time to catch up.

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well. maybe you can't even tell when i'm rushed...and i feel like that's how i start all my emails, blog entries, and such...
right now, in another browser window, i'm finally adding pictures to myspace. i'm very excited for that! haha

i decided since i haven't updated very well on here, and please excuse if i word things weird...i think it's from listening to people speak patwa and talking with two year old a lot??...that i'll copy some things i jotted in my our daily bread devotional booklet margins to kind of catch up.
so here it goes...
January 1
day off. played solitaire with kemar. conversations with friends. river was too cold to swim so i slept in a patch of dirt in the sun.
from my quiet time: "until i die, not to act as if i were my own, but entirely and altogether God's"
January 2
long day at dentist with latidra and denisha. checking in was unclear and it was my first time being there, so we waited for 4 hours until someone asked why we waited so long. long good conversations with latidra. ice having kris killian here! opened Christmas gifts from my family!
quiet time: "a writer's thoughts are no substitute for the powerful Word of God." Psalm 119:18 open my eyes, that i may see wondorus things from your law.
January 3
slept with sick baby on the couch all night. texted with my mom back and forth. made posters with friends to advertise church new year's party on sunday.
January 4
kris left. watched romeo & juliet with michelle and the older girls. before bed. did more with friends to get ready for new year's thing.
quiet time: "by God's grace, what will you write with your life today?" James 4:14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. what is your life? for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
January 5
too rainy to go running with friends from the neighborhood. talked with mom, texted katie wood. wrote letters to people in the states. struggled to get evian to go for a walk-she threw a HUUUUGE tantrum. shaquille cried in bed at night thinking the wind and rain would become a hurricane.
quiet time: deut. 4:9 only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of our life...
"...about training, about a lesson in using God's past workings as instruction for future godly living."
January 6
Jerk chicken, ice cream cones, and watched cars at church for new year's party. katie called when i was walking home. drew pictures in my journal with ricko while we waited for it to start. that's when God told me my purpose for being there at that time.
quiet time: philippians 1:3-11
January 7
katie called again! read velvet elvis from neal. helped with some babies/kids late at night. got to try jackfruit from darien, kyle and tafar . hard rain off and on all day. martika returned to us today...unfortunately there was one last thing her adoptive parents hadn't known about so now they have to go back to the states and finish that last bit of paperwork.
quiet time: proverbs 3:1-10


back to the present time...
thanks to the encouragement and advise from julaine, paula and peggy i am getting back into the habit of taking care of myself again.
and my mom sent me a bottle of organic unrefined sesame oil, so i am finally able to begin oil pulling! i heard about it through the wife of the lead singer of one of my favorite bands because she posted a blog on myspace about it. crazy, i know. i think the website is earthclinic.com if you want to check it out.
and there have been some really big changes in how the nest does things between staff/children/teams and i really like it and i will write more about it later. basically the only people to really spend time with and love on the kids, EXCLUDING infants, is the staff...their 'pod parents'
the change in the kids in just one week is amazing. it is going to be SO MUCH HEALTHIER for them mentally and emotionally! doing what's best for the kids is obvious, but to look at it selfishly, it's been really nice for me too. i think once people get used to it, give it a chance, whatever it takes for each individual, they will really like it too.

there was a big team here this week, so i slept on the extra bottom bunk in the boy's room and last night, their conversation was SO cute. i wanted to say it was "killer" but i didn't think everyone reading would understand that i meant "cute"...i wanted to record it or write it all down or something but instead i just soaked it up as it happened, smiling with glee. the 3 oldest boys were still awake. shaquille, 7, chavar, 8 and peter, 9. they told me that they were going to have a man talk and i could not listen. so i listened to my ipod, but i could still hear their giggles. they finally told me they were finished and gave me permission to listen again, and they were still giggling about it and ended up telling me everything anyways. ok. get ready because i think this is great!
they were deciding who to tell they wanted to marry them. haha! but it was all clearly in joking and fun more than anything...
peter was going to tell latidra
shaquille was going to tell nurse wolfe, who is now our preschool teacher and has pretty much been around his whole life.
chavar said this, in his deep raspy voice, "i only have one thing in my head and it is that i am NOT going to marry lexi!"

well. all in the spirit of valentine's day i guess!

ok i'm getting a headache now. i've been at the internet cafe for close to 3 hours now, trying to catch up on so much after not being able to get online for a while again.

please pray i will get good financial support to come back may-september! i need to book my flight in march, and pay off the nest in EARLY april. yikes!
and pray that matthew will gain weight. he's been in the hospital for i think over two weeks now.
God's will, and for the Holy Spirit to comfort me and the baby too and the kids at the nest who love matthew, no matter what happens.

keep in touch friends and fam!!
more updates later...slowly and surely. such is jamaica life.
i love it
even though i don't take breaks either because i guilt myself out of it or because i simply want to stay at the nest all the time, and get exhausted.
tell me how you all are too! and about america!! haha!
it's interesting growing new roots here...

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