It's a big day in the US of A...

Not to be Captain Obvious or anything, but it is a big day for the United States. The polls will open and thousands will vote. There is always controversy during election season and people allow the stress of not knowing who will be our next President get the better of them, sometimes.

No one knows what the outcome of today's election will be, but I do know this...God is in control and He already knows who our next President is.

Let's trust Him today and take Him at His word in Romans 13:1, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."

Whatever happens, we know through God's Word (look at Kings...) that God is the one who raises leaders up and who also brings them down, whether they are good or evil, ultimately to glorify Himself and show His power.

I miss them...

I've been here for 2 weeks now. I've enjoyed having the apartment to myself, but I knew I would get to this point eventually...let me explain.

I've never lived by myself until now. When I left home for college, I shared a small dorm room with this sweet girl, Kristin...

It's not a very good picture of us, but it's the only one I could find. We were roomies from the very start, and I could not have asked the Father for a better one.

Our sophomore year, the two of us moved down the hill to the apartments, and after a rough semester of learning roommate-picking lessons, we filled our apartment with Janet, Courtney and Ashley....


This picture was taken right before Ashley walked down the aisle in June of 2007, after the five of us and the three other bridesmaids, Ashley's best friends from high school, had a dance party in the Bride's Room while we were waiting for time....á la "5207."

Once Ashley got a new roommate, AKA her new husband, Chris, Emily (and Bob...) moved in...

Bob was the security mannequin we had in our living room.

We had many fun times together. We made a tent in our living room for valentine's day since none of us had dates, pulled out the hide-a-bed, had fondue, watched a chick flick, and had a slumber party.

We dressed up one night and made the boys that were in our "group" go to a fancy restaurant with us for dessert...


Through it all, there were times when we disagreed with each other and had to get away for a while. For three years, we lived together. We shared living space. We shared our lives. For three years, there were times when one of us couldn't find something. I know that there were times when I just wanted my things to be where I left them...

But having my own apartment, and having my stuff where I left it all the time, doesn't replace this....

It's not very often that 5 girls can share a two bedroom, two bath apartment for almost three years and come out of it loving each other as much as the five of us do. He simply blessed us with grace and patience with each other, as well as the common bond of loving Him.

Girls...I miss y'all so much.

I made it!

Hey everyone...thanks so much for your prayers as I traveled over the last several hours. My luggage (all of it!) and I made it to Bucharest just fine. My flight out of Dallas was delayed 4 hours, but I'm thankful to God for allowing me those extra hours to spend with my family. And once I got to my connection I had already been re-booked on the next flight in to Bucharest. Timing was perfect.

God is so good.

Now I'm going to try and curb this thing they call jet lag.

I don't want to pack...

So anyone who has moved around a lot or traveled a lot knows that it's kindof a pain to pack and an even bigger pain to unpack. Well, I've been back in town for almost a week and I still have not unpacked from orientation. I know, I know, I need to, but at this point I have so much to do (including unpacking and repacking) that I just want to sit here and do nothing.

I will put in some unpacking time here in a little bit. I need to do laundry, also, which if you know me at all you know that laundry is my least favorite chore of all. I think it has something to do with growing up overseas with household help...

I also am praying that God would multiply the hours in the day because there just don't seem to be enough. Yesterday I had a great day with two of my former roommates. They went with me to the mall as I bought a few last-minute clothes for winter.

My calendar has quickly filled up, and I still have people that I want to see and spend time with. The problem is that once you graduate from college and people get full time jobs, they can't just run out to lunch with you or share an afternoon coffee. So I know that during the time that my favorite people are at work, I need to unpack and do laundry. But again, I don't want to.

I think it is something about having packed my life up so many times I feel like I lose a sense of belonging once my stuff is in boxes and suitcases. Maybe not. Any thoughts?

To sum up this post in three short statements,
1. I haven't unpacked from Orientation, which means that I clearly have not even begun to think about packing for Romania.
2. I need to do laundry, but I just wish that clothes could wash themselves.
3. I need more time. Thank God for the Body of Christ and for the hope of Heaven. Amanda, I completely understand what you referred to when you and Curtis left Irving...

I know...it's been 2 weeks...

So Orientation is almost over. In one week, I will have been commissioned and I will be getting ready to fly back to Dallas the next day. What a whirlwind this has been. It feels like I got here yesterday, yet I've learned so much. I'm reminded more and more every day that I need to make Him a priority. I'm reminded of it even more when I don't.

Every time I'm put in a new situation, I learn more and more about myself. This time I have been reminded of how God has blessed me to make friends easily. I did not have a hard time making friends when I went to college, nor did I have a hard time in the last 2 months making friends. I know He is faithful, but I still am afraid of what my friend situation will look like once I get to Romania, simply because I won't be taking classes (except language, praise the Lord!).

I guess I'm just afraid of the unknown. In my flesh, I am afraid. I know God is already there, though, and that is good for my spirit. It is not the unknown to Him, and therefore I try not to worry. But my flesh worries. I need to live in the Spirit and not worry. So pray that I will build relationships once I get there with other people my age. There is no one in my city that works for the same organization that I do that is my age. Pray that I would have opportunities to even meet others.

One of my biggest desires (besides learning the language) is to also build relationships with nationals. I don't desire to surround myself only with other GCCs (Great Commission Christians) from the United States. I know that other GCCs will be important for my spiritual growth, especially where Christian fellowship comes in, but I guess my MK instinct is to want to blend with the culture and become part of it.

I know this post is everywhere, but it's been several hours since I started writing...I went for coffee and a wal-mart run in between, so I've had some time to think and come back with a different perspective maybe.

Oh quick request before I go....this nasty 24 hour stomach bug has been going around this place like crazy. I don't normally get stuff that goes around, thank-you to my iron stomach that was developed while living in the middle of no where. Anyway, I don't want to start now. It seems to have a 1 week incubation period after being exposed, 6-8 hours of continuous "getting sick" at least hourly, and then major fatigue...followed by being perfectly back to normal 24 hours after it's showed up. Pray that I don't get it, because I dont'want to be sick on the plane, visiting friends, or meeting my niece for crying out loud.

Thanks friends...I love you all.

I'm an Aunt Now!

Praise the Lord! My niece was born yesterday afternoon!!! Her name is Sahara Xiomara (Sahara pronounced with the second "a" sound like "ah") and she was 6lb 8.9oz and I'm told perfect in every way. I sill have not gotten any pictures, but I'm thankful for this precious life and already love her so much!

My Big Fat Greek Sunday

So one of the things that our supervisors recommend that we do is to attend a worship service close to what the traditional religion we will be faced with once we get to the field (does this make any sense at all?). So, considering that the predominant religion in Romania is Orthodoxy, and there is a Greek Orthodox church in downtown Richmond, my small group and I went to a Greek Orthodox service today. Really only 3 of us in the group will be dealing with Orthodox, but some others wanted to go just for the experience...or to see what the difference is between Orthodox and Roman Catholic.

So we walked into the sanctuary and the first thing that I noticed was that the place smelled like Incense. I mean, if a hippie runs out of incense, they just need to hit up the local Orthodox church and be set for life. Anyway, we got there right at 10:00 which is what time the service was said to begin. There were only like 10 or 15 people in the whole sanctuary when we first got there.

The priest at the front had on a beautiful robe and was swishing the incense through the air. I saw some people walk up to the front of the sanctuary where they had icons (pictures of saints) with red candles. The people with the candle would walk up to the icon of choice, place the candle at the foot of the picture, and then kiss the picture of the saint at the feet. It was really sad because this showed me that they think a painting will answer their prayers.

The next thing I observed was that the liturgy was read out of a little book. The little book had liturgy in Greek on one side and in English on the other side. Sometimes the liturgy was read in Greek and then in English, and others it was read in only one or the other. Half of what was read/recited from the liturgy was spoken, and half was sung. I didn't realize that there was a choir in the balcony until the service was almost over.

Halfway through the service, they took communion. So people would go up to the front to receive communion and come back to their seats with huge chunks of bread. It was like....a mid-service snack, really. Some people came back to their seats with multiple pieces of bread to pass out to their children. Oh and they drank the wine (I'm sure it wasn't Baptist grape juice). Funny, I know.

One of the last things I noticed was what was going on in the little room behind all the pews. There was a glass wall with a door for people to come through once they had done their business in the foyer. They would walk up to the little podium with an icon on it, cross themselves, and then kiss the icon. I just kept wondering to myself how many lips have touched that piece of wood and how many diseases get passed around in that church.

Another thing I noticed in the service was that just about all the people in there had big Greek noses. A true sign that they were truly Greek. Oh and by the end of the service (which by the time it was over it was 12:00noon, meaning the service was 2 hours long), the place was packed out. I mean Standing Room Only.

Soon before the end of the service, a man with his two kids showed up in the pew in front of me. The kids were so misbehaved I felt really bad for the dad. And then I realized that the dad was calling his son "Nikko." Yes, the boy's name was Nikko. That was the highlight of my day.

Please Pray...

Friends, Please pray for my brother, his co-workers, and students as they deal with the loss of my brother's cooperating teacher in Irving.

My brother teaches 2nd grade, and tomorrow will have to help 30 2nd graders that he and this other teacher team-taught deal with the unfortunate loss of their teacher.

She and her husband, who have been married just over a month, were killed in a car wreck overnight in Dallas.

Here is the link to the Dallas Morning News article

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/090208dnmetcrash.32a228ca.html

Here is the link to the NBC 5 report

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/17358829/detail.html?rss=dfw&psp=news

Thanks so much!

I just copied and pasted this from the other blog...

Since I last posted, I've had 2 "shot days," almost two weeks of information overload, and two days of lecture on the Persecuted Church. Wow.

Shot days were weird, because normally in the afternoons when everyone is free, there are children on the playground and people wandering around. Not on shot day. Everyone is told to stay in their quad until it's time to make the walk of doom. No one knows how many or what shots they'll be getting that day. I've been lucky and had to only get one shot so far. I did get the TB skin test, but that's not really a shot...it's just a bubble on my arm. Most people had to get Typhoid shots, too, but since I had a reaction to the Typhoid shot when I was little, I scored and got the oral Typhoid preventative. This consists of 4 pills taken every other day on an empty stomach with a full glass of water an hour before eating. So basically a pre-breakfast appetizer.

We've had several sessions on Church Planting Movements (CPM) and what they look like in different parts of the world. This information is interesting, but a lot of it is hard to process and put in a mold of how it will fit in Romania, or anywhere in Central and Eastern Europe for that matter. We've also had some sessions on how to attempt to start a CPM, and that too is difficult to implement with the cultural and religious implications of where I'm going. I know though, that God is in control and makes a way for His Word to spread to all corners of the world. We get that promise from Revelation.

So the Persecuted Church. Wow. These sessions were by far my absolute favorite so far. The speaker was very dynamic. I won't say anything about the nature of the speaker's job, but it seems like an amazing job that takes very special people to do. I'm sure it's scary at times, too. I really loved listening to these sessions as they were very informative. It made me thankful for the freedom I have to be a Christian and to share my faith and to relate with whoever I want. It also helped me to understand a little bit of what some of the people I may be working with may have gone through during the time of Communism.

Well, with all that said, I'm thankful for the last couple of weeks, and I can't wait for what else the Lord has to teach me. Thanks for keeping up with me. Love you all!

"Like clay in the hand of the potter...

...so are you in my hand..." Jeremiah 18:6.

Today we had a special time of personal retreat. This was 3 hours dedicated to spending time with the Lord. We followed it up with a time of sharing what the Lord did during that time. To some He gave much needed rest. Some spent the time on their faces in worship to Him. I would like to say my time was as intense as the others, but it wasn't.

Let me explain. I went to my room and did some of my Bible Study. Then, I turned on a podcast of Ravi Zacharias talking about Jeremiah 18 and 19 going down to the house of the Potter. I love listening to Ravi Zacharias... I could listen to him all day long.

This is one of the recurring lessons that God teaches me off and on through the years. He reminded me of the simple fact that I am only clay in His hands...I need to be moldable. I have had the opportunity to work with clay, and I understand this concept so well because the potter gets frustrated when the clay doesn't do what they want it to. The potter often has to fill in cracks, or start all over again, making that piece a ball of clay once again.

I pray that I can be this clay in His hands...the kind that's moldable, usable, to become the vessel He wants me to be, that He can use, and that when He's finished, He can take me Home as the best vessel I can be in Eternity...

Potter's Hand by Darlene Zschech

Beautiful Lord, Wonderful Saviour
I know for sure, all of my days are held in your hands, crafted
into your perfect plan
You gently call me into your presence guiding me by Your Holy Spirit
Teach me dear Lord to live all of my life through Your eyes
I'm captured by Your holy calling
Set me apart, I know you're drawing me to yourself
Lead me Lord I pray

Chorus:
Take me, Mold me, use me, fill me
I give my life to the Potter's hand
Call me, guide me, lead me, walk beside me
I give my life to the Potter's hand

You gently call me into your presence guiding me by your Holy Spirit
Teach me dear Lord to live all of my life through your eyes
I'm captured by your Holy calling
set me apart, I know your drawing me to yourself
lead me Lord I pray

I found a walking buddy!!

Friends, one of my concerns heading to orientation has been the requirements about fitness that they have here. Though I played soccer off and on through the years until the end of my Sophomore year in high-school, I am not the most athletic person in the world. In fact, by playing soccer off and on I mean I was the official bench-warmer.

So, since then I have not really kept a habit of exercising on a regular basis, and this is bad. Very bad. I have worked out in the fitness center at DBU off and on through the college years, but never consistently or habitually.

Here, there is a requirement to have 4 hours minimum of aerobic activity each week. For some people that's not a problem...For me it is. So all week I had been thinking in my mind that one of these evenings I would start walking. They told us the other day that if we walk from some flag poles to the gate and back it is two miles.

This evening at the dinner table, I was talking to a sweet girl that is in my small group and in the same living area as me. She mentioned that she was going to walk and I told her I would join her. Y'all...God could not have been more Faithful. We both confessed to each other that neither of us had exercised habitually in the last few years and just talked about it. It really was a blessing because we were able to walk at the same pace and didn't run out of things to talk about. For two whole miles.

It took us almost an hour to do the whole thing and get back to our quad, and as we walked back we looked at the lightning in the distance hoping that we would get back before the storm hits. We made it back and it's still not raining.

Please join me in thanking God for putting someone that walks at my pace to walk with. We made a goal to walk every day at least the two miles. We might even try running eventually, but we're going to try to work up past the two miles before that and get up our endurance. Please continue to pray that we would be diligent in attaining this goal of walking the two miles consistently every day and that the Lord would give us the discipline to build up the endurance to handle more.

Thanks, friends!

The Week in a Rundown...

I visited my aunt and uncle in Jacksonville, NC last week. They took me to the beach...you heard all about that, I got fried. I'm still peeling and blistered. Big mistake. Note to self...WEAR SUNSCREEN!!

Friday evening and Saturday morning my aunt, cousin and I attended the Beth Moore simulcast that was broadcasting at their church. It really was a Word that I needed leading into the next couple of months...no years...of my life. Amanda, please tell your mom thanks :)

Monday my aunt and cousin drove me up to Virginia where I am now for 2 months of orientation before I head out on my great adventure that will take place in Romania. God is certainly Faithful and I have already started forming friendships with some of the other girls here at orientation.

We didn't have anything scheduled for yesterday or today besides meals. I did have to fill out a form for the board, but that's it. It took like 2 seconds. Maybe a little more. So some of the girls and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things like snacks and kleenex and stuff. Then we went to the super nice awesome mall across the street from WM and ate lunch and browsed. I originally was going to eat at Chick-Fil-A (have you tried their new sauce?? It is delish, my friends...it beats all previous sauces put together. No joke...)...but then I saw Panda Express and decided to go for a Panda Bowl of fried rice and orange chicken. Amazing. I gave up Chick-Fil-A and their new sauce for Panda. It was totally worth it. I even had leftovers and brought them back with me. Score.

Well...I'll go now. Tomorrow's the big day. The one where we have to start going to meetings and stuff. Please pray for that...it's all a little overwhelming.

I Should Have Worn Sunscreen...

...But I didn't, so now I'm a lobster. My legs and chest are super sunburned. And they hurt. Back up. Ok, I'm in NC visiting my aunt and uncle, and they live near the beach....and they took me. It was beautiful. I love the beach. I grew up going to the beach. It was a retreat for my family, a place where we could go to relax and have a good time. A place where we found rest.

The beach to me is amazing because it is one of the things in nature that God has given us to reflect His majesty. It represents the end of a continent...how God truly separated water from land when He created the Earth. It is a gem He has given us to enjoy and take care of.

Not only is there the huge ocean and all the sand on the shore...but I have never seen the stars more clearly and beautifully than when I am at the beach...except at this one place in Guatemala I went with my class in high school....another story completely. So at the beach I always contemplate the beauty of God's creation and watching the stars go by and hearing the ocean makes me wonder a lot of things. But I will leave those for a later post...if at all.

So...I'm really sunburned and it hurts. And no I don't want skin cancer.

Packing up my life...

...yet again. I feel like I've spent almost one fourth of my life packing it up in boxes and suitcases to be moved to another country. This time it's different, though. This time I'm doing it all on my own, and I'm not moving with my family. This time I decided (well God decided) to make the move and I can't wait.

Change and transition are a big deal, and I feel as though I'm going through it already. I think the transition process starts when one makes the decision to transition and announces it to those around them...and the transition process not only happens to the person in transition, but also to those closest to them.

So during this time of transition, I know that not only is this time for me, but also for my roommates (who are in transition themselves).

I really don't know what I'm trying to say here, just that I'm really feeling the pressure these days. I have to turn in my key to the DBU apartments tomorrow and I think that will be sad. That apartment has been my home for 3 years, my roommates have been my sisters, and I just don't see how we are all doing this.

I know what's coming is huge...and it's amazing and I can't wait for it. I can't wait to experience a culture I've never experienced before. I can't wait to learn a language I've hardly heard spoken. I can't wait to see with my own eyes places most people only hear about in movies and on the internet. I'm so excited about what God is going to teach me in the next season of my life. I know sometimes it will be hard. I'll miss my family terribly, but the Lord will be my family and my peace.

The End of the Earth and then a Little Farther

This weekend I decided to go visit with a family that my parents have worked with for about 15 years. They live in the city that we lived in part time while we also lived in the village. I went with them to the village they have served in, which is not far from our village. Hence the title of this post..."the end of the earth and then a little farther" is how those of us who have been out there describe how you get there. I hope that makes sense.

The road to get to these parts of Guatemala used to be dirt. Now they are paved. But the people are still the same. Significant differences are that there are more concrete houses on this road than there used to be. It used to all be adobe houses...sparsely spaced some with kilometers in between. Now there are cement houses every few hundred meters. This is the result of family members going to the States and sending back money for their homes to be built.

I will confess, I almost cried on this road this weekend just wondering how the little girl that grew up in that part of the world became the young lady I am today headed to somewhere completely different. I'm thankful for that piece of history in my life simply because it is so unique. I really am in awe of the childhood I had...but thankful for where the Lord has brought me.

Here are a few pictures...check them out for yourself...

Western Guatemala Country Side....a.k.a. the End of the Earth...

...And then some. The sign pointing to the turnoff to "my" village.

Tajumulco Volcano...my village is in the valley on the skirts of this volcano down the right side of it. The top of this volcano is also the highest point in Central America. One of my dreams is to climb it. Maybe one day I will climb "my" mountain.

Well, that's all for now. Maybe later I'll post a little bit about my Sunday morning experience at a Guatemalan Country Quinceañera party.

Today I Went to the Dentist...

...but I went to the eye doctor too. Which was good because I needed to get an eye exam anyway since it had been four years.

But the Dentist. Yes, the Dentist. He cleaned my teeth and it didn't hurt. This is really the best dentist of my life. I've been going to him for longer than any other dentist I've ever gone to. And I have to come to Guatemala to go to the dentist.

Two years ago this dentist took out my wisdom teeth. In his dental chair. With only anesthesia and laughing gas. I heard every crack and felt every ounce of pressure he put on those wisdom teeth. And I wouldn't have had it any other way. Plus that the whole cost of my trip down here AND the wisdom teeth extraction was probably less than my co-pay would have been had I had it done in the States. Oh, and any medical stuff we get done on the field is reimbursed 100%.

So this dentist is highly educated in Guatemla, the US, and Europe. Oh and when he took out my wisdom teeth they had just finished making Apocalypto. And he told me all about how he was good friends with Mel Gibson and the guy that produced Apocalypto. That's how awesome this dentist is.

I think I mostly like him because he's way better than the dentist we used to go to when I was little. She was a "pediatric dentist" but she was MEAN. Yeah, I ate a lot of candy so I had a lot of cavities. A lot. Like one time I had 8 cavities at the same time. That's how much candy I ate. Don't blame my parents, it's not their fault. I probably ate twice as much candy as they thought I did. So this mean old lady dentist never gave me enough anesthesia. So I cried and screamed because it hurt when she had to deal with my cavities. In turn, she told me how bad I was. I probably bit her a few times. I hope I did. She was mean because she never gave me enough anesthesia.

Oh, and then, she would ask me if I wanted strawberry flouride or orange flouride. I always asked for strawberry, but she gave me orange EVERY SINGLE TIME. I told you she was mean.

And I think some of the cavities were her fault because no matter how bad she told me I was while she was working on my teeth, or how much nasty orange flouride she gave me, I always managed to get a sucker at the end of it all. So it's all her fault.

Anyway, so now my dentist is super nice. Although, I did figure out later after going to the mean old lady dentist when I was little, that I am extra sensitive to the drilling so every dentist always has to give me twice as much anesthesia because the normal amount doesn't work. But it was still the mean old lady dentist's fault.

A Little Bit of Nothing

So I caught something. And now I'm taking antibiotics. A sinus infection or something. Which I guess I didn't really catch if that's what it is since those usually develop out of some kind of allergy. I never thought I'd say I had an allergy in Guatemala. Oh well. Such is life.

My mom and I have done some walking around town on errands and browsing in cute stores and at the market.

Oh, the other day we went into the real market, not the tourist market, and the power was out all over town. Including in the market. The real market in Antigua is like a maze of hallways with shops. Some of the hallways are naturally litten (is that a word?) and some are litten by electricity. Well when the power is out, it makes for some dark hallways. So we walked around the market when the power was out in dark hallways. It was mostly fun, but a little bit creepy. Everyone had candles lit or something so it was't too bad, but there were some super dark spots. That was quite an adventure, to say the least.

Guatemala is well into rainy season, so the rains come every afternoon. It's nice that the house is not insulated and we actually can hear the rain because that makes for some relaxing natural noise. Like one of those noisemakers, except its real. We don't have a tin roof, though, which is fine because then it would be really loud, but the clay tile on the roof makes some nice sound bytes.

Our dog, Clifford, who is a miniature daschund that is brown, has not been feeling well lately. He'll 11 years old which is 77 in doggy years. He has arthritis, and it's worse in the rainy season. So as much as I like the rain, it would be nice if my dog felt better, but he doesn't. Oh well. So he has arthritis really bad and pretty much just lays around all day now. He used to be so spunky and wouldn't stop chasing the tennis ball for anything. It was his job. I guess you could say he's retired now. I think my parents are going to have to put him down soon. Sad, but we don't want him to be in pain forever. It's ok.

Well I'm going to enjoy my hot chocolate and the rain on the roof a little bit. Thanks for stopping by!

New Blog!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Ill still be posting more general stuff here at antiguaang.blogspot.com, but for my prayer updates as I head to Romania and posts related to my time there, I will be posting at 2yearsinromania.blogspot.com.

So if you subscribe to this blog, dont unsubscribe, just add the other one too!

Love you all!

I'm Free!

I've been having a great time at home. It was fun last week catching up with my friend, Keeley, who I hadn't seen in over a year. We still know how to have fun together and try our best to stay out of trouble. No, really. The only time we've ever gotten in trouble together is when we made marshmallow cream with our hands and actual marshmallows and got it all over eachother. We were 20. Haha.

Anyway, this visit has been amazing. I couldn't have asked for better closure to this chapter in my life as well as some past chapters. An answer to prayer is that my ties to this town are slowly dwindling. People move on, and just about all I have left here is my parents and somewhat of a painful past. Part of this realization came to me yesterday. I was thinking about running into the guy that I dated my senior year in high school and first semester and a half of college in the street the other day. He's now in Canada getting married this weekend. I pray the Lord's blessings on his marriage. My point is that where I was nervous about seeing him at all, for fear of what might make me wish for my past, I should not have been nervous at all. The Lord took away all feelings for him more than friendship, acquaintance, even...brotherly love. I was surprised that I was fine after talking to him for five minutes. So my painful past is gone. I have no desire to return to it. There was no feeling there apart from what I said before. Praise God.

My freshman year, I did Breaking Free with Amanda and some other college girls in our church. That study, along with clarification from God on His calling on my life is what led me to end the relationship. But I can't say that I was ever free from it until now. I can honestly say that now more than three years later, I've finally broken free from that past. God has been so good to me.

And all this has come to me at a time when people around me, friends, are hurting from broken relationships. I'm thankful that the Lord has kept me from heartache this whole time, and pray that He continues to do so.

Thank you, Lord, for being so Good to me.

Loving it!

So I'm loving being home...I haven't been in Guatemala in over a year and a half and it's great. One of my favorite things to do is go and sit in the park and people watch. Here you can do that and not be creepy :). My best friend, Keeley, is in town while our parents are in meetings so we have spent 2 afternoons so far drinking coffee in the park watching people.
So I'm loving being home...I haven't been in Guatemala in over a year and a half and it's great. One of my favorite things to do is go and sit in the park and people watch. Here you can do that and not be creepy :). My best friend, Keeley, is in town while our parents are in meetings so we have spent 2 afternoons so far drinking coffee in the park watching people.



Yesterday we went to a restaurant called Mono Loco (the Funky Monkey)


and had their incredible





chicken nachos. Oh. My. Goodness. They were amazing. We didn't quite finish them off...it was just a little too much. But we certainly tried.

Today I think we'll do more of the same people watching with coffee in the park, then eat somewhere else...like Pollo Campero or Tacos 3x10.

Anyway...I hope you're all great too!!