Aching Heart

It's amazing how much my heart still misses Honduras. Sometimes in my quiet times with God I ask Him if/when my heart strings will be tugged on less by that country. It isn't that I don't want to be invested there.....it's just that my heart literally aches with longing to be back there. I've come to the conclusion that the answer is never. I've been home for 18 months now and the longing is still there as strong as ever. I'm resigning to the fact that my heart will always be connected to Honduras and those precious people that I fell in love with. There are days when I wake up with Honduras on the forefront of my mind. There are days when something I see triggers a longing for Honduras that is so strong it takes my breath away. There are days that just thinking of Katty brings me to tears because of how badly my heart misses her. The emotions I feel about Honduras are stronger and more real than any emotion I've ever felt before. So today as I sit thinking of all I'm thankful for I add these sweet faces (and several others) to my list. I miss them with a strength I didn't even know existed. I'm blessed to have gotten to be a part of their lives even for a moment.

quote

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

---Mother Teresa

What Do I Know of Holy

A friend of mine introduced me to Addison Road's music a few years ago and I fell in love. Yet some how during the past year she has gotten lost in the mess of music on my ipod. Well I rediscovered her this past week and it is ALL I've listened to since. If you've never listened to her please click the play button above and listen to her song "What Do I Know of Holy." It is my favorite song of her and has really been ministering to this heart lately. As you all know ...I'm a talker. I've never met a stranger. Unfortunately that talkative self is present in my relationship with Christ. I often wonder why God isn't answering my prayers and why He isn't showing up. Then it hits me....I wasn't quite long enough to listen. He was speaking....I just wasn't paying attention. Yet God in His grace, patience, and love was content to wait me out. The God who spoke me into existence loves me enough to wait until my ramblings are done so that I can hear from Him.....crazy!

So yes PLEASE take the time to listen to the words of this song and let it minister to you as well.

Home

I will apologize in advance for any delay in blogging that occurs this week. As you read this I'm eating a phenomenal home cooked meal with my family, watching football with my papa, playing with my nephew, loving on my sweet momma, or playing some kind of game with my sister and brother who never turn my game crazed self down when I want to play.

I'm home in Ohio for the week and it feels great. My whole body relaxes the second I walk through the door of this place I've called home for the past 25 years. My heart finds a peace here that can be found no where else.

I promise I'll blog as I can and I'll put up pictures and stories of my time at home for your enjoyment later.

In the mean time I challenge each of you to soak in the family time, food, football, and fun of the Thanksgiving week. I fully intend to eat so much this week that I'll have to wear sweat pants because my jeans won't button! :)

Harry Potter

If I said I LOVE Harry Potter would it make me sound young, dorky, and just flat out dumb? What if I tell you I fell in love with the Harry Potter series when I was handed the fist book back when I was 13 years old? Does that make it any better? Either way I don't care. The damage has been done. In my world J.K. Rowling is a phenomenal writer and deserves 100 awards for the work she has done in creating this make believe wizarding world. It is no secret that I LOVE to read and at 13 her books rocked my world. At that point I'd never read a book with such depth, imagery, imagination, and length.

I own all the books and have been at the theaters opening night (at 12:01 a.m.) for 4 of the 7 movies that have been released at this point. The most recent movie (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1) came out yesterday and I was there for the 12:01 showing. Addy flexed her good friend muscles and went with me. She enjoys the series but probably wouldn't choose to see it opening night on her own. Yet there we were an hour before the movie started getting popcorn and picking our seats in eager anticipation of the movie. Let me just say it was phenomenal! The movie had me crying, laughing (a lot!), and jumping in my seat. And like any good 2 part movie it left me with a burning anticipation for part two! How will I ever wait until June???

SO I'm encouraging each of you to read the books or at the very least watch the movies. :)

Friendship

Most people get professional photos taken for things like their wedding,

engagement, pregnancy, children, graduation, etc. Well we chose to get

pictures taken just because. While everyone else was getting pictures in celebration and in memory of a huge event we chose to get pictures taken simply to celebrate

our friendship. I can't speak for the other girls but these photos are a representation and reminder of how thankful I am to be in the place and phase of life I'm in. I'm thankful for this time with my two best friends.

You might think its corny but who asked you. :) I happen to love it. Well I hated it actually. Hated getting up at 5:00 a.m. to get ready. Hated spending close to 3 hours at the beach on a FREEZING cold morning at sunrise. Hated that my smile felt frozen in place at times and I literally couldn't feel my fingers. However, the pictures turned out WAY better than I thought they would. I can honestly say in our 10 ish years of being best friends we have NEVER gotten a good picture of the three of us. I have good pictures with Colby and I have good pictures with Addy but we've never had even one frame worthy photo of all three of us.

So 2 weeks ago our friend from church Terresa Shaw came out to bare the elements with us and managed to work her magic on us. You guys should all really check out her site terresashawphotography.com.

I'm adding a few of the photos taken that day. I hope you enjoy.

"In the sweetness of friendship let there be

laughter and the sharing of pleasures"

-kahil gibran

quote

'It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who

have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line

behind people who apparently view it as some

kind of recreational activity."

--- Dave Berry

I stumbled across this quote today and literally laughed out loud at its truthfulness! After a sleepless night last night with 3 screaming 2 year olds I couldn't agree more!

So I sit here in the tranquilness that is nap time sipping on a wonderful iced coffee from Starbucks and being so very thankful for the person who discovered that you could take coffee beans and make them into this life support beverage called coffee. I don't understand or trust people who say such outlandish statements such as "I don't drink coffee." How, please do share, do you make it through a day without coffee? I am apparently just not one of those naturally caffeinated people.

Oh and in case you were wondering starting today (November 18) to November 21st from

2:00-5:00 Starbucks is offering a buy one get one free on their holiday drinks. Can I just say... yes please? One of the perks of my job is that the lady I work for constantly bankrolls and shares in

my Starbucks addiction. We will be getting not one but two SB beverages a piece today

with no shame what-so-ever!