It all started one day at the orphanage when I was left alone in a room with one of the nurses, Angelina. Being the extravert that I am I couldn’t stay silent long and attempted to start a conversation in my very broken Spanish. Within 5 minutes we were both very confused, and Brent came and saved the day with his perfect translation skills!      I have been desperate to maintain some traditional Guatemalan recipes, so Brent asked Angelina if she would be willing to write down her favorite one for me. She did and I looked at it…very, very confused. The directions...

These past two months have been a whirlwind of emotions- filled with ups, down, twists, and turns. We went from thinking that successfully living with 19 people was unimaginable, to not wanting it any other way. The constant laughter, conversations and card games bring life to this little house on San Pedro el Alto.    Its been inspiring to see a group of young, college age, adults, who have only ever seen a glimpse of community, come together and choose to love one another.  Truly, when one of us is hurting we surround each other with prayer and love.  In this short span...

Let me start this blog out by saying that I am completely in LOVE with Jesus.   This week was different at the cerebral palsy orphanage. They asked us to come a little earlier so that we could help the nurses bathe them. IT WAS SO HARD. I am not comfortable at all, but somehow I was able to make it through carrying, washing, dressing, and loving 8 precious orphans. When I went to help her undress the last child she stopped me. First, she handed me gloves (which we hadn’t used on any of the other children) and looked at me with a look of sorrow that immediately broke my heart. What...

When I first walked by Ever in the Cerebral Palsy orphanage, he pretended to be asleep. I obviously responded immediately by pretending to fall asleep on his face, and lemme tell you… He has a laugh that I'm never going to forget! The way he lights up every time I walk over to him, the way he starts to bite his hands so that I'll stop and pay attention to him, the way he lifts up his arms every time I tell him "Brazos!" so that he can experience what it's like to stand… he's perfect! Within the first week of laying on his mat with him...

This trip has been amazing. Every single part of it has been different than what I thought it would be. Normally, I would have been disappointed the entire time, and honestly I was in the beginning, but this year I’ve learned that life is never what you expect and regardless of what happens, Jesus is faithful every time.          I’ve never been comfortable in any type of medical situations. Nevertheless, I ended up in a cerebral palsy orphanage being challenged and stretched in crazy ways. I started out timid, but now I’m feeding blended...

It’s so crazy how the Lord blesses us when we lay down our expectations—when we open up our hands and let the Lord take all of our own desires and dreams. This past weekend, I found myself needing to let go of expectations, still. Like many of my teammates, I had many expectations for this trip that were not being met. I had dreams of little children running into my arms. I had desires to connect with the people of Guatemala and make life-long friends. I had expectations to learn Spanish, and to learn it quickly and easily. And again, the Lord asked me to give these up to Him. To...