Winter Update

The family at Universal

Wow--the first of December has come and gone, the first of January has come and gone, the first of February has come and gone...
It is high time for me to update this blog.

December was full of good things. I went home for vacation for two weeks and focused solely on spending time with family and it was great. I got to see my aunt, uncle, and most of my cousins, my grandparents, my parents, and my brother. A week was spent in Michigan and then another week was spent in Florida. My family decided that our family Christmas present was going to be time together and so we had fun exploring restaurants in Florida and experiencing Universal together. We also got to chuck some axes at some wood, so that was pretty cool too.

Manatees at Blue Spring State Park in FL

I returned to the DR for Christmas, which was a whirlwind of baking, buying presents for stockings, prepping gingerbread for gingerbread houses with the students, and hanging lights and decorating trees. The roommates and I also enjoyed some time traveling to Santiago to spend some quality time together.

While January passed fairly uneventfully, there were several moments that stood out in my mind. We rang in the new year sitting up on the hill outside of Buena Vista with a massive bonfire (it was taller than me!) and watched fireworks go off around the city. We also got to celebrate another student graduation. I was able to do some different activities with the students including hiking at an organic coffee plantation called Spirit Mountain and the top of the hike was a great view and very peaceful as well.

Super Smash Brothers tournament with the boys on New Year's Day

More impactful than any of these events, however, was the opportunity to be a part of one of our students meeting a biological sibling for the first time. Many of our students who come to us have been adopted, some out of foster care, and some from orphanages or adoption centers in other countries. This student had always suspected that they probably had siblings, but could not know for sure. Over the holidays, the student's mom had traveled to the country where they were born and was able to track down one of their siblings. We were able to utilize video chat technology to allow the two of them to meet. It was a pretty special and overwhelming moment that I am very grateful to have been allowed to be a part of.

Hiking Spirit Mountain with some of the girls

Other highlights of the past several months include simple things such as doing more reading for fun, finding out how to get raw milk, making raw milk kefir, starting some new strength routines in the gym, and continuing to try to find new ways to build relationships with our students (which now includes attempting to learn how to solve the Rubik's cube).

Due to still having a low census, I checked out some options for continuing education and started working on a 4-week course on the essentials of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It has been a good course, but has also been challenging. As with any time you work to expand your skills in counseling and therapy, you are often forced to become introspective and examine your own heart and mind, and to continue in your own personal growth. It is helpful for me both as a person and as a therapist as I begin to understand a little better what I am asking my students to do.

Getting raw milk!

On a more personal level, the past few months have been a challenge for me in that I miss being with my community in the States. I love my community here and wouldn't trade them for the world, but for some reason my heart has felt divided. There has also been other weight on me that I don't know that I can quite describe. Please keep me in prayer that I can identify this and either do what I need to do about it or give it up to God.

Pray also for our students--there are several that are not about this "Christianity thing" and for some of them it would be the key transformational piece necessary that they may make the changes in their life. Keep praying for my spiritual health as well as the spiritual health on campus.

One final note--I will be returning Stateside for a couple of weeks from March 6-March 20. I will be in the Fort Wayne area for most of that time, but will be making a trek toward southern Indiana at some point, so please message me if you would like to meet up!