Day 5

Wednesday was great for so many reasons, but the greatest part of this day for me, didn't come until the evening. But I'll leave you in suspense until I'm done telling the rest of the story. Don't worry... I'll make it quick.

Duties were changed up a bit because the needs for the different projects required different skill sets: and because I was whining all week about wanting to help on the stairs, I got exactly what I wanted. I helped haul concrete pretty much all morning: and let me tell you how NOT easy it was! On this day, all I had to do was haul two buckets back and forth from the concrete pile, to the top of the mountain where the guys were waiting in an assembly line to pass them down to the bottom to be poured into the wood forms. For some reason, I had no earthly idea of how hard this really was going to be, and so once I got going, I couldn't very well tell them that I quit! I demanded that I get to play too! So, play I did, for two hours or so: back and forth... back and forth... and because my pastor is such a grown up, (got nothin' but love for ya' brother!) he thought it would be funny to launch, whip, hurl, and spin the "empty" concrete buckets back up to me and watch in pure delight as I would be splattered here and there with the grey stuff. Gotta love boys. They're so... funny.

Anyway, lunch came and went, and I was just DOG TIRED after my little experience, and so I helped Tom do some wiring down by the new chicken coupe for the afternoon until VBS rolled around.

The kids had a field day making bookmarks out of construction paper, stickers, and packing tape. I've never seen so many stickers on so many faces in my whole life. These kids are just hilarious! My little friends Tiffany (who loved me from the minute she met me on Sunday, because our names are so similar) and "Princess" Fiona, pictured here:

...were just being so naughty. But they are just so stinkin' funny! I couldn't get over these kids! The more time we spent with them, the more and more I fell in love with them all!

But anyway, yes. Stickers on faces, stickers on tables, stickers all OVER the place, lots of laughter, and a whirlwind of children everywhere, and they were gone. That's how VBS went each and everyday. They were there, and then they were gone... and we were left dumbfounded by all the commotion!

We settled into our afternoon, got showered up and prettied up:

...ate dinner and waited for Wednesday night service to start.

Service was amazing! First, a few of the girls did a worship dance for us (well, for God, but we got to watch, and it was beautiful), and then we went into some good old fashioned Jamaican worship. Wow, was that cool! All they had was a tambourine, a hand-held bongo drum, and a girl with a microphone, and they went to TOWN!! The kids, as you can see, get right into it and they just dance before the Lord, and thoroughly enjoy themselves; and they even got a few from our team to participate!

The blurry one on the right hand side jumping up and down is our pastor, getting right in there with the kids. (He fits in so well, doesn't he? ;) Anyway, this worship was unique in so many ways, and was just SO much fun to be a part of!

A little while later, Jess, a temporary missionary on staff (and the resident coffee-guy), got up there with his guitar and led worship with a few contemporary songs that we were all familiar with. Of course, here too, the tears began to fall, not only because seeing those children in such a true moment of worship with thier heavenly Father was such a joy for me: but also because you could just feel His presence all over that place. There is such an undenyable annointing over that place, those people, and that ministry, that God seems to be everywhere all the time at that orphanage. And when we were praising and worshipping Him: well truth be told, I didn't want to be anywhere else in the whole entire world in that very moment.

That night was just so precious to my heart, and is an experience that I will always cherish. God taught so much to my spirit that night through what I saw, what I felt, and what I heard.

Our pastor and his wife were available at the altar call to pray for the children: and according to the Becky, the p.w., almost every child asked for prayer for thier parents: that they might see them again, and that God would take care of them. But one prayer request struck me to the core: "please let me have a good dream about my parents tonight". It still brings tears to my eyes. Those poor babies. Thier hearts are so beautiful and full of life and God: but only because they were given a chance by God through this ministry. But no matter where they are in thier experience at The City of Refuge, and thier walks with God, they still have deep-seeded hurts and struggles that they deal with: and I pray for them everyday that the Lord would heal thier precious little hearts.

After service was over, we were apparently having fun with licorice:

...and my camera. This is me and my little friend Lindsay. (This girl is a riot: she had me rollin' all week!) I proudly call this type of photograph a "selfie", and introduced it to the rest of the team. As you can see, I am a pro at the "selfie": centering the camera with just one hand, and assuring an oh-so-flattering angle for the people involved.

So along with my stellar picture-taking abilities, we again enjoyed games, games, and more games. Some coffee and more games. Oh yeah: and some laughs, and coffee.

Good night, Jamaica.

Day 4

First of all, I should start off by saying this: I believe that I failed to mention a key point in my story that really impacts my version of what went on in Jamaica two weeks ago. As I mentioned yesterday, I really felt like God was trying to stretch me physically on this trip. The guys, however, apparently had a different view of me. They nicknamed me "diva", or "D". From day one. I'm not quite sure where they got that impression: it could have had something to do with how I present myself at church, or that I sing, or... maybe it came from me painting my toenails in the airport as we were waiting for our flight to leave? Well, either way, they had it set in thier minds that I was a "diva", and I even aquired the nickname "Heidi", as in, "Come on, Heidi!" as I was chipping tile off the wall on Monday. If you're confused, it's okay. I was too. But either way, I spent the rest of the week, proving myself to be neither a "diva" OR a "Heidi" (whatever that means!).

So anyway, day two required a bit more physical effort than day one did: and not because we did anything more physically taxing, rather, I think that I was so excited to dig into all the work the day before that I kind of over-did it, so I was dragging quite a bit for day two of work. The other thing I failed to mention about this experience was the stairs. The stairs. Oh the staaaaiiiirs!!! Well okay. Let me give you a visual first. These are the dorms where the kids live....

Well... they're where the older girls live. The green house right behind that is where the toddlers and infants stay, and the boys are on the very west end of the compound which you'll see at a later date. So, to get from the lodge to the dorms, you have to climb down a couple of flights of stairs...

... and that's not even all of them. That's just to get from the lodge to the dorms. To get from the dorms to where we worked for the majority of the week, was another... three flights or so? I was so excited to be there and be working, and seeing the kids and everything on Monday, that I probably ran up and down the 150-some stairs about fifteen+ times. So as you can imagine, I was drained on Tuesday. It wasn't pretty.

This is the missionaries' house (aka the directors of the orphanage), which is another flight of stairs down from the dorms. The beautiful wooden balconies were constructed last year by our church's team which were just beautifully done. The actually view from the balconies are just breathtaking. You can see the whole mountain range, all of Kingston, and the ocean. It's just gorgeous!

Okay well, so the work (which is the whole reason we were there), went really well. My main project for the day was to help Dean (pictured here) make a door for the new coffee storage facility. It had to be made out of Maho (sp?) wood, it had to be two inches thick, and very sturdy. Well, the catch was that we had to take raw wood and make the pieces into the planks that you see us working with there. So, we had to run them though the table saw to get straight edges, and then run them through the planer over, and over, and over again, until they were smooth on both sides. Then, they were suitable for use. It literally took all day just to get them to this point, at which time, we drilled holes, pounded in some dowels (sp? - I'm obviously not a carpenter seeing as I can't spell any of the technical words associated with the work), glued them together, and clamped it together piece by piece and allowed them to dry. I was so excited to be a part of this process, because I learned so many new things that day!

A few of the other guys spent the day forming the stairs from the director's house down to the new coffee facility, and pouring concrete. Here's another one for you: up there in "mountain-ville", they don't have concrete trucks, so what they do is they mix stone, sand, and concrete mix with water in a pile in the middle of the dirt road on the compound, and tranfer it down the side of the mountain in buckets as you see the guys doing here. Believe it or not, my goofy self wanted to partake in this tedious process, but didn't have a chance to on this particular day. It would be days five and six that I would torture myself by becomming one of the guys and hauling concrete with them.

These are the stairs that they worked on. This was the very preliminary stage of the stairs. By the time we left, they were close to completion: which is hard to believe, seeing as there were really only 3 guys from our team working on them at all times, 5 to 6 of us when they needed extra help, and only four days of actual work. Of course we had the local grounds-keepers and construction guys helping, but I'm still amazed at how much got done while we were there!

So on this day, the clouds rolled in rather unexpectedly mid-day, and the rain came pouring down unlike anything I had ever seen! I don't know if it was because we were in the middle of the clouds or what, but the raindrops were absolutely gi-normous!!

We had our first day of VBS with the kids that day, but I missed the majority of it, because I was busy helping get all the coffee back in the bags as the rain came pouring down: and I was in such a desperate need of a shower, that I chose water and cleanliness over time with the kids (I know: bad missionary girl!). But the other girls picked up the slack and helped the kids make foam crosses with glitter paint and words like faith, and believe: so cute! Me and my clean self came in on the very tail end of things, and it was a complete madhouse in there: but it seemed like the kids had a great time, and they just loved to be able to spend time with us.

The rest of the evening played out like every other night there. We enjoyed dinner together, and settled in for yet another night of games. I captured a few amazing sunsets, one of which I thought I'd share with you today...

My pastor and his wife. Awwwwwwwww! I love this picture. The sunsets there are awesome and can never be done justice on film. But I really liked this one. Anyway.. games, laughs, and lots of fun consumed our evening once again, and shortly thereafter it was off to bed to prepare for yet again another day of hard, but very rewarding work.

Day 3

It was another beautiful morning in Jamaica, and as I walked up the stairs to the lodge before breakfast, I caught this sight and just had to capture it on film.

If you look closely, you can see Kingston in the background.

This was day one of actual work, so after breakfast and devotions, we quickly divied up jobs and got to work. Tom (pictured above) was our resident electrician for the week, so he basically wired up all areas that were untouched by electricity on the complex. So this is Tom getting started on some electrical work in the director's office.

A new missionary was on his way in on Thursday, so Monday we worked on turning this kitchen into a bedroom for his daughter. (There were two kitchens in this particular unit: not quite sure why...) So this was the beginning stages of demolition on this room. I got to chip that tile off the wall that you see there behind the guys, and that was real fun!

This is all the junk that we pulled out of the kitchen. I should make it a point to say that once we did start working on Monday, I quickly realized that any desire to paint or clean anything was totally and completely absent from me. I found myself just really wanting to get my hands dirty and do as much "guy" work as I could! This told me that God wanted to stretch me physically while I was there as well as spiritually and emotionally: and stretch me He did! He started with having me help pull apart this kitchen. Fun, fun! A different group of guys got started working on a new set of concrete stairs on the other end of the compound that would lead from the missionaries' house down to the NEW coffee storage facility.

Since the orphanage is located in the heart of the Blue Mountains where they make the worlds.best.coffee.ever!!, (have I already mentioned this before?) they grow and roast it right on site (privately at this point) to help fund the ministry. So I learned a little bit more about my favorite beverage while I was there, and that being that the beans after having been picked, need to be dried out like this every day for about two and a half months before they are ready to be roasted. So everyday they lug about thirty or so (maybe more) HUGE burlap bags filled with these "green beans", down to this cement slab where they lay them out to dry for about 5-6 hours a day. Then, they bag them back up and store them until the next day! It's a very interesting process! Anyway, this NEW coffee storage facility will enable them to store AND dry the coffee all in the same area, so there will be no transporting the beans back and forth (which is a TON of work) until they are ready to be roasted.

At the end of this particular day, I helped helped to haul the beans back in, and rode in the truck with these bowls of beans in my lap. The other bin was what we took from to satisfy our coffee addictions while we were there.

Showers were a treat after all that hard work, cold water and all (we were not privy to many hot showers while we were there). Unfortunately, our water supply did run out temporarily (the pump was on the fritz the whole time we were there), but only for a short time -thank God - because I think that after our first day of hard work - we ALL needed one!

It quickly became common practice for us to assemble ourselves at the dining table in the lodge at the end of every day and challenge one another to Phase 10, Dominos, Scrabble, etc. I wish I could say I won even ONE game while I was there, but alas, I didn't. But you bet that I'll be on TOP of my game once our reunion night rolls around! (Evil laughter ensues!)

These times were especially fun for me because I got a chance to get to know everyone so much better! You really get to see people's true character when they're in a spirit of competition: and if you knew everyone, I could tell you so many funny stories about them all, but you don't so I'll spare you. Just know that those nine people made me laugh harder than I have laughed in a really long time. Our game nights were a blast!

It was another early night for everyone, as it seemed that no one was really sleeping all that well since we had arrived there. There's something about the altitude change, or being in a different country, or working harder than your body is generally used to: but something was keeping us all from getting quality sleep. Tylenol PM quickly becomes a staple on missions trips from what I hear, and rightfully so. But at any rate, day 3 of our trip, and day 1 of work came to a close, and we were all lulled to sleep, yet again, by the sound of crickets chirping outside our windows.

I Interrupt This Program...

...to tell you that blogger is not doing what I want it to do. I was planning on writing the third installment of my Jamaica 2006 saga tonight, but to my chagrin, I can't seem to upload any photos to illustrate my points. So! I will do my best to get Day 3 posted as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I would like to give a warm welcome to all of my new readers (you know who you are), and invite you to comment freely as you read along over the next few days (and even beyond that if you find my diva-esque site even remotely amusing apart from my Jamaica tales). So take a load off, stay awhile, and say hello!

On the homefront, I've finally readjusted to life in the big writhing metropolis that is Milwaukee. It really is a strange transition coming back from a missions trip: you make these wonderful friendships with people while you're there that you might otherwise have never had the opportunity to get to know, yet once you get back, everyone has to get back into their daily routine and you're just kind of jerked back into reality. And, let me tell you how wierd it was for me to not wake up to ten people everyone morning for the first few days after I was back home. I'm a social butterfly and love being around people, so that was just a not-so-fun adjustment for me when I returned.

But the biggest reality check for me was the fact that I didn't get to see those kids everyday: my daily routine suddenly seemed so mundane and rather pointless. I was no longer doing things to benefit the orphanage and working with the kids and paying them the attention they so desperately crave. I was all of a sudden just being me in my everyday life again: and that's a hard adjustment to make.

But I thank God every day for the lessons He taught me, and the way He revealed so many truths to my heart that I did not even know existed, or would have otherwise chosen to continue to ignore if it weren't for this experience. I love my God because He is just so faithful - even in the struggles. He teaches me every single day: in my quiet times, and even through the chaos inside my mind. He's there - molding me, shaping me, and preparing me for something greater that, I'm not even close to being sure of yet. But I know it's there, because he promised me this glorious future, so I know it's in His plan. I just have to trust Him even through that chaos and uncertainty. I know He'll come through - He's done it before, and He'll do it again!

On a completely unrelated note, I just wanted to all let you know that I am officially an auntie for the very first time ever! How is that possible when I'm an only child, you ask? Well, one of my very besest friends in the whole wide world just gave birth to an 8lb., 11oz. baby boy this morning at 6:30am. His name is Jackson, and he's absolutely beautiful, and precious, and has already stolen my heart. I got to see him tonight, and he is just the sweetest thing ever!!! I'm officially in love. My very first nephew: how fun!

Anyway, congratulations guys, and thanks for making me an auntie!!

Day 2

Sunday was a really calm day. We observed the Sabbath day, and rested after our long, long trip, so we were able to wake up a little later than what would become the norm for the the rest of the week. The orphanage that we worked at used to be a hotel, so we actually slept in an old motel on the top of a mountain overlooking the most amazing sight I had EVER seen.

So these are the motel rooms we stayed in, and the view out the front door when I woke up on Sunday morning looked exactly like this...

...and this.

This is the veranda on which we ate breakfast and did devotions every morning.

And this is the view from the veranda which is actually a newer addition to the lodge / dining area which is the highest point on the complex. I LOVED mornings there, because I'd perch upon the very picnic table from which this picture was taken, and sit at the very opposite edge overlooking the mountain range, all while reading my Bible. Every morning. I truly miss the peace that came with the mornings there.

This was a great place to do devotions as well (around the back of our motel rooms), although another guy on the trip claimed it as "his spot" from last year. I let him have it. ;) But I did get to hang out there on the first morning, and it is a simply incredible view. Very peaceful as well.

Sunday was extremely laid back. After breakfast and a good first dose of the amazing Blue Mountain coffee, we were able to walk around the complex a bit and look around until 10am which is when the kids worship service took place. Just being in the presence of these Godly little children who can pray and worship with more heart and fervency than most adults that I know, was an even greater blessing than I can begin to describe. It came to be a well-known fact, (and kind of a joke among my fellow travel-mates) that I am a cryer. So it was only natural that while in the midst of this service, feeling God, feeling the prayers of these small, yet, spiritually powerful children, I was in tears. So very many tears.

Afterward, we had an adult service and had our morning devotional, enjoyed an authentic Jamaican lunch, and had our afternoon free to do with it what we pleased.

We as a group decided to put our hiking shoes on and take a trek a little ways down the mountain to check out the retaining wall that our church's team worked so very hard on last year. The hike was just breathtaking, what with all the tropical flowers, native to that area, the landscape, etc. I really enjoyed getting out there and working up a sweat, being in the tropical sun, enjoying God's creation. It was incredible.

After our walk, we all headed back up to the west side of the lodge, each found a spot in the sun, and soaked it up for a couple of hours while talking and getting to know one another a bit better. Dinner came soon afterward, and then a prayer session with the staff and our missions team. As the evening wore on, some cool weather greeted us: I couldn't believe it, but as we played cards and drank some more world-famous Blue Mountain coffee after prayer time, I was in capris and a long-sleeved shirt! In Jamaica! But truly, in the mountains, it's hot during the day, and chilly at night. It was great sleeping weather though!

As the night drew to a close, we decided to continue our Phase 10 game the following evening, as we were all still a bit jet-lagged and ready for another good night's sleep. We all said our "goodnights", and headed off to our respective rooms. The walls were uncomfortably thin, and we could all hear each other as we settled in: but as we all quieted down, all that was left was the sound of dogs howling and crickets chirping through the un-screened windows.

Good night, Jamaica.

Let The Adventure Begin!

Day one was... interesting. I don't think I've EVER traveled so much in one day in my ENTIRE LIFE. We met at the church at 12am Saturday morning: we prayed, packed up, and headed to O'Hare International Airport where we proceeded to wait for three hours until our flight left at 6am for Fort Lauderdale Florida. Our plane took an extra 45 minutes to get off the ground due to "paperwork problems", and we barely made our connecting flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Once we got into Jamaica, we soon realized (as we had been told before we left), that everything with the locals is an "event" and not an issue of time. We wound up waiting for three hours for our ride to show up, and this is what the waiting looked like:

We had to stick very close to all of our stuff, because as you can see, along with our personal luggage, we had a ton of gifts for the orphanage that we stayed at for the week. We were able to get lunch in shifts, and some of us chose to enjoy the hot sun while we waited. We were even seranaded as we in the meantime by a local who sang "Don't worry.. about a thing... cause every little thing... is gonna be alright!" So fun!

Once our bus arrived at 4pm, we all piled in and headed on a four hour trek from Montego Bay to the mountains of Kingston.

On the road, we passed countless "markets" like the one pictured above, and "bars" like the one shown below.

I absolutely could NOT believe how they lived: the things I saw just passing through on the first day, reminded me of a scene straight out of a World Vision commercial. There are no words to really express how I felt that particular day. I do know for sure that I was in shock on account of what I saw: but what amazed me even more was that right around the corner of many of these poverty-stricken areas, would be five-star, gated resort communities just bustling with life and wealth. I just couldn't believe it.

We stopped in at a resort in "Ocho" (Ocho Rios) on the way to Kingston to pick up a couple of temporary missionaries from the orphanage. They had come into the city with another group who had just wrapped up a week at the same place that we were headed, and were enjoying thier free day in the Dunn's River Falls area. This is a picture of our group (all ten of us!), as we were hanging out
waiting for the missionaries to say thier goodbyes.

The rest of our Saturday consisted of driving, driving, and more driving all around the island (through the "fern gully" in the mountains which was really cool) , and dinner at Wendy's in Kingston (yes, they have next to nothing in life, but gosh darnit! They have a Wendy's!). On the way up the mountain, we stopped in a creepy little town which was bustling with people, and were left alone while our bus driver headed into a gas station. While we were waiting, many unexpectedly nice locals would pop thier head into our bus just to say "hey mon!" (Can you just IMAGINE my nerves? We're in the dark, in the middle of one of the most dangerous cities in the WORLD, and we have random MEN coming into our bus just to say "hi". Talk about God testing me! Whew!) So anyway, at one point, one of these nice gentlemen popped in with a handful of cd's, and asked, "Hey mon! You want some music to rock your head?"

That became the first of many quotes for our week in Jamaica. "To 'rock your head'"? How could it NOT be?

We arrived at the "City of Refuge" on top of one of the peaks in the Blue Mountains, at 10pm; at which point, we had all been up well over 36 hours and wanted nothing more than to just.pass.out. And that's what we did. But not before we took a walk around the compound to check the place out. It was pitch dark out and I could barely see a thing, but from what I could see, it was going to be an AMAZING week...

One of My Favorite Pictures

This picture was taken from my favorite spot on the whole compound: here you're seeing a bird's eye view of the new coffee house where they'll be storing the world-famous Blue Mountain Coffee that they grow right on site in an extra effort to fund the orphanage. On this particular day, it had just rained, and the clouds were rolling out of the mountains. Breathtaking, isn't it?

I haven't quite put my thoughts together yet: I'm really having a hard time adjusting to being home. Post-missions-trip-blues, or something. I really miss it there. But I do plan on giving you a day-to-day account, including pictures, of all the amazing things that I experienced while I was there. Please keep checking back, as I will be getting it up very soon.

Hope you're all having a great week!

Did Ya' Miss Me?

Hi everyone! I'm home as you can see, after a long week of hard and rewarding work. I have so much that I want to share with you all, but I don't quite have the words right now, because I'm trying to process it all in my head first. I think once I get my pictures uploaded, it will be a bit easier to share with you some of the things I experienced while I was there. So for now, just know that I'm back, I'm processing, and I'll share real soon!

Hope you all had a great week, and I missed you bunches!

I'm Outta Here!

Okay... thought I was going to post some "deep thoughts" before I left, but my devotion in Jamaica is going to be thought through on the way there: it will be a "fly by the seat of my pants and totally trust God" kind of devotion. Eeek!

I'm leaving my roommate in charge of my blog, so I am not responsible for anything she says while I'm gone. Just know that no matter what she says, deep, deep, deep deep deep down on the inside: she loves me!

Have a great week friends, and I'll talk to y'all later!

I'm OUT!

It's Almost HERE!!!

My trip is right around the corner people!! I'm so excited!!!

I really just wanted to thank you all once again for your support and prayers as I prepare for this trip. Being that this is my first missions trip, it really is a huge deal to me: so if it seems that I've been making a mountain out of a molehill - well, I feel it's justified. Just this once anyway. ;) But truly, friends, I've felt your prayers from afar, and I just know that mighty things will happen in Jamaica on account of them!

Also, I was just recently asked to come up with a devotion and share it with the team one morning while we're there: and of COURSE it's going to be created and shared first here - in blogland! So keep checking back today: I'll definitely have something more for you.

I Was Absolutely Mesmerized...

I was incredibly blessed by some friends this weekend, who, knowing that I'm a gospel fanatic, took me to see Kirk Franklin - L.I.V.E. at the Milwaukee theatre this past Sunday night.

Two words.

INCREDIBLE!

BREATH-TAKING!!

Okay, so maybe that's three words. Whatever. Anyway, I have been a fan of his since I was in my teens when "Stomp" first came out on mainstream radio. Ever since then, I've wanted to sing with Kirk Franklin's group: even before I even knew Christ as my savior. At that point, it was just about the music (although I know that was God's way of tugging at my heart, but that's another subject entirely). Anyway, I was absolutely blown away by Kirk Franklin and his group's performance Sunday night, just as I thought I would be. I was in my own personal heaven, and I keep going back to it in my mind, reliving all the amazing musical and spiritual moments that I experienced that night.

This was also my first major Christian concert, so as I looked around me in that theatre of at least two thousand people, if not more, I realized that they were all there to celebrate GOD: and that blew me away even more than the music. And Kirk busted out with the salvation message right in the middle of his concert! I LOVED it!!

The whole night was incredibly priceless, and I think I'm going to have to become a groupie, because I absolutely HAVE to see them in concert again. Music does crazy things to me, (as you can see by my incessant rambling) especially gospel - and I don't even know how I fell into such a deep love for that style of music in the first place. But let me tell you: nothing, and I mean nothing compares to the blend of voices, the harmonies, and the musical flow that good gospel delivers. And to top it all off: the annointing that seems to rain down upon gospel music is just amazing. There's just nothing quite like it.

So anyway, I had an absolute blast Sunday night, and just wanted to share a little bit of a different side of myself with you all. Oh, and to hear what exactly it is that has me wound up like the energizer bunny, click here, and watch thier new video, "Looking For You". They closed the show with it last night, and it was just incredible! I promise you, you won't be disappointed!

**So Kirk, if you're out there, and you're reading this, pick me: let me sing with you. I promise you: I have rhythm, and I most definitely have soul. But more importantly, I have a love for my Savior, and I strongly believe in your ministry of sharing the gospel through song. I'll work hard and I'll sing until my vocals give out. I don't care. Just give me a shot. I would be forever grateful for the opportunity!**

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

Thank You Edoo!

Eddo of Posted Note did such a Be-A-Utiful job on my blog, that I just had to give him some serious props for all of his hard work and creativity.

So let me be the first to say, "Fabulous job Eddo! I love it I love it I love it!"

To everyone else: stop by his site, say "hi", and tell him what a brilliant job he did creating my new look. (And maybe you can find a new look for yourself in the process!)

I'm Blessed

Things have been going very well lately. I have kept all of you as posted as I could throughout it all, but due to my hectic schedule, I'm finding it harder and harder to keep up in blogland these days.

My little cleaning business is taking off: through references alone, I'm getting enough business to almost be able to make it on my own. My goal: by the time I get back from Jamaica, I'll be completely self-employed. Yay!

Jamaica is coming up fast, and I'm trying to get everything done: paperwork, packing, working out, tanning (don't laugh: I burn really easy), praying, etc... Lots and lots of stuff to get done! I've traveled quite a bit, and I don't remember the last trip I took that required this much preparation time and energy! But, I know it's going to be so worth it once I get down there. Please keep me and our team in your prayers as we prepare to head down there and work with the children. I'm starting to feel God's prompting and direction for myself and others to pray for this trip unlike anything I've experienced. I'm gaining a greater understanding of the impact of prayer through preparation for this trip alone: so I'm excited to see what other amazing lessons I'll learn once I actually get there!

Otherwise, I'm blessed! I'm taking things day by day lately and just trying to piece together my life as I go. God's great plan for me is being revealed slowly over time, and I'll continue to keep you posted as I go.