My padres visit!

Last week, my parents came to visit me for the second time since I moved to Honduras! I loved every minute of it. It's such a joy and encouragement to have them around!

We got to knock a couple of things off of my "Honduran bucket list" together, which I really enjoyed. One of those things was that we got to learn to make tortillas from one of my favorite ladies, Karol's mom. We also went to the bird sanctuary in Copan Ruinas, which was extremely entertaining. 

One of the best parts was that Mom was here on her birthday! It's been a very long time since I was able to celebrate with her in person on her birthday, and it was special for me to have her here. 

Even though Grace didn't get to come on this trip, we did all get to skype with her. I loved having Mom and Dad visit the office and visit our church and see all of my coworkers. We also got to try a new restaurant that we had been wanting to try, and of course we drank a lot of coffee. 

It was a great week, and saying goodbye wasn't difficult since it was just "See you in a month!" I'm thankful that they were able to come to Honduras again and get to spend more time in a place that I love. It really was a blessing to have them here, and an uplifting week for me.

Eating at a new pizza place in Gracias:

Mom and me at the Waldron's farm on her birthday:

At the bird sanctuary:

With some of my favorite ladies after our extremely fun tortilla lesson:

Macaws:

Yeny's Wedding

If you're bothering to look at this, you probably already know that I'm the supervisor of our safe house, Dulce Refugio (along with Yulema). Over two years ago I got to Honduras to visit, and the gringos asked me what I thought about living at this house. Yeny was the first "resident" of the house that I met, and while being loud and extremely stubborn, she was also immediately easy to love. 

Yeny has taught me a lot about life over the last few years. I was frustrated when she woke me up at 5:00 a.m. to make fruit cocktail (which I did not do), and when she woke me up because she'd missed her bus to Guatemala and wanted me to chase it down in my car (which was successful), but somehow even when I'm tired and frustrated she can always make me smile.  On top of that, God has used her to show me what kind of growth He can bring about in a person's life. She is an incredibly hard worker, loves fiercely, and has become (and is becoming) a true woman of God. 

That got sappy, but the bottom line is that I'm proud of her and thankful to be her friend. Her wedding was lovely and we had a blast being a part of it. Also, the cake was delicious so that always helps. 

I'm realizing I never said anything about her husband Jose Luis, whom I also love and am SO thankful that he is the man that Yeny married. He is patient and kind and loves the Lord, which is exactly what I want for all of our girls. 

Getting ready for the wedding:

Laura will kill me for this one:

Yeny looked beautiful!

There were better pictures on cameras, but of course that would require so much more work...

VCOM

Last week VCOM was back, and we did almost all of the same normal VCOM things. Went to 3 villages during the week, and on Thursday we saw the kids from one of the schools that DESEO goes to every week. 

The group itself was awesome, which I know I sort of always say, but this group was a special kind of awesome. Laura, Caleb, Rex, Candy, translators and I all really enjoyed working with them. It was also my last medical group, but let's not talk about that. 

Here are just a few pictures.  Clearly I didn't take many!

Pillamada

A few weeks ago we had a sleepover with the women's ministry. We had a meeting to make plans for the future, then spent the rest of the night playing games, having a fire (very entertaining process), watching movies, etc. Great chance to grow closer to each other and make plans for the ministry! 

Building a fire really was incredibly entertaining. This is what I call women with a fire pit and wet firewood. Notice Stacy and the gasoline can.

And Laura's birthday piñata made one final debut!

Belize day!

To wrap up the busy summer of brigades, the original gringos along with the AIMers and the interns took a day trip to Belize. It was a great chance to relax, to bond after not seeing as much of each other while we were all busy with our specific jobs with groups, and to send off the interns. 

We stayed in San Pedro Sula for the weekend and took a boat out to an island for the day on Sunday. It was beautiful, and because it's basically some random family's island, there are no tourists (other than us). 

We swam, we snorkeled, we played cards, we fellowshipped, we had a blast, we went to the hotel and slept in air conditioned rooms. What more could we ask for?

Now we're back in Santa Rosa and it's back to normal life! Most important things on the agenda: exercise after months of hotel food, and to clean out the disaster that is my office. 

Stacy, the interns, and Jordan on our way out to the island

We're on a boat. Tobin liked it for.. a little while.

Is it sad that I'm not going to continue fighting with this to make it centered like everything else? Sorry to all of you who are OCD. It wasn't meant to happen.

This is the island.

Island chickens. Central American beaches are still Central American:)

Grumpy Tobs.

Hammock time.

Cute hammock bonding with Tobs and Aimer Caleb

The interns and AIMers say goodbye.

I sure will miss these interns!

Although not because of how frequently they sat on me.

Mas photos of not medical brigades

The last couple of weeks we had had groups, just non-medical groups. Which means I am (supposedly) working in the office (just a lot less than I could be), spending some time with the groups, and overall just doing all of the things I haven't been doing while having no minutes of down time in the last two months. 

Last week we had a group from DiscipleTrips and University (Denver)'s youth group. They did VBS and construction and we went to the hospital to pass out soup to family members/patients one evening. This week we have a group from Shelbyville, TN, and they are doing two construction projects as well as the hospital service project. 

Also, Laura is back from the states! We've missed her and it's nice to have her back. 

I have a lot to do in the office.... 

And Donna's office.

Most of this is done but there's still a good bit left in my office.

It will be finished eventually!

Last medical brigade

A couple of weeks ago we had our last medical brigade of the season, and incidentally, my time here with Mission UpReach. That makes me sad, but I am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to work here and learn from/with our group of team members. 

We went to Monte de la Virgen with a group from Athens, GA. Their group was a great choice for our last medical brigade of the season. We saw 730 patients, which is a pretty impressive percentage considering we gave out 750 tickets! It was great to be in that village for more than one day and see people that I've worked with before since we go out there with VCOM. 

Now I'm cleaning up from the brigades and I have a LOT of work to do! Plenty of things to organize, meanwhile still having other groups. I'm enjoying my last couple of weeks during our "busy season"!

The line outside of the school.

Diana doing her thing and passing out meds to patients.

Rosa and Milagro working at registration. They're always such great help!

Selfies with Stacy.

Donna, myself, and interns Danielle and Sydni.

It's a miracle that two of us have on the same color!