ANDERSON'S BIRTHDAY!

Hey Andy - I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ARE 8 ALREADY. I am sorry I couldn't get the video up until today!! I hope you have an AWESOME birthday party. I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU SOON!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!

BB's 21 :)

hey beebs. you're 21 today. WHAT?!?

2. MORE. MONTHS.

WHAT? TWO MORE MONTHS?

 Today is March 22nd. I leave Ecuador on May 22nd. So many mixed emotions. I will be happy to see my family, excited about college, excited about not having to teach anymore, happy to see my cute brothers and sisters, happy to be in Brazil, happy to see friends in Brazil, happy to just relax for two months.

 At the same time.....
I will bawl. I will feel like a piece of my heart is being ripped out of me. How can I tell this? Because today I was looking at a picture of my baby (Anthony) smiling with Matias (my cute tough guy), Adan (my big boy) and Luis (the perfect big brother), and teared up because I just LOVE them. Because I woke up early after a sleepover with Cati (my BFF that likes to talk about boys with me) and Leonela (my quiet, beautiful, crazy one) and just about cried because I just LOVE them. It is a love I have never felt before, because it is not a love towards my family nor towards my friends. It is not a small love, it is not a  meaningless love. It is one of the most powerful loves I have ever felt. It is a love towards my sweet boys and beautiful girls. It is a happy love, it is a silly love, it is a crying-on-shoulders love, it is a making silly faces love, it is a walking up the hill hand in hand everyday kind of love. It is a BIG love. It is an IMPORTANT love. And it is a love that has brought me closer to God than anything else in my entire life has. These kids have changed me in the past 3 months.

 I cant wait for May 22nd to get here. But at the same time, I am dreading it. I have talked with Anthony several times about him coming back with me, and every time I wish it was something I could really do. Is just bring that boy back with me. I have had several dreams about adopting one of these kids. Because let me just tell you, EVERYTHING has been worth it. All of the days I have cried, missed my life in Brazil, missed my dad's hugs, missed my mom's cooking, missed playing with my brothers and sisters, missed grandparent's, aunts, uncles and cousins, gotten in trouble, felt useless, felt lonely or discouraged... It has ALL been worth it just to get to know these kids and be in their lives for a short period of time.

 Please pray for me as I face the next two months, and thank you so much for your support and prayers during the past 3 months! Pray for me not to cry like a baby on May 22nd :)

Harding Academy Group

So, basically, the best group ever came down to Ecuador last week. I don't want to type too much, but I will say this: they are AWESOME. They were from Harding Academy in Searcy, Arkansas, and they made me really want to go to Harding. I am having serious problems deciding between Harding or ACU now (If anyone has an opinion on that, please share!). Anyways... this group came, and they all apparently already knew my name, because they had all read my blog and seen my videos. Which is kind of embarrassing... But we had SO MUCH FUN when they were here. Thank you Senor, Kaitlin, Morgan, Anna, Amelia, Ean, Jacob, Jordan, Wil, Chris and Zach for amazing memories. Here are some of them:

- Getting to sing on the streets of Cayambe and Tabacundo!
- Going to Otavalo and buying weird Ecuadorian clothes
- Dressing up in our weird Ecuadorian clothes (though not me, sorry, even though it was my idea!)
- Zach using a fake 20 dollar bill to pay a poor Ecuadorian woman!!! (Totally joking)
- Playing the foot game (can't remember what it was called) and Zach pretty much winning every time
- Talking with Morgan about rooming together.... YES YES!
- 877... CASH NOOOOOOW. wah.
- Getting a letter signed by all of you telling me to go to Harding!
- Jordan feeling bad for the vendors in Otavalo and not wanting to bargain!
- Chris hitting Dayana with a basketball (I laughed out loud typing this)
- "I don't think I can do this anymore morally"
- Playing hide-and-seek in the dark and laughing because Kyle looked like Bigfoot
- Wil trying to steal my baby!! Just kidding :)

YOU WERE ALL SUCH A BLESSING TO US HERE! The kids can't wait for you to come back :)

And now, I leave you with a couple of videos:

GO HOH!

So do you remember a blog post I did a while ago about my school sports uniform? How I am number 23 (for my birthday) and my name is "LA FLACA PODEROSA" (The Skinny Powerful One)? How our team is the BEST? I actually didn't say that, but after this Friday I believe I can. The women had their first basketball game (they had already played soccer and won 3-0), and since the game wasn't during school hours I was allowed to go. After school on Friday I ran down the hill, hearing "GO MISS!" from my students, changed into my uniform and tennis shoes and then went down to Amanda's house. We hopped in the car and arrived just in time for our first basketball match. We played against teachers from another school in Tabacundo, and had SO MUCH FUN! We started out playing sort of crazy-like, everyone running around everywhere and just trying to get the ball, and then Maritza's husband, Carlos, who is a P.E. teacher at the school, arrived and called a time-out. From then on he acted as our coach - telling us exactly what we needed to do and where we needed to be. "Maritza, you are good at passing. Amanda, you are fast and can intimidate the opponents. Carla, you are good at shooting. Monica, you can run a long time without getting tired. Ansley... you are tall."  Yes, that's literally how it went. I was definitely the tallest person on both teams, so our strategy went a little something like this: the rest of the players on my team would run around trying to shoot and I would just stand under the basket waiting for the ball to fall. 99% of the times it would just fall in my hands and I could hold it up over my head while one or two short Ecuadorian women would be jumping to try and get it from me. I'm glad that I could be of some help on the team - if you know me you know I am not very good at sports... it runs in the family (actually just in myself, my sister Bronwyn and my mom). But the BEST players on our team were Miss Carla and Amanda - Miss Carla made pretty much every single one of our points, and Amanda is VERY intimidating on the court. She is not afraid to run around and steal passes and she is very good at looking fierce. I am not... But ANYWAYS... We won 38-14!!!

 GO HOH (Hacienda of Hope) TEACHERS!!

About half of our team (by the team we decided to take pictures the other half had already left). From left to right: Clemencia (Clemen), Maritza (Mary), Carlos, Edison (Loky), Ansley (La Flaca Poderosa), Margarita (Magy) and Amanda (La Ley).

La Flaca Poderosa and La Ley (The LAW). I am jealous of her cool name - her students gave it to her!

Crazy trio!! 

Cena y Desayuno

     My favorite kinds of cenas (suppers) are the ones that we eat things like this,

and I look up from my plate and see this.

My favorite desayunos (breakfasts) are the ones where I make something like this:

and when I look up from my plate I see this.

My favorite cenas end with moments like these:

and my favorite desayunos end with faces like these:

Have I said the words "I AM BLESSED" on this blog before? Because God is blessing me more than I could ever imagine possible. I LOVE THESE KIDS.

Congrats B!

My sister's club at ACU won Sing Song this year! Congratulations to Bronwyn and Alpha Kai!!!! I love you and I showed your video to the girls here- they made me play it over and over and over again. You rock!!! I miss you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOt4hNCmprw&feature=youtube_gdata_player