hero.

dear dad...

As a little girl, and growing up, you always held a special place in my heart. You were the coolest daddy ever, and you always made me feel like a little princess. I have so many incredible memories with you as a child and I will always remember and cherish them. 

Now that I'm a grown woman, I stand in awe at the man of God that I see today. You are an inspiration to me and challenge me daily to be more like God. You have made me into the strong woman that I am today, and I am so grateful for that. I continue to love God and grow deeper in faith with Him because you have shown God's love to me. You have shown me how important my faith is and led me by example to be a woman of God. 

You are a pillar of strength that ties this family together. Your strength pulls us in as a family and helps build memories. Memories that last lifetimes. My relationship with my siblings and with you & mom is so amazing because you have taught us how important family is. You have shown each of us a kind of love that is so incredible. We have you to look up to, in hopes that we can share the same deep love for our families someday. 

You have loved mom more then life itself, and I hope someday I can find a man who will love, respect, honor and cherish me as much as I see you do for mom. You have shown me how to love and be loved, and I hope one day, I can experience a love like yours & moms. Not only do you love each other, but you love God more then anything and have shown me what it looks like to have God as the center of your marriage. I look up to you both and hope that one day, God will lead me to a man that will want that same thing. He will want to not only love me as a wife, but love God more then anything. 

You are an amazing person...and I'm so proud that I get to call you my dad. Your laugh is contagious, and you always have a funny sense of humor. You love to joke around and be silly...and even try to pretend that you are still stronger then me.  ;) You are my running partner, and I'm so blessed that I get to share those memories with you. You have been there for me through the thick and the thin, and are always so understanding when I just need someone to listen to me. 

I'm forever grateful for you...and I pray that God continues to bless our family with you being our father and husband. I'm proud to call you dad. 

i love you dad...

my little superhero

i.love.him.

it's CAMPING time!!

With the warm weather looming around at such an early time this year, my family has been getting the itch to go camping. This past weekend was a perfect opportunity to get the ol' trailer out and running again. The weather wasn't TOO warm, but was comfortable enough where you could play outside and go for walks without freezing your tootsies off.  :) We got to spend lots of time with family just walking around, playing at the park, petting the goats, and just hanging out inside when it just got too cold.  :)

We had a couple nights of mean card playing...when I either lost TERRIBLY...or beat everyone by a LONG run. Let's just say I was the rockstar of card playing this weekend...;) I'm so excited that I got to go, and am looking forward to MANY more long weekends of camping this summer.  :)  Can you tell how much I love summer?!?

{going for a bike ride!}

{my pops & brother chilling outside}

{my sis, brayden & mom by the goats}

{little man playing around the mini golf place}

{me & my sis :)}

{riding on the wooden swings...brayden LOVED it}

{swinging! which he LOVED as well! he was a busy little boy!}

{walking on logs at the park...so fun!}

{look how high i am! this is so fun!}

Now that the weekend is over...I'm ready to go camping again. Bring on the warm weather!!  :)

india interview

Once we got back from the trip to india, one of the conversational english team members and myself had the opportunity to explain parts of our trip through an interview. It was a lot of fun, and allowed us to talk about india and how we felt while we were there, and now that we are home. Since Kelly & I were on separate teams, it was great to hear what other great things were being done while we were over there. Below is the video of our interview. I hope you enjoy it!!

india, day 10

march 14, 2010

We are on our way HOME! The flight from Chennai to London wasn't that bad. I got to sleep for about 5 hours of the flight, and just dozed off and on for the rest of the flight. I felt really out of it for the majority of the flight. I think I'm at the point of beyond exhaustion and I'm just ready to get home. :) We had a short layover in London with barely enough time to make it through security. We boarded our next flight from London back to Chicago. I tried to stay awake this whole flight because I wanted to be super tired when I got home so I could just go right to bed and sleep all night. That was a STRUGGLE. I watched movies and listened to my ipod...however, I had to do everything I could to just keep my eyes open. It was rough.

We finally landed in Chicago around 3:20pm. It felt SO good to be back on US soil and I felt like I could breathe again. It just felt like I was home...even though I still had a 2 hour bus ride back to Mishawaka. That trip went by pretty fast, and next thing I knew we were pulling into the church. It was so great to see everyone there that was there to pick up their family members. I walked off the bus and lost it...mostly from pure exhaustion, but also from joy of getting to see my family again.  :)

{pulling into church!}

{finally getting off the bus...so sick of traveling!}

{yep..i lost it here...missed him alot}

{felt good to see my sister}

{feels good to be HOME!}

We then left church and went to get me Chipotle. :) It tasted SO good. I came home to an amazingly decorated apartment since it was my birthday while I was gone.  :) I got to spend some time with my family catching up, and then they left...and I CRASHED. I took a hot shower and just crawled into bed and slept like a baby. What an amazing adventure...it feels good to be home...but I'll always have the people of Kalavai on my mind and in my heart...

{my decorated apt.  :)}

{the children I already miss...}

india, day 9

march 13, 2010

We got up at 5:00am this morning to pack up all our gear and to fold up our tents. I am super exhausted because we didn't even get to bed the night before until close to 1:30am. We got everything packed onto the buses and said our last goodbyes to the families and children. It was so hard to say goodbye to them. They cried and didn't want us to leave...and I cried and didn't want to leave either..:( But knew that we'd be coming back in the future.

After we left, we had about a 4 hour bus ride back to the hotel in Chennai. That bus ride seemd to take forever! I was so super tired and was sick of riding in horrible India traffic. We finally got to the hotel and had about 2 1/2 hours to shower, nap, rest. I took a LONG shower because I felt so super dirty. Then I laid down and slept for an hour. It felt so good. Even if it was just an hour...I felt a little bit better.  :) We then headed to KFC for lunch. It was SO good to eat American food again.

{awww yeah.  :)}

We then headed into downtown Chennai, to the highest elevation in the city...St. Thomas Mount. The place where doubting Thomas came to India and brought the gospel. INCREDIBLE. It was so beautiful overlooking the whole city of Chennai. There was the church where people today still go in and worship at. Just unreal to be walking around knowing that a long time ago, doubting Thomas was here as well, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. So unbelievable.

{the church at St. Thomas Mount}

{overlooking Chennai up on St. Thomas Mount}

{overlooking the city}

{Jesus on the cross}

{about to go into the church...posing with an elephant..:)}

{inside the church on St. Thomas Mount}

We then left St. Thomas Mount and headed to Spencer's plaza. This is a 4-story "mall." It was pretty dirty and people basically begged you to come into their shop to buy things. It was a little overwhelming at first, but then you got the hang of just ignoring people and walking by. :) I got some really beautiful scarves for family/friends back home. I can't wait to give them to them. It was lots of fun to shop around because I got to relax a bit and just take in everything one last time. We then all met up at Pizza Hut for dinner. American food again...yum! I am not supposed to eat pizza either, but I would have given my left arm for American food, so I ate a piece of pizza and ended up paying for it later.  :(  Oh well...

{pizza hut in tamil!}

{spencers plaza}

We now just returned to the hotel and we get to shower, and sleep for about 2 hours until we have to leave for the airport at midnight. It is sure going to be a long night and long travels home, but I am so ready to be home and to get to see my family. I'm ready to get back into my routine again and be clean.  :) We leave Chennai around 4:00am and fly to London which is around an 11 hour flight...and then back to Chicago and land around 3:30pm which is around a 9 hour flight. Yikes...lets just hope I can sleep on the plane this time!   :) Let's hope we have smooth, safe travels!

india, day 8

march 12, 2010

Today is our last day in the village. Wow...I can't even believe this. It seems like yesterday we just got here! And now we are talking about finishing things up! It's unreal how fast the time has flown since the day we got here to begin our work. It is going to be extremely difficult to have to say goodbye to these families and children. I would love to stay longer and just bring God's love to these people, however I'm starting to feel ready to go home. I'm not feeling the greatest today...which I think is just a combination of being exhausted and so super hot. I'm ready to be clean and comfortable again as well.  :) Let's just say I'm ready to be done with Indian food as well.  :) It's not horrible, but I'm definitely ready to have some Chipotle again.  :)

Today we get to sort through all of the Croc shoes, the backpacks for the children, and all the clothes that we brought down to give to them. After we sorted everything out into specific families, we got to walk around the village and hand everything out to the families. The joy and smiles on their faces just melted my heart. We got to take pictures of them wearing their new crocs and everything. Within 5 minutes of giving them all their new items, some of the children ran up to us, wearing their new clothes and their shoes. It was the most cutest thing ever!

{one word...adorable. :)}

{baby girl...black dots are meant to keep the devil out}

{children in village waiting for their gifts...}

{more children in village}

{most adorable little boy ever...VJ}

{Gwendema, Monjou, Devani}

That evening we had our final concert in the village that we were staying in. It was a great concert and you could tell all of the village people loved it! After the concert, they called all the GCC mission team members up to the stage so that the people in the village could thank us for coming and helping them. They prayed for us for safe travels home and just thanked us over and over for doing what we did that week. After they did that, individual people from the village came up and hugged us so tightly and prayed for us. It brought me to tears...these people were thanking us that we came to help them, when really we should be thanking them for showing us how to love deeper and have as strong of a faith as they do...

{the arts team during their concert}

After the concert, we went back to the village for our last dinner there. What we did not expect was that our last dinner was going to be RAT. Yes, rat was on the menu for dinner. They showed us the rats before they covered them in seasoning and threw them on the fire to cook. They were full rats...eyes and everything. SO gross! After they were done cooking, they gave each of us a piece to try. It was so super spicy and hot...and had the texture of chicken.  :) I just had to put it in my mind that I was eating chicken...otherwise it could have turned out way worse.  :)

{rat before cooked...:)}

{rat with spices...cooking over an open fire...mmm!}

{going for the plunge and seeing how good rat is!}

{yeah...not the best tasting thing ever...glad I did it though}

I'm so ready to go to sleep...that was an experience I will never forget.  :)

india, day 7

march 11, 2010

Today we came back to the village after our day of rest. We continued to work on our project and had the opportunity to listen to more family stories. It is so incredible to just sit here and listen to them talk about their lives and how they have grown up in this village. They have a lot more strength and will power then I could ever have.

In the afternoon we got to walk around to each house again and take a picture of each family in front of their home. It was great to see the whole family together and to get to see the life that they get to live. On the inside of me it made me sad, as I know in my heart that things could be better for them. But the smiles on their faces make me realize that with the little that they are given, they are completely satisfied and happy that this is the life that God wants for them.

{adorable little girl in the village}

{KC3...community center that we helped them build}

Around dinner time, we had another opportunity to call home. I had just talked with my parents and brother, but hadn't had the opportunity to talk to my sister. I talk to her everyday, so it's been difficult not to talk to her and see how she was doing. So, I decided that I would surprise her and give her a call at work. It was so great to hear her voice and to just see how she was doing. Catch up a little on life since I feel SO out of everything here. I feel like my whole world paused as I am over here in India, yet everything is going strong back at home.

That evening, after a long exhausting day in the sun, the arts team went to another village to play in a concert. My team stayed back and just got to hang out with the families and the children. We played with the children, danced with them, sang with them...and even when it got dark out, we pulled out mats and laid on the ground to look at the stars. It was UNREAL how bright the stars were. It was silent, and the stars were shining, and it was just an amazing God moment to be experiencing this with the children. They have captured a special place in my heart, and it is going to be very difficult to leave them when it is time for us to go home. :( I will never forget the people here and how much they taught me about myself...

{children water painting}

{little boy who made butterflies out of pipe cleaners}

{little girl washing her school clothes}