Dwelling On the Positives

 

Okay, so the last time I wrote was “medio” depressing, but I really wanted people to know what’s going on since I get asked a LOT about it. I figured it would be easier to put it all in one blog post- the bad stuff AND the good stuff. Since then it’s been pretty up and down, but the book I’ve been reading has been helping a lot to put things in perspective and keep positive.

Since I last wrote Santy and I spent our last few weeks at the orphanage, which was pretty awesome. I helped Santy finish building the shelf, which turned out amazing, and we were really happy with it. We’d listen to music and spend the day sanding, staining, painting, cutting, and hammering it all together! It was fun to watch Santy at work and be able to help, too! So it was bittersweet leaving because we’re going to miss everyone & everything, but we’re also excited to start new journeys and continue serving at Pan de Vida.

Twice we got to lead worship at Pan de Vida, which was an incredible experience, and we’re not even done yet! We lead worship for over 200 people and then helped to serve once we were done. We both met some incredible new friends and even witnessed a mini “miracle” the last time we went. You see, most of the time we only have around 150 people, so we were not prepared to have over 200 people.

So some volunteers ran out quickly to grab bread for the remaining people and spread a whole bunch of tuna that we had onto the slices of bread. It was literally like when Jesus took the bread and the fish and made it enough for thousands, except we used bread and tuna. :)

THEN a local, expensive bakery heard what we were doing and donated a bunch of delicious desserts like lemon meringue pies, chocolate mousse pies, muffins, cookies, and more to us. Since the people had left, Oscar, the coordinator, allowed all of the volunteers to take however much they wanted of the desserts for them and their families. Needless to say, I took a ton of mousse and lemon meringue, of course. :)

Once we were done, Cristian (our cousin who played the djembe with us), Santy, and I all walked over to Pizza Hut for lunch. We had a wonderful time bonding over incredible food! It was a pretty good day!

Also Santy and I visited Baños once again! We pretty much just had some good meals, walked around a LOT, and had a fun time at the zoo seeing all the incredible animals! It was a great time, and I miss it already!

We are excited to be meeting with a ‘counselor’ before I leave, as well, to get some cultural premarital counseling before getting regular premarital counseling in the States. Oscar, our new friend & the founder of Pan de Vida, connected us to him, as his wife is from America, and our counselor was his counselor! Also the counselor is the pastor of the English speaking church that Oscar & a lot of the local volunteers go to.

So we met with him this past Wednesday and talked to him about cultural stuff and how we can resolve certain things within that aspect, which was so helpful. We’re excited to meet with him again!

After we met with the counselor, we had lunch with Oscar, his family, and some volunteers at Pan de Vida. They told us about their wedding and recommended places for us for our Ecuadorian wedding. It was a lot of fun getting to hear their story and get recommendations from them!

Once we finished lunch, Santy and I headed over to see two venues. We decided that it’s going to be easier to just contract a place to do our catering and everything. The first one we visited was a no, but the second was AWESOME. They were willing to work with our budget, and the girl helping us was incredibly sweet and friendly. It was professional but not overly professional that it would make me uncomfortable, which was great. They even gave us candy! :) We’ll see what happens, but so far we really like them and would like to work with them.

Speaking of that, we’ve been doing a TON of research for the Ecuadorian wedding. We’ve had so much to do and still aren’t finished! We’ve been calling, emailing, google-ing, and visiting venues, caterers, apartments, and renting places to see which places we want to use. It’s been a little stressful, especially seeing that as soon as we find a place, something falls apart in the way of working with them. But we’re confident that we’ll find places and be able to have the wedding here and have it be awesome!

Other than that, I’ve been working on spending more time with Santy’s family especially while being here. I got to hang out with all the ‘guys’ (it’s always guys at the house!) while they played Ecuador monopoly. I didn’t play, but I tried to get people to make deals with other people for properties. I also acted a bit as a cheerleader. ;)

Also I’ve been reading a book that Emily Darnell gave me to help me combat the negativity I’ve been feeling here. It’s called “Calm My Anxious Heart”, and it’s been incredibly helpful. I’ve only read a few chapters, but it’s given me the motivation to see my circumstances here positively rather than negatively. Complaining has been something I’ve gotten good at while here, so I bawled my eyes out with the first chapter, which totally related to my current life and made an impact on me.

Though I could write so many incredible quotes from the book, here’s one that really got me: 

“Two women looked through prison bars;

One saw mud, the other saw stars.”

Incredible. It just showed me so much about how contentment only comes from our thoughts and state of mind; it doesn’t come from our circumstances. So that has helped me a lot in seeing how much I have to be thankful for while here. Even though it’s been a rough few months, it’s also been incredible, and I’m starting to realize how much I’ll have to miss.

Oh, and one more quote to leave you with:

                “Beware of what you dwell on for that you shall surely become.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson