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I AM IN ECUADOR!! It is so amazing to finally be here. It’s been a crazy, wonderful three days. Time is playing tricks on me and my mind is thinking at least 372 thoughts at once. I feel like I’ve been here for longer than I have and feel like I have just experienced a trillion new things all in this short period of time.
 
Do you know when you’ve been somewhere before but don’t have many memories about it until you are there again and then suddenly it all comes back? That happened to me. Whenever I stare out the buss window at the city I’ve once been to, so many observations fill my eyes and my heart. The pieces of my heart that I left in Ecuador seven years ago had been put back into place and my heart leaps with joy inside of my chest.
 
A lot of things have changed since the last time that I have been to Ecuador. But a lot has stayed the same.
 
Things that are different:

  • Me. I was so young. I was 16 years old when I was here last time. I was not as strong in my walk as I am now.  I was a lot more insecure in who I was as a person.
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(Me, 16 years old, holding a beautiful baby in Ecuador)
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(Drinking the BEST smoothie I’ve ever had! Raspberry Mango! Yummy!)

  • This is a longer period of time that I will be in Ecuador. I will be here for about a month this time on my 11 month mission trip and last time, I think I was only here for 2 weeks.
  • My group in 2005 and my team now. In 2005, I went with my youth group that I had grown with for years. My team now are people I have only known for a short period of time, yet feel like I’ve known for so long. God carefully placed us together and we are growing so much as individuals and in our relationships with each other.
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(My youth group in Sucre, Ecuador in July 2005)
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(In one of the many awesome parks in Quito, Ecuador)

  • The rest of my squad. Traveling with this many people is wonderful, funny, challenging, and entertaining all at the same time. I love my N Squad!
(N Squad at Training Camp. October 2012)

  • Location. When I was here years ago, we worked in a village called Sucre. It was poor and very rural. I am now in Quito, which is a HUGE city (the capital of Ecuador).  In this difference of location, experiences are new, transportation is opposite and the population differnce is obvious. I love change, so I am embracing this like crazy.

 
 
Things that are the same:

  • The people in Ecuador still drive so terrifyingly close to each other and to random objects, people or cliffs.
  • You still can’t flush the toilet paper. Something you just have to get used to.
  • The laughter of the children. One of my favorite sounds.
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(Hand games were a favorite game)
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(Estie and I with some kiddos that we met in a coffee shop. SO cute!- Photo by Melissa Milroy)

  • Ecuador is beautiful. Ridiculously GORGEOUS!
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(The view from our home this month!- Photo by Melissa Milroy)

  • There are dogs everywhere! I don’t remember the majority of them being schnauzers, but I love it!
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(Estie and I playing with our new friend. We named her Rosie. Short for Rosalita- Photo by Melissa Milroy)


 

 

Ecuador in 2005 was a changing point in my life. It was when God settled a lot of confusion, sadness and difficult issues I faced. He gave me an incredible peace about my mama’s death that had happened 4 years prior. To read more about that blog, click here. 


So I hope more than anything that this time in Ecuador will be a changing point in my life again. I know it will be. It is the beginning of an amazing journey. Yes, the World Race, but also the crazy expedition called life. A life devoted to Him. This is the start of the most miraculous adventure ever!Â