Life a Year Later

It is hard to believe it has been a year since I wrote on this blog. I think of writing often, and I really do miss it. So why is it so hard to just do it? Hmmm, if any of you have an answer, let me know! A lot has changed in the last year. Well maybe more than a lot. The biggest thing?  I got married. Yep. Kind of a big thing. And this coming from a girl who said she would never get married and had 5,000 reasons why it was better to not get married. God's plans are definitely different than mine! But they are also oh so good!

Enter this silly, fun-loving, gracious, and patient guy named Javier. I met him a year and a half ago when I visited an orphanage in Peru after I found out I wouldn't be returning to Kenya. I fought a relationship with him at first--I was going to be a single missionary! But God, in his goodness, had a better plan for me than I had for myself. Watching this guy with the kids at the orphanage rocked my world. He may be shorter than I thought I wanted in a guy and not American and didn't speak English, but his character was exactly what I prayed for when I wanted to be married. Ha! I was in Peru for a month, and we spent the second half of that month getting to know each other. I headed back to the states for 4 months to see if God would indeed have me move to Peru. We both are glad I did last July!

Watching each other interact with the staff and kids at the orphanage, we got a pretty good idea what the other person was like. Though neither of us are perfect, our personalities fit well together. We laugh a lot but also have deep conversations. He truly has become my best friend. He asked me to marry him in March, and we got married August 2nd.

God is so faithful! If you are in a season of wondering what in the world God is doing in your life, may you truly feel his presence and HOPE. That truly was the theme for 2018, and I feel still my theme in 2019. This year has not been perfect. I thought I would be at that orphanage long term and now I am not there anymore. Javier also is no longer there. When I start to feel I have no purpose or worth, I have to turn my eyes back to Jesus. I have to remember that he gives me hope. And I get a first-row seat on how He is going to work all things for good! Some blessings in my life, besides the most obvious one above:

-Some of my dearest friends were able to come to the wedding. They celebrated with me and helped me in some very difficult times. It was so great to have them all here at once. Now I want them all to come back now that I am not so busy!

-My family was also able to come for the wedding and helped a lot! It was a huge blessing to have my dad marry us, and one of the elders from my church in Seattle come and give the message. Our wedding was a day filled with hope and lots of laughter.

-I have started going to an all boy's orphanage to help out. It is not a Christian orphanage, but one of the men involved goes to my church and brought them the last two Sundays. Last Sunday they spotted me first and ran up to greet me. Made my heart happy and reminded me that God has a plan. The kids there are much more difficult, and I am learning more about tough love and how to show them God's love and grace.

-God is opening up lots of opportunities for us to have people in our home. I grew up with lots of people in my home, and to this day my parents' house is always open for others. I want to have that same openness in my own home.

There are so many more blessings I could list, but I will save some for the next blog post. Hopefully it will be sooner in coming than a year!

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