May 29th, 2012
Well here I am in Chilliwack now for about 36 hours and things have been incredible, busy and a lot of fun.
I asked my daughter to NOT tell my grandson that I was home yet and so after he was done his field trip on Monday he stopped by my mom’s house (or g-gate as he called her since he could talk) to pick up a package. I was sitting on the floor in the kitchen, knowing that their routine was to come in and grab a snack and when he went into the fridge he never even saw me. When his face was in the fridge I just said “Hi” and when he turned to look at me I said “Jimmy” and he ran to me and held me and both of us got to emotional. It was the most incredible feeling in the world and Jennifer, my daughter, stood behind me and took the pictures.
After visiting for a while I had to renew my postal box and do a bunch of errands (of course Jimmy was in the passenger seat).
After supper we went out to look at the hall that Johnathan & Becky are getting married in. All of a sudden it hit me that these two young people that started dating 5 years ago are getting married in 4 days. I am so excited for them and my prayer is that this day will be a celebration of the last five years together as well as what God has in store for their future together.
The pictures of them are of their first “dress up date” at Becky’s grad and then one of their many engagement photos.
Yes, God is good and I look forward to what the next 10 days have in store……..
May 27th, 2012
My trip to San Diego Airport…..
Last night I tried to go to bed at a decent hour but found I couldn’t sleep much, however as excited as I am to go home to Chilliwack, it wasn’t that. You see yesterday when I was doing Spanish I was SO confused as to why sometimes el has an accent and other times it doesn’t. I tried looking through my lessons, searched through the school site and to no avail so finally asked others for help and was given an idea as to what answers MAY be. So off I went to the net and surfed for a couple MORE hours and finally found the answer. Only problem was then it gave me a whole bunch of more stuff to question - for instance what is a homophone?! That’s what I thought – huh – what are you talking about?! Well after doing more research I found out a homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. Such as rose (flower) and rose (he rose), or they can be spelled differently like carat, caret and carrot. Okay - so you see what I am saying - my brain didn’t want to quit working last night even as I lay in bed willing myself to go to sleep. I guess that’s what I get for trying to understand things after supper huh?!
Well up I get at 5 a.m. this morning, putter around, have my shower and head out the door to Los Olivos to give Isaias the car. What a very thoughtful man, for some reason he thought I was taking the One Life One Chance bus to Canada and so he cleaned and washed it. We had a good laugh about that on the way to the actual bus because there is NO WAY that I could ever drive that, not even on a dare.
The charter bus pulled out at 7:30 a.m. and I am pretty sure it made a stop in every town at least 3 times on the way through with 15 minutes for lunch in Ensenada. However, I was actually sick to my stomach and was baking so settled on water and plain potato chips. The driver, co-driver and other people on the bus were really great so time seemed to go very quickly. I was actually pleasantly surprised how well they could understand my form of Spanish (stuttered and thinking through most words - haha). We ended up going through two military check points - at one they came on and asked me where I was from and where was I going to, the second one my suitcase was one of 5 that was pulled off of the bus. When he called me up to be there when he went through it I tried to explain what I was doing in Mexico, that was also quick and painless. When I got on the bus I told them I was going to have to tan more so that I quit having to be the first one picked. We all laughed at that!
We arrived at Tijuana at 2:15 p.m. where I was dropped off at the bus stop. I was not quite sure what I was supposed to do next so I went into the bus depot and asked if there was any way to get a ride to San Diego Airport. Well they called for a cab and they said it would only cost me $10 (American). I thought great deal……only to find out that they were dropping me at Tijuana Airport where I had to catch a shuttle bus to San Diego Airport for $200 pesos. When we arrived at customs we were told we needed to carry our suitcases and carry-on through the border and meet another shuttle on the other side of the border crossing. So, I went through customs no problem but then had to go and find Shuttle Bus 100 to take me the rest of the way to San Diego. Well, all I can say is if I ever do that again I am packing MUCH lighter! I had worked up quite the sweat carrying that suitcase 1/2 mile and we left right away and ended up at the San Diego Airport settled in by 5:30 p.m.
Now here I am at the airport relaxing, blogging and people watching. I know everyone told me to get a hotel but it’s a long weekend and many of them are already booked up AND I really can’t see spending $199 / night on a hotel room when my rent is only $150 / month. I guess living in Mexico and seeing that people can be perfectly happy with less, you learn to think more before you spend (at least I do).
I am going to find a spot to lay my head and get some sleep, thankfully I am not the only one crashing here tonight. It seems there are a few more people down the hallway from me as well.
Thanks for your prayers - I am safe and blessed to have incredible family and friends praying, supporting, loving and encouraging me - when God knows I need it the most.
Dios te bendiga and hasta pronto mi amigos!
May 24th, 2012
One of my neighbors stopped by and gave me this flower just now and it’s so beautiful that I had to share it. It’s not a carnation but the fact that it is pink is a reminder to me that God is in control and there is nothing I can’t handle that comes my way (even a scary bus ride - lol - NOTHING).
At Rockyview Alliance Church, in Calgary, where I was attending when my daughter was born, they had a tradition of placing a carnation on the alter in honor of the baby that was born. Since Jennifer happened to be a girl, the carnation was pink.
The first Sunday after Jennifer was born we were going to church and we knew afterwards we had to report to the hospital for them to make sure the jaundice was going down and not up. Unfortunately Jennifer’s jaundice was going up (you could tell by the color of her skin) and I was upset as I had just gotten her home and I didn’t want to leave her there alone. My mom encouraged me to talk to the pastor and he prayed over her with us. During the service I noticed that her color was changing from glow in the dark yellow to a beautiful pink. By the time we got to the hospital for her tests they said she was cleared and wouldn’t need to go back for any more testing.
I was so happy I was giddy and so for the next 25 years whenever my mom and I would go through something all we had to say to each other was “think pink” and we knew it would be okay!
May 24th, 2012
Struggles……
A couple of weeks ago I found myself very frustrated with too much time and not as much time actively connecting with Single Mother’s as I desire. I have Spanish studies, crochet hats and dish clothes for Outreach gifts, devotionals, go out with Ana when I get the opportunity, church, garden and visits with neighbors. I also have tentatively planned a Ladies Craft night for when I return but I still find that things just are not happening as quickly as I would like.
I often found myself praying things like “come on God, I have been here for two months now and I still don’t know who you want me to help. What’s going on here? What do you want from me? What can I do so I feel like I am moving ahead in this walk I believe you called me to? Is there still some sin in my life that hasn’t been revealed? What do you need from me?”. Does that sound familiar?!
It became all to apparent to me that I would have to call myself a workaholic who found herself on shaky ground because I was still trying to compare myself to the previous standards I had for myself when I was working for the Federal Government. I had always measured my daily progress with the amount of paperwork I was able to clear off my desk, often working through lunch, coming in early, going home later and even taking paperwork home with me to the point I lived to work and did not work to live.
When things weren’t happening on a daily basis for Single Parent Ministry I became frustrated, hard on myself and questioning what was I doing wrong or was I going to be able to help out down here. This led me to struggle within myself as I would question “if I am not producing XXXX in a day than I am not doing any good here. If I am not doing any good here then why would God call me all the way here away from my friends, family and life that I know.” It’s a vicious cycle and one that needed to be stopped in my life.
So, I decided to go on line and research about self-esteem and the effects, negatively and positively, that it would have on your relationship with God. I learned that I was definitely not alone as most, if not all, of women find they struggle with this some time in their life. I found a couple of Bible studies to help me work through that phase of what I was going through and found myself with a desire to know more about how different speed bumps in our lives affect our relationship with God. I recently finished reading a book called “Overcoming Negative Emotions - God’s path to becoming a positive woman” and currently working on “Jump off the hormone swing - fly through the physical, mental, and spiritual symptoms of PMS and peri menopause”. I am also going through “Fit for My King - His Princess 30-Day Diet Plan and Devotional” again.
I know, I know - these are not easy subjects for women to talk about, or for men to hear, but I believe it’s important to be as informed as possible on the various issues we go through, and their impact on our relationship with God, so that I can be a better friend, support, encouragement and prayer warrior when He brings those people into my life - let alone the gift of now being able to understand some of the struggles I had previously faced.
Yes, I am learning that God does use those seemingly small things to build HIS kingdom in a most mysterious and exciting way that I may not see nor understand at the time. I have also found that my prayers have since changed to “God show me how to patiently and lovingly serve YOU better in YOUR way, not mine”.
I can’t promise that I won’t feel frustrated again but I do know that I am exactly where I am supposed to be and HE knows the desires of my heart but I know His timing is better than mine!
May 23rd, 2012
Time sure flies…..
Well here it is Wednesday already and in just a couple more days I will be heading back to Canada to visit my family and friends.
While I am there I will also be blessed to speak at a Ladies’ Event about my life and Single Parent Ministry in Mexico. That has actually challenged me to do a lot of praying, asking, listening, and waiting on answers from God because, with a blank canvas, it’s hard to know what direction to go. He is the artist though and I am blessed to be able to hold the canvas, waiting (sometimes not so patiently) as He draws it all out. I find myself often saying in prayer “okay, I am here now………….now what?!?” and then I am reminded COMMUNICATION is important.
In order to be able to communicate I continue on with my Spanish - and I received my grade yesterday for Level 2 - Unit 1 and it was 99% - which now brings my total grade average up to 98.84%. I just have Level 2 - Unit 2 to finish up before finding out what the next step is. It is a beautiful language and is going to take a lot of practice to be able to speak it so I think I will pick up some children’s books in Spanish when I return and start practicing there as well. I have YouTube Cristiano to listen to and when I am driving I try to either listen to “Spanish for Dummies” or the radio station down here. When I went to the bus depot the other day I found I was able to communicate with the young lady, who didn’t speak any English, about what I needed, when and where I was going. I really do thank God for allowing me to retain as much as I have because often I find I have too many things going around in my mind that I am surprised I remember any of it.
This is definitely not a one person task and I thank God for each and every one of you who continue to lift this up in prayer, friendship and support. Also please know that when your notes of encouragement come in it’s at a time when He knows they are most needed. So from my heart to yours - thank you for being a part of this team!
