This past month n half has been rather difficult and fun, is that even possible?! Well, it's how I felt :) My sister Kelsey and Caleb's best friend came to Nicaragua for two weeks, and that was the FUN part :) The difficult part, well that wasn't so fun. The week before they came to Nicaragua, I felt homesick for the first time since we've been living here. I didn't really realize it though until *after* Galen & Kelsey left. I really really really missed being back in the States, and started really really really missing my family and friends and just hanging out with everyone on the weekends, family get togethers, friends coming over, ALL OF IT!!!!!!!!! I just wanted to be around familiar faces and talk to people who understood me and I understood them. When Kelsey & Galen came for those two weeks, those feelings were all fulfilled and I loved it, I loved having devotions with my little sister in the hammocks in the mornings, I loved having her cook beside me in the kitchen, and she was always so willing to wash dishes and help clean up. I loved watching her experience a little bit of what I experience when working in the communities, I loved watching her build relationships with the little kids and also the SI Staff. Everyone loved her and she loved them too. She's coming back with her youth group end of this month for a one week outreach. We're pretty stoked about that :)
So after we dropped Galen & Kelsey off at the airport and got back to the base, it was like reality hit me straight across the face, and a ton of emotions came over me. I didn't want to cry, because I figured if I start now, I wouldn't be able to stop and I felt that if I cried I would than be weak. So I just kinda held it together and proceeded with my day. I decided I would take the sheets off their beds they slept in......and that's when it hit me, they were gone.....The base was empty and it was just us again. And than water stuff started flowing down my face.....And whenever I'd walk past their rooms, it was empty, their stuff wasn't laying on the bed, and I didn't hear anyone else talking, it was rough. And than Caleb asked me if I was ok and than more water started flowing.......So I just shared with him how I was feeling and after I got it all out, I felt much better. So it's been a crazy emotional past couple weeks, but thank God I have a wonderful husband who's been here for me <3
Monday, February 24th the Mattson family arrived in Nicaragua. They are here on a family vision trip. Scoping things out to see if SI Nicaragua is where they are suppose to be, so they've been doing a lot of visiting different places and stuff like that. They have been living here at the base and it's been a lot of fun getting to know them better. Spencer and Michelle have been here before, Michelle once by herself when we first were getting started and than last year together as a couple they came, and now their whole family is here checking things out. I've gotten to know their kids pretty good, we've talked about a lot of funny things and laughed until we cried. Their two younger kids, Madi and Micah remind me soooo much of my little sister Kendra and my cousin Jagger. Madi is sooo funny and goofy and she giggles so much like Kendra, it's like having her here <3 I've been loving it and it's the perfect medicine I needed during this rough time of feeling homesick, God is so AWESOME like that and it just blows my mind how He loves us so much and takes care of the little things in life. He has showed me so much this past year, it's just awesome :)
Tonight we are welcoming the SI Costa Rica Semester students for a one week outreach. So it'll be fun having more people here, along with the Mattson family, their kids will get to experience what it's like when teams are here!!!!!
We are getting ready for a busy Spring full of teams, it's just one week outreaches, but it's back to back, so it's going to be busy. I'm looking forward to it and can't wait until the summer outreaches start, we're going to have an awesome group of interns, a few from last years outreaches and this years Semester outreach back in January. Bring it on :)
Caleb's been dealing with some nasty parasites still :\ He's trying to change a few different things and wash his hands more. Hopefully he gets to feeling better, because ever since we've been back from the States he's been sick....Miserable, headaches, stomachaches, just not feeling good, he's been on some strong medicines that make him feel worse than the parasite, it's not been fun watching him be in pain like this. So y'all can be praying for him, that he would be completely healed from this nasty bug. As a lot of you may know, back in May of 2013, we found out that Caleb has Lyme's Disease. So we both started on this program called NutraMedix. The guy told us that it's transmittable and that's why he wanted me to go on it right away without being tested, so that's what we did. Well last month, Caleb and I both got tested, just to see where we're at, and we found out that Caleb basically has NO more bugs, there's just this one little one left and that should be completely gone by the end of this one year program we are doing. We also found out that I in fact do have all the bugs Caleb had, so he wants me to continue the program and hopefully by the end, all my bugs will be gone too. He said I have a really good immune system to not have any symptoms or anything, so I'm blessed with that. Praising God for the healing He's doing in Caleb's life.....
A few photos from this past month.....
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| Galen helping A.T |
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| Jared watching videos on my phone :) |
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| Galen feeding the monkey on Monkey Island. |
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| Kelsey & I got to help Celia in the Medical site. |
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| Kelsey at Volcán Masaya |
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| Galen & Caleb by the Volcano |
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| So Blessed by them... |
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| We even baked cookies :) |
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| Memories that last forever |
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| Meeting Natlia |
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| One of Kelsey's high lights was feeding a monkey :) |
*Prayer Requests*
*Good health for Caleb.
*That God would continue to show us what He has for us in the future.
*Spanish, that we will continue to learn and be able to understand.
*Strength & Energy for this Spring time of outreaches and also for the summer that's just around the corner....
Today marks 11 months in Nicaragua.
