Blessed in Costa Rica

I'm crazy behind on this whole Thankful Project, which by the way in an incredible idea. How do people come up with this stuff? I wish I had started from the beginning and challenged myself to participate everyday, but alas I'm joining in on the 14th. While I would love to say I will post everyday for the rest of the month let's be real people, I just can't promise that kind of commitment. I will do my best and pop over a few more times throughout the rest of the month.

Today's topic is: a blessing.

The summer before my last semester at UGA Sis and I did a six-week internship in Costa Rica. It was an awesome experience: eye opening, tough, so much fun, and life changing. On the weekend we traveled to different parts of the country and during the week we volunteered in our home-base town. For the first 3 weeks I taught English to Kindergartens and 6th graders. The next 3 weeks Sis and I volunteered in an orphanage for girls’ ages 12-18 who had been taken out of their homes. We couldn't communicate aside from our super broken Spanish and a whole bunch of nodding and pointing. In spite of that, they changed me. They taught me how strong and resilient a person can be, to laugh at myself, and most importantly, about God's love.

Besides just being an insane blessing that we were able to go to Costa Rica, it was this experience that really solidified what I wanted to do with my life. Up until this time I had considered and pursued being a teacher, a physical therapist, a sports psychologist, and then a school psychologist, but none of those options felt right. Through being around these girls I realized I wanted to work with adolescent girls. I didn't know in what capacity this would end up happening, but I really felt like God was putting this on my heart and preparing me for what I would ultimately end up doing. I'm so thankful for this experience and everything I learned and saw there.