staying in a hotel close to the airport tonight then headed home tomorrow!

I'll update as soon as I can! God bless!

Another day in El Salvador...

2007-05-26T23:02:00.001-05:00

Today was a long day. It was a good day, but a long one. I got up at 5:00 to get ready and we didn’t get “home” until 8:45. What did we do in that time? Buckle up… lol.

Actually nothing too different from the rest of our time here in Central America. ☺ We left the hotel about 7:15. The meetings were held at the orphanage, which was 45 minutes away. We arrived about 8:10 and the singing was just beginning.

Oh, an El Salvadorian highlight! Last night (the meeting went great by the way) mom and I met this adorable old lady. Mom was walking around getting to know people (she’s so cute!) and this little lady was sitting about two rows behind us. She was precious! Mom told her, in our pitiful broken Spanish, that she wanted a picture with her tomorrow (which was today ☺). When we arrived at the church this morning, Ilda was walking across the grass towards us. As soon as we saw her we headed her way. After hugging and laughing our greetings, she pulled two handkerchiefs out of her purses. She had one for me and one for mom! It was the sweetest thing!

Most of the meetings were rather…how do I put it nicely? Long? It’s great stuff, this is just my third time to hear most of it and the rest of it is in Spanish. ☺ I’ve learned a lot more on this trip, so I can understand bits and pieces. But, ten hours is a long time to sit and listen. ☺

The best part of the day was listening to the people practice preaching. I think that’s always the most exciting part. Ilda was one of the “preachers!” She did a beautiful job! She involved the audience and was just plain adorable. ☺ There were a couple other older people, several ladies, and two young people. It was the most variety we’ve seen yet! They all did amazing! I believe God has a mighty work for this country as well!

When the meetings were over, Leasa wanted to go meet her “kids” at the orphanage (the ones she sponsors). She and Barbara aren’t going out there with us, as they both leave on Monday. So we drove over there for a few minutes. The orphanage is only a couple blocks from the church where the training was held. It looks like it’s on the same campus, but the orphanage is separately owned and operated.

Next? Dinner! Saul, or driver, drove us to a Typical El Salvadorian Restaurant. The conference president, his family, the conference treasurer and his family, and one of the pastors were all waiting for us when we arrived. The food was good and they had some yummy juice. My rating as far as food and drink go is as follows: Nicaragua- incredible food, not so incredible juice; El Salvador- incredible juice, okay food. Well, not true. Senia’s (she’s the conference president’s wife) food was the best I’ve had yet. ☺

I am really tired and have to get up really early again tomorrow. So, that’s all for now. I finally took some pictures today, but don’t have time to upload them. I will either do it tomorrow or when I get home! God bless! Love and miss you all!

El Salvador the Delicious!

2007-05-25T17:11:00.000-05:00

Talk about a delicious lunch! Okay, is it just me or does it seem like I’m always writing about the food? ☺ There is definitely plenty food to write home about here! Lunch today was by far the best yet. The conference president took us to his house to eat. His wife had prepared this most incredible meal! I ate rice (my favorite), beans, gluten (homemade-delicious), avocados, tomatoes, and broccoli. She had a few other options as well. All of this was only the main course. Dessert was too die for! In the states I’m not a huge fruit person, but here I’m an addict! We had the most delectable mangos and bananas for dessert. All I’ll say is…Wow! Oh, how could I almost forget? The juice we drank with our meal was all natural homemade strawberry juice. The best ever! It in itself was like dessert.

It just gets better though. Not only was the food delicious, the people were also amazing. His wife told me several times that she had an extra room in her house for me to come live and learn Spanish. She told me if I would come for three months I could be fluent. She was precious! ☺ When we were leaving she told me once more, and offered to show me the extra room. The other 4 people that ate with us were wonderful as well. ☺

Elizabeth, Leasa, and Barbara are shopping right now. Mom is in the room with my sleeping brother. Poor guy! He started feeling really sick right as we were leaving the cp’s house. As soon as we walked back into the hotel he ran to the bathroom and threw up. He is sleeping right now and was able to get some charcoal down, so hopefully it was a one time thing.

I have been e-mailing friends and decided to update my blog one more time. This morning was so nice! We didn’t have to leave until 10:30 so we were able to sleep in a little, clean up our rooms, clean up ourselves, have a delicious breakfast, and have nice devotions.

Our meeting at the mission (aka conference office) went very well. While we were there, they interview us on the Adventist Radio Station. It was a neat, but intimidating experience. When it was my turn to share with the El Salvadorian youth, I lost all my words! David did a wonderful job, though. We found out after we were finished that approx. one million people listen to that station! I pray that God will use what was said to reach some people! Neat experience.

The meeting starts at 6:00 tonight and goes until 8:30. Therefore, we leave in an hour. I am not sure if I will get the chance to update again or not before heading to the orphanage. I will try to do it tomorrow night or Sunday morning. If not, you’ll all just have to wait until I get to the airport Tuesday night!

I can’t believe we have less than a week left here! In ways, I am so very ready to be home. In others, I will miss the people and culture so much. I already do miss people in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and I’m getting ready to add to the list here! ☺

I miss you all so very much! Write me if you get a chance! God bless!

I Want My Daddy!!

2007-05-24T21:50:00.001-05:00

Hehe! People are warning us of the dangers here in El Salvador and I want my Daddy to protect me. ☺Above all else, I just miss ya like crazy! They say it’s actually safe for us as long as we’re together but we just need to be really careful, more so than in the other two countries. We arrived earlier this afternoon and are settling into our hotel rooms.

When we stepped of the plane we found out for ourselves that what everyone told us was true. This is the hottest country yet! ☺ This evening the weather actually turned out very nice. There was a nice breeze and it wasn’t too hot. But when we stepped of the plane and got into the van, it was a different story!

Breakfast at the hotel was…I’ll let you guess. ☺

Grr… Ely was just looking for her skirts and kept telling me she couldn’t find them. Then she remembered. We left some under things, two skirts, and a jacket in the closet in Nicaragua! We are going to call the hotel tomorrow to see if the ladies turned them in. Our “friends” work the morning shift, so we’re gonna wait to talk to them. If we can’t find them, oh well but we’ll at least try.

Anyways, back to our day. Robert (have I written about Robert before?) ate breakfast with us this morning. He was our driver during our stay in Nicaragua. We all loved him to death! He always went the extra mile. They were only paying him to drive us around, but he helped with anything we needed. He played as a personal translator, equipment helper, or whatever else we needed. So, we invited him to join us for breakfast.

Other than breakfast our day has pretty much been consumed with traveling; from the hotel to the airport, on the plane, and from the airport to the hotel. After arriving, we settled in a little bit then began our restaurant selection process. ☺ We decided on Italian food at Pascuales. Good choice! A taxi picked us up from the hotel and drove us there. We had pizza, ravioli, bread, vegetables, and gnocchi. Fab-u-lous!

Next stop…the supermarket! We picked up water, chips, fruit, and juice. We have nice little kitchens in our rooms, so we were able to get cold fruit juice. Yay! We came straight back to the hotel, especially since it was getting dark.

One of the conference men was here when we got back. We had tried calling before we left to eat, but no one knew what to tell us or they weren’t available. We had no clue what we were going to do. So we were of course grateful to see him sitting there. Since he had the time, we went into a side room to discuss our schedule and the other important details. The meeting lasted about an hour. It looks like things are going to go great. Gloria a Dios! (Praise God!)

I believe the end is so near! In our meeting the pastor was explaining why he had left some of the sermon outlines out of the books for the people. One, they ran out of money. Two, El Salvador has recently passed a new law. It is now illegal for people to teach things that discriminate against political/religious leaders. So, the Mark of the Beast sermons are illegal! I was astounded! Even though it's just there to protect against criticizing any one religion, it still is amazing to me. Let’s all pray extremely hard for our Lord’s soon return!

Tomorrow at 11:00 we are meeting the pastor to view their equipment and then he’s taking us to his house for lunch. Right now, we’re watching an Andy Griffith and chillin’ in the room. Miss you all and can’t wait to see you again! I’ll update as soon as I get a chance!

God bless you all!!

Nicagraguan Blessings!

2007-05-23T20:38:00.000-05:00

I am speechless! God is blessing the work in Nicagragua tremendously! I was going to say He blessed since our training is over, but the work here is just beginning! :-) Our morning started a little to early for my liking. Breakfast was, as usual, delicious. We've been eating like royalty over here! It's also been a blast rooming with Elizabeth. She is so much fun! She adds a little extra joy anywhere she goes.

The meeting started at 8:00 this morning, instead of 8:30. We finshed most of the teaching yesterday so today was mostly letting them practice and showing them the equipment. About 10 of the people were given a page of a sermon to practice preaching. They were incredible! The first guy had memorized the entire script after only having it for 15-20 minutes! And he followed it almost word for word! Amazing! All of them were so enthusiastic! Their passion for Christ was evident!

The consecration service was very special.The people all took it so seriously. I believe there will be mighty results due to these people's upcoming meetings. We trained approx. 300 people (more were there, but we only equipped 300) and each person signed a commitment form to hold at least one series. That's 300 meetings minimum! And lots of them will do many more than that. Isn't God amazing?

It was such a blessing to be part of the training team here. Handing out the DVD players, shaking the hands of the happy recipients, and exchanging smiles with them all. Have I mentioned I feel blessed? It has been HOT, we're dirty, smelly, and gross. In spite of all of this I am indescribably happy. :-)

One precious family in particular helped make my days here brighter. Any of you who know me at all know how much I love children. :-) This family had a sweet mama, a nice daddy, and two adorable daughter. Merari is 5 years and Marioneise is 5 months.
Merari was so sweet and so much fun! She gave us lots of kisses, hugs, and gorgeous smiles. Marioneise contributed to the heat by being a wonderful snuggle bug. :-) They seem to be a very focused, united family. It's such a blessing to meet people like that all over the world!

There were more than a few tears shed by we team members today. The people just exhud (spelling?) joy and beauty. Their sacrifices, enthusiasm, and commitment have inspired us all to do more to help them finish this work!

Tomorrow, it's off to El Salvador. I am sad to leave Nicaragua, but at the same time am so happy to meet the people of El Salvador. I should have internet for the until Sunday at least but after that I'm not sure. So, I will do my best to keep you informed, but we'll see how it goes! Ely is asleep already and I smell HORRIBLE! So, I'm going to shower and hit the hay. :-)

Thanks for your prayers! It's evident that they're being answered! :-) God bless you all!

Hola Mis Amigos!!

2007-05-22T20:11:00.000-05:00

Hola! Today went fantastic! It was a very long day, but went extremely well! We started off with a delicious breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The pineapple was white! It was fabulous! There was french toast, delicious breads, omlettes, cereal, fruit, and much more. It was incredible!

We left shortly after for the meeting. Everything was ready when we got there. There were people still registering but other than that, everything was ready and waiting for us. It was amazing! The meetings went incredible. God really blessed. For the most part, everything went smoothly. Elizabeth did an awesome job translating, everyone else did great with their presentations, and the locals were very helpful. The people wanted to be there so bad that several of them had traveled for days on bus or several of them even walked! There were people sitting outside once the inside filled up! It was so amazing!

At this point, we are sitting in our room ordering pizza. This trip has been a blast with Leasa! She makes everything so much fun! God has blessed us immensely! Once more, thanks for the prayers!! :-) God bless you all!

Nicagragua!!

2007-05-21T22:04:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! At 12:45, our plane landed in Managua, Nicaragua! So, I am writing this while sitting on my bed in the Holiday Inn Select in Managua. Elizabeth is finally with us!! Yay! Her plane landed 20 minutes before ours. Perfect timing! :-)

This morning before we left, we were blessed to have the opportunity to partake of another MARVELOUS pineapple! The pineapple has given me a new appreciation for these countries! :-) We left our hotel at 7:15 this morning. Which means, we were up much too early!

Oh, I forgot to write about the funniest experience we've had. We've had several, but this tops all. :-) Friday night at the close of our first meeting in Costa Rica, Frank came up to my mom while Barbara was speaking. He told her they were trying to get us out of there so they could start a funeral. "At this time of night?" my mom asked him. He just shrugged his shoudlers and nodded. We tried to get Barbara's attention to tell her to finish up, but she didn't get it. So, write as she was finishing her talk some people at the back of the church began to carry in the casket. We couldn't believe it! Our meeting came to a close with a casket at the front of the church while everyone said prayers in groups of twos and threes. It was so hilarious! (In an odd sort of way! :-)

Anyway, had to share that story. After collecting our baggage, we walked outside and the people from the Nicaraguan conference were waiting to pick us up! What a surprise! We didn't have to wait at all! :-) Everyone here is so nice and organized! They have everything all planned out and are ready for us to start at 8:30 tomorrow morning.

We ate lunch in the hotel, had a meeting, then took off for a little sight seeing. We went to this really neat volcano and took some beautiful pictures. Right before we left the wind changed directions and the sulphuric acid made it hard to breathe. We had seen all there was to see anyway,so we loaded up and left. The people drove us back the long way so we could do some extra sight seeing. When we got back to hotel, we snacked and talked and are now ready for bed. We have wireless internet here, so i will update as things begin to happen.

God Bless!!

Finalamente!

2007-05-20T20:35:00.000-05:00

We are finished with the work here in Costa Rica! I am not sure whether or not I will have internet in Nicoragua or El Salvador, but if we do I will update there, too. We are leaving for the airport at 7:00 tomorrow morning. It's a good thing my mom thought to check the time for our flight! Leasa though we were leaving at 12:00 something, so the pastors were going to pick us up at 9:00. Mom asked if she was positive and Leasa ran to check. When she came back, she said we do leave at 12:19... from Nicoragua to El Salvador!! Our plane leaves at 10:40 tomorrow for Nicoragua! Praise God for having my mom suggest that we double check!

Today was another long day! Once again, good but long. We had to be to the meeting by 8:00 for our last meeting. They had us scheduled to finish at 12:00, but Leasa thought we would surely be finished early. We started a little after 8:00, and finished everything at 1:45!
:-) After sharing the rest of our information one of the pastors got up to "close things off" for us. He spoke for close to 30 minutes. Then, we had the consecration service. I will post a picture of all the DVD players when I get home and have access to wireless again. There were about 300 of them! It was an amazing sight!

By the time we finshed we were all super hungry. After waiting some more for the pastor to be ready, we loaded into the car and drove to Pizza Hut! Yay! :-) It was very delicious! Three pastors, two pastor`s wives, and one of the pastor`s two children came with us. Following our meal, the drove us to the conference office. When we finished there, we all got back into the cars to souvenir shop. Most of the stores were closing, so we only shopped about 30 minutes. Plenty for me! The pastor`s bought us each a few small gifts. It was so thoughtful! I ended up with a key chain, a coconut purse, a small notepad, and a heart-shaped mirror.

From here we headed back to the hotel. Frank was waiting here to tell us goodbye, since he had to be away for the day. This was when Leasa checked our flight time and we made plans for an earlier pick-up.

We are currently in the process of packing up so we can leave early tomorrow morning. God richly blessed the meeting here and I am excited to see what He will do in the other countries. The people here were so receptive and anxious to contribute and do their part to finish the work. The Costa Rican people have been such a blessing to us all!

Once again, thank you all for your prayers! I'll update as soon as I get an opportunity!

God Bless!!

Not much time

2007-05-19T22:44:00.000-05:00

I don`t have much time to write. Today was a long day, but a good one. I thought I was going to preach, but we got to the church and once again, plans had changed. We`re all used to it by now, though.
:-)

Training went well. The people are all so enthusiastic. We are tired and I am going to go talk to my Dad, so I can`t give a thorough update now, but thanks for the prayers!

God Bless!!

Oh, to know Spanish...

2007-05-18T17:36:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I wish I knew Spanish! Okay, most of the time! :-) This morning started with breakfast in the hotel`s restaurant. Beans, rice, toast, and fruit made up our meal. It was pretty yummy!

Our morning was spent planning our schedule and taking a walk into town to the supermarket. At 2:00, the pastor picked us up for lunch. We had... beans, rice, and avacado. Talk about variety! :-)

The pastor's wife's car broke down, so he had to leave us at the store. We waited for over an hour before giving up and calling him. The store clerk allowed us to use their phone, and we told him we were going to take a taxi. So, we walk to the corner to hail a taxi. One stops and asks where we want to go. We realize we only know the name, no directions or address and the man didn`t recognize the name! I wished so bad I could speak Spanish!

We were right by a pizza hut, so we asked if they had a phone book. They did! Unfortunatly, no luck. Next, we used their phone to call the pastor who gave us general directions. Five or ten minutes later, we finally caught an empty taxi. He knew where our hotel was! Praise God!

We`ve been back for about thirty minutes now, and are leaving in thirty for our first meeting. Pray for the Holy Spirit`s presence in this meeting!

All in all, we`ve had a good first day in Costa Rica. :-) God Bless you all! Thank you for your prayers!!

Hola from Costa Rica!!!

2007-05-18T08:32:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!

I don't have much time left to update before I need to go take a shower. Yesterday had to be the longest day of my life! We woke up at 2:45 to leave by 3:30 for the airport. In order to not be overly negative, I will spare you the details. The jist of it is, we got re-scheduled on the wrong flight, coouldn't get on our real flight because our "bags were checked on the later one", and arrived to find our bags waiting for us. They had come on our original flight!

This was all good and well, but no one was helpful. All but one person was rude to us. When we arrived and claimed our bags, we waited outside the airport for an hour and a half for our ride. But when the two men finally arrived to pick us up, we were so relieved. They are so nice! It felt so good to see a smile again!

Then when we saw Leasa, everything was better! We spent the evening stuffing CD's and talking with Leasa. All of us slept like babies! When we fell in bed we couldn`t move. :-)

Today we will be getting ready for the training that starts tonight. Well, I think this girl is waiting on me to get off. So until later, God Bless!

It's been a long time!

2007-05-15T20:41:00.000-05:00

Wow! It sure has been a long time since I last wrote! Well, long for me! I was trying to blog every day but life just seemed to accelerate its pace. Since I last wrote I've been busy with lots of odds and ends. I've had a Bible study, volunteered at Pan American's Keene office, gone ice skating, watched CTA's play (which was great by the way), and then spent lots of time getting other things accomplished.

Friday was Lorina's birthday, so last night Alyssa and I surprised her with a sweet sixteen party. I told her I was taking her out to eat. She told us later she was kind of suspicious but then I took her to a restaurant "forgetting" it was closed on Monday's. This threw her off. So when we pulled up to Olive Garden she didn't suspect anything. When we walked in a fellow church member told me "They're already in the back, Olivia." So much for a surprise! :-) She didn't know we were throwing a surprise party, and gave it away. Oh well. Lorina was still generally surprised and flattered. We had dinner followed by homeade cakes (made by Karen, Alyssa, and Olivia). Everyone gave her a rose and Alyssa and I bought her a flowers from a florist as one of our gifts. Plus, mom had gotten two dozen roses to put in little jars around the table. It turned out nice. After the party, Ashley, Macy, Alyssa, Lorina, Leticia, and Zuri came over for games. After Macy, Leticia, and Zuri had gone home the rest of watched an Andy Griffeth. Alyssa and Lorina had never seen one before!! Wow! I didn't know that was possible! :-)

Also yesterday, Dad called me and asked if I wanted to go to a Ranger's game. They had left over tickets and he thought it would be fun for Dave and I to go. So Lora, Emily, Dave, and I headed to Arlingon for a game. It got rained out after we had watched ten or fifteen minutes of it! Grr... Oh well, at least we got to eat the food! :-)

Today has been spent getting things done around the house, volunteering at PAHS, eating out with Lora, swimming with Lora, getting more done around the house, swimming with Mom and Dave, having worship, and getting ready for bed. I swam an entire mile today! Let me tell you, that is a long way!!! :-)

Probably my biggest new is I have a new website. Olivialeighphotography.smugmug.com (also a link on the side of this page) is my latest accomplishment. I've started taking pictures and am trying to start a small business. I love doing it so much, that I decided I'd like to do it more often! :-) So if you get a chance, check it out! It took me hours to create, but now I have a sense of accomplishment.

Tomorrow will be insane! We are leaving Thursday morning at 3:30 AM for Costa Rica, Nicoragua, and El Salvador. Packing will be top priority tomorrow!

Any prayers will be greatly appreciated over the next two weeks! Please pray for the people of the above countries! God bless you all!

Too late

2007-05-06T00:41:00.000-05:00

It's way too late. I should be in bed. :-) Today has been wonderful! My mouth has been doing so much better. A little bit of pain still on the left sign, but I am basically back to normal. This morning I went to Keene with Daddy for the graduation Sabbath school. Mom and Dave went to Burleson for prayer group and to lead music in Early Teens, then joined Dad and I for church. Lunch was relaxing. Just our family for a change. Mary Jo came over for a couple of hours this afternoon and just chilled with me.

At 5:30, the Youngbergs came over for a picture swap and worship. They are such a neat family! Anita leaves in the morning for Honduras. Wish i was going with her! All five kids and there families plus Aileen were here. We had so much fun talking, looking at all the pictures, and closing the Sabbath together. Fern and Taty provided some great charades for us. Right as they were leaving, Bowyers came over. We hadn't spent time with them in so long! We looked at pictures, talked, then played some games. We had so much fun together! They are just getting ready to leave and we are ready for bed!

Hope everyone else had a blessed Sabbath! God Bless you all!

Sick and Tired

2007-05-02T12:04:00.000-05:00

I am so sick and tired of being... sick and tired! :-) My mouth feels pretty good, but I have absolutely no energy. I want to be doing school, having devotions, doing stuff with friends, etc. but all I can really do is lay around. Grr....

Gone

2007-04-30T17:15:00.000-05:00

Well, they're gone. All three of my wisdom teeth were pulled about two hours ago. I am feeling a little bit drowsy right now, so I won't give too many gorry details.

I wasn't too nervous until we started driving there. And the funny thing is that I wasn't even worried about the procedure. I was worried about the IV!! Hehe! It usually takes a long time to start my IV's and it hurts really bad. I prayed that God would help him get it started in one stick and trusted that he would.

He did!!!! I was praising God, literally! I feel pretty good right now, just a little drowsy and sore. Hope everyone is going great! Thanks for your prayers!! God Bless!!

Honduras Mission Trip

2007-04-28T14:13:00.000-05:00

This series of entries is my journal of the Huguley Hospital mission trip to Honduras. April 20-27 a group of approximately 30 people (nurses, doctors, construction workers, office workers, a police man, teenagers) headed to Pina Blanca, Honduras. Pan American Health Services has a rehabilitation hospital, a school, and dorms for the older “orphans.” The following are the experiences we had over the past week. God Bless!!

April 20, 2007

We are just about to land in Atlanta, GA! I obviously won’t be able to post this for a while, but I decided I would try to keep up as much as possible and just post as soon as I get the chance. At this point, I am slightly tired! We woke up at 1:45, and walked out the door by 2:30. Everyone met at 3:00 in the Fitness Center parking lot and we loaded the bus. The rest of the morning has been traveling to the airport, getting situated, waiting, boarding the plane, and we are just about to finish our one and a half hour flight to Atlanta.

April 21, 2007

Wow! Talk about a rough day! I had to stop that entry because we were landing, but my plans to finish as soon as I got on the next flight were slightly altered. Okay, drastically altered. All morning long I had been feeling kind of funny. I almost tossed my cookies on our first flight, but somehow managed not to. As the morning progressed, I began to feel more and more nauseated. At the Atlanta airport, Dad bought me some Dramamine, so when I got on the plane I had some fishy crackers and carrots. Big mistake!! I fell asleep for a little while, but then they brought us our meal: ravioli, salad, bread, and dessert. I couldn’t even smell it, but just looking at it, I quickly left Macy and Janalee (my flying buddies), and went to sit with mom and dad. I barely made there and requested a barf bag before I lost it. I was so miserable and embarrassed! I felt a lot better though, and went to sit with Macy again. I felt so good, that I ate the roll that had come with my lunch. Smart, huh? An hour later, I was using my second little white bag.

When we landed in San Pedro Sula, I still didn’t feel too hot. We went through immigrations without any problem. I went to get my luggage and realized I had left my luggage tags on the plane!! Macy had brought my stuff to me, and I didn’t even think about my luggage tags. Paul told us they rarely check, but I guess since our group had so many bags with drugs in them they were checking all of our bags. The man was very gracious and was able to write something on my immigrations slip and let us go on through. What a relief!Martha, Dr. Bendall, Paul, Nelly, and Nelly’s husband Ian all met us outside the airport. It was great to see them, but I was not my usual excited self. The heat sure didn’t help my sick tummy! I drank a few swigs of water to try and prevent dehydration, but wasn’t about to drink too much! The bus ride went okay, but I still felt so nasty. We stopped at a little “On the Run” gas station after about thirty minutes. They were letting those that needed to or wanted to off the bus. I thought it would help me to get up. Wrong! I was barely outside the bus when it hit me. I had a bag ready, but didn’t end up needing it thankfully. We made a quick pit stop inside, then re-loaded the bus. Daddy let me lay on his lap with my feet up, and I fell asleep in that uncomfortable position. Right before I lay down, Roxanne (one of the nurses here with us) came over and asked if she could pray with me. She put her hand on my forehead and asked God to heal me. I appreciated it so much! When I woke up, I felt great! I started to sit up but that made me start to feel bad again, so I decided against it. We were stopped, waiting for the engine to cool down. The last 15 minutes of our trip, I laid on Dad. I sat up as we were entering the campus. I smiled and waved at the kids, wanting to get out and squeeze each one of them. When we pulled up to the girls’ dorm, I was eager to go see the kids. As soon as I stepped of the bus, though, I speedily walk away from the group. My third round of throwing up commenced. Once again, I felt fine once it was over. Paul brought me some charcoal capsules and I swallowed those. I was determined to go see the kids at supper and worship. Emily and I didn’t have our mattresses yet, so Paul told me I was welcome to use his bed if I wanted. I wanted so bad to be with everyone, but decided to lie down until supper. I was so grateful to Emily! She stayed in the room with me until I fell asleep. I decided I was going to dinner and stood up to go. I immediately started feeling bad. I kept wanting to go, but I stayed on Paul’s bed until around 8:00.

I was so scared I wouldthrow up when I stood up, but Mom and Dad walked with me over to where they were staying. Since we didn’t have our mattresses, they wanted me to stay with them. I didn’t throw up on the way over! And, I was able to get down 5 fl. oz. (the most I had kept down all day). I feel great this morning! I showered and we are now going to head for breakfast and church. This trip had a rough start for me, but praise God I feel great today!!

Later

The children are so beautiful! My heart has definitely been stolen by these precious little angels. It is going to be so hard for me to go home!

Breakfast consisted of honey nut cheerios and animal crackers for me.When we were finished, Macy and Janalee took me for a “tour” around campus. There is a really neat banana field close to our breakfast building. It is just absolutely beautiful here! So lush and green!

Sabbath school and church were all going to be in Spanish, so Mom and I decided to go spend the rest of our morning with the babies in the hospital. The hospital here is a rehab hospital for babies that used to be malnourished or other similar problems. In actuallity, it is a little orphanage type home where they take care of poor Honduran babies.

When we first walked into the building, I was overwhelmed by the stench. But as I looked into those precious little faces, the smell was easy to forget. So many beautiful children that need love and attention! There’s little Josue who runs around and shows off for attention. He and Christian are not afraid to call out for attention. Christian won’t walk. He scoots around on his bottom everywhere. Shelia, one of the doctors, is trying to teach him to walk, so she will hold his hands and walk around with him. If there are people around to watch him and cheer for him, he’ll walk with someone. So we all cheer “Excellente, Christian! Muy bien!!”

Little Yosenja was shy at first. When I would look at her, she would smile at me but when I held my arms out to her and said “por favor” she ignored me. After we had been there about 30 minutes, she started fussing and I held my arms out to her. She reached her chubby little arms up and grabbed onto me. She became my baby for the rest of the morning. I would lean her back and give her kisses. At first she just clung to me unsure of what I was doing. But when she realized I was loving on her she would lean back and giggle and grin. We took most of the kids outside to the swing set for a little while, too. They LOVED it!! I sat Yosenja on my lap on the swing and began to push back and forth. Immediately she began to giggle and squeal. When we left, she started fussing a little because she loved being outside so much. I started to feel not so good again, and then they brought out the food. The smell made my stomach churn, so I headed back to the room for a siesta. In about 20 minutes we are going to some nearby waterfalls.

I wish I had time to write about each child. Poor Maria has some neurological problems. She looks a little funny, but she loves to be held. Eric and Scarlet are 4-6 month twins. They are so small! And Rosalinda is a one-year-old malnourished baby. It is so sad. Her face never changes. She is so small and acts lethargic. Clarrissa, Carlito, and a couple more babies also live there. Jonathan found Marty and clung to him the whole time. He is starved for male attention and would hardly let Marty out of his sight. When Marty did leave, he would not smile. We said “Jonathan, feliz. Sanrio (or whatever smile is).” “No,” he told us. “Malo.” He was so sad!

The children are all so precious! I am going to go get a few more squeezes in before the falls!!!

Before Bed

Maybe squeezes weren’t such a good idea.We ended up having to leave only five minutes after we got there. The tears that accompanied us setting them down broke my heart! Especially when mom put Tania down! Poor baby! They are so starved for attention! They just need people to hold them!

The falls were absolutely INCREDIBLE!! They were so beautiful to look at, but it got even better. Paul and Irene asked if anyone was interested in going behind the falls. Tour guides would take you down under and behind the falls into a little Mayan cave. At first I decided against going. I was wearing flip-flops and had forgotten a towel. But when we got down to the “point of no return” (hehe) I decided I didn’t want to regret not going. So, I took off my shoes and walked through the gate. What an amazing experience!! ☺ It was slimy, grimy, and mucky the whole way to the actual fall. When we got close to the foot of the falls it got so bad we couldn’t see anything! The water from the falls was falling so heavy we had to grab the hand of our tour guide and trust him to lead us. It was cold and a heavy down pour. We made it to the little cave, and about 10 of us crawled up inside this tiny little cave. We sat up in there for about 5 minutes waiting for the rest of the group, wondering how we were all going to fit. Finally the tour guide yelled up that we had to come down. Lol! We all laughed at ourselves for sitting in the cave thinking we were waiting. The rest of the trek was also a blast. We walked back through waist deep water, still under heavy falls. Still not able to see well, at some points we had to hang on to a shirt in front of us. We ended up making it back with our entire group! Not one person fell into the falls! Yippee!! ☺ The best word I can think of to describe our experience was exhilarating. Shelia had told me that was what I should expect, and she was right. I am so glad I went!

When we got back, I showered off the nasty mud that covered a large portion of me. Supper was next on the agenda. Delicious! My first real meal in Honduras! Two flour tortillas with beans, cheese, and sour cream. Yummy and filling! Vespers included singing, a worship thought by Paul, and some neat special music’s by the school kids.

Mom spent all of last week buying and sorting different gifts for the kids. All of these gifts needed sorting and put into gift bags. That took us approximately an hour. Oh, and before the sorting could begin Mom asked Macy, Emily, and I to get some things from the clinic. When we got back, she said, “I’m sorry, I need my tissue paper from Dave’s bag.” So we hiked back to our room. On reaching the cafeteria where we were sorting I jokingly asked mom what else she needed. “Did someone tell you I needed more stuff?” “No, I just knew you,” I told her. We made one last trip back to get her list of names and ages and were finished. I am not exhausted and dad is telling me to turn this off so we can all go to bed. What an incredible trip!! Praise God!!

April 22, 2007

Wow! I went almost and entire day without writing anything! Today was extremely long, but really incredible. The time here seems to go by so slow, but at the same time I can’t believe we’ve been here for two full days already. And gone for three! Amazing! This morning started bright and early, with the crickets chirping loudly and the bird sing their emphatic cries. Breakfast consisted of a delicious bowl of… honey bunches of oats accompanied by a grapefruit and piece of toast. Tonya, head of PCU, presented our morning devotional. What a touching testimony! She talked about giving her life back to the Lord as a result of several recent incidents. All of that worked together to bring her on this trip. Very moving.

After our lovely worship, everyone went his or her separate ways. Some went to the clinics, others to construction, and a few of us to the rehab hospital. Have I mentioned that these babies are precious? All of the people here are wonderful. Tania became my very special little buddy today. Wherever I went, she went with me. It can be so hard not to have a favorite! I love them all, but she loves me back so much! Little Clarissa is so smart and happy! She claps a lot and Jennifer was trying to teach her to blow kisses. Rosa is such a lethargic baby. It is so sad! Her expression NEVER changes. Jennifer was able to coax two smiles out of her today though! She fights it for all she’s worth, or doesn’t even show that she’s hiding it. I almost got one a few times, but she caught it before she let it out.
At one point today Emily, Macy, and I brought Tania and Rosa into my room where Mom was and gave them snacks and chilled. Rosa fell asleep next to Emily! It was so precious! Tania is the sweetest little girl ever! After a long day of crafts with the older kids, playing with the babies, and working a bunch of us went swimming at the canal. It was so pretty and the cold water felt great after holding sweaty babies all day.

Supper was very yummy! The second part of our VBS was held in the chapel after dinner (the first part had been crafts earlier). We sang, then Jennifer and I did talks on trust in God (me) and air (her). We had a blast with the kids and are now in bed ready to sleep. I wish I had time for more detail and may try to write more later. But for now, Buenas Noches!!

April 23, 2007

Time is dragging and flying all at the same time. I can’t believe Monday is almost completely over, but at the same time today was extremely long. This morning started too early! We’ve all decided it’s pointless to shower in the morning, so we headed straight to breakfast. Deliciosa!! Dr.Bendall presented our devotional thought. It was inspirational and interesting.
Emily and I headed back to the room for teeth brushing and face washing then headed over to help mom. She was working on finishing the babies’ presents so we could hand them out this morning. We helped her carry all the presents over the rehab hospital and pasted them out to the children. That was so special! They were all so excited! It was so priceless to see those little girls cradle their dollies and the boys play with their animals. In the bags we had all sorts of different things. Sunglasses, toothbrushes, baby dolls, animals, and clothes. The sunglasses and toothbrushes were probably the overall biggest hit. It didn't hurt that the toothbrushes blink, as well! Jonathan was so proud of his little outfit! He starting trying to put it on later and Emily told him he was already wearing clothes. To this he responded “Manana?” “Si,” we told him. He carried his little gift bag around all day. Precious!

I grabbed Rosalinda and Macy latched onto Tania. We ended up taking them over to the cafeteria where Mom was working and playing with them in there. Rosa fell asleep in my arms and slept for close to an hour. I got her to smile several times and she clung to me for most of the morning.

Lunch was very yummy, too. The rest of the afternoon I ran errands for different people then went and chose another baby to carry around. I decided to get one that didn’t get carried a lot. Claudia started fussing when I started swinging with her, so I put her down and followed her. She walked straight back to the casita (little house)! I held Tonia for a minute then took Carolina from Emily. Carolina ended up falling asleep in my arms and sleeping for close to an hour. I helped mom finish some things when she got back from town, and am now headed to dinner. Today has been wonderful, but so exhausting!

Also, poor little Yesenia was very sick today. Kary and Diane had noticed her cough yesterday and were a little worried. After discussing it together they decided to take her to the clinic if she wasn't better the next day. Sure enough, she was worse. Her cough was horrible and she was running a fever. Her impetigo was pretty bad as well. Kary spent most of the day holding her and by the end of the day she was doing a little better.

April 24, 2007

Nothing extremely exciting happened for me today. Just another day with the kids. I still love being with them, but just the thought of another morning with them exhausts me. After breakfast, I didn’t feel like going in to la casita. Knowing that Jonathan, Josue, Christian, Tonia, Carlitos and all the rest of them would be throwing their arms up to me, begging for love and affection, wore me out. But all it took was a reminder to self of how little personal love they receive. La casita is actually a very nice home. They keep it clean (well, as clean as you can with 15 little kids) they feed them, give them a lot of freedom, and are pretty good at picking them up when they cry. But two workers can’t give 12-15 children all the personal affection they hunger for. So, I took a big breath and walked through the door. Emily and Macy joined me for 30 minutes or more then Emily started feeling sick and Macy got bored. I stayed with those babies for four hours! Let me tell you something. That is a LONG time! I did a lot better today at holding different babies rather than just one favorite (I’ve never completely had a favorite, just show too much favoritism). I’ll admit, though, that Rosalinda still got most of the attention. She just loves being with me, is not too heavy, and it is so fun to try to get her to laugh or smile. She laughed a lot for me today! I was so excited! We got some of it on video.

After lunch, I pulled it back together and went back to la casita for another long afternoon. I ended up just relaxing during dinner since I was still stuffed from lunch and a snack. Emily didn’t feel good today, David didn’t, Jennifer was sick, and Pastor Gaona was a little sick as well. The banana tree clinics took place for the first time today.
The nurses had a two-hour ride there and a two-hour ride back. They were exhausted by the time they got back. Actually, before they got back. ☺ They saw 147 people and ran out of medicine so they turned 50-75 away. It was a rough, long day for them but they enjoyed the experience all together.

Good news! Yesenis is feeling so much better! Her impetigo is already clearing up and she was laughing again this afternoon! Praise God!

VBS was really fun tonight. I am making friends with more of the kids, learning a little more Spanish (muy pequito), and the people are so full of energy. We played the ship game, which was really confusing, and freeze tag before the meeting started. In the meeting, we sang songs, mom did her nutrition talk, and they did a craft. Two Spanish men did special music at the end, which the kids loved. It really was a good day.

Even though I am tired and get grumpy sometimes (I know that’s a stretch! Lol!) I am really going to miss this place. It is so pretty and I love the people. The babies have my heart and the older kids are so much fun. I am already finding myself wanting to say things in Spanish when I am speaking English. It’s pretty weird. I praise God for this opportunity! Any of you that get a chance to come here, I strongly encourage you to come for a visit.

Okay, I have once again been making the family wait on me for sleep. Good night!!

April 25, 2007

I am so sad. It is bedtime and our last night in Pina Blanca. I hate goodbyes. I’m excited to see my friends again, but the time here has flown so fast! This morning I spent about an hour with the babies then at eight loaded onto the bus. On the way to their banana tree clinic the nurses dropped us off at the school in town. Mom, David, Emily, Patti L., Debbie, Patricia and I spent all morning handing out puppets to the kids. One of the fundraisers involved selling puppets that were numbered. In return, the sponsor will receive a picture of their puppet with the child that received it. 260 pictures and 130 kids later, we had the puppets dispensed to their rightful owner. The older kids ended up with a pencil and candy.

My afternoon was spent with babies. I was so sad to tell them goodbye! I will stop by in the morning for hugs and kisses, but of course won’t have time to play with them since we leave at 5:30.

April 26, 2007

Okay, I had to go to bed last night, but I will catch you up on the last two days happenings. I am still very sad. Presently, I am sitting in an air-conditioned hotel room in Copan. We just got back from dinner at a local restaurant where we also had our wrap-up meeting. But first of all, back to yesterday.

After spending the afternoon with the kids (mostly Rosalinda) I ate my last delicious dinner at Pan American. Muchas Frijoles y tortillas! ☺ When the last bite was eaten, the VBS crew headed over for our last meeting. We had lots of fun! We started with a game of keep the ball up, using four beach balls from home. Our grand finale was a keep the ball up relay race. It was crazy fun!

The meeting involved lots of singin! We sang several songs in Spanish (or at least attempted it!) and many more in English. Those people sing so beautifully! They are really loud too! I gave a little talk on water and the importance of drinking much of it. I was going to talk about sunshine and wear huge plastic star sunglasses and a floppy hat to make it fun, but we got locked out of room for the afternoon so decided water would be better. The kids were so good at listening to me as I tried to make water interesting (and failed, I might add). To finish our VBS we did one more craft. Glitter pictures! We thought we were done, but we had a little extra time so Susan suggested Bible charades. The kids had so much fun!

When the meeting was over, several of the kids including David, Emily, and myself lingered on the chapel porch. I had so much fun! We laughed and laughed, and laughed some more. We taught them some little hand games and they taught us several. I ended up placing second in a Spanish number game! I was so proud! ☺ It was one of those sound off games, and was really fun.

Dad came over and said we should come pack soon since we were getting up so early, so after ten or so more minutes we headed to the room. Oh, I almost forgot. During the games one of the boys, Brian, called David away from everyone. As we were headed back to the room, he showed me what Brian had given him: beanie baby, a yo-yo, and a baseball. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it! This boy has hardly anything, but wanted to give something to Dave. We North Americans are so selfish! We have so much, and are hesitant to share even that!

Lying in bed last night, tears filled my eyes. The people at Pan American are so incredible! The babies, the kids, the teenagers, the workers, the adults; they are all so happy and amazing! Just the thought of leaving them made me cry!

This part of the story goes from bad to worse. I know, I know. If I was crying BEFORE goodbyes, you can only imagine how goodbyes went! This morning started with everyone dragging their luggage to the bus. It was heavy!! Patti was in the kitchen when we got there, since she helps cook. I got really close to her this week. She understands quite a bit of English so with her English and my little Spanish, we were able to understand each other pretty well. She would help me say things to people, or at least translate for me. Since she was mostly done helping with breakfast, she walked back to my room with me and finished helping me. I am going to miss her so much!

Jennifer, David, Emily, and I walked over to La Casita for our final goodbyes. I was just going to kiss and hug Rosa, but she held her little arms up to me and I couldn’t resist. She hadn’t been changed and was smelly, but I didn’t care. All I could think of was how she would be lacking hugs, kisses, and one on one attention from now on (or at least until another team goes to Pan American). I tried to set her down, but it took me three tries before I finally just left her crying. Talk about a broken heart! I think mine was hurting more than hers! I managed to choke back most of the tears until I got over to the older kids waiting by the bus to tell us goodbye. It didn’t take more than two hugs and I was sobbing. As the bus was pulling out, my family and I leaned out the window and sang one of the Spanish songs the kids taught us to the girls on the porch. They all smiled and began to sing along with us. It was pretty special! I cried for at least twenty minutes before lying down to sleep some more.

The bus ride took five and a half hours!The first part of the ride was really breezy and cool, but the last hour or two was unbearably hot! It took us an hour in Copan to get the bus situated so we could get off. As soon as our suitcases were in their respective rooms, we took off for lunch and the Mayan ruins. I ordered nachos and was expecting something Honduran. I ended up with a bowl of Ranger game nachos! Lol! It was pretty funny! The tour at the ruins was absolutely positively boring! No, the ruins were cool but the dudes droned on for two and a half hours in the 102-degree weather. Yeah, not cool. Literally! ☺ I would have enjoyed a 20-minute tour of the place. Oh well!

When we got back, Dad took me “shopping.” Within thirty minutes, I had all my souvenirs chosen and bought. I did very minimal shopping. The shower was calling my name! It was WONDERFUL!! I was so tired, sweaty, and miserable and the shower was warm and actually got me clean! Yay!

Dinner and wrap-up was great. Everyone said something nice about someone else on the trip along with their favorite experience on the trip. It was really neat to hear what everyone had enjoyed.

Well, I will write more on the plane tomorrow. We have another long day ahead of us! Up at 4:00 again!! So, goodnight!!

April 27, 2007

Homeward Bound!! While we were at the orphanage I didn’t want to come home, but as soon as the bus ride to Copan began to get hot, I was ready to be home. I would go back to Pan American in a heartbeat, but as for touring in a hot foreign city after being gone for a week… I’m ready to be home.

We haven’t had any major kinks along the way yet. Jennifer, Emily, and I woke up around 4:20 this morning to get dressed and take our bags downstairs. Once again, way too early!!! That’s like 5:20 our time, but I didn’t fall asleep until what would be 10:30 or 11:00 our time. Needless to say, I’m pretty tired this today.

The usually crowded and busy streets of Copan were dark and empty as we rolled our suitcases across the cobblestones to the bus. When the bags were loaded and the carry-ons stowed, we all gathered on the side of the street for our only group picture. Then it was onto the bus for another long, long drive.

Thankfully this ride only took three and a half to four hours rather than five. I think I can pretty much speak for everyone in saying we were all so grateful to get off that bus for the last time!

Delta didn’t open their gate until 10:30 (supposed to be 10:00) so we sat around for over an hour. After finally checking our bags in, several of us got French fries or something else from Wendy’s, which happened to be our only choice. ☺ Roxanne sat with Emily and I while we munched away. It has been such a blessing to get to know so many new people on this trip! Roxanne, Kary, Diane, Shelia, Tonia, Kathy, etc. etc. etc.

During our lovely waiting time at the gate, Kary, Jennifer, Emily, and I talked about lots of girl stuff, including… baby names! We finally got to board our plane at 1:00. Oh, I almost forgot! At 11:45, Farrah, Lynn, Mrs. Japas, and a couple of others went shopping with Aileen. We were all pretty worried they wouldn’t make it back in time! Dr. Ben told us that his girlfriend came to visit three weeks ago and even though they got her to the airport two hours early, she missed her flight. Everyone made it back just in the nick of time though, safe and sound.

As we were boarding, Dad asked if I had my boarding pass. We had already made it through the check-in and were walking down the hall to the plane. I told him that I had given it to him, to which he said he had Emily’s not mine. It didn’t take us long to figure out that the guy down at check-in had printed two boarding passes for Emily. So, we were both scheduled for the same seat! We ended up finding out that I was checked in, he had just printed two copies of Emily’s rather than one of each. Whew! Praise God! We were a little nervous for a minute there!

So basically I’ve been able to write a bunch about a not too exciting day. Poor Dr. Bendall’s mother died yesterday morning, so please keep him in your prayers. It has, of course, been hard on him.

Unless anything out of the ordinary happens, this will be my last Honduras trip entry. In closing, I just want to attempt to express my amazement at God’s amazing wonder. We went on this “mission” trip to bless the people of Honduras, but I believe with all my heart that we were more blessed than they. Honduras is a beautiful country with incredible people, and I am so grateful to have been blessed with the opportunity to be apart of this trip. If any of you ever are so fortunate as to have the chance to travel to Pan American in Honduras, DO IT!!! I pray that these ramblings may have shed a little light on the joy God blessed our entire group with! God Bless you all!

Farwell!!

2007-04-19T18:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I don't have time to update you all on my fascinating life right now. I'm headed to bed! I wake up at 1:30 AM and leave my house by 2:30 AM for Honduras!

All that has happened since I last wrote is trip preparations, my bible study (please pray!!), and piano lessons. If I have internet in Honduras, I will update you all. If not, i'll write a LONG post when I get home! :-)

God Bless you all!!

--Olivia

Catching up...

2007-04-16T21:36:00.000-05:00

Wow! Life flies by so fast!! I’ve been wanting to update for a long time, but there is never any time to get it done! I am always in the middle of something or it is too late by the time I get home. I have a little bit of time right now, so I will fill you in on what I can!

Last Thursday, I a couple of hours with the Teller kids. When I got there, I hadn't even stepped out my car before little arms engulfed me. Samantha ran out with the biggest smile on her face to hug me, followed by Jackson and Alex. I had to encourage Alex a little bit before getting a hug out of him, but Jackson was eager to be squeezed. Elizabeth was waiting inside with Mommy. It won't be long, though! She is getting so big so fast! She is already crawling everywhere and is getting a little less shy around me.

I ended up just relaxing and getting stuff done around the house until boot camp. Nothing else too exciting happened that day. Although, it was incredibly nice to have family worship again! I've been missing our worships so much! We've been just having prayer together or a very short worship since we get home so late now. Needless to say, it was very refreshing to spend our special time again!

Friday morning, Alyssa came over for our morning workout. We got a little carried away talking, and I had to hurry a little more than usual. I did pretty good though, and we left at 9:10 for the hospital. Jennifer Rhodes met us in my dad's office and we had our last planning meeting about children's meetings in Honduras. We got a lot of details squared away and are looking forward to spending time with the kids!

When we finished with Jennifer, I began the long walk to the elevator, down the hall, around the corner, and into the office. Mom signed us in and we sat down for our wait. It wasn't too long before I heard the dreaded words. "Olivia and David." NOOOOOOO!!!! I smiled and walked over to the nurse. "You're in room one," she told us. When the nurse came into the room, I told her I was dreading the shots. She said, "Would you like to know how many you're getting?" I said I already knew my fate. After checking our weight and height, she said we could fight over who went first. I hopped up onto the table and rolled up my sleeves. "If you relax, it won't hurt as bad," she informed me. So, I did my best to relax my arm. The first two didn't hurt at all, but the second one surprised me and made me jump. Good news, though! I made it! I lived through all three shots!! Yipee!!! Poor David had to endure FOUR shots!

I finally got to start piano lessons again! I was supposed to start again on Thursday, but my piano teacher had to play for a funeral so she rescheduled. I felt so bad for her, though. My piano teacher's husband went through pancriatic cancer and passed away a month ago this Wednesday. Less than a month, and she had to play for a funeral! She said she did okay, but it was, of course, hard for her. It was so excited to walk through her front door again! It had been before Christmas since I had my last lesson, and I was missing her and the lessons very badly. It was wonderful to see her again and to be re-motivated to get busy with my piano! :-)

My lesson went a little late which would have been fine, but I had to run to Albertson's in Cleburne and be back in 45 minutes! Tight squeeze, but I did it almost in that amount of time. I picked six bouquets of flowers and raced home. Alyssa had beat me to the house, so the surprise wasn't as great. I had hoped to have her bouquet finished before she got there, but she still thought it was sweet. :-) Lorina hadn't been able to come with her, so I had to send her flowers home with Alyssa. Alyssa and I spent some time talking, and then did what she had come over for. Planning! We decided back in March to plan some fun things for our graduating "class" to do together before graduation in December. There were lots of details that needed discussing, so we spent our time working on that. She had to leave around 4:00 and Mom needed help getting ready for Bible study group. We made food and cleaned the house up for Sabbath. Lora and Eamon got here around 6:15 and we had supper. M.J. showed up a little bit later, and we enjoyed a wonderful study about God the Holy Spirit.

Sabbath morning prayer group was another blessing. The Teller family, Mr. Davis, Kenton and Ingo Sorke, Mom, Dad, and I all joined together for special prayer. Liz Simons joined us about half way through. After song service in Sabbath school, I headed to Crowley church. Alyssa, Ashley, and I went into a side room to have special prayer for Alyssa, then went into the sanctuary and took our seats. Alyssa did an incredible job! I was very blessed by her sermon and so proud of her!

Lunch was a small family affair. Sabbath afternoon naps followed our meal. Our church had its first AY meeting at 6:00. David, Alyssa, Lorina, Ashley, Emily, John, and I led song service. The meeting was pretty fun. We had around 20 people there. I went over to Mitchells house afterwards. We were going to do something, but ended up deciding to just hang out at her house. We played Scattergories and talked until 10:30 and had a blast!! We laughed so much!

On Sunday, I got some stuff done around the house in the morning. I finished our senior class events list and took a copy to the Cortes family. Emily and I hadn't seen each other in a long time and I was missing her, so I called and invited her over. We talked, goofed off, played a game, and just hung out all afternoon. At 6:00, I left to pick up Lorina. Alyssa had to work, so I took Lorina to boxing with me. M.J., Emily, and John came also. Great workout!!

And today. Workout, school, get ready for my day. Mom took Dave, M.J., and I out to eat at Joe's for lunch. Yummy!! I came home and started this blog, then had friends come over for me to take pictures of them. We took some great photos! David and I had to leave shortly after they left for the hospital. Our last mission trip meeting! It went great!! I am so excited!! I found out tonight that I will be able to work in the rehab hospital with the babies and toddlers as much as I want while we are there! YIPEE!!! Did I mention I'm excited???

Dad was hungry, okay we all were, so we went to Antonio's for dinner. Emily joined us, so mom took her home when we were done. It is now late and I am tired. So, I am going to hit the hay! God Bless you all!!

My Girls and Me

2007-04-11T20:02:00.000-05:00

What a fun day!! I started my day off with a mile run with Alyssa and Lorina.Showering and breakfast followed close behind! School included history, science, and working on my research paper. I am almost finished!! Okay, what's fun about this? Other than seeing Alyssa and Lorina, nothing! But after school, I drove out to Sexsons! We had a blast together! We played for around an hour, then decided it was picture time! The next hour or so was spent transforming the girls straight hair into golden ringlets. Shay doesn't have quite enough there yet, but we managed to give her hair a little curl. :-) Their dresses were extra special: their mother and her friend made them last spring!

It's spring time in Texas and snakes like the Texan sun, so boots were donned by all (including myself). We marched out to the fields of bluebonnets that surround their house this time of year and the photo shoot began. The girls are so photogenic! Majority of the pictures were not even posed. The girls just trooped through the flowers or sat down beside them. I love my girls so much and had a blast taking pictures of them. There are more photos at either of my websites (links on the side).

I drove home in time to make a smoothie, then drive our new mini-van (oh, and smoothies aren't all I eat by the way). :-) Dad sold the mustang and bought a red mini-van. I walked in the door to grab my Bible and purse and run back out. Campbells had invited one of Robert's friends for the Bible study, and it was a blessing to see the Second Coming made clear to someone for the first time.

Mom, Dad, and I ate supper together then Dad went walking while I showed Mom the pictures. We just got home from picking Dave up from Pathfinders. I was going to add another picture, but would have to wait for it to upload and am too tired for that. So, check them out on ringo or flickr! :-) Hope you're all doing great!! God Bless!

Wedding Plans...

2007-04-10T17:15:00.000-05:00

No, not my own. :-) My cousin Ryan called today with the new that he and Elizabeht Murphy-Monclin will be tying the knot June 2, 2007. Mom, Dave, and I get back May 30 from our two-week mission trip, but we will all fly out Friday for the wedding.

Other than that today has been a fairly normal day. My Bible study cancelled last minute, so we will do the Sabbath study next week. I finally got a chance to look at Barbie's Africa picture, though! It was so neat to see Chome again! I wish I could have gone! It looks like they had an amazing time! And she had a video of Elias Titus and Issac saying "Jambo" (welcome) to me. It made me miss them and Africa all the more! :-( But it was good to see the pictures!

School and errands with Mom have taken the rest of my day. I leave in about 20 minutes for boot camp and boxing, then will hit they hay! :-) Nothing else to write about now! God bless!!

Day of Doom

2007-04-09T19:39:00.000-05:00

My Day of Doom has been set. April 30, 2007 will go down in history as a sad, painful day. At 1:45 PM, I will go under the knife. I'M HAVING MY WISDOM TEETH TAKEN OUT!! Lol!

Today has been a fairly typical Monday. Alyssa came over to workout this morning with mom and me then came breakfast, piano, school, and shower. My room was in desperate need of cleaning, so that was next on my agenda. I was able to get all of that accomplished by 10:30 believe it or not. The Feese apartment was the location of my next assignment. Wendy went over my Bible study with me to help me prepare for tomorrow (my Bible study with Pat). Lunch and hanging out at home occupied my time until 1:20. Time to take Dave to work! Mom and I went straight from there to Hulen for my appointment. We returned some shirts at the mall, and bought a few new ones (all in 15 minutes!). We then raced over to Dr. Scheideman's office for my consultation. Everything went great, and three weeks from today I will have no wisdom teeth left.

Sam club had the needed gum, skittles, and other essentials for the Honduras kids. Mom and I are putting together little care-packages for each of the kids. I can't believe we are leaving in less than two weeks!! Wow! Time sure flies!! I made a delicious smoothie when we got home, and we spent some family time together.

Dad and Mom are looking for a new vehicle to drive to YFJ this summer, since we sold our Suburban a year ago. They are not sure what they want, so they went "shopping." I met M.J. at her house and she drove us to the ABC. We spent 30 or so minutes browsing, then went back to her house. I didn't stay too long because my family was going walking and I wanted to go too! We enjoyed a great walk together! It's still pretty chilly, though! Dad and I had an oatmeal supper. While I'm updating, Dave and Mom are playing an intense game of Blokus.

It's worship time, so I better go! God Bless you all!!

An Easter Blizzard...Texas Style!!!

2007-04-08T21:14:00.000-05:00

Okay, I've wanted to post on here for the last few days, but life has just been too crazy. Friday started with working out, then I did a "photo shoot" of two of my best friends. It was so much fun! We took a lot of great pictures, but most of all had a blast! This picture on the right is just one of many candid shots we got. There were so many good ones! You have no idea how hard it was to pick one! :-) We took pictures in bluebonnets, on the dock, by the barn, behind a tree, on the brick wall, and on the fence, too. We ended up with at least 40 GREAT ones, and lots of other good ones. What fun!

Next, we took off for, once again, Mandy's in Keene. Steve Stafford, head of recruiting at SWAU took 4 out of the 6 of us that are graduating in December to lunch. He brought his son, his son's wife, and his daughter-in-law's sister, and his wife, all alumni of SWAU. We had a really nice time, and have all been convinced to go there at some point.

Friday afternoon was spent at the cingular store. My phone quit working, so I got a new one. I am loving having a working phone again, and a nice one at that. Friday night Bible study group was great! We finished our study of God the Son (we are going through the Fundamental Beliefs). There are four college friends of mine that come pretty much every Friday night. And one that comes a lot of the time. It is really great!

Sabbath morning prayer group was such a blessing! There were only two people besides me (my mom being one of them), but it is always such a special time in my week. Church was, as usual, amazing. Pastor Moore is such a great guy! Macy Ray came over for Sabbath lunch so we could study afterwards. We studied about the Sabbath (again in the Fundamental Beliefs book). As for the title of this entry, it snowed ALL DAY Sabbath! It didn't stick, but it came down pretty steady all day long. We're talking about actual snow, not just one or two flurries! April 7 in Texas?!?!? Can you believe it? I couldn't!! And yep, you guessed it; that's Macy in the snow!

I met M.J., Alyssa, and Lorina at Keene church at 4:00 PM for the Easter pageant. Keene puts on an annual Easter pageant all around the SWAU campus. The 4:00 showing was combined with the 5:00 one, so we ended up sitting in the church for around an hour. The pageant was interesting, but it was snowing pretty heavy, freezing, and we couldn't see very good either. So Alyssa, Lorina, and I went to my house. Ahhh! My warm house sure felt good! :-) (and yes, this picture is how heavy it snowed pretty much all day!!)

Lora and Eamon came over after the pageant for game night. We played games until around 11:00! May not seem to late, but if you know me, that was LATE! :-) We had a blast playing Apples to Apples; Win, Lose, or Drawl; Remote Possiblities; and Moods. It was so much fun, but by the time everyone left, no wait before they all left, I was exhausted!

Today has been a different day. It had it's definite ups and very definite downs, but God really reminded me of how blessed I am. I have so many people that love and support me and am just all around blessed. Boxing felt great, and I am ready for bed! Hope you all had a great weekend, too! God Bless!!

Pictures

2007-04-05T17:40:00.001-05:00

Being that I love photography, there are never any pictures of me. I'm always behind the camera rather than in front of it. So, today my mom took me outside and took lots of snapshots. The weather was incredible; perfect for snapping photos. My profile photo is one of the pics. More posted on xanga and flickr. Well, I have to head to exercise! God Bless!!

The Days Roll On...

2007-04-04T15:40:00.000-05:00

Life seems to fly by so fast! 2007 just started andit's already Apri! Wow! I had to race through school yesterday in order to leave by 10:30 for my Bible study. It went great and was such a blessing! Pat and I studies about the Law. It's amazing how much she already knows! I took this study over for our Bible worker about two months ago, and yesterday was only my third study without my Bible worker there. The first time I went I was so scared and didn't want to go, but each time I go I come out with a blessing. We are becoming friends and I'm enjoying getting to know her. Please pray for next week! We are going to be studying the Sabbath! She already know some about the Sabbath, from what she told Wendy (my Bible worker) but she doesn't like dressing up for church. So, I don't know what I'll find. God is in control, though!!

Right as I was pulling in the driveway, Sexsons were getting out of their car. Kim had a hair appointment, so we watched the girls for the afternoon. Mom and I swung on the air chairs with two of the girls while David took one of them for a four wheeler ride. Shaylee ended up falling asleep on Mom's lap, so we laid her down and went to play. Mickynzie and Brenna went downstairs with David, but I stayed upstairs so I could hear Shaylee when she woke up. It is always so much fun to have them over! The whole time they're here giggles and squeals come from whichever room they're in.When Shay woke up, she wanted to snuggle. So we cuddled until her Momma came back to pick them up. I sure love my sweet girls!

Boot camp was intense last night! As it gets closer to the end of the school year, he gets harder and harder on us. Boxing was also a great workout! The hotter it gets, the harder gets. Right before boxing was over, Kim said my mom was on the phone and wanted me to come home. She had been trying to call me, but I had left my phone in the car. Some really bad weather was blowing in and she wanted me to hurry home. Alyssa, Lorina, and Ashley decided to head home, too. It was pretty scary! The dark clouds followed right behind my car the whole way home. Lightening filled the entire sky. It was beautiful, but I didn't like being out in it. I made it home before the rain hit, but Alyssa got poured on. There were tornados and baseball size hail in the area. We came out of it unscathed, but boy was it an adventure! :-)

Today has been super exciting!! School and more school! I spent 1 1/2 hours working on my research paper, and am not quite half way done. Ahhh!!! M.J. and Amy came over for a smoothie but they just left. So I'm home alone and decided to update you all on my exciting life! Hope everyone's doing great! God Bless!!