.heart stories.

.working.on.week.three. In just a few days I will have been in Nica for three weeks. In some ways it’s hard to believe that three weeks have gone by but in other ways it’s very believable that three weeks have passed. This week was physically exhausting to say the least. It’s my week to attend to the dorm girls while getting ready for school. Which meant a 4:00am wake up call and 25 girls missing socks and not wanting to get out of bed. We also had a medical team here from all over the globe care for the women and children here at Casa Esperanza as well as people from the community. In one room there were teeth being pulled and in another room minor surgeries were happening. It was amazing to see what could be done with so little. Doctors with time and equipment…generators…add people and miracles happened. It was neat to be a very small part of caring in a practical manner to the people of Managua. The doctors worked tirelessly from 8:00am until 4:00pm or after. Amazing...

.ten.days.in. It’s been ten full days now living in Nica and in full Nica style I might add. This week has been one of adventure and growth in many ways for me personally. Last Sunday evening me and the other two gringas went to the local grocery store called La Union and upon our return we were met by a rushing river where the road to the House of Hope once was. This road is called simply 13 but it was no longer a road. It was evening and quickly getting dark as in Nica there are not many street lamps…so here we were…three gringas sitting in a big truck waiting for a river to become a road once again. After a couple of hours the waters slowed and we decided to be brave and attempt to drive to the HOH. Once we tried to start the engine of the truck it would turn over. Again…three gringas on the side of the road now truly stuck. We called Oscar the on campus director of HOH. He came in boots and a motorcycle. We discovered it was the spark plugs. He asked us to flag a truck down t...

.week.one. It hasn’t officially been a week but we’ll just keep that little detail between you and I.  Arriving to Nica was well…emotional on many ends. Sad I was leaving and to be honest a lot scared. Scared of nothing in particular just scared because I was about to land in a country where I didn’t speak their language and I was alone. I got to Nica about 4:30pm local time…which for EST was 6:30pm. I had been traveling a total of 12 hours and was exhausted. Laura, who is the teams’ coordinator for House of Hope, picked me up and she drove me to my new casa. It was dark so most of the girls didn’t recognize me at first and I didn’t recognize too many of them. I spotted a familiar face and I wasn’t sure it was really who I thought it was until she ran into the main meeting room screaming “She’s here she’s here! My madrina is here!” At that point I knew it was my Lupe. Lupe is the little girl I wrote about my last day at House of Hope and how God chose her to show me h...

.10.weeks. .here. is the fun part where we all get to see God provide and work by using his people..my family..be a part of what he is doing. .my. goal for the trip is to raise right around $4,500. this includes airfare to and from, living expenses while there as well as emergency funds for anything that may come up.  feel free to click  here  to open up the online giving page. this will open up a new window so you can keep reading if you'd like. :) .as. the days are slowly ticking by i am realizing that they are going to start flying by and i'm going to be wondering where March went..where April went..and where May went. i have set a few goals to keep me focused for these next ten weeks. the main goal that i am constantly reminding myself of is "love people well..love my friends and my family well right now. don't pull away. don't do self-protect mode. love only." .those. that are closest to me know this journey of letting people in and allowing ot...

.so. here it is the big news you have all been waiting for.... .i've. posted a little something about it on Facebook this past weekend but here's the details of what i posted. .i. am scheduled to be moving to nica for six months starting in June! .not. a shock or surprise i'm sure to some people..but it is to me. which is weird because i was the one who applied for the internship. i went through the "next steps" that God was giving me. but alas i'm still surprised that i will be leaving the country for six months in just over two months. .surprised. that in mid janurary i almost opted out of what God had for me in nicaragua! .surprised. that just eight months ago i had what my friends and i like to call "the incident"..a small tango with my past..where i learned deeply about God's love and GRACE covering my life. .surprised. that i've only been walking with God for about a year and a half..but i can't recognize myself because ...

.part. of me being obedient and starting to bring people into what God is doing..and has done in me..is me sharing what God did back in October 2011. i'm not one to look back on the past..but this is something that God started back almost five months ago now..but it has meaning to what i feel God doing in me currently. .deep. breath. .God. gave me a vision back in October. a vision to be a family to his children who didn't have one..or didn't have a good one. to become a foster parent here in the 'burg. at this point i have only told a small handful of my close friends what God was stirring in me and that i would be making preparations to take that step of obedience. i began praying for my next step..and that God would show me when it was time to move towards it. when he was going to make this vision a reality. at that time in October..and currently..i am living with a close friend and her family. (God story w/ this too!) so i have the ability to save some funds and...

.that's. the question now.. .so.what?... .so. what do i do with all that God started? What do i take as my next step towards God? towards obedience? .this. blog was step number one. bringing people in on it. deeply in on it. that meant being able to write more. express more. being willing to share more. so for me that practically meant a new computer. i have been nursing this computer that was gifted to me when i was a senior in college. back in the day..about five years ago. it was a good computer while it lasted..but like any laptop..it is holding on by it's fingernails. for example it tells me every time i turn it on that i have put in a foreign battery and cannot recognize it and will not be able to charge. no use in arguing with my computer..but it's had the same battery since day one. .with. that said..i started sharing that buying a computer..and a good one..is my next step. to bring others into this God story. to have it be their story too. each one of you w...