Alphabet Soup

Here's an alphabetical look at 2010.

A is for Arold, the man who captured my heart this fall. (And that's all I'm going to say about that online.)

B is for the significant budget cuts to education funding in Indiana. Budget cuts that made it possible for me to take a year off and go to Haiti.

C is for Creole, the language I'm learning in Haiti.

D is for Dax, my English Setter who thinks he's a lap dog.

E is for the encouragement of my small group to follow God even if it meant moving away from them.

F is for fabulous friends who find ways to stay connected even though we live in different countries. (Can you say Facebook?)

G is for Gramothe, the village where I teach English.

H is for hiking up the mountain road and even the super steep short cut.

I is for the incredible legacy my grandfather left with us when he passed away in March.

J is for a job I love. I enjoyed my job as a public school teacher in Indiana, but I love teaching in Haiti.

K is for all the kids I've loved this year. First there were my 8th grade students at John Young and the teens at church. It was hard to let them go, but now there are my students in Gramothe and the children from Laboule Children's Home.

lam veritab

L is for lam veritab, my new favorite vegetable.

M is for Mountain Top Ministries, the organization I've been working with since September.

N is for the new normal: bucket baths, inconsistent electricity, a corrupt government, hurricanes, and a cholera outbreak.

 O is for the overflowing goodness in my life during 2010.

P is for God's provision for all my needs. He never fails to provide what I need when I need it.

Q is for all the questions I ask. I ask a lot of questions. Maybe later this month I'll make a post with a list of all the questions I ask in a single day.

R is for reading really good books. The Hunger Games series, Code Talker, The Wing and the Wall, The Sea of Trolls, and some others I can't remember the titles of right now.

S is for St. Mark Missionary Church, who have blessed me beyond my wild imagination this year.

T is for the various teams that volunteer with Mountain Top Ministries throughout the year. They are primarily medical and construction teams, but we get people with a wide variety of skills who do anything from install new gates to bake cookies for the kids.

ugly chicken with super long legs

U is for ugly chickens that live at my house. 

V is for the vital role of my ministry partners. Their prayers, financial donations, words of encouragement, and care packages are changing lives in Haiti.

W is for the human trafficking workshop I attended at OSU in January. Such an eye opening day.

X is for the extraordinary experiences that have unfolded in my life this year. God plans for me was infinitely better than anything I had planned for 2010.

Y is for the yearbook, a crazy project I spent many hours completing at the beginning of the year.

Z is for zero regrets about 2010.

I am excited about 2011 and the adventures that it holds! 

Happy New Year!