Forever Changed...

I don't even know where to begin...my week in Mexico was absolutely amazing. The things I saw, experienced, and got to be a part of have made an impact on my life and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to be there for a week. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. I could truly feel them and see them through how God was working in my life and the lives of those around me.

There's so much I could say, but I'm going to mainly give pictures and tell a few stories. I'm still processing all that I saw and experienced and I'm praying about what my response is supposed to be. First of all, Mexico is incredibly poor. I was stunned at the level of poverty I witnessed. "La Colonia," the area where people have built their homes on the city dump, is just a 30 minute drive from San Diego, yet there are people who do not have food to give their children each day. That is unbelievable to me. The first day we got there, we went to the orphanage to spend time with the kids. But before we went, we bought tons of food because they did not have enough to feed the children the next day. I am so blessed that we got to be a part of being the answer to their prayers of food for the children!

This is Alma and Wendy. I carried them around all day on Sunday and we had a blast. We are playing chase on the playground in this picture. They were so sweet! They also enjoyed painting MY fingernails and hands. Unfortunately, the "facepaint" they used on my hands turned out to be poster paint so I looked like I had some weird disease for a few days. It came off with paint thinner in the process of getting tar off my hands!

This little girl helped us paint a house hot pink. The kids were off school on Monday, so a lot of the kids in La Colonia helped us with our projects. The girls that helped paint decided to have a paint war, and you can see some of the result of that in this picture. It was EVERYWHERE!! But they were great painters and helped out a lot.

This is the finished result of the pink house. A single mom and her three young daughters, older daughter, and grandson live here. The house is very small and very dirty. It is now very pink as well. People in La Colonia really like bright colored paint!

We put a new roof on this house and painted it. This was my first experience with roofing and I got tar all over me. Luckily, someone knew that paint thinner takes it off.

This is Nana. She lives with her grandmother, who is probably in her 70s. I fell in love with this child and before I left, her grandma asked me and Hannah to take her home with us. It broke my heart because I don't know what will happen to her after her grandma dies. She was absolutely adorable, incredibly sweet, and very smart. I would have taken her home with me if I could have.

This girl is from the orphanage for the older kids. Her name is Niki and she has a year left of high school. She then wants to go to college and be a lawyer. We had a great time conversing using my little Spanish, her little English, and lots of charades!

This is Cassie, Elizabeth, and Hannah. We were watching a volleyball game...the Mexicans versus the Americans. I have no clue who won!

We flew through Dallas on the way back to Knoxville, so my family picked me up and we went to dinner at La Hacienda. It was great to see them for a few hours!

I am sure that I will have more to say about the trip soon, but honestly I have too much to say to adequately write it down at this point!