Wedding

This weekend my dear friend Cassie got married.  She has been one of the people in my life who has taught me the most of grace and forgiveness.  It is only the hand of God that we are friends after some of the things that we have walked through together.  She knows me in all my mess and I know her the same.  She loves me even though I was a passive aggressive jerk of a roommate sometimes in college and have had moments of being a less than stellar friend since then.  She is a constant in my life, a sister, someone who is going to point me to Jesus even if I haven’t talked to her in months.  We walked through college together, through doing youth ministry, and are able to just be that person for each other that you can tell anything b/c they don’t live nearby :)  I’m so incredibly thankful for her.  I am so excited for this new beginning in her life as she begins to walk alongside John and know life and ministry married to him.

Also got to hang out with this sweet friend…

Aimee is moving to San Diego with her husband and cute kiddos to serve Jesus in campus ministry there.  I am so encouraged by how they follow Jesus in whatever he asks them to do.  I do not see her enough, that’s for sure :)

I got to spend a little time with my parents too, which was really fun.  Frisbie golf at the park with my dad, dinner at Outback, board games, Target, Chickfila… you know, all the important things.  And I got to rest, which I didn’t realize that I needed so desperately.  Thanks for getting married Cassie :)

Happy Shannon Day!

I know… I’m being an overwhelming blogger today.  But just now, with 36 minutes left in the day, I realized that this is my one year anniversary living in Honduras, and that’s kind of a big deal :)

This was me, a year ago today.  Weak with the stomach flu, totally annoyed by the woman at TACA who I swear changed the baggage rules right as I walked up the desk, and so sad to have left my friends in Costa Rica.  I had no idea at the time the adventure the Lord had in mind for me in the upcoming year.  If I did, I may have chosen to fly back to NC instead :)  No… I’m totally kidding.  I wouldn’t trade the last year here for anything!  It has been a wild ride, but I have seen the Lord’s faithful hand carrying me.  But back to the title, Evan Clow deemed May 1st forever Happy Shannon Day b/c it’s the day I arrived.  So thanks Evan for giving me a holiday… now how shall we celebrate?

Recap…
I arrived in May and started meeting with Kiyomi and IHNFA but I didn’t speak enough Spanish to understand anything they were saying.  In June my brother arrived to stay for two months and I loved every second of having him here.  The summer brought heat and summer teams… it was a struggle because I still didn’t feel like I had a place here or a clear purpose and I felt like being so busy with teams hindered being able to pursue that.  Also my car broke down.  A lot.  September brought lots of changes as Bethany left and I didn’t have any friends.  Then Heather moved to La Ceiba and is now my roommate!  Caitlin moved to Ceiba.  We started getting involved in the church and making friends.  Then I got stuck out of the country for a month, stupid yellow fever shot.  I got trained in pavement project.  Kate moved to La Ceiba and our roommate dynamic changed again, but for the better.  And somehow in the midst of that, our paperwork was done and I could look to rent a house.  How amazing is God?  We rented a house and my dad and Rick came and built us beds.  My family showed me countless times this year how lovingly supportive they are and I am SO grateful for them!  I met girls, interviewed potential staff, made contacts, and then God gave me people who wanted to work with and for me and wanted to live in the house.  Again, incredible.  So we moved in 3 girls and 3 babies, hired a house mom and started to deal with the reality of a day-to-day, life-on-life ministry.  I had lots of visitors, people got married, and the Lord gave me a sweet community here in Ceiba and grew my team closer together.  My team has been so supportive and I don’t know what I would do with out them.  I’ve cried, a lot.  And laughed, a lot.  I’ve said a lot of goodbyes, but also a lot of hellos.  I’ve admitted defeat, but also kept on.  I’ve started doing things I’m bad at on a daily basis.  Oh, and in that vein, we started paperwork to open a small business.  I think I need to take a nap, or a hibernation :)

The theme of this year…

Great is Thy Faithfulness oh God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
All I have needed, Thy hand hast provided
Great is Thy Faithfulness!  Lord unto Thee.

I have seen God’s provision every time I turn around.  In finances, volunteers, teammates, girls, lessons of grace, lessons of forgiveness, friends and fellowship, leadership, medical care, and SO much more.  I never want to forget this season of walking in trust and faith because there is absolutely NO WAY I can do this on my own.

People series #1- Y & J

I wanted to start with Y & J because they were the first two to come to Puerta de Esperanza.  Y is the youngest mom that we have at 16 years old.  J is about 20 months and the oldest of the babies… see some irony in that? :)

Oh Y.  I say that all the time.  She is unpredictable and stubborn as a mule.  She loves to test the boundaries and has figured out exactly how to push my buttons.  I told her one day that I know she annoys me on purpose and she just smiled.  grr.  Last week I threatened to take her door off of her bedroom since I’ve asked her not to lock it approximately 1000 times and she still does it.  Her response: Fine then, I’ll just never close it.  That’s fine, solves my problem :)  I love how she thinks that it will punish me somehow.  She just has to have control over something.  She is in beauty school, but the first time she turned on the hairdryer it scared her to death :)  We spent the next 15 minutes laughing so hard we cried!  She is full of unexpected compliments and when she’s not telling me how mad she is at me, she is telling me how pretty I am.  She says I love you and she really means it, although she doesn’t believe that I really love her, although maybe more now than before.  She does dishes without being asked, does all the laundry by hand b/c she doesn’t trust the washer, and sometimes gets so tickled that she can’t stop laughing for a half an hour.  She is hilarious, honestly.  She tells me everything about her day, her friends, her life before now, and it is always so funny.  She is gut-level honest and you never have to wonder where you stand.  She wants to love Jesus more but gets stuck in her temper and her rebellious heart, but she always apologizes and never stays mad and then she humbly asks us to pray that God would change her.  She wants to be a good mom and dreams big dreams for her daughter.  She is exceptionally thoughtful, although sometimes you would never know :)

J has her mom’s stubborn nature.  She just pretends she doesn’t hear you if she doesn’t want to do what you’re asking :)  But she has learned so much in three short months.  She doesn’t talk much, but understands everything.  She is TINY and trying to recover from pretty severe malnutrition.  She will always eat bananas, but not always much else.  She thinks that any drink with ice in it is coke.  Her hair looks just like mine and people almost always think that I am her mom.  She loves toys that make noise and baby dolls.  She loves to sit in my lap and read books and snuggle.  She doesn’t cry much, goes to sleep without fussing, and loves helping.  She also loves to stand in front of the refrigerator when the door is open, I don’t blame her, its like her own personal AC! 

People series

So, I really want you all to know the people that I work with the way that I get to know them.  They are amazing girls and babies and kids and I wish you could all meet them.  I want to remember them forever, their sweet smiles and their personalities, the things they like and the funny things they say.  So I’m going to try to introduce them to you one at a time, or maybe two at a time :)  We’ll see how it goes!

Birthday

This is what I woke up to on my birthday…

That’s right… sapo verde eres tú… you’re a green frog.  Thanks C! :)

I spent the night at PDE Monday since I was leaving for the states early Wednesday morning.  It was so fun to wake up and be with the girls on my birthday.  They were so excited and sang to me for about an hour… with guitars, which they can’t play yet.  HA!  It started as birthday songs and then digressed.  But even E got in on the action.

And then Emanuel came over… the babies were testing his guitar skills and really wanted to help.

Then I had lunch with friends…

And then went with Ashley, Kate, and some church friends to see “The Hunger Games”

Great birthday :)

Learning new things!

Here’s where I know that my blog is for me and not just my readers.  But one day, I’m going to want to remember all these things, so here’s to catching up!

Mom and Cheryl brought a sewing machine and taught the girls to make skirts!  They loved it :)

Then they learned pillowcase dresses, and now J has two!  From then on, they’ve been on a roll… pillows, purses, little baby shorts… who knows what they’ll have ready when I get home.  I’m proud of them!  They are definitely beginners, but they’ll get better.  And from it all I learned that G wants to be a seamstress, so that’s progress towards her future.  YAY!

Content

Last Monday night we went to the beach at sunset.  Its only about a mile from the girls’ house and now that we have strollers, we can go for walks!  Did I mention that mom and Cheryl brought strollers?  Look!  (p.s. these strollers are awesome, lightweight, and perfect for taking on and off the bus… if anyone would ever want to buy us another one, they come from toys r us:))

Anyway… the beach, at sunset…

 

I got some time to just talk to G while the other girls took pictures.  And then we all just walked together, joking around, talking about family, life, church, Jesus.  I could not have been happier.  At one point I just stopped and asked the girls if they knew why I was so happy… because they were acting like sisters, like family :)  A little bit of poking fun, some encouragement, lots of laughter… and it felt good and healthy and made me so excited about what the Lord has in mind for them.