"Welcome home Emily, welcome home!"

"Ah..Welcome home, Emily!" is what she said after a long awaited reunion. I was at General Santos International Airport in General Santos, Philippines.
Today, I want to share with you another one of my Philippine stories. I'm going to attempt to do a new one every Friday. (please don't hold me to it) Maybe a Filipino Friday? That sounds wonderful. If you know of a story you'd like for me to share, please don't hesitate to let me know.


July 2008, I made my first trip to the Philippines. I was scared, but just a little. Mostly, I was completely overwhelmed with excitement! I had been praying for the opportunity to go on a foreign mission trip for years, and was thrilled God had finally opened up the door. Our first week of evangelism was totally overwhelming. I was amazed at all God was doing through us, through me. I had never in my life witnessed to that many people, and it was overwhelming. The weekend finally come,and we were all excited for what we thought would be a restful weekend. We were so wrong. It was totally exhausting, but totally beautiful. We traveled the entire weekend to get to our destination. It was my first experience at Uncle Dicks Home! I don't know what I expected when preparing to go, but God blew my expectations out of the water big time. I fell head over hills in love with those kids. I knew in my heart that God would lead me back there again. He is so faithful. The following year I wasn't able to go because our island was so far away from Gen San. However, 2010 I was back again. It was even more wonderful than the first time I went (and I didn't think that was possible), and I left with the peace that I would see those kids in less than a year. I spoke with Mr. Bob about it and thankfully got his approval. I come home and wrestled with the Lord about my plans before finally getting peace that I was to go and live a little while in January 2011...less than 6 months away.

First trip-- July 2008

Second trip-- July 2010

After months of preparing and fundraising, I finally took off on my six week journey. When I finally arrived at the airport in General Santos, I was terrified. Some very rude men made some very inappropriate comments to me on the plane, and I dreaded being in the small airport with them. On top of that, General Santos is very dangerous because of its high Muslim population, and the home of a very dangerous terrorist group. When I finally saw Nanay and Tatay I was relieved! Nanay welcomed me with open arms, and very excitedly exclaimed, "ah..welcome home Emily, welcome home!" At those words, tears filled my eyes, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I was exactly where God wanted me to be. The journey home was very long. We took care of some business in town, stopped at a sari sari store on the side of the road for a snack of corn, and grabbed some Jollibees! At last..we were home! I was so excited to see those precious familiar faces. I was overcome with happiness as thirty five children come racing toward me with open arms saying, "we've missed you Ate Emily, we've missed you!" Those days were precious, and so so few.

Such a fun day at Lake Sebu with the third year high schoolers.

KB! This shirt, with all of the kids handprints, is one of my favorite possessions.

That was the first day of what was a beautiful several weeks. I long for those days back at UDH. I miss singing praises to God every morning before breakfast. I miss getting up in front of everyone on Wednesday and thanking God for all things. In moments of having nothing, I realized what true thanksgiving was. Thanksgiving for water, even though it was ice cold. Thanksgiving for a bed and blankets, even though they were uncomfortable and soaking wet from humidity. I found true, raw thanksgiving. I miss that. I long for that back in America. Days of simplicity. Days of spending hours in the Word with the broken and fatherless. Days of singing at the top of my lungs with kids who thought I sang like a superstar (if you've heard me sing, you would question their hearing :) Days of playing with kids until my feet were covered in blisters. I want those days back.

We carried our fruit juice to church. If you had four hour church services you would too :)

I was the first American to get to hold baby Juter :)

My sweet little Angel.
My last day to walk the children to school.  As you can tell, I was a bit emotional.

One last picture by "the view." It's breathtaking.  This was on my very last day at UDH.

I pray the Lord leads me back to UDH soon. I miss those kids, and pray for a visit again soon.
I pray their hearts are full of joy, happiness, and most of all God's unending love.

Wordless Wednesday

Apartment...CHECK!

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and an even better Monday! Haha! If you're like me, an even better Monday would take a miracle. I usually just don't find too much joy in waking up at 6 am on Mondays to sit through classes, and learn ALLLL the body parts of a cat. Yuck! And that my friends, is partly why I changed my major. Just CANNOT handle it!

My weekend was pretty fabulous though. Friday afternoon was spent at home watching movies. I was literally in bed before nine. Some weekends when I don't have plans, I hate it. Other times, I go to bed very early, don't set an alarm, and thank my lucky stars for every second of it. I most definitely enjoyed every second of it. Saturday was a crazy day! The ladies of our house slept late, while my daddy left in the "wee" hours of the morning to go trapping. This is Mississippi, and that's a story for another day :) haha. He called us around noon and wanted to know if we wanted to go look at apartments in Stark. Well, duh..of course I did. I had kind of had my mind set on one thing for a few days in a row. Which was a huge step for me. For the past couple of months I've bounced back and forth between wanting a roommate to wanting a one bedroom. In the beginning I was totally set on living alone. Mostly because I didn't know of anyone needing a roommate. Randomly, I heard about a girl who I had had class with my freshman year at ICC who was needing a roommate. I contacted her, and figured out it was a four bedroom. Kelsie is a super sweet girl, and I really trust her judgement for friends and her other roommates, but a FOUR BEDROOM?! I just wasn't too sure I would like that...until last week. Suddenly, the thought of living alone didn't sound that great, but the thought of living with three amazingly fun, Christian girls sounded like a blast!

Saturday, we went down, and took a look around. I fell in love with the place, and within an hour signed a lease! I so wish I had taken a picture. It was a huge step! I was both relieved and a bit stressed. Relieved to have one more thing checked off my list (literally), but stressed because I knew I had to get to some serious work on filling out for scholarships and grants! I'm really excited to be a Bulldog :)

Here is the beautiful Pointe where I will be living next fall! I stole these pictures from their website, because of course I was too excited to take some on my own. I really have to get better at that.






It's all fully furnished, with my own bedroom and bathroom. Very, very spacious!




The outside of a few of the apartments @ The Pointe.

I went to bed smiling Saturday night, dreamed about my new life in Stark, and woke up to a beautiful Sunday! I always love Sundays! Rain or shine, it's always such a beautiful day to worship the Lord! After church several of us headed up to Florence to be with one of my best friends, Misty. Her granddaddy went to dance with Jesus last Thursday, and the memorial service was Sunday. Please keep their sweet family in your prayers.






Misty & Derek's little cutie, Webb, all dressed up for his great granddaddy's memorial service. I sure am going to miss him and Sophie next semester. Even though they are all stinky Ole Miss fans, they are going to have to visit me...A LOT!





Here's a recent picture of Sophie Claire. Isn't she a doll?!

Sunday night was Winter Jam in Tupelo. It was wonderful. Most of the bands were very enjoyable. Building 429, Newsong, Newsboys, Skillet, and others were there. Although they were good, they were also very loud. (Especially Skillet) Haha. Maybe I'm getting old. My most favorite though was Kari Jobe. She is an amazing worshiper of our God. Beautiful, beautiful music. Such a sweet lady. It was such an honor to worship with her, and meet her.






Gracie and I had a wonderful night together. It was so great to have some sister time!!

Well friends, chicken, rice, and broccoli and cheese is calling my name! Hopefully, I'll be sharing with you again soon! Meanwhile, have a blessed week!

Love always :)

I'm going home... to the Philippines :)

Second catch up session----

Hi friends!

It's Friday, and I could not be more thrilled. My two classes were canceled this morning, so I enjoyed sleeping in a bit. I'm spending time at work working on A & P II notecards, and of course doing my job of answering telephone calls :) Blah. I wanted to share a little more of what God has done in my life since my absence in the blog world. It might take forever to catch you up 100%.
As most of you know, I love the Philippines. I pretty much left my heart there five years ago, and haven't missed a year of going since. I will be returning this spring break for my sixth trip! It's so crazy to look back at how foreign the country was to me, and in just a few short years has become the love of my life. I am leading a group of beautiful ladies over to do a VBS at our orphanage, Rosemary's Home of Hope this spring break (March 12-19). See Philippine Stories to get the scoop on the home. I am very excited about this trip. I just know God is going to show up and show out. We will be doing a vacation Bible school not only with the six orphans, but also with the 300+ kids in the village. It's going to be a fun adventure!

Andy, Clyde, Juna Lynn, Jenny Lynn, Stephanie, and Unice

Note: Andy is no longer at RHH. Story for another day...

I can't wait to see their precious faces and get a great big hug! Aren't they precious? These were the stockings my sister and I made for them for Christmas.

Reading the cards we made them.

Christmas party at the beach

Baby Erna

Please be in prayer for this trip. We still have several thousand dollars to raise before we leave, which is just 18 short days away!

Well, as Tigger would say, "Ta ta for now!" TTFN :)

Much love!

I'm a BULLDOG!!!

As promised----an update!

For the past two years of my life, I feel like I have basically been in the thirteenth/fourteenth grade. I attend a community college that is closer to my house than my high school was. A big plus side to it has been getting to still be here with my family and friends; however, I am very ecstatic about this new chapter in my life!

woohoooo!

 
My four years of high school I just KNEW I would graduate, and begin studying fashion and marketing at an university. I graduated high school, and just knew that fashion wasn't going to work out but marketing definitely would. I went a semester with marketing as my goal, but then decided to take a break, and go spend a semester at an orphanage in the Philippines. Happened to be the BEST time of my life. So thankful for those weeks there. I came home and realized I had made my marketing career decision selfishly, and didn't seek the Lord. I began to pray and ask God to show me what HE wanted for my life, not what I wanted. I may or may not have let the fact that I was a bit smitten with a certain gentleman here at home (clearly hasn't worked out) influence my decision to go into Physical Therapy Assistant, a two year program at the community college near my home. It took me just a few weeks to realize God did not create me to be in the medical field. I'm so thankful some are called to that, but I'm not one of them. A few weeks into A & P, and I was ready to throw the towel in. For an entire semester, I really sought the Lord. I asked Him to make His plans clear to me. I didn't want to opt out of the medical field only because I wasn't motivated enough to do. Truth be told, in the beginning, I wanted it. I did. However, I knew it wasn't me. I felt like I would be a disappointment to my family if I changed my major AGAIN, so I decided I would tough it out, and put it in the Lord's hands whether or not I was accepted to the program.
All it took was Christmas break. During the break I sat down and made a list. Or two or three. I am slightly obsessed with post-its, planners, and lists. If my life was half as organized as those things, I would be doing great. Anyway, so I made some lists. A list for why I "should" be a PTA, and a list for why I "wanted" to be a PTA. They didn't match. Then, I went and researched tons of careers, and made a huge list of the ones I thought I would actually enjoy. I slowly but surely narrowed it down, and ended up with..................

SPECIAL EDUCATION!

I always said I never wanted to work in the school system, but what I quickly realized is that I LOVE kids. I love them so much. I desire for them to be taught well. Not just their curriculum, but taught morals and values. And if I desired that for our younger generations, then why didn't I do something about it?! So...I am :)

This fall 2012, I will be moving two hours away to the beautiful city of Starkville, and attend Mississippi State University. I have always wanted to be a Bulldog, and now I finally get to be. All because I trusted and obeyed! I'm excited for the journey. I'm excited to finally be in classes that I will enjoy, and be more motivated to do well in. I'm excited to meet new friends, and have more experiences. It's going to be a fun next couple of years, and I look forward to sharing with you the journey leading up to my move next fall, as well as the journey that I will so be taking as a marvelous Mississippi State Bulldog!




  

(sorry it's lengthy)

love love,

Em

I'm coming back!!

Hi friends :)

My laptop has been in the hospital for quite a while now. Sadly, it's still there. Hopefully, it will live again one day. I admit, I'm super terrible at blogging. I'm horrible at taking pictures, and I'm horrible at documenting things. However, I plan to do better. I just found this super cool app (I'm sure it's been around a while and I'm just finding it :( ), and I plan to get 100% better at sharing my life and my heart.




You'll bet getting an update on my life very soon :)