hold on for one last ride.
Orientation August 2012 we arrived to hear rules and security precautions to living in the city and how to travel. Stay on main roads, don't travel at night, be careful about using your debit card in a cash machine that is hard to get your card in and out of (as someone may have rigged it to take your withdrawl) and all sorts of other warnings. So my preconceived notions were that we were going to be foreigners living in a hostile and dangerous land. Before we actually found a house and school I worried that something bad would happen to us. However, I knew that we were meant to go there and that we would be protected. This was going to be an exciting new adventure and we were excited about what this historical city had in store for us; Doug as a human rights researcher, for me as a nurse and mother and for our family as a whole. We quickly found out first and foremost that God had gone before us to pave the way for blessings ie: housing, friends, school, church and markets and of course a near by wal-mart. We knew that God had his hand in every part of our new Mexican life within the first 2 weeks. Our apartment was found the first day, perfect for us. The school... 2 blocks away from the apartment. The parents in the school became treasured friends very quickly. Everything just fell into place. After 2 months there we had tried 3 different churches, 2 Baptist churches and 1 mega 'non denominational' church. I found friends through a women's group at the English speaking Baptist church and really felt like I was in my childhood church in some ways even though I didn't grow up Baptist. I am grateful for the friendships that I have made in Whitney, Rachel and Christine. The Thursday morning women's bible study from our church allowed me to fellowship with women on a deeper level and gave me the opportunity to use some of my worship experience to lead the women in song for a couple of the sessions.
Some of my favorite memories that are written on my heart forever are the memories I made with my class of girls at the Casa Hogar. They have such a big piece of my heart. I will miss the laugh of Lupita, her naughty ways always making me fall deeper in love with her everyday. She had her cuddly days and distant, crabby days. He mother never came to visit and this made her have more cuddly days with me. I wanted to adopt her the more the nuns shared with me about her home life. But Doug reminded me often that she HAS a mother. Even if that mother couldn't support her or see her, she was still her mother. Then at one of my last visits at the hogar I walked through the huge peach colored door and walked into the courtyard and saw my Lupita, laughing and smiling as if not a care in the world. Hugging her tightly to her chest on a tattered old couch by the office was her grandmother. The same face as Lupita just a lot older. Such a special bond between them. It was like she had hope, had love and didn't need me. I don't know how often this grandmother showed up, but I hope that it's more often now that I've seen how much she connects with her.
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| Lupita, Fernanda, Natalia |
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| Girls waiting in line for bread in my little makeshift classroom |
I will miss the goofiness of Natalia her also independent attitude was a tough one at times but I could get her to laugh so hard! She loves when I dance and also when I give her horsey rides on my back. Lucky for me (insert sarcasm) they ALL love getting piggy back rides (with horse sounds running through the courtyard as the other girls chase us). So once the line had been gone through twice I would be DEAD tired! I would close my eyes and say I needed to rest and they would all collectively scream and scare me awake. This was one of their favorite things.
Along with the three girls above I had over the course of my 9 months at the hogar, 14 students. All but my main 5 little ones regularly attended preschool during the days but quite often they were very sick with cold, coughs and chicken pox. So those days I had all of them and it was a mad house. I ran out of cookies and milk a lot faster, I gave out way more hugs and loves, the crayons disappeared faster, the glitter was spilled and I went home with a hoarse voice and a head ache but it was all worth it.
One of my last days there I had a conversation with a 12 year old girl who felt comfortable enough after all of our time together there to tell me that she was starting her first period. The conversation ranged from her discomfort in her tummy to how she is now a woman. It was a proud moment for me knowing that I got through that talk with a girl who isn't even my daughter but that she felt comfortable enough to share it with me. I'm not entirely sure if it was appropriate or not (Doug says 'no') but the conversation transitioned into how now that she is a woman she needs to honor her body and treat her body as a holy temple and that she needs to save herself for the husband God is perfecting for her. She was so receptive and precious. Maybe it just freaked Doug out because it was weird for him, but for us it was such a moment! I pray that God will use that conversation for good and that Favie will know that she is perfect and beautiful and that her body is the temple of the holy spirit and I hope that she will be one less pregnant teen in Mexico city knowing that. I know that's not a conversation the nuns would be having with her!
We took some memorable trips since the last time I blogged to. All of the cautions that they gave us on that first day of orientation made us more careful but we never had any issues while traveling the country. We felt safe all of the time traveling or walking home from the store at night. We spent Thanksgiving eating fajitas on a booze cruise in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California (west coast) with my in-laws taking pictures of the sunset through the arch at the end of the peninsula. We spent Christmas with my parents in Puebla (to the East) exploring the Largest base pyramid in the world. We traveled via an Executive coach bus to Michoacán (to the West) for New Years. One of my favorite things was our trip to the Avacado Groves such a peaceful experience.
In May right before we packed up our house we took a trip to the southern shores of Oaxaca to Xipolite. A small town, quiet street with restaurants that spilled out into the street. It was a slow moving hippie town. We flew to the closest airport and took a taxi to the town. Such a contrast from our busy city. Our hotel was an open air old wood shack with 30 some rooms right on the ocean. I mean right on the ocean. It was so loud the first night at high tide I thought we would get splashed and was dreaming that the waves were coming in our balcony door. There was a fitted sheet and a top sheet. No comforter as it was such a warm damp climate. No air conditioning, just a ceiling fan. And it was bring your own towels and soap. $30/night! :) It was perfect. We lived in our suits and bare feet for 4 days. The weather was perfect, we arrived as a hurricane was leaving! Everyday was better than the one before. It made it really hard to leave. We took a minivan up through the twisty roads of the mountains to the city of Oaxaca. It was really curvy and scary at times when there wasn't a guard rail and you're looking down and you're above the clouds. It's not a great feeling. But it was absolutely beautiful. The higher altitude we drove the cooler and cleaner the air was. We stopped for a stretch break (during the 6 hour drive) in a small mountain town. People were wearing winter scarves and long sleeves. It seemed as if they stared at the strange looking white people in our shorts and t-shirts as we crossed the street to buy some hot cocoa! Me and Sally were so excited to have hot cocoa in the summer. We descended to a valley where the city was. It was a lot like Puebla only every street going our for blocks and blocks was nice, no trash, no crappy houses just historic buildings made into apartments or some kind of retail place or coffee shop. The main cathedral in the center of town was modest and the tall dark wooden doors and their all white etched glass windows with pictures angels were welcoming. Unlike the markets in D.F. here in Oaxaca the markets were
But see.. that's the thing... it's not really the end. We want to stay in this beautiful country. Doug is done with his juvenile research but would like to continue the research a lot deeper. His interest for this country and it's laws is just getting bigger and he wants to make a difference. That will mean more time! Sally's school is also something that we cherish there and believe that it is the best for our daughter to do another year in the school perfecting her adorable Spanish. :) So we will hopefully be returning in the Fall for another year of adventure.
PRAYERS:
*That Doug will find a sponsor or Foundation that will sponsor his research and support him
financially as a researcher
*I can quickly get my business up and running as a photographer in Mexico City.
*Language studies for me. I will continue teaching a photography course at a Christian Arts school
which is helping a ton for my Spanish practice but I need to get better!
