Dia das Criancas

  wrote this a couple days ago:

This day is huge –or so I’ve heard.  Every time it’s spoken of (in hushed tones of course, and with s-p-e-l-l-e-d words) it’s portrayed to be an equivalent to Christmas.  And let me tell ya… Christmas was a huge day. Great day, lots of fun. New Years was –by far!– the most fun day yet, but Christmas was really close too.  So… Children’s Day… wooosh, it’s gonna be something else :-)  Well anyway, today Laura and I started prep for the gifts the boys will get.  Together we went through all the big huge wooden boxes in the middle room of the dorm and pulled out all the toys we have stored.  I should say that Iris runs completely on donations.  It’s amazing. From missionaries to children to staff, all salaries and needs are met by donations :-) Ahhmazing!  Well, we started organizing all the toys. All the many, many toys.  Any child’s heaven, in fact. I  love organizing, so I was in my zone, lol.  We had little grocery bags filled for each type of toy: bouncy balls, slinkys, action figures, army men, match box cars (which will forever remind me of Josh & Jason), arts and crafts, pencils, notebooks, and on and on and on.  It was really awesome, knowing we are able to give 30 boys a bag full of toys twice a year (Christmas & Children’s Day) and still even more throughout the year all thanks to visitors’ donations.  So in the next couple days I’ll decorate bags for the boys and then Laura and I will organize what goes into each one.  They’ll also get shoes and a whole outfit :-)  It’s gonna be really cute. 

I’ve posted up some pics of Christmas, one of the whole dorm and one with my uncle playing with their new toys. When I was looking back through my pictures for Christmas, I realized the Christmas card I sent home was of me, Laura and room 1. This is the room Naftal was in, he’s front and centre in that picture. With the best smile ever, he’s so beautiful. So strong and stoic, but he could have the greatest smile when he wanted to. I take great comfort in knowing I’ll see him again. Amazing comfort.. but I just wanted to let you guys know that –if you got a Christmas card, you also got a great picture of Naftal :-) 
(or if you just got your Christmas card, in May… like Jessica’s lol)

the best memory ever

story time:
I had only been here about seven-ish weeks, Laura had been gone for only a week or two and I had my first new boy to greet.  I didn’t know exactly how to welcome him, not sure what the tias had or didn’t have to give him and such.  So I say hello to him and give him a hug then try to fit him for a shirt and pants, which was a bit challenging b/c he was really big and built.  Well, about a week goes by, he’s starting to get his feel for the centre and understanding the ins & outs, of which I’m sure the boys’ explained to him.  He’s come to the afternoon program, gone to church and maybe school –can’t remember if it was out by then? 

One day, as I’m walking up to the dorm under the heat of that blazing afternoon sun, this little boy comes running up to me.  As he’s speeding away from the dorm he looks up at me and smiles, grabs my hand and turns around to walk with me to the dorm.  I about melted to the ground in a puddle.  Up until that point the boys had held my hand often, but it was only because I was a new person not because I was me.  Well this time, it was because I was me.  It was Naftal.  I loved that day.  I wrote it down in my heart the moment it happened.  I knew then how special it was and I know now how even more special it’s become.


it was the first great memory I made at the centre

YouTube link

check out my life in movies: http://www.youtube.com/user/pelicanorc

Family Update (and Richmond/jobs plans)

huge, amazing, awesome, spectacular news: my sister is pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so stoked it’s crazy.  This is my happy place when things get hard    :-)  She’s due November 5th.  I’m back in Richmond August 5th, just in time to start her 3rd trimester.  feels like everyone is preggo..?  I’m so excited to have another neice/nephew it’s ridonkulous!  I hope its a girl  :-D

So, if God wants things to go as I’ve roughly got planned out…this is what the next year of my life looks like:  Moz until August, then Richmond until early 2011, then finally head off to Nashville (or at least a city that is not Richmond, but this is only if I choose to lower my standards –I haven’t chosen this yet though lol).  And then, lol (I realize it’s silly planning thiiiiis far in advance) after about 2 or 3 years in Nashville I’d really love to move to Australia, Melbourne-ish area.

So many people think I’m crazy.  It’s nothing new.  I’ve heard things along the lines of “crazy dreamer” since I was 12.  I dream big :-)  If you don’t dream big then what do you expect out of your life?  Laura and I had a big conversation about this last week, when I was feeling a bit down about dreaming of Nashville.  She’s so lovely :-)  Anyhoo… I need to find a job to support me while I’m in Richmond and I need to find a job in Nashville.  I love how these are just the sorts of things you can’t do on your own.  I’ll only ever find a job with God’s grace and my community’s support.  Life is beautiful :-)

I really want to work with Jen while I’m in Richmond.  That would be amazingly perfect.  She’s just started watching kids in her home so that she can stay home with Kayla and the new baby.  I SO want to do this with her!  I’d also really love to be a nanny.  I know nanny jobs don’t really lead anywhere, they’re certainly not career-starters.  But I’d still love to do to it in Richmond :-)  I’ve got my eye on a place called Youth Villages in Nashville.  I’ve really got a heart for residential care for children/older youth.  Here at the centre we have tias who work 4 days on 3 days off and live here full-time when they’re “on.”  I want to do this in the states.  I feel like I can invest so fully and easily if I live where the kids live.  Youth Villages seems to have this same mission.  Please pray I’ll find something like this in Nashville :o)


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Nelspruit Pictures

for those who can’t see these pictures on Facebook, here are some pics from a weekend in South Africa with Emily & Heather as I bought a new visa

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Friend Update

ANNE’S COMING IN 9 DAYS!!!!!!!!!

I’m so excited it’s crazy :-)  I wish everyone from home could come see my life here.  I’ve invested so much here I can’t even begin to explain everything, I want you all to see it first hand!  But it’s okay.  Before I left Anne and I had already talked about her coming to visit and I was 95% confident she could come.  I was only holding back that little 5% in case she couldn’t, I’d have room to be disappointed.  I’ve already got our time together planned out, well mais ou menos.. I’ll meet her and my aunt at the air port then go home with my aunt for the whole weekend.  Me and Anne will spend Thursday night and Friday catching up and hanging out with my family.  Then on Saturday my friends from the centre will come out and hopefully stay the night.  I want to head out to an island or the beach, but (as usual) transportation and finances are a bit of an issue.  So I don’t know how that’ll work out but I know it’ll be fun :-)  **God’s really been showing me how to trust him, and not worry but just be confident in waiting, it’s great**  Then Sunday night we’ll go to worship @ Jimmy & Linda’s house and finally go to the centre afterwards. 

We’ll spend the whole week with the boys and going on visitors’ outreaches.  It’ll be my first time on a lot of the ministries the visitors participate in, I’m excited to finally have the chance.  We’ve got four main outreaches that include visitors’ regular help: street ministry (they visit the jail and give food out in a park in the city), hospital ministry (go into the city and pray over the sick in the hospital), the Bocaria (local trash dump, they go and minister to and pray over the community living there), and weekend outreaches into the bush where they preach the Gospel.  I’m excited!  Anne’s gonna love it.  Then the next weekend we’ll (omgomgomg!) go to Kruger Park with my family.  This is the best part.  Kruger is a safari park!  I’m finally gonna see lions and zebras and really feel like I’m truly living in Africa.  It’s going to be friggin sweet!  We’ll drive down Friday or Saturday and then (God’s such a smarty pants) Anne and I will head home on Monday, catching a ride with Meghann and her mom who will be in Kruger that same weekend.  While my aunt and cousin drive down to meet up with Uncle Todd.  It looks as though everything will work out wonderfully :-)  I’ve been trying to get to Kruger for so long, when I was last in South Africa I was really disapointed to not have the finances to afford the trip, since we drove past the park!  Ahh, it hurt.  But whatever, even if Anne and I don’t go to Kruger it’s still going to be an amazing time  :-)


**she just got here this afternoon!  we went to dinner and ice cream with my family :o) and sat outside by the pool chatting for ages, with tea of course!**

Life Update

Job Update
Things change here so often, it’s ridiculous. People come and go all the time; new people come, old people leave, current people visit home for two months at a time.  It’s ridiculous!  So, in light of these changes, I’ve taken on more responsibilities.  In hospitality it’s: keys.  Keys.  Keys.  Keys.   It’s a nightmare, but it’s all about organizing and categorizing…sooooo, (call me loony) I love it!  At any given time we’ve got between 15-50 visitors, they sleep in their own little area we call the Visitor’s Compound.  They each get a set with 3 keys (their room, their kitchen and to the actual compound which stays locked 24/7).  I’m the one who has/gets to make sure each set of keys is correct.  I’m not sure how to explain just how headachy this job is.  I’ve been doing this since December and it’s just never ending.  I just stepped in and took over because I love organizing.  But I didn’t realize it would never be fixed.  We never truly have all the keys we need and certainly not the number of extra copies we want.  But it’s cool, it’s cool. :o) 

I’m also doing this new thingie I call “car mileage.”  The directors asked me to do the admin on keeping track of cars: how much they’re driven, their problems, and how much money is put into their tanks.  It’s pretty messy because there are 14 cars and one missionary keeps track of these things for one car.  So every Monday I’m emailing all the missionaries trying to track down what they wrote for their car.  But it’s working pretty well, I’d give it an 85% success rate.  It’s only lacking because drivers don’t write everything down the way their supposed to and I’ve got quite a bit of chasing to do with my colleagues.  It’s a work in progress. :o)

The big change is this: Laura’s going home for 6 months!  She’s leaving in mid-June, 7 weeks before I follow suit and head to Richmond.  This is going to be tricky, because it means I’ll have to train-up a new missionary, leave for the States and then Laura will come back to a new person running the dorm.  It’s going to be a bit odd, but I’m really excited for Laura.  She’s going home to spend more time with her family and to start graduate school.  I’m such a huge supporter of both these things :-)  Please pray that a missionary will come here long-term with a heart for working with my dorm.  And pray we get one before I leave.  I don’t particularly want to run the dorm alone again, it’s a bit lonely and I still haven’t learned quite enough Portuguese to feel confident with the Tias’ explanations for things.  But I especially want the chance to train a new missionary so that the boys’ lives are still relatively the same until Laura comes home. *I know I use the word home a lot, to talk about the States and here.. but that’s just my life*  Pray over this whole situation in general :-)  I know it’ll work out, but as usual, I just wish God would let me (little miss planner) know soon.

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Sopa!

I did the Afternoon Program today with Room 3 (the youngest who are about 6) and we made soup :-)  The only other time I’ve ever cooked with them was when we made a cake for Laura’s homecoming back when I first got here.  So this was a new adventure..one that I didn’t even volunteer for without first stepping back and really processing through it.  But then I figured how bad could it be?  I’ve only made soup one other time in my life but these are six year olds.  And not just American six year olds, but six year olds who will eat anything you put in their hands and say “doce!” (candy!). 

It was a good time, lol :o)  I love cooking, especially when I don’t follow a recipe and just go for something.  The first step, the same one every young chef learns is: wash your hands.  So I stood at the sink with a chair from the kitchen table and had each boy come and wash their hands.  They were surprisingly good at this… the kids in America put their hands under the water right when you put the soap on, its useless.  But my (amazing) boys first scrubbed their hands without provocation and then rinsed them –I was proud.  Haha.  Well after all hands were clean I set them up to color (and touch what I can only assume are germ-ridden colored pencils…. heh… oops?) I had each boy come up in turn and pour water into the pot, put vegetables in along with it and then stir.  It was pretty freakin’ cute, I’m not gonna lie :-) And the soup turned out delicious (yay me).  It was so good I even gave some to a tia, because I wasn’t worried she’d hate it :-)  I love the Afternoon Program

Anatomia de Grey

Grey’s is my favorite show and Meghann is my hero.

She visited home in February and brought back with her all (yes ALL!) seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, even some of the current season! It was heaven. So for the past, I dunno, 3-ish months we’ve been spending most Tuesday nights watching Grey’s. When Emily got here she brought season 2, then Meghann returned home with all seasons… we’re about to start season 5 tonight. Haha, it’s so great. It’s the little things, ya know? Don’t tell me anything about the current season, please, I've only seen the first 13 episodes. But that’s so exciting –I’ve seen the first half and I’m in Mozambique!! God is good in so many ways :-) Me and Emily are the hardcore viewers, Meghann and Erin watch often but then there’s Fiona and Heather… Maybe it’s because their English? They hardly watched until recently. As of last night I think I’ve finally got Fiona into it :-) She was really upset when Season 4 ended, until I got to tell her we’ve got Season 5, hah. But we’re still working on Hev. Pray for her lol, she needs to join us :-)

yes, I just devoted a whole post to Grey’s --it’s that good.


life updates are on their way soon. hopefully this week :-) lots to update!

lovelovelove