twenty.four.

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. First of all, I cant believe I'm 24. So many things have happened this past year that have been life changing (like, the decision of coming to the Dominican Republic).  God had shown Himself in new ways while I was 23 and living in Hawaii again, and I'm thankful for all that has happened in life and who I've met and stregthened relationships with. 
Anyway, my first "Dominican" birthday was fun. My students have been talking about my birthday for months now, and they were so excited when the day finally arrived! One of my students made me a cheesecake with cherry topping (it was soooooooooo good), and others made cards and some gave small gifts as well. When it's someone's birthday in this country, it's tradition to get the person soaking wet with water....I think this is what my students were waiting for the whole time :) So, instead of having science class at the end of the day, we had a 3rd grade dance party, ate some brownies, and I let all the 3rd graders get me soaking wet. Here's some pictures!
   

It was Spirit Week, and Melissa
and I dressed up as twins for
twin day on my birthday!



All the 3rd graders getting me soaked!



3rd Grade Dance Party!





My aide, Rovian, thought it would be
fun to fill a bucket of water...



Little did I know, the water had ice and
paint chips inside of it...JERK.



...I still forgave him.





Me and the girls at Pizza &
Pepperoni for dinner :)

mmmm shrimp pasta

Oh baby...

This past weekend was a fun celebration for Tim and Laura Stanley, a young married couple that I work with at JCS. Laura is pregnant with her first child - a boy named Abram due to enter the world on March 15. Saturday was Laura's baby shower, which i photographed, and Sunday I photographed Laura's pregnancy photos down by the river and other locations in Jarabacoa. So much fun! Here's some pictures from the baby shower and the photo shoot...






Baby James: Born in January to another couple that is friends
with Laura. He's so tiny!

 


Laura, with the Hawaiian outfit I gave her :)

 



Everyone praying for Laura to have a safe delivery!



There are SIX pregnant women on the staff at JCS. Here are four of them! (Kylah, in orange, doesn't work at JCS, but she IS pregnant ;))

 

Here's some of my favorite pictures from the photo shoot with Tim and Laura. They are a great couple to photograph!...



congrats tim and laura! cant wait to meet Abram James!

incredibly INCONVENIENT.

So, basically for the last two days I've been living without running water in my house. This means no flushing toilets, no showers, and not being able to wash dishes, and no filling up our water filter for safe drinking water. 
What happens is that we have something called a tinaca on the top of our house that holds a bunch of water in it. In order for the water to run upstairs (where we live), the electricity from the downstairs apartment needs to be working properly.  So what happened was that our "neighbors" downstairs didn't pay their electric bill, and they cut the electricity for downstairs - which in return affected us in the way of us not having running water in our house.
Let me just tell you. I don't think I realized how much I expect to have running water in my life.  Just simple things like washing hands, flushing toilets, rinsing my coffee cup - none of this was possible! It's SO CRAZY, and humbling to think.....
                        "wow. so many people in the world never have running water."
I also kind of realized how important water is to LIVE. Now, I know you're probably reading this and are like "oh my gosh.... Jess is just realizing this now?" Well, no. This was just kind of a reality check.  You truly never know what you have until it's gone. Not having running water for two days straight was tough, but not unbearable at all.
           Just...... incredibly inconvenient.
That's the way we, as middle-class Americans live though.  Where things are always convenient.  Where frustrations occur when things as silly as the store didn't have the right kind of soap I wanted or the color shirt I wanted to buy. 

Maybe we should start getting rid of these silly conveniences in our lives and start thinking about what really matters.....God gave us one life, and we can't waste it by worrying about silly, pompous, "convenient" things.

Let's go out and DO SOMETHING worthy of what God gave us!

Baptism

All the Roommates :)

Today, my roommate Elissa got baptized! I was very happy to be a part of her special day and play the role as photographer :) Congratulations Elissa!


Here's some pictures..


Elissa







With Pastor Jeff

"In love, he predestined us to be adopted sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will..." Ephesians 1:5 


Many things to look forward to for the rest of this month...
1. finishing my ocean unit (which I LOVE to teach! Makes me miss home though...)
2. Valentine's day tomorrow
3. Mid-term 3rd Quarter grades :-/
4. Turning 24 years old...on the 24th of February
5. Going to the beach the weekend after my birthday with my BFF Melissa :)

More Blogs to come!

In a nutshell...

Yes, I'm still alive! It appears I'm not very good at updating a blog - I'm sorry about that! These last few months have been insanely busy - filled with holidays, christmas programs, family visits, friend visits, beach trips, and getting back into the swing of things at school and life.  I don't even know where to begin! I'll just give some highlights...

- for Thanksgiving break, my friend Carissa (one of my housemates and best friends from college) came out to visit me for a week.  She came to Jarabacoa to see where I live and then we stayed at an all-inclusive resort for the weekend with my friend Melissa as well.  It was SO nice to have a familiar face from the past to be here and see what my life is like in the DR. We had a blast together :)

- We had our annual Christmas program at JCS, where my kids performed the Little Drummer Boy by MercyMe with their homemade drums.  They did awesome! I also ended up singing two duets as well. One was with my friend Amanda and Joann, who played the guitar. We sang "Winter Wonderland" by Jason Mraz - it was great! I also sang a duet (or more like a trio) with my roommates Natalia and Elissa. We sang Oh Holy Night in english and spanish, which Elissa signed the whole song. It turned out so well, and everyone seemed to love it!

- For Christmas break I went to West Palm Beach, FL for 4 days to visit my relatives that live there, and to meet up with my mom, dad, and brother who flew down to visit.  After basically spending those days shopping for the next 6 months of my life and getting extremely overwhelmed with being back in the US, my family and I flew back to the DR and I showed them around where I live.  We traveled to Santo Domingo and Boca Chica as well.  We had a ton of crazy adventures, and it was so much fun to show them around and how I live.  Good times!

- After my family left, I had a week to myself with one of my roommates, before the rest of my friends got back to the DR.  When my friend Melissa got back to the DR, we ended up spending a weekend at the beach randomly, which was a nice time to relax before school started again.

- School started January 11, and it turns out one of my students is not coming back because he is going to live in New York with his dad.  So, now I'm down to 11 students. The last two weeks have been devoted to turning in grades and starting 3rd quarter.  I'm really excited about this next semester!

So, in a nutshell, that is what has been happening for the last two months.  I will admit, although I love being here and I love my job, these last few months have been kind of like an emotional rollercoaster.  Being away from people in Hawaii (and other places) has proved to be more than difficult - especially because of not going home for Christmas. I guess it's about that time of year right? Please send some prayers my way - for a positive well-being and stronger walk with God. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.  Please know I am thinking and praying for all of you as well :)

Verse on my mind:
"In love, he presdestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will..." Ephesians 1:5
"En amor, nos predestino para ser adoptados como hijos suyos por medio de Jesucristo, segun el buen proposito de su voluntad..." Efesios 1:5

"I aloha you"

So, every week I teach my students a new hawaiian word. The other week I taught them that "aloha" means hello, goodbye, and love. Right after this explanation, one of my students writes me this...

aahhhhh the joys of being a third grade teacher :)

que Dios te bendiga, Ingrid...

No, I didn't forget about my blog.  Things have been going well here. School is rolling, and we are already done with the first quarter! My kids are improving tremendously and learning a lot.

I'll fill you all in on school and life here soon... I just wanted to inform people that i received really sad news the other day.  So remember how I lived with a family in Honduras in Fall 2007? well, we still keep in touch through facebook, and the other day I was notified of some sad news.  Turns out, my host "mom", Ingrid, was pregnant and when she went into labor her, my host "father", Edgar, and "little brother", Andy, went to the hospital. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Rafaelito, but later there were complications with Ingrid.  I'm not exactly sure what happened, but she ended up passing away three hours later after Rafaelito was born.  I am in total shock about this and cant even imagine what that could be like for Edgar, Andy, and the rest of the family. Now Edgar is to care for both of his sons, with the help of his family.
Ingrid was a woman of great character and such strong faith in God. She was someone to look up to, and she is one of the people in my life (at the time I was in Honduras) to really show me what a relationship with God really looks like, and the importance of relationships - with friends, family, and God.  Please pray for the Areano family, as they deal with these tragic, unexpected emotions along with caring and loving a brand new baby.

Rest in Peace, Ingrid... you will truly be missed...