Thanks Mom and Dad!

  I was just thinking of all the great things I know/can do because I have such great parents, so I just wanted to take a moment to thank them for all the things people don't usually thank their parents for.
  Thank you Mom for giving birth to me! Thank you for all those sleepless nights you underwent as I must have cried out in hunger or need of a new diaper. Thank you Mom and Dad for sacrificing your time and own desires to take care of mine- I can only imagine the countless dirty diapers you changed! Thank you for weening me from the bottle so I could learn to eat real food. Thank you for potty training me!! How horrible would it be to still be in diapers! Thank you for teaching to brush my teeth so they didn't all rot out of my mouth. Thank you for taking care of me when I was sick- thanks Daddy for that one time you put those huge pills I had to take in sugar so they weren't quite as horrible, and putting vick's by my neck even though I didn't like it so I could breathe better and sleep at night. Thank you for taking me shopping with you. Thank you for NOT buying me everything I asked for, even if it sometimes meant me leaving the store screaming and bawling. I learned that I'm not always gonna get everything I want, and that's ok.  Thank you Mom and Dad for showing me that you loved me by giving me hugs and kisses, for tickling and cuddling. Thank you for showing me love by spanking me. Not that I ever really needed to be spanked... ok maybe...  I learned that there are boundaries in this world, things I can and can't do.  Thank you for tucking me in each night. Thank you for teaching me how to read!- The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss. Thank you for letting me come into your room at night when I was scared or couldn't sleep and letting me sleep on the floor by your bed. Thank you loving me unconditionally- when I refused to eat your tuna hotdish and green beans or wouldn't take the koolaid of the table, or when I broke your camera tripod,  or when I was disobedient and stubborn just for the sake of being stubborn, or when I wouldn't clean my room or when I slammed my door and had to open and close it a hundred times. Thank you for having patience! Thank you for putting up with me Mom as I invaded your space in the kitchen- I now know how and have a passion for cooking because of you. Thank you for teaching me great card games like Euchre and Cribbage and Canasta. Thank you Dad for the innumerable times you helped me fix my car when I was having problems. Thank you for that one time you had to bring me gas cuz I broke down, even though you told me the week before I needed to write down what my mileage was when filling up so I could know in time to fill up again.  Thank you for pushing me to get good grades. Thank you for not letting me starting dating when I was twelve. Thank you for giving me a cell phone when I was 15, but not until then. Thank you for taking me to church and CBC/youth group every week and teaching me what it meant to be a follower of Christ. Thank you for sharing the Gospel with me and praying with me and including me in Bible studies even when I was little. Thank you for instilling in me a sense of right and wrong. Thank you for treating me like a little girl and young lady. Thank you for letting me play dress up with your heels Mom and dolling me up with your make up and curling iron from time to time. Thank you Daddy for all the times you called me beautiful. Thank you Mom for showing me what it means to be a beautiful woman. Thank you for giving me responsibilities around the house so that I learned what it meant to work. Thank you for encouraging me to get a job of my own and for teaching me to be independent. Thank you for standing with me even when I made decisions you weren't a fan of, such as leaving school, and thank you for telling me what you thought, even though it wasn't what I wanted to hear. Thank you thank you thank you for praying for me. Thank you Mom for setting the example of how to be a mom. Dad, thank you for living in such a way that I can have a clear and accurate picture of God as Father- so so so many people can't understand what it means to have a loving Father in Heaven. How sad!  Thank you for all the advice you gave when I did or didn't ask. Thanks Dad for randomly buying me flowers. Thank you for teaching me different qualities that I should look for in a husband. Thank you Mom and Dad for laughing both at me and with me and teaching me to lighten up and have a sense of humor. Thank you for being a shoulder to cry on. Thank you for encouraging me to be involved in things but not being dissapointed when I chose not to. Thank you for both for being someone I can talk to about the boys I like, share the problems and hard things I'm facing with, or blab on and on with about the boring details of my day that I just had to share with someone.
   Basically thank you for being my parents. Thank you for being my parents instead of my friends, but also treating me as a friend at times as well.  There are probably a hundred other things I could put in here but this is a start at least. Thank you for taking your role in my life seriously. I don't know who I would be without you both, but I know it probably wouldn't be pretty. So I just wanted to say thank you...

Half Way

   If there's one word to describe my life these days it's "busy"!  A week and a half ago some friends of mine from Arrowhead Bible Camp arrived here to do a two-week camp with missionary students so during my free time I have been hanging out and helping them.  It's been so exciting for me to have them here. I've been missing my family a lot lately so it's been very encouraging for me to have some of my "extended family" to hang out with! I've been getting a lot of time to just rest with them, but also have had a lot of fun playing old camp games like Boppity-bop-bop-bop, American Eagle, Bolivian Rugby, and many others, as well as watch some movies, spend time in the Word and worship together. It's been a pretty good balance of crazy and relaxing, but busy for sure.
   At the home things are going pretty well- we took the three kids to the doctor last week and they were all doing pretty good except the two little boys have bronchitis, but that doesn't seem to slow them down much! I sometimes wonder where all that energy comes from and how I could get some for myself! Esperanza is doing well also, putting on weight little by little and staying in pretty good health.
    Something else that's fairly exciting for me is that it looks like my mom is going to be getting my plane ticket home for the seventh of december so that means I'm just about to my half way point of being in Bolivia!! I know that's still a long time to go- five and a half months, but it's crazy to think that I've already been here for that long. I'm excited to see how much the kids continue to grow and change during my second half!
    Thanks so much for your prayers and financial donations- I wouldn't be able to be here without your help! Thanks for joining me in the work of Christ! I miss you all and hope this update finds you well.

June Update

   Just wanted to give a quick update on how things are going down here in Bolivia : )  Last time I sent an update I could not believe that it was already May, and now we're half way through June and I still can't believe it! It was hard for my time with Naomi to come to an end but after about a week I was pretty well adjusted to having my room to myself again.  

    Last week I had the opportunity to go with four other girls my age out to the San Fernando Valley, which is a two hour flight in a six person plane towards Brazil. It was such an amazing experience! We were going to visit a gal named Katie Wells and hoped to be an encouragement  to her, and while we were there we did a lot of just hanging out and seeing the small town- population is estimated to be about five hundred. Katie lives in a little living space that's attached to one of the two churches there and we stayed with her and her "house" mate Dina. There was a little bit of electricity, it came and went really, so there were no refrigerators. Can you imagine living without a refrigerator? I can't! And she also had a limited amount of running water. Once you ran out, you ran out. That's so weird to think about coming from a place  like I do! While we were there we did a little skit for the kids and lesson on how to be a "good samaritan" and also led the Tuesday night church meeting, singing songs, giving a Bible lesson, and doing another skit. I definitely felt like I was on a mini missions trip. It was very refreshing for me to spend some time with my friends and get to know them a little better, and just have a small break from being in the city and being at the home. 

    Then, this last Thursday, the first of the Arrowhead team arrived!! I was so excited to be able to go pick them up from the airport and have been hanging out with them here and there since then. They have been so encouraging to me! 

    I would love for you to be praying for me over these next 6 weeks or so as my schedule will be fairly crazy. I'm still working my schedule at the home as usual but trying to spend time with the team when I'm able to, but I don't want to over do it! I do need sleep every once in a while! But if you could I would love prayer just that I would be spending my time wisely, enjoying that the team is here but still resting as needed. Also, please pray for me as I consider my plans for when i come home. I know it's nearly six months away, but as I've been thinking and praying through what to do I'm slowly trying to develop a plan, and so far that plan includes going to school for nursing. Unfortunately, that's about all that is in the plan... I'm not sure where I'm going to go or where I'll live or work, and I feel like I should be applying to schools and for scholarships now if i want to go in January. So, prayer for direction and peace about that would be greatly appreciated!!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

   Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to visit an orphanage that I spent much time at back in 2007, El Ebenezer. This place is home for 10-15 boys between the ages of 6 and 25 with mental and physical handicaps. It was such a blessing to get to go, but it also was sooo incredibly surreal! In my nearly five months of being here I hadn't had/taken the opportunity to go, and I'm very excited that I finally did.
   So many things were fun and very nostalgic for me. First of all, I went with Heather and Kayleen, so it felt "just like old times". I easily recognized where we were as we were getting a little closer, and then driving down the very familiar road that Kayleen and I would walk to and from the bus on those two days a week we visited. Then waiting outside their door and going in I was just overwhelmed by the familiarity of it all and how strange it was to finally be back! I went in and was greeted by a few kids but almost instantly the drooly Richard grabbed my hand (with his drool covered) and led me around for the next 20 minutes, mostly just walking back and forth from one end of the property to the other (not big at all). It was so incredible to just see how the home had changed! I remember just the very rustic set up of it, now it's all tile and pretty nice looking! I couldn't help but just marvel though at how the kids had grown!! It's been over three and a half years since I've seen them and boy have they gotten big! I remember little Jorge, who I feel like would have been around 10, maybe 12. Each time I went I was his "teacher" helping him and a handful of others trace letters. Such a cute little squirt. He's now taller than I am! And my dear little Julio! He was probably the same age as Jorge, and in my class as well. I remember him loving dancing- just bouncing up and down mostly- and now he's talking much better but his voice has gotten deep/scraggly, you can tell it's changing. And he's grown so much!  Some of the boys are like they always have seemed to be- Jaime, Roberto :)  And I got to meet some new faces as well. There were three boys that were at school when we were there so I missed them, which made me sad, but I'll have to go back sometime soon when they're around then I guess. After being there for a little while we gathered the boys into one of the rooms to do a little Bible story and color a picture and eat little chocolate covered cookies, and as they were sitting there and I was taking it all in I couldn't help but think of the two little boys I'm taking care of now, and how much they're going to change when I leave! It's going to be so hard to leave them here. I know, I know, it's six months away, but then that's just gonna make it all the harder! I'm not usually one for waterworks, but I'm guessing I'll be doing some crying when my time to leave approaches!
   But, as far as Ebenezer goes, I was really glad I finally made it over there and look forward to hopefully going back again before too long. It's exciting to leave and come back and just see God's faithfulness in taking care of the kids, providing for the home there, seeing how dedicated the staff still are- all of these were very encouraging to me. It was a very good way to spend a chunk of my day off :)