Students

 I have always been a person that LOVES kids. Like, just really love kids. They are sweet, cute, funny, trusting, and just full of love to give back every time you hug them or encourage them. At the school here, I teach 7th and 8th graders (love them!!) and 3rd and 4th (loooooove them). I love teaching 3rd and 4th, because they are so young and I have always loved kids. So on Tuesday, when I received this letter from one of my CUTE students, Karol, it made me SO happy:

De Karol Para Miss Englly 

(From Karol to Miss Englly - love my name spelled like that)

Miss Englly usted es muy bonita y es buena por eso le quiero mucho a usted le quiero mucho # Karol

(Miss Englly you are very pretty and good that's why I love you a lot I love you a lot # Karol)

Karol, you made my day pretty girl. 

You too, Nahomi!

Triple hug -  the best kind :)

My CUTE students.

Nahomi! 

Thank you, Karol, for brightening my day :) 

PS- After I took these pictures I noticed she had written "I love Miss Englly" in a heart on her hand in red Sharpie (so it hasn't come off yet). Miss Englly loves you, Karol!! 

First Restaurant

 So this week I went to my first Ecuadorian restaurant. I don't even remember what it was called, but it was in a little city about 30 minutes away from the orphanage called Cayambe. As you know, I LOVE THE FOOD HERE. So, I loved this restaurant. Here are some pictures of the food I ate:

First thing they brought to the table: popcorn, ahi sauce (a sauce they eat with EVERYTHING here) and silverware. 

I took an extra picture of the popcorn because I found it hilarious that they just brought out popcorn for us to eat before the meal arrived. It was good popcorn though!

Next, they brought out our soup. Juan David and I ordered Quinoa soup, and Cathy and Jason ordered Hungarian Soup. Theirs was spicier and meatier than ours. Our soup was more of a white sauce with very, very tiny flour/pasta/grain/noodle type things (quinoa). It was soooo good. Notice the popcorn bowl is almost empty - that is because the popcorn is for your SOUP! They put popcorn in their soup here ALL THE TIME. And... it is awesome. 

After we finished the soup, the waiter brought out our main dishes and juice. Mine was rice, salad, beetroot and some yummy chicken (which tasted sort of like sweet and sour chicken). Juan David ordered the same thing as me, and Cathy and Jason both got the same dish but with "enrollado de carne" (a type of meat rolled in flour and baked in the oven) instead of chicken. 

A close-up of my plate:

And that was my first Ecuadorian restaurant experience! That was not the best food I have had here, though, not by a long shot. But, I took tons of pictures so I felt I needed to blog about it :) Hope you found it sort of interesting! 

Prayers

 Stop what you are doing right now and please pray for my family. They leave today from the States to return to Brazil after being on furlough for three months. That is a very, very long time - way longer than we usually stay. So I know it has been very hectic as far as packing goes (especially since we spent Christmas there and my little siblings were spoiled by grandparents with tons of presents). They leave today around 11 AM. Please pray for safety on the flights, in the airports, and arriving home. Pray that they will not be completely exhausted - pray that God gives them strength to get through the long plane rides and customs and mean airport people. Pray also that my grandmother wont bawl her eyes out today - everyone cries a little bit, but she is known for her very sad crying hours before they even start to leave for the airport. Please pray that my family will also not be too sad - I know how sad goodbyes are. Thank you for your prayers in advance. It means a lot to me, and to them.

I MISS YOU GUYS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH, and miss Brazil sooo much too (though not as much as I miss you). Love you!!


 PS- I would appreciate your prayers also for me as I am traveling to Quito (the capital of Ecuador - 1.5 or 2 hours away from where I live) this weekend with this crazy family:

Maritza, Carlos, Esteban and Priscilla are my Ecuadorian family. I will be spending the weekend with them in Quito at Maritza's mom's house. I have a couple of blog posts prepared to post automatically this weekend (if you can do that - I might be wrong). Anyways, thank you for your prayers!! Have a BLESSED weekend filled with love and laughter. And especially pray for my family :) 

Weird

 I am at the same time: 


- COMPLETELY in love with the kids here, and COMPLETELY missing my family and my life in Brazil/USA. 
- COMPLETELY loving making new friends here, and COMPLETELY MISSING MY BRAZILIAN FRIENDS.
- COMPLETELY loving the food here, and COMPLETELY missing brazilian/american food. 
- COMPLETELY loving my job at some moments, not being able to stand it other moments. 
- COMPLETELY loving church in Spanish, and COMPLETELY holding back tears when thinking of a certain song in Portuguese. 


So, I feel weird. But it is a weird that I think is completely normal. If I wasn't getting into the rhythm of things here, then I would be worried. If I wasn't also sad sometimes missing everything, then I would also be worried. Therefore: I am in a state of weird normalcy (does that make sense?). 

  Five things to be thankful for about my life right now:

1. Feeling closer to God. I have NEVER been this dependent on Him. NEVER felt this much love for Him. NEVER felt the feeling of complete emptiness and been completely filled up by His love. This is the first time I have ever felt like I was being physically and spiritually HUGGED by Jesus. Sounds cheesy but.... its true. It is so wonderful!!!!

2. Skype and Magic Jack. ESPECIALLY my Magic Jack. The Magic Jack is a little flash drive that you plug into your computer on one end, and into a phone on the other end. You can call for free ANYWHERE in the States, as long as you have Internet on your computer and your computer is turned on. It is such a blessing to be able to pick up the phone and call my family at anytime. My roommate told me the other day that the director of AIM (Adventures in Missions - a mission program that lots of young people do before college, or even instead of college - my roommate went to Scotland when she was my age with AIM), on his first mission trip (so in the 1940's or 50's), he went to Africa. He was 18. It took EIGHT MONTHS for his family to receive the letters he sent and vice-versa. Can you imagine? It makes me sick to my stomach to think about that. The Magic Jack was what got me through the first couple of days here. 

3. My roommate. Cathy Jones is such an inspiration to me. She is a VERY good cook, a VERY good teacher and a VERY smart, strong woman. She moved to the Hacienda of Hope before the orphan girls had house-parents. So for a year, when she was a little older than I am right now, she lived in the house with the girls, fed them, bathed them, got them to school on time - she was literally their mom. I cannot even imagine doing that. The girls are so so so sweet, but it is very nice to have a door with a lock that separates Cathy and I from their craziness sometimes. It is nice to be able to come home and do my stuff and then go spend time with them (or the other way around). Therefore, Cathy is a VERY strong woman, and she helps me through lots of difficulties. Thank you Cathy!

4. Food. Food. Food. If you know me, you know that I cannot eat when I am nervous. When I am nervous, if I am even a little bit unsure about whether or not I will like the food that is in front of me, I cannot eat. THANKFULLY, that is not the case here. Even though I still am a little nervous about everything, I eat A LOT. The food is a perfect mixture of American and Brazilian - its Ecuadorian. And. It. Is. Awesome. Rice, meat, chicken, pasta, potatoes, soup, fruit, bread, yummy juice - and at the same time Peanut Butter, Trix cereal, Brazilian Moca Cereal, Oreos, Ritz crackers... I love it. And I eat a lot. 

5. THE. KIDS. My little (and big) babies. I know they are not mine, but I love them so much. I really, really want to adopt. Really bad. I can't even explain my happiness when I am walking up the dreadful hill, coming out of my Learning Center at recess, walking back to my apartment, and I see huge smiles on little faces or tiny hands reaching up to me or big bear hugs from the older kids. I can't even think about saying goodbye to them... can't even imagine how it will be in 4 months. 

 And, here is my video of week 2:

Thank you AGAIN for the comments on this blog and e-mails. LOVE THEM. Also, anytime you would like to talk to me, let me know via e-mail and I will send you my Magic Jack number. Love, Ans

P.S.- Sorry for looking weird in the first shot of the video. Sometimes I look weird. Therefore the title of my post.

Day 12

  I would like to apologize again for not blogging since day 5. I have yet to get into a blogging rhythm! I wanted to start of this blog thanking EVERYONE for the kind e-mails, encouraging comments on my blog and calls on my Magic Jack. Reading and hearing those things makes my day so much more brighter. I really cannot thank you enough - even if you did do it just because it was your "homework" (thanks Dad!).

  Well, since this was my first week teaching alone at school, and my second week here, I though I might just tell a little bit about my daily schedule.

4 AM - 6 AM: School starts at 7, so my roommate and I try to get up every morning at 6 to get ready. I say TRY because I, no matter what time I go to bed, cannot sleep through the hour of four o`clock. Let me explain: it doesn't matter if I am in bed at 8, or if I stay up doing something and am completely exhausted at midnight... every single morning I wake up at 4:00 am. Serious! I wake up, look at the clock, and it ALWAYS says 4:00 AM. Never 3:59, never 4:05... It is the weirdest thing ever. So, I lay there and try to sleep until 6. But this hardly ever works - instead I just lay there thinking about how I miss my family and all the problems I have (this runs in my family - my mom will also stay awake in the morning or at night and just worry about stuff). Upon telling my dad about this problem, he suggested that instead of wasting an hour in bed worrying and starting off my day all wrong, that I should use that time to just be with God. And that is what I have done this whole week. I wake up at 4 AM, try and sleep for another hour (sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't), and then at 5 AM I just get up, and get my essential things:

The best Devotional Book EVER.

My favorite bible - have had it since I got baptized almost 10 years ago and it has tons of 9 year old Ansley scribbles in it

Everyone told me before coming here to KEEP A JOURNAL. So, I am. And it has been so good! I end every journal entry with "FTTBTFT" (Five Things To Be Thankful For Today). 

One of my Christmas presents this year was from Bronwyn. Every Sunday and Wednesday I get to open an envelope that has a letter from her and a print-out of an inspiring quote. I LOVE IT!!

Have I said on this blog yet that I have the BEST FAMILY EVER? Well, I do. Every single day that I will be here, I have a letter to open from someone in  my family. They pretty much make me cry every day. And I cannot even say how much I love love love them. 

Sometimes I take my boyfriend's book with me to read if I have any time leftover before six. Yes, Tim Tebow is my boyfriend. He just doesn't know it yet. I am obsessed with him - completely respect what he does and says in the media. And if you don't, you are insane. Just read this.

6 AM - 7 AM: Get ready for school! This means professional-looking clothes- no jeans! Which stinks for me... I am a jeans girl. Twice a week we can wear sweatpants, and those are my favorite days. Yay for 5 dollar sweatpants from Walmart!

7 AM - 3 PM: Work. Not my favorite part of the day, but it is still fun! I love working with the younger kids and I love recess and lunch and breakfast breaks. Sometimes I stay until 4 to tutor kids that need it or get detention. I taught some of my students/friends how to play the card game "kemps", and they want to play it EVERY SINGLE DAY. We have so much fun. Different people play everyday, but Christian, Erick, Romer, Holger, Juan David and I always play. Here is a picture of me with Christian (left), Romer (middle) and Erick (right). They look very serious in photos but are actually hilarious.

3 or 4 PM - 6 PM: My FAVORITE part of the day. Walking down the hill with the cutest kids ever, playing with them, knocking on Maritza's (my Ecuadorian bff) door, just being around kids and people that I love. Yesterday, for example, I got home from school, played kemps, sang and played guitar with Christian, cleaned up the apartment (with help from Juan David), and then was called to participate in a heated soccer game. They all wanted to see the "brazilian" play soccer. I'm sure my dad and brothers are laughing at this... but I actually am not that bad at soccer! I can take the ball away from people and make some decent passes. So the kids were all wowed and starting patting me on the back. OH YEAH, GARRETT! Anyways, here are the teams. Team Number 1 - Maritza's team. Players: Cyntia, Christian, Jorge, Esteban, Fabian and Adan. 

And then Team Number 2: Ansley's team! Players: John, Luis, Juan David, Matias and my baby (Anthony).  

  It was a pretty awesome game, even though we lost 5 x 0. BUT - I am still not used to the altitude here and after about 3 minutes of running around I could hardly breathe, so I had to stop many times. I told the other team that was why they won, but they weren't buying it. Maybe before May I will be able to kick their booties in soccer!! You never know.

6 PM - 9 PM: Also a really good time of day. I get to call my parents (PRAISE GOD FOR SKYPE AND MAGIC JACK. SERIOUSLY), eat yummy suppers and watch Seinfeld before bed. (P.S.- Seinfeld: MY FAVORITE SHOW EVER).

 Thank you once again for all of your support and encouragement. Every day gets better and better, but every day there is at least one moment where I just get discouraged and miss my family. I know it is normal and it will probably go away but it is very hard to deal with right now!! Thank you for your prayers, they are working - I feel more and more of God's peace everyday!! I will try to post on the blog 4 times this week. Maybe more!!

 Love, Ansley

P.S.- Typical Saturday morning at the Hacienda: waking up at 6 am with the most annoying yellow bird EVER tapping on your window. Waking up again at 7 am with the girls singing "Little Drummer Boy" in Spanish and playing the flute along with it. Gotta love it.

Day 5

Dear Family and Friends,

 I am so sorry for not blogging from Ecuador until now. The first couple of days were very stressful. I am not going to lie and say I didn't cry A LOT the first day, plenty the second day, and some the third day. It's just hard to get adjusted to a whole different life away from the people you love - I still am not completely adjusted yet! Well, I will try to sum up these past 5 days (the good and the bad included).
  Leaving my family on Monday at 11 AM was the SCARIEST thing I have ever done in my life. I was so nervous, didn't really want to joke around about anything (even though it doesn't look like it), and I cried a lot a lot a lot. Here are some pictures from the airport:

Everyone thought I looked like Fraulein Maria from The Sound of Music with my guitar and carry on bag. (This was one of the only moments in which I was OK with joking around) 

                                                                                     

 Or maybe I just wanted to be like her. But you carry around a black guitar case and try not to feel like a young Julie Andrews.

This is the "don't take pictures I am so nervous" face.

                                                                         Silly family picture.

Garrett ruining a Sound of Music shot (on purpose).

 Setting my stuff down for a second to try for a second picture.

Garrett messing the second shot up AGAIN. 

Me getting mad at Garrett but still sort of laughing. 

Me REALLY annoyed at Garrett. Garrett, sorry for being mean to you that day. I was so nervous! I love you!

Final family picture before boarding the plane.

  The flights were pretty uneventful, but my bags were SO heavy. So walking around in the airports was a giant pain. I had to stop every 30 seconds because I was carrying a heavy guitar (stuffed with guitar and tons of goodies for the kids here), another carry-on weighing 20 or 25 pounds, and my backpack, which was also SO heavy. Nevertheless, I made it to Ecuador at midnight on Monday. 

  Jerry Snyder, the man who started this whole place, picked me up. He drove me back to the orphanage and let me sleep in he and his wife's house for the night to get some rest. If you know me, however, you will know that if I am nervous I cannot sleep (or eat or laugh or smile). So I pretty much slept from 4 to 6. When they woke up they drove me over to my little apartment with my things, and as soon as he left I started bawling (my roommate was teaching at school at that time so the apartment was empty). I got on skype and talked to my parents and really just felt awful. I wanted to go home and was so nervous and hungry and tired. So, Anderson decided that he would read his "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book to me on Skype while I unpacked. He read to me for about 30 or 45 minutes, and it was the best thing of that day (THANKS ANDERSON!!)! When it got to be around lunchtime, I didn't know if I was supposed to wait for someone to come get me to have lunch, or eat by myself, or eat at the school... So, after complaining and crying to my parents on skype, my dad pretty much made me get out of the apartment and go look for someone to talk to. So I walked over to the little house in front of mine and ate lunch with Amanda Snyder, Jerry's daughter in law who runs the school along with her husband. She was very nice and has very cute kids and made me an awesome sandwich. After that I went right along with her to the school, and by the end of that day I was already teaching. I will do a whole other blog on the school system with pictures and everything, because it is SO complex and I don't want anyone going asleep reading this blog. 

  So I got through that first day, and the second, and the third, and the fourth. I have now been here for five days and can say that every day has gotten better. I am COMPLETELY in love with the kids that live here (they come over whenever they want, hug me, kiss me, one of them called me his mama, and if you saw pictures of them you would understand how CUTE they are), have made some really great new friends and have almost gotten used to the teaching, food and weather. God is the one that really, truly helps me get through each day, and every morning I write in my journal and read the daily Jesus Calling devotional (that book is AWESOME). There will be many more blogs to come: ones about teaching, new friends (Maritza! Jill! Cathy! Amanda! Miss Estela! Miss Fabi!), the kids, my jobs here, my little apartment and how it is getting decorated (The Ansley and Anderson book is hanging up on my wall, Andy! Twins forever!!!), the food, and so much more. I will leave you today with a small video I made about these 5 days I have been here, and I hope you like it! Please continue to pray for me as it is still very hard to not miss my family. Thank you!! And here is the short video (The song is "Hosanna" by Christy Nockels, God has put it on my heart this whole week long).
 P.S.: SO SORRY about the song cutting off in the middle out of nowhere. my computer did something weird and the timing is sort of off in the beginning also, so this is not the best video ever (but the internet here is so slow it took me 5 hours to upload this video to youtube and i really dont want to do that again)!! hope you still like it :)

5 days

 I only have five days left in the States with my family before I board the plane to Ecuador. Two weeks ago, if I even began to think about it, my eyes would tear up. Now, I feel more peace. I have been praying for God's peace about this trip, and I believe he has graciously listened to my prayers. I can now think about it in a calm manner, and have a conversation with someone about it without blinking back tears. Another thing I think has changed is my attitude towards my last couple of days in the States. I used to think of them as completely sad and dramatic (I tend to be a dramatic person). Happy moments instantly turned sad in my head when I thought of my trip to Ecuador. Let me explain: if my cutest-little-brother-ever-Giovanni came up to me and told me he loved me, out of nowhere, I would smile and think it was so cute, and instantly think "Oh, I am going to remember this moment in a couple of days and be so sad"... Understand? My mindset was ruining these last precious days with my whole family together. Then, I was reminded of the "A Time for Everything" chapter in Ecclesiastes - especially verse 4:


 "There is a time for everything.... a time to weep and a time to laugh...."


There it is! There is a time to WEEP and a time to LAUGH. I don't want to ruin my time to laugh with weeping (although I wouldn't mind ruining my time to weep with laughter! :). And then I thought of something else: my time in Ecuador is going to be SO amazing, and I am going to learn SO much and get SO attached to the kids there, that I will have to tell myself the same thing when it is time to leave. 


 So now, when my little brother comes and sits in my lap asking to play Angry Birds Rio on my computer, or my little sister wants me to watch her new movie with her, or my other brothers want me to play soccer with them - I will say YES and completely enjoy that moment. Because there will be many other happy moments in my future, and if I don't learn how to enjoy them now, I never will.


 Therefore, in the spirit of enjoying happy moments as much as I can, here are some pictures of some REALLY happy moments during these past months (which are right up there on the "best months of my life" list):

 remembering the day i got here 

hanging out with papa and garrett at the st. jude marathon

falling in a very unladylike way and skinning my knee and hands (ask garrett to describe the fall for you - or better yet, reenact it - it was not pretty) 

hanging out with my best friend 

hanging out with another best friend 

getting to watch the best wedding ever 

getting AWESOME new cousins!! 

 ...and still stuck with the old ones

taking millions of pictures of these two cute boys

playing "dirty santa" with my family

being a dork with this dork 

taking family pictures (maybe not so fun...) 

hanging out with auntie m

other moments not pictured here:

- CHRISTMAS!!

- our "big brother" jesse coming to stay with us

- getting my learners permit!

- getting my first debit card!

- talking with my friends on skype!
- getting surprise packages from faraway friends :)

- pulling in the driveway at night to see that my grandmothers reindeer have been rearranged into hilarious inappropriate positions (i actually do have pictures of this)
- getting really encouraging e-mails and phone calls from really great friends/family (jesse! aunt joyce! larry and margaret ann!)

- getting to see granna and grandaddy (pictures yet to come!!)

 thank you for reading my blog and once again please remember me in your prayers!!

 love, 

ansley