hold fast

I took this photo early this year, but I've loved that bridge for far longer.  Those blue letters spell out, “I love you Cochabamba”, and as I've gone past them during the past two and a half years, I've smiled as I've read them, because I do. I wrote about the bridge and its message just after I arrived here in September 2014, remembering all the ways that God placed Cochabamba in my heart before I even set foot here. Now, two and a half years later, I find it hard to believe all the things I didn’t know, couldn't have imagined, back then. I didn’t know that Bolivia would nestle so deeply in my heart. I didn’t know that it would feel every bit as much home as Northern Ireland does. I didn’t know that I would miss Northern Ireland as much as I do. I didn’t know Bolivia was landlocked. I didn’t know how much I would miss being able to walk on the beach. I didn’t know that through the hard times and the good, friends would become fa...

As we walked up, I told him we were going to pray, and as I said the words he repeated in whatever language it is he speaks. "Lord, heal me. Let my heart be healthy. Amen." To tell you in that moment that I had faith the size of a mustard seed would be a wild exaggeration. So go about three seed sizes down from mustard seed and you're around the size of my faith. You see, we've heard all these scary term thrown around recently, "murmur, another one, catheters, open heart..." And in our flawed human hearts, that was all we could hear, and we could think. We went in, and his doctor was wonderful. He did all his testing, said, "don't move" about 30 times, bribe him with a lollipop, said, "don't move" another 30 times then sat at his desk and typed for what felt like an eternity. As he typed, scenarios of what the next weeks, months, years would look like for the little travieso ran through my head. Less invasive procedure, wo...

I am legit the worst at blogging ever. In my defence, however, this year has been absolutely manic and doesn't appear to be becoming any less so. So here we are. They say a picture's worth a thousand words, so this will be primarily pictures, in order to up my word count. First off, school. I taught Kindergarten for less than two months this year, before I ended up in First Grade, in an accelerated class. It has been quite the experience for us all, and is the reason for about 60-70% of the mania. However, we're kind of more settled now, and we're struggling through, and they're adorable, so I forgive their madness every day when I look at those cute little faces. School has been through some MAJOR issues this year. Legal, mostly. It's been a rollercoaster in every way. We have had little to no idea what's happening from one day to the next, but God has proven Himself faithful over and over, and for that we are consistently grateful. Due to the manic...