Feliz Cumpleaños!!! (I got a baby)

March Birthdays!
Gabriel (19), Enel (15), Redando (14), Jenna (24!), Kate (13)
And Nana Rhonda celebrated this month, too!

The last couple weeks have held several big markers for me - the first being my one year anniversary of living in Jimaní (March 23!); the second, my 24th BIRTHDAY (March 27!); and third, A BABY (more on that later).

Year End State of the Family Address

 So another year comes to a close, but what a year it has been!

(...is there a way to escape New Years cliches?)

How to I summarize the year except to say CHANGE. I live a different life and in a different world than I ever thought I would. It is nowhere close to what might have been my post-college "plans" (I didn't really have any), but now, I can't imagine my life being anything but what it is. God SO knows best. :) More than nine months I have been in Jimani, and it has been a crazy ride of ups and downs and people coming and going and intense personal growth. My Papa Dios is a different person than I thought He was - and not because He has changed, but because I have. I am a little more tired, a little more worn, but a whole lot wiser, and still full of love.

I will be traveling stateside in THREE WEEKS and am super excited to see all the friends and family I have been away from for this time... and I am totally looking forward to pizza and ice cream and salad. Every day.   :)

I hope to share a little more in-depth soon, but here are some pictures  :)

Unrequited Love: But I'm Going to Chase You Forever

Unrequited love.

     Most know its heartache, have tasted of it's bitterness and pain - from a simple middle school crush, to deep affection for another who just doesn't seem to care. I, for one, know that my journals from elementary to high school are speckled (sometimes filled) with dramatic entries about my secret crush at the time and how perfect and wonderful that person was and the desire for them to notice and care for me, imagined scenarios and interactions, immature pining. 

     This time, however, it is different. This unrequited love comes from one of those whom I call my daughters, one of my girls. Every night, when I tuck the little ones in, I pray and kiss them good night, saying, "I love you" - sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish... The usual response is a hug and a kiss back with an echo of (in Spanish or English!) "I love you, too!" 

To Dispel the Darkness

Where there is light, darkness cannot dwell. And so this, to be Light in a dark world, is my purpose. It is the purpose of all those who follow the greatest Light of all, who is Jesus Christ - Light of the World.  Do I carry His Light wherever I go? Do I carry the Glorious Presence of Him who created Light, so that it shines from my face so brightly that people cannot deny He who lives in me?

High and lofty speech is this, but it is my purpose, what I am created for. To be Light. To dispel Darkness.

Sometimes it is too easy to think that darkness is too big for me to do anything about it, but truly, the smallest bit of light can still be seen in a room full of dark. Think of the power of a single candle in a pitch black room. Even its flickering flame chases shadows to the corners. So it is with me, and so:

This little light of mine,

I'm gonna let it shine.

Yes, this little light of mine,

       I'm gonna let it shine! 

I want to share with you evidence of the Light that is living here at the Children's Home.

It's a GIRL!!! ... Well... EIGHT of them!

Tomorrow brings big changes.

     I once said to a friend, "All I really want to do is be a mom..." 
     His response is one that has stayed with me and has proven true. 

     "Jenna," he said, "no matter what you are doing, you will be a mom."

     Since then, my jobs and other experiences have all put me in a position of "mothering" and now being in the DR, it is more true than ever. When I posted on Facebook the other day that I am going to be a mom (ok, so I admit to being kind of vague on purpose solely for the sake of creating questions), it was not alluding to pregnancy (I promise this is not yet possible) or to adoption (someday!), as some wondered, but to a shift in my role here at Chadasha's Children's Home.