One Year!

(subtitled: Holy CRAP, all that can happen in 366 days??)

One year ago, on November 1, I was newly licensed as a massage therapist, had just left a job that I hated and was setting out on my own in my dream career. Life was going in exactly the direction I had been praying and planning for, for so many years.

And then I got the phone call asking if I wanted to take someones place on MVCC's trip to Costa Rica, leaving in two days.

I said "yes," Googled "Where is Costa Rica?" and life has never been the same.

(November 2011)

By the end of that trip, plans had already been made to go back in July, as a co-leader for MVCC's youth trip.

And before Christmas, I knew that God was asking for more than just short-term commitments. I filled out the application, had my "interview" with Les & Di, and said "yes" to a year of interning in Los Anonos.

The trip in July was confirmation that Costa Rica was where God was calling my heart, and I spent the time trying to wrap my head and heart around the fact that everything I was seeing would soon be my "new normal."

(July 2012)

And when I got home at the end of July, it was time to sort, sell and pack up everything, except for two duffel bags and one trunk, that came with me on October 9th.

I look back to that Tuesday morning, smiling that one year ago I had to Google where the heck Costa Rica was, and now... I'm living here.

God has done so much in my heart over this past year. In some ways, I am a completely different person, yet in many ways I'm just way more me than I ever have been.

The transition has not been easy, but He never promised that it would be. He did, however, promise that He would be with me every step of the way. And I've seen Him over and over again... in the good things and in the hard things.

(This morning)