Time Never Slows Down

Almost three weeks....it's been almost three weeks now since I've been back in Honduras after a fabulous summer off and being back in Michigan. Time always goes too fast and it sure did this summer as well, but I was so blessed to be able to get quality time with my family and friends and got to travel to Wyoming with family to visit my brother Jason. It's not always easy to jump from one 'world' to the other. It's a blessing to know that I'm comfortable in both but there's a discomfort and a comfort with both. I'm comforted to still very much have a life and friends and family in MI but I don't have my daily routine there which I need. Here in Honduras there are many inconveniences but that's part of the life here although not always easy and I don't think I'll ever just be "used" to it.

Summer highlights:

Rachel and James's wedding

Got spoiled by so much time with these rug rats! They are my joy!



Lauren and Ben's wedding and the International School gang


Got to celebrate my 25th birthday at, where else than, a restaurant called 25 Kitchen and Bar! So blessed to have so many share it with me.


While in Wyoming, I was able to witness one of the coolest natural phenomenons ever, a full double rainbow. It was unreal.

It was so good to see my brother Jason who I hadn't in over a year. Good to see that he's happy and doing well.

The family

Stefanie and Greg's wedding

It was such a blessing to be home for birthdays, weddings, engagements, and just plain make new memories, which is something I have such a hard time missing being away. Life does go on for others and with some our relationship is affected by the distance, so it's nice to have a chance to renew those and invest in them while home. Yet, I'm called to be here and am glad to be here although difficult at times.

So summer came to a hault and I was quickly back in Honduras. I was greeted by flowers and open arms from my boyfriend Darwin in the airport. I'm sure most of you have heard about him by now. We've been dating for almost 4 months now. He's a Christian, agricultural engineer (aka. farmer), kind, loving, thoughtful, good listener, bilingual, amazing cook, and knows how to spoil and take care of me. It's been nice to be together again after doing long distance during the summer. Now we can just be together and allow time to do its thing. I treasure my friendship with him and who he is to me. He's a hopeless romantic, and we celebrate things like 100 days of being together, and I get showered with flowers all the time and good meals. Ok, I'll stop now so you don't gag. But I do just have to share that he surprised me with some other amazing gifts. He made me a chest made of mahogany with my name and our names on it. It's phenomenal! He also made me a set of two shelves and a table top that I can arrange in whatever way I want. So cool!





So starting on day 2 of being back, I jumped right back in to being North American Coordinator again this year. It's always a whirlwind of things to get done before the teachers arrive and we've found ourselves with, I believe, 16 houses this year, one of those houses being contracted to rent the day before they arrived, and 38 teachers. The new teachers are awesome and I'm loving getting to know them. We've had our bumps along the road already of illnesses, housing repairs, houses and classrooms flooding due to intense rain, etc. Welcome to Honduras friends! It's been good so far and such a blessing to have my friend Merideth DeVries as part of the Coordinator crew this year too. She's such a help and it makes the load lighter. It's different though being in my 3rd year. I'm one of the few North Americans that has been at IST for this long. So I get looked to for a lot which I'm glad to help and answer questions. It just seems so odd to me that after only 3 years of teaching that I'd be considered the "knowledgeable" one. School also knows me well enough and knows I'll say yes to a lot, and this past week they got me to say yes to being videotaped for a IST promotional video. I was by far surprised when rolling cameras came in along with umbrella lamps, etc. I'll try hard to get my hands on a copy of the final video to share! Another thing that is different that I've noticed so far this year is that for me, I live here in Honduras. For how long? I don't know. I'm here until God calls me elsewhere. But I am constantly reminded that for other teachers that come down here, this is just an 'experience' for them, a temporary thing. I feel more like an old-timer and a host that is here to show them around. It's nice in that sense but I've already noticed that the thrill I used to always get of traveling around and going places has started to ware off. It's home now in a way; there becomes less and less that is 'new'. However, I still look forward to attempting to cross off all the Central American countries off my list this year.

Flowers that my superintendent sent me as a thank you for the job I do as one of the coordinators. There was fruit and chocolate sent too!

So here's to year 3 of teaching 4th grade at IST. I've already survived week 1 and a full and crazy week at that. It's always filled with getting kids to get their materials to school, teaching them routines, reminding them how to speak English, etc. I'm blessed to have 19 kids this year. I'll gladly accept a smaller class size this year. After the first week, I can already tell it's going to be a different year than the others as their English level seems to be lower than any other class I've had before and I have quite a few ADD children. It's going to be pulling teeth at times to get them moving at the pace that they should. I'm encouraged by the fact that I feel confident in my abilities as a teacher and the fact that I know how I want my classroom to function, whether or not if it always functions as I'd wish. Without boasting, it's nice to not have to reinvent the wheel all the time and as I am the only 4th grade teacher returning to IST this year, I have 3 coworkers that I see stressed still by figuring things out and inventing the wheel. They'll get there soon enough. We all do.


As this year has been off to a super busy start and being ill, I haven't even had the chance to see all those that I love at Micah Project where I volunteer at. I hope that as soon as I find a pattern here and get over this sinus infection that has kept me home today from activities, that I'll get to see them all soon.

Before I wrap it up, I'd appreciate if you lifted a few things up in prayer for me:
-Patience and kindness with my students and coworkers
-Strength and growth in my relationship with Darwin
-Protection for all of us as the National Weather Center predicts major hurricanes this season and the amount of rain we've had has been tremendous and has damaged roads and homes
-Growth in my relationship with the Lord

Peace and love.