One of our team time activities this week was to write a letter to ourselves that we will not open until the new year (2016). It seemed like a really nifty idea, and this New Year’s Eve I sat down and wrote… Not sure what to say, I began to recap my year. I started with family time in MD, returning to Oak Island for work. Painting workshops, Open Mic Night at my favorite coffee shop, flying an airplane, and cycling through three co-workers while working with the best boss I have ever had.
Teaching, Aquarium and Bird Rehab Work, and then moving to the mountains thanks to taxes, World Race acceptance, and funds. Then my mountain apartment, my work as a zoo keeper, visits from family and friends. Tea with Eliza in Black Mountain, Mom going with me to Biltmore Manor for free…yes! And finding a church, learning love and service from the amazing people who helped me after a car wreck turned my world upside down.
Community Garden Friends, canning workshops, finding a co-worker who I could really talk with over sushi and coffee. Reading good books and learning about the birds that live there. And playing with the baby otters from the rehabber’s.
Heading to Training Camp, meeting a new team, finishing well in NC and visiting the family in OH, PA, and MD before heading into the mission field.
Working on Curriculum in Haiti, English teaching, village visits, worship on the roof, lightning storms, soccer matches, spiritual warfare, loving kids, a day off in the Caribbean, plane rides to Bolivia, hiking a mountain, moving river rocks, building stone paths, conversing in the mornings over hot tea/coffee with our contact, walking 45 mins to catch a 30 min taxi ride to town, dancing in an empty swimming pool.
A 30 hour bus ride to Peru to work with a church in Huanuco, peace march, youth work, creative song and dance ministry, teaching in the school system, visiting prisoners in jail, Thanksgiving with your adopted family, bus to Ecuador, visit the equator, buy the best scarf in the world in the clock tower of the Basilica, have your heart stolen by your special needs kids in Latacunga, pushing wheel chairs down dirt roads, eating noses, and loving more than you knew you could.
Off day in the amazon to explore and adventure with a little monkey who bites too much and failing at blowing dart guns. (See http://carolinesadventuresinlife.blogspot.com/ and check out Amazonian Adventures posted on 12/15/14) Back to Quito, new kids to love, visits to old friends, and surprises from the kiddos. And here I am on New Years Eve, prepping to work with the little ones despite being sick, and looking forward to the promise of Jalapeno poppers and snacks for the midnight festivities. They started early on our streets with burning the old year (they burn a full sized doll that represents the old year and kick the ashes away to get rid of all the bad from that year).
Though I won’t be burning a doll, I do wonder what this new year is going to look like. I have met so many people, learned so many things, and loved more than I thought I could. I am at a loss as to what to expect, and perhaps that is for the better. Part of my heart is still in Coastal Carolina, the other part home with my family, and the other wandering wherever God calls. So with a heart like that, I expect the New Year to be just as amazing as the Old.
