1000 words...

Here is our trip in pictures so far...
Us at the Hostel as we arrive in Bangkok...


As little lounge area at the Hostel... The Sky Train...we became pros!
I sat, and no monks came by so I stayed seated!!

The Train to Ko Phan Nan (aka The Beach!)



The a 4 hour boat ride to the island...

Which was Beautiful!


Finally to our Bungalow!
Like I said BEAUTIFUL!

We found a Big swing!

This was the BEST meal! Good drinks, good food, good ice cream!
The pool we snuck into....

The strom was a brewing....
And then the rain came....
But we still got some good beach time!

These drinks were STOUT!!!!
Waiting for the train, we were SO tired!

KohSan Road!

Thai Ronald!

Today had been an intresting eating day! We had hamburgers for Breakfast! And then

Ice cream sandwiches (Literally!) They were buns with ice cream and sweet rice! SO

GOOD!That's all for now! I'm loving it more everyday!

Here at last...

Well we arrived safe and sound last night into Bangkok after a one hour plane ride (which was such a treat after the LONG travels we have been doing!) My dear friend Ladee pick us up from the airport and we got into the back of a truck that had been converted into a place to ride. On a funny note as soon as Ladee hugged me she said "What is wrong with your face?!?!" All of our faces are peeling and I'm sure it looks weird, I just loved the bluntness of it!

It was so good to travel through Chiang Mai and catch up with this dear friend of mine! We got back to the orphanage after all the children were asleep and headed to bed ourselves, we were exhusted! We woke up this morning to children play outside. We got up, went down stairs and I saw so many of the sweet faces that I fell in love with. My heart leaped with joy! The children are all at school right now and in about an hour we will be going over for our first day of teaching.

It has been so fun to be here with two of my roommates. To be able to experience this with them. I love traveling especially with sweet friends. So many memories and laughter comes from these experiences. It has been fun to see what each of us are experiencing through all of this also. Three different experiences, three diferent views. If you want to read some of thier blogs (Arianne has written very detailed ones if you want all the fun details of the trip) Go here for Arianne's and here for Holly's

God's Beauty....

Well I have now been in the Land of Smiles (aka Thailand) for almost a week. I feel as though we have done so much and seen so much already. We got to our Hostel late on the 4th of July,where we spent the night in a cute little hostel. On Saturday we spent the day exploring the Bangkok (the HUGE outdoor market!) and then we boarded a train and headed south to the BEACH! The trip was LONG but it was well worth it! We spent 12 hours on a train (trying to sleep most of the time) and then we got on a bus for about another couple of hours then on a boat for the 4 hours trip to the island we were staying on! The beach was beyond words, I felt as though God was giving me a glimpse into Heaven. The next two days were spent laying out on the beach and at the pool. We ate Pad Thai and enjoyed cocktails on the beach. What more could a girl want?!?! It rained the last day we were there but we just went to a little bungalow and read our books as the storm was brewing all around us. It was a great little get-away!

Whenever I spend time in places as beautiful as this I become overhelmed by the beauty of the Lord. I am reminded that the Lord is so big and mighty and He is BEAUTIFUL! I pray that I will remember this truth as I go back to Fort Worth!

Tonight we are getting on a plane and flying to Chiang Mai! My heart is SO excited to be back at the orphanage. Don't get me wrong this girl LOVES the beach, but I have been longing to get to the orphanage and seeing the sweet faces of the children I feel in love with back in March! I pray that the Lord would use these next few weeks to teach me more about His beauty and His love.

I will be able to put pictures up shortly so be looking forward to that!

Thailand here we come...

In 24 hours I will be at the airport waiting for to leave for Thailand! I am so excited to be able to go back to this place I have come to love! I've been packed since last week (I bought a new pack and wanted to make sure everything would fit in it). We have all of our stuff ready to go and we will be off in less than 24 hours. Our flight leaves tomorrow (July 3rd) at 9:20 in the morning and we travel for about 26 hours and we get into Bangkok at 11:25 pm on Friday (it is exactly 12 hours later there). The plan is to spend the night at a hostel Friday night, spend the day in Bangkok on Saturday seeing the sights and then we are taking a train to Koh Phangan island. While there we will be staying in this little bungalow on the beach!

From there we will take the train back to Bangkok and spend another day there before flying to Chiang Mai. While in Chiang Mai we will be staying at Care Corner Orphanage (which is where I stayed back in March). I'm so very excited about this opperunity! I am hoping to be able to upload pictures and blog often so keep your eyes open!

Leaving on a...hot air balloon?!?!

Thailand here I come!! Things have changed once again and the good news is I am going to Thailand! Holly, Arianne and I will be flying out on next Thursday (July 3rd). I'm so excited that this has all worked out. We are taking a bit of a step of faith by going since all of our support is not in but my church is "floating" us the money until it comes in. To say the least I am super excited! This means that I have a lot to do in the next 8 days! Any how just wanted to update everyone...

On other news I went to a Hot Air Balloon Festival this past weekend. It was so much fun and made me really want to go on a Hot Air Balloon ride! Enjoy the pictures!

Summer plans...

The summer plans may have changed. It seems as though things for Thailand may not be working out as thought. Which if I have learned anything over the years it is that I am sure that this is all part of the Lord's plan. As sad as I am that we may not being going back to the Country that I fell in love with, I must trust this is the Lord's way of protecting us.

One of the things I have been thinking a lot about lately is my own story. As many of you know I have a very intresting story and the Lord has done a lot in my life. I have been through more in my 27 years than most people go through in their entire lives. As I said in my last blog I have been reading a lot of memoirs lately and I have decided to write my own. I've decided that I will now have plenty of free time this summer if we do not end up going to Thailand and I will use that time to write out my own story. I'm not a great writer but mostly this will be for my own healing. I've realized that there are many things in my life that I have not spoken to anyone, ever. Something that I continue to read in these books is how secrets are a disease and the only cure is honesty. So this is my chance to work on that cure...

I don't know if I will ever let anyone read this, I do think it would be amazing to maybe someday submit it to publishers but mostly this will be for me. I'm excited to begin this process! Maybe I'll put glimpses of it up on here...

life update...

Wow, it's been a long time since I have written on here. I thought I would give a little update about what has been going on for the past two months!

April was pretty uneventful, busy for me but uneventful. The last two weeks of school I had 3 research papers and presentations of those papers due, along with finals. One thing I really enjoy about my social work classes is that for the most part the professors say find a topic that interests you and write a paper about how it impacts social work. One of those papers has inspired a lot of reading and if I may say so myself was a pretty darn good paper. The paper was on self-injury amongst adolescents. Until my time at Heartlight I never understood how big of a problem this truly is. The statistics show that 1 in every 10 adolescent girl has self-injured at some point in their lives. And this is only from those that have reported it. This is a very serious topic that I have found myself burdened for. I have known a number of girls (and women) who have/do self-injure. Anyhow I know that this will be a topic that I continue to research. In the past month or so I have read a number of books about drug addiction, self-injury and basically just the pain of this world. As many of you know I have experienced a lot of pain in my short 27 years of life, and it is only by God's grace that I have not turned to drugs, alcohol or self-injury as a way to cope. Researching these things and hearing peoples stories has heightened my desire to work with these people. It has heightened my desire to walk alongside people who are hurting and struggling and help them get to a better spot. That is why I am back in school getting a degree that will allow me do just that.

Speaking of school, I got my tentative placement for my first internship. It is in the office of senator Kim Brimer. I will be working on his social policy committee. It's interesting because I know that this is not what I want to do in the long run but it will be such great experience to learn the legal and policy side of social work. It will allow me to network and learn how to change different social policies. Senator Brimer is passionate about many of the same things (suicide prevention, human trafficking etc...) that I am and feel as though it will be a great opportunity! I have an interview on Friday and should know within the next couple of weeks if that will be my permanent assignment.

Other notes...
Minnesota... I went back to Minnesota at the beginning of May for a wedding. It was a good trip and I got to spend time with many sweet people. It's always good to go back, it always confirms that I am exactly where I am suppose to be. It was so good to be able to be a part of Rachel and Adam's special day and to spend time catching up with so many friends who are scattered throughout the U.S.

Thug... He is getting so BIG! I will put pictures up here soon. He's doing so good, he's a puppy so he chews everything up but other than that we haven't had many problems. We went rollerblading the other day and he LOVED it.

Floating... Over memorial day weekend myself along with 6 of my friends piled into the Durango and headed south for the weekend. We decided to go camping and float down the guadalupe river and boy was it an adventure! We got there and the campground said if you can find a place to put your tent up you can stay. Well we did find a spot and boy was it CRAZY! Think college spring break x10! There was a dance party in the middle of the camp ground, people smoking and drinking everywhere, girls topless I mean it was CRAZY. Anyhow we floated the next day and then ended coming back that night due to the fact that we knew we would not get any sleep (The music the night before went till about 4:00am). So word to the wise, do not go floating the guadalupe river!

Well that's about all for now, I'm really going to try to be better about keeping up to date on here!