God Provides :)

Every time I open this page to write a new post, I never know where to begin. :) God has done SO much since I got back from Mexico last June.

Let's do a quick (and inadequate) recap:
-I asked my parents if they would support my decision to apply to move to Mexico with Back2Back, and they said YES! (truly and act of God!)
-I applied and was accepted to come on as staff with Back2Back
-God GAVE ME A TRUCK through a Christ-led, amazing family.
-Friends and family have been SO generous through this time of fundraising.

That so does not do what God has been up to justice by any means, but at least now I've got you somewhat up to date. :)

To be honest, fundraising has been scary, exciting, terrifying, and SUCH a blessing...all at once! :) Every once in a while, it'll hit me that my WILDEST dream is in the process of becoming reality, and it is almost more than I can handle. :) It blows my mind that I will get to be a part of an AMAZING organization, working with people I admire deeply, getting to serve children who have already taught me much more than I probably will ever teach them.

Going through this fundraising process has put me through a roller-coaster of emotions. I have had to fight doubts, insecurities, and fear every step of the way. God has been SO faithful. Each time I am just beyond myself, feeling like I just want to turn around and run, God has done something BIG to remind me, "Quit stressin'- I've got this." Right when I begin to succumb to fear, God blows it out of the water.

I haven't reached my goal for sponsors just yet, but I trust God's timing is SO much better than mine (although sometimes He needs to remind me lol) and that He will provide. :) He has been SO faithful this far, and He will continue to be faithful.

I can not thank everyone who has been a part of this adventure with me enough! Your encouragement, love, and generosity have made a HUGE impact- more than you realize. :)

This week in a nutshell

Hey guys!
This week FLEW by!! It was crazy! Sunday we went to a ropes course with our group as a team building thing. They did the "Leap of Faith". Basically, you climb up  a large tree, crawl on one of the branches, stand up, then leap to a trapeze hanging from another branch! (They were harnessed and safe, of course!)
Then we came back and had a party with over 500 people on campus!! Every children's home we serve was here. It was so cool! We all were wearing the same shirt, so it was just this sea of orange. The guy who bought all of the shirts for all of us said it was so we can all feel like one giant family of God's children. I thought that was pretty cool! We ate really good food, hung out, and kids gave their testimony about all God has done in their lives. It was really cool!
That's also where I met Wendy and Lidia's mom! She's so young! I'm kinda bummed, because a friend of mine took a picture of all of us on her camera, but lost her camera before I got the picture on my computer. :( It's ok though, I'll still remember her!
I got really sick Tuesday night and all day Wednesday. :( No, I didn't drink the water!! One of the American's that came with one of the groups brought cooties with them! A bunch of us got really yucky. :P It was only one night/day thank God!! I got so dehydrated I couldn't get out of the bed for a little bit. :P Go figure, I come to Mexico and catch AMERICAN cooties! lol
Thursday we had this HUGE soccer game! The kids from one of our children's home came to this neat soccer stadium one of the groups rented out for us, and we had such a great time. Chaotic, but really fun!
Then Friday we had our intern outing!! (Pictures to come!!) I had a blast!! I'm gonna try to post a separate post of just pictures right now. Cross your fingers!

FINALLY!! :)

Hey guys!!
I'm so glad to finally get to post again. These past few days have been CRAZY! Even my day off flew by- and the internet didn't work for DAYS here. No bueno.

So, let's see..

I went to Rio III last week! It's my favorite place. Just a quick explanation- "Rio" is Spanish for river- and the Spanish government allows the homeless to create homes, essentially out of garbage, since they don't have government housing here.

We took the group on a walk as we explained a little about the hurricane that hit last year, and what kind of damage that created for the Rio community. As we were walking, a dead chicken was laying on the ground amongst the piles of rotten food and garbage. It breaks my heart. I just can't even fathom not knowing when my next meal was going to be, or when if ever I would be able to clothe my children.
It was SO cool to see all has done for a small church in the Rio though! I honestly didn't recognize it! It had DOUBLED in size!! I'm not even exaggerating! I'm hoping to get to go back next week to take pictures!

I'm rather disappointed in myself!! I have barely taken any pictures!! It's quite different as an intern. There's SO much to do! I love it- it's so rewarding and exciting! But it also leaves little time to take any pics!

We had a GIGANTE FIESTA (giant party!) yesterday!! It was AWESOME! Each year there is a group that comes, and the man who leads the group brings T-shirts for EVERYONE, and pays to have this huge celebration. EVERY children's home we serve came to the back-to-back campus for the party! We had a huge tent set up, the kids got to see this neat program with costumed characters. And we all got to eat these steak (very expensive in Mexico) tacos with homemade pico de gallo and guacamole on them!!! It was so awesome.
The BEST part?! I got to meet the mother of the girls I sponsor!!

I realize this may not make sense- so let me explain as best as I can.

In Mexico, a parent does not need to sign over rights in order to drop a child off at a children's home. If a parent is no longer able to provide for a child, they are able to take them to a Casa Hogar. Wendy and Lidia's mom visits them about once very two weeks or so. I was finally able to meet her. I got a Spanish speaker to come over and try to explain how I was connected to her girls, but I'm not quite sure she understood. She was also very young. It seemed as if she really just didn't know what to do with the girls- if they cried or wanted to be held or anything. I'm really happy to know her, and to be able to put a face on who I am praying for. A friend here took a picture of the four of us, so I'm hoping to get it off her camera tonight! :)

Today's my day off, so it's laundry time! :) I'm hoping to get to go to Pollo Loco tonight with everyone- just have to hitch a ride with someone who's also going here.

I miss y'all and can't wait to hear from everyone when I get back! I honestly can't believe it'll only be 11 days until I get back! How weird!! To be honest I don't feel ready to go yet!!

The kids in Rio III singing to us! I cried, of course!! :) A girl (not in this picture, because she was attached to me!) recognized me!! She also kept asking over and over "are you coming back?" When are you coming back?" I can't wait to see her again. :)

This is me and my friend Kathy Couch! She took me to get ice cream!! We split that GIGANTIC banana split and STILL couldn't finish it! I had such a great time getting to hang out and talk with her!! She is a remarkable woman!!

I think this little fellah's name is Arturo. He was the sweetest. :) He got this tiny little scratch on the bottom of his foot, and asked me to pour water on it (from the pool) to make it better. So, I sat there for about a half an hour, pouring handfuls of water on his little boo-boo. Then, it hit me. This kid probably never gets that kind of attention. You've gotta be bleeding to the point of possible death to get serious one-on-one like that at a children's home! So, of course, I started crying for the 1,000th time this trip. :) There are roughly 8 children per encargata (caregiver)-actually probably even more... and as much as they would love to spend individual time with each child- they just can't. Makes me so sad...

Thanks for reading my ramblings guys! :)

My day off :)

Hey guys!
So it's my day off! I'm hoping this'll actually work and I'll be able to get some pics up from this week!! :)

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Ok...so no luck. The internet here is SOOO sketchy. :P I'll have to try again after worship tonight.

This week has been pretty great! We only had one group- so it was nice and non-hectic. :) Next week we have three groups, so hopefully we've gotten the hang of it all!

I'm gonna ask y'all to pray for me. Whether or not you believe in God/Jesus, He'll still hear you if you pray, so do it. :)

Ever since I've gotten here I feel like I've been goin through what Jesus peeps call a "spiritual attack". I've been REALLY insecure, and just feeling really inadequate and useless. In my head I understand that's not true- and that God has me here for a very specific purpose. I know that there's no reason to be insecure. It's like these thoughts just creep into my head, and I have to fight against them. So- please pray. :)

That aside, I really love it here. :) So far I've used a drill, a tamper, a hammer, shovel- all kinds of stuff!! It's pretty exciting! The staff here has a really awesome mindset about teaching. They could get all the projects done MUCH faster if they just did it themselves. But they all are under the same "Give a man a fish- he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish- he eats for a lifetime" kinda mentality. And even though Todd had to show me like SIX times how to use the drill... he never once showed frustration. :)

We had a kid in the Hope program speak last night. (The Hope program was started because they were finding that once the kids got too old to live in the children's homes, they had no where to go and were falling into prostitution, and drugs simply because they had no place else to go. Plus, school after seventh grade (I think) has to be paid for. The Hope program brings these students onto campus to live with host parents. The see a functional Christian relationship, and get to be a part of a family. Pretty cool stuff!!) It was just so cool to see how God has taken something that started off so awful, and turn his story into something so beautiful. There are so many stories like that here- it just gives a person so much hope.

One thing this place is definitely teaching me is that with prayer and patience- God comes through. Every time. And it's neat hearing people's stories... While they're in their story they are so overwhelmed and hurting, then God comes through in SUCH a huge way.

I feel like I have 1,000 things to say- and can't manage to get anything out clearly. :) Forgive me, please. :)

I'm gonna go check my laundry, and maybe nap. :)

Love and miss you guys!! :) My Facebook e-mail works, if you wanna shoot me a hello!!

Grrrrrrrr :)

Ok, so I FINALLY get a chance to write on my blog and share pictures I got of MY GIIIIIIIRLS!!!!! AND the internet is working! All systems go, right?! Nope!! lol
"Blogger" is updating something, and will not let me upload the pictures.

BUT- I did get to see my girls. :) I was so excited! I didn't even know what to do! I mean, I wanted to run to them screaming "TE AMO!!!!" ('I LOVE YOU!!!) But they'd most likely run screaming. :)
Wendy is doing so much better! Laughing, smiling, even dancing! So cool. And Lidia's doing excellent! She went through a really rough patch where she was so angry.... :( But she was smiling and playing when I saw her! I'm so happy I got to see them!

We also went the the Caderyeta yesterday. It's kind of like the Rio- a homeless area. I cry everytime... :( We helped clean up, and I held it together! I was doing fine! lol Then we went to a church there in the Caderyeta. I later found out the pastor of that church has a salary of $50 a MONTH! :( yikes.
One of the things that really was cool was their worship and prayer. Their worship sounded like one giant hour long song!! It was cool! I didn't know the words, but it sounded awesome. And their prayer- they all pray at once- out loud! It was awesome. And to see how passionate these people were... really encouraging.

So I even made it partway through THAT without crying! Then- a man dragged in two really drunk men. It kinda blew my mind. I didn't really know what to think. :( It made me really sad. :(

Today we went to Imperio De Amor (Empire of love- how cool is that?!) One of the children's homes. We worked on leveling the ground so we could pour concrete tomorrow, then played soccer and basketball with the kids. :) I actually played!! It was fun! I was awful, but it was so fun!!

I really like the group we have now! It was cool, cause we only have one this first week. (We usually have 4-5) It was a nice way to be eased into it all. Most days I still have no idea what I'm doing... but God's been working it out! Most nights I come home completely filthy and exhausted. I wake up around 6am and go to bed about 11pm everyday. I have never felt so happy or fulfilled or excited to wake up. :) I truly feel like I am where I belong. It's like breathing a sigh of relief. :)

Well peeps, I'm wiped out, and am comes REALLY early! I'll try again to post pictures tomorrow! I wish I could've posted some tonight! I have so much to show you!

This I mean to keep telling you-
We can't flush toilet paper where we stay- we have to throw it in a trash can cause the septic system can't handle it.
We can't drink the water where we're staying
I had the bright red hotdogs!! (Salchichas-I got a picture this time!!)

Night night folks! :)