Hello everyone!!
I want to start off by saying thank you to everyone who supports me on this journey. Thank you to everyone who has given me amazing words of encouragement and who has donated money to make this adventure happen. It means so much to me that you take time out of your day to read my blogs or send me a quick text with encouragement. Thank you all.
Recently I have been really struggling with what to write about because normally blogs are about really hard times, but Costa Rica has been so good to me. Many of you know that it has been a dream of mine to come here. So with that the first 3 months of my race I was super excited for it to be time to come here. Well I have been in Costa Rica for 2 ½ months now and it has been filled with so much love, laughter and joy. With that there has also been tears, sadness and apathy. In the next few paragraphs I am going to explain each one of these things. (apologizing in advance for how long this is.)
TEARS- The past few weeks have been a bit difficult because I have had to say goodbye to a few people who I was very close too. These were tears of grief but also tears that they found peace in going home.
-The first person I had to say goodbye to was my squadmate/ friend Ben. He is from North Carolina and is such a genuine person. He was the first person to message me when I joined the race over a year ago. He made sure I felt welcomed and a few weeks later he invited me to Boone, NC to meet him and a few other racers. Ben and his family have been the most welcoming people I have encountered since I started this adventure.
– The second person I had to say goodbye to was my teammate Joey. Joey is someone I spent everyday with since starting the race in September. She is such a firecracker full of so many joke and so much love. Joey is that one person that will say what everyone is thinking and not even think twice about it. She is a great listener and full of so much life. She is up for any adventure or challenge you throw at her. Are team was definitely more quiet after she left and it was a weird adjustment.
-The third person I have had so say goodbye to is my teammate Kayla. She is also someone I have spent everyday with since starting the race. She is filled with so many jokes and pure laughter. She is so giving (she would give you the shirt off her back) and overall wonderful to be around. She is full so much encouragement, words of wisdom and adventure. Our team is definitely different now.
LOVE- Our first few weeks here I immediately was loved by the community around me. By my teammates, the people in our ministry and just random people we encountered. I spent 2 weeks in a smaller city called Heredia. In that city we were sleeping on the floor of a church. At the church there were a few events taking place and we were able to meet members of the church. One lady that attended was an absolute blessing to us. Her name is Teresa and she is the kindest most loving person. After meeting us twice she invited us to her house at beach for Christmas eve and Christmas day. She made us feel like one of her own kids, she made us dinner, gave us beds to sleep in, took us to the beach and to an amazing waterfall. She made us feel like we were at home. She truly loved on us so well.
SADNESS- On the race at times you can still experience sadness with missing home, people leaving or the end of a chapter in one place. My 2 weeks spent in Heredia were some of the best moments on the race. While we were at the church there was a mom and daughter who came to all the church events and helped cook meals for us. The daughters name was Shay and she has one of the biggest smiles in the world. Shay is 9 years old and has a heart of gold. Her and I became good friends and on the last night in Heredia they had a fiesta for us. Shay walks into the event with a teddy bear, a picture of her and note that says she has loved getting to know me and she will miss me very much. That night we colored and danced and when it came to say goodbye I absolutely lost it. I balled my eyes out and was not looking forward to going back to San Jose. I spent the next 2 days not wanting to be where I was and wanting to be back in Heredia.
LAUGHTER- On the race there has been so many moments of just pure laughter. One of the funniest moments in Costa Rica has been when we spent a week in the mountains with no service. I was sharing a room with Joey, Tot, and Brittney. Around midnight joey and I were the only ones up in our room and Joey decided to shower and I decided to go to sleep. As I was almost asleep with my headphones in I heard a fait sound of Joey trying to get out of the bathroom, she was locked in. When I tried to open the door the door handle broke. All Joey had in the bathroom was a shirt (she uses it as a towel) Our whole room woke up and we all tried to get her out. Then we went next door to see if Kayla or Abbie could help. It was a failure and at this point Joey started to make a vlog of her last few moments alive…. dramatic and exaggerated like always, but that’s Joey. We ended up having to get a maintenance man to let her out. We yelled at her to cover up and she freaked out because all she had was a shirt. This girl puts her legs through the arm sleeves and when the door was opened her face looked like she was locked in there for years with no food, when in reality it was just a solid 15 minutes. I don’t think we have all laughed so hard and her vlog was the best part.
APATHY- So we are in Costa Rica for 3 months and this is the longest place we have stayed on the race so far. I would not chance being here for anything but with people leaving and doing the same routine everyday I felt that things were starting to become stale. No doubt I love the daycare I have been working at with everything in me, but I was starting to loose my appreciation for this country and all it has to offer. All the comforts we have of living in a house, having a Walmart down the street, wifi almost everywhere, were starting to make me feel like I was at home. Being in this country was starting to feel normal and just everyday real-life. Then one night I was looking at the mountains in our backyard and all the stars in the sky, then it hit me that I had really forgotten where I was and how amazing it is that I am here. How lucky I am to be here today and I need to savor every minute of being in the place I have always dreamed about.
JOY- I have found complete joy here in Costa Rica. I have become so content and so happy here. On car rides with the windows down looking at the houses and the mountains in the background. Everyday I get to work with kids 3-5 years old and the teachers I help with are absolutely amazing. Everyday I get hugs from little kids and when I leave ministry everyday the kids will run outside and chant my name till the bus drives away. One day when I was fixing folders for the kids I was sitting on the floor and my heart was filled with pure joy. I could see myself doing this exact thing in the exact same place for the rest of my life. Here in Costa Rica I have learned what pure joy looks like.
As I leave Costa Rica in 2 weeks I will be sad to leave but also super excited to see what Ecuador has for my team and I there. I’m super excited that in 3 weeks I will get to see my mom and dad for a week. I’m excited to show them what everyday looks like here and what ministry consist of here. Costa Rica will forever have a piece of my heart here that I will never forget.
Thank you for taking the time to read this long blog I have wrote. Thank you for supporting me through the ups and downs. I have defiantly learned that you will not know how good the ups are without the downs.
