Wow! I was just reading my last blog post from a little over six months ago and am so amazed at how God works everything out! That's what I love about Him. I was going through a really tough situation then, but now life seems to be downhill for a while and the Lord has given me all the desires of my heart. I can't believe how good He is to answer all my prayers.
Anyways, since I'm going on and on about it, I gues I should explain what happened. In my last blog post I felt like I had only two choices and was forced to choose one or the other. God, however, has made the impossible possible and given me both! I'm writing this blog post from Quito, Ecuador where I will be staying for three months. It's more for academics than missions... BUT we live right next door (literally) to an orphanage I can visit whenever I want! I'll tell you how this all came about.
One of my best friends, Julianna, had moved to Ecuador back in September for the second time since I've known her. We met in 9th grade and went to school together for 9th and 10th then she moved to Ecuador for our 11th grade year. She came back May 24, 2011 and was going to stay in Colorado forever, but God had other plans for her family so they moved back to Ecuador after spending the summer in the states. I was devistated when she had to move back, because I couldn't see God's big plan and had no idea I, too, would go to Ecuador. Now I have been to Ecuador before (November-December 2010 for two weeks), but this time I'm "living" I guess you could say instead of visiting. Sorry I'm getting sidetracked... on with the story. So soon after Julianna got to Ecuador she was supposed to start school She called me up and we kind of joked about how we wished I could be there, too, for her first day of school. Soon, though, it wasn't even a joke. We both talked to our parents who agreed and I started getting things ready to come early in November and stay until May. After talking with my school we found I wouldn't get any credits if I left half way through the semester, so I made the decision to finish up first semester at James Irwin and then leave for Ecuador after that. This was a little dissappointing because it meant we couldn't start school together, but I was still way stoked to go. As we began to get everything ready to apply for a visa (Plane ticket, school enrollment paper, HIV test, etc.) we found that the information we got off the internet Ecuador visa website was outdated and you were no longer able to mail-in your vise. We would have had to travel to Nevada or Texas or Chicago or some other far off place if we ever wanted to get that visa. On top of that, the visa would have only been for four months since Julianna decided to come back to the states in April to get a job and get ready for college. We decided to not get the visa, which meant I could only stay three months. We had to change my flight (not a big deal, just a bit of money), and then everything was set. I left at 11:55 p.m. on December 25 (yep, Christmas) and arrived here in Quito around 9 p.m. the next day.
That's the story, and now I think I'm going to go to bed as it is almost midnight and I have school in the morning. If I remember/have the time I'll write about what all I've done here so far/what I'm going to do/upload pictures sometime soon!
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