"How incredibly beautiful it is to suffer"

Wow…if there is a month that will go down in DR history it will be this one! I feel like so much has happened in such a little amount of time. And this month I marvel at how much God fills us up with his love in every moment, even in the ones where we feel totally abandoned and are at the deepest pit of anguish, he is there! One of my friends recently posted on Facebook (and I hope she reads this and knows she inspired me all month!) “I wish we could all realize how incredibly beautiful it is to suffer. Even if I had been placed on this Earth only to experience the most gruesome of sufferings, I would still want to live through each and every one.” Either she was super inspired by the Holy Spirit, or she got the quote from some really awesome movie! But this has gotten me through a lot this month!

In terms of missing home, this month has been the worst! A few things have attributed to this, I believe. My mom sent a package to me through USPS to the Dominican postal service…. #1, apparently this was a BAD IDEA. The postal service here is VERY unreliable. In fact, from what I’ve read online and what I’ve talked to others who live here, I’m probably never GOING to get the package. The postal workers (and service workers in general) here don’t really care that much about their customers. So I’m pretty bummed about the fact I didn’t get a package from home, but let’s hope some person who really needed two pairs of TOMS shoes and two pairs of jeans actually got/took the package. Another thing is that I feel like so many things are happening and I’m not at home! This is a big suffering for me to miss my nephew’s birthdays, or to miss my little sister’s college club volleyball games, or to miss my birthday at home. I know that my family is happy I am here and I know I want to be here, but missing them still happens, ya’ll! It doesn’t go away! Also, let’s mention that my BFF since 2^nd grade is about to have her first child…! And I’m going to miss his first little moments in this world… L

Many of you also know that Tom, my future hubby, my rock, my sweet sweet man had to undergo a very urgent surgery this last week to remove a part of his intestines. This is where the beauty of much of my suffering has happened for the last week or so this month. It was so hard. It is still hard to not be there with him during this time.  And I can’t even imagine what it was like for Tom (who is still recovering at this moment, but he is doing well, THANK YOU JESUS!). It was hard to be so far away and feel completely and utterly helpless. To literally be on the floor crying, begging God to please, please, please keep him safe while the surgery was happening. In those moments, I know that I was as close as I have ever been to Jesus on the cross when he cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” How incredibly beautiful it is to suffer!! To know that even in THOSE moments, when I thought there was nothing, there was something….LOVE! HIS love. Pretty awesome, huh? Tom’s surgery went very well the doctors say, and they are hopeful that this will help a lot in the future as well! God is good! And I probably can’t say enough thanks to all the people who prayed that everything would go well and visited him in the hospital and gave me hugs when I thought I was falling apart. But biggest thanks to God for getting us through that part of our journey…it’s not over, but it’s beautiful to see the love we have for each other and for God flourish even more in these moments.  

Now, in this month, I’ve also had many REALLY awesome experiences, too!! And I truly believe that we don’t walk this journey alone and that you have people and situations in your life to help you embrace and feel love in EVERY moment! We had a retreat in Santiago with some of the young women around the Dominican Republic! It was an awesome retreat to build a really strong relationship with the other girls and also to see Santiago! Santiago has got to be my new favorite city in the DR! Beautiful parks! Beautiful monuments! And YAROA (pronounced ja-ar-o-ah), my new favorite food of the DR! Yaroa is essentially this: thick French fries topped with a mix of chicken and beef meat, ketchup, mayonnaise, and cheese!!! Oh my goodness Yummy!  I also got to go to my first discotec this month! Wahoo! Let’s just say that some Dominican dancers are intimidating…man they are good! And during this first outing, I (yes, me! Outgoing Amber Rose Brown!) was afraid to dance that much! I don’t want people to look at me and say “Wow! That white girl is lookin’ ridiculous!” But I also know I need practice with the dances! So, it was good that one weekend this month, I went to a concert of Ramon Orlando (one of the best merengue singers in the DR) and we danced all night! And I was with people who were okay with me messing up the steps a little and maybe stepping on their feet during parts of the dance. Which was really great!

I celebrated my first big holiday in the DR this month: HALLOWEEN!!! J This is not a holiday that is celebrated by many people here in this country. In fact, many people here dislike the holiday because of misconceptions about why people celebrate the holiday or religious beliefs. I LOVE HALLOWEEN, though! And I wanted to bring the joy and funness of the holiday to the students who I teach this month because this is not something they have experienced before! For two weeks we learned about this holiday and what people do and how much fun it is for kids! On the week of Halloween, we looked at a presentation of lots of different costumes for kids on Halloween, then the students picked a costume, drew themselves in the costume, and they got to “go trick-or-treating”! J They all left the room and came back in, knocked on the door, said “TRICK-OR-TREAT!” and got some candy for Halloween! I loved sharing this tradition with them, and they were super excited to get candy and get to go “trick-or-treating” for the first time! J Also, one of the 3^rd grade classes (who knew my birthday was the day after Halloween) had
a wonderful surprise for me! When I came that week, the super sweet teacher told me they had planned something for me. She gave me a sheet as a ghost costume, and told me I had to walk around to all the “houses”, aka desks, of the students and knock on their doors for trick-or-treating. She, the teacher, had hand made me a cute little orange pumpkin trick-or-treating basket. I walked around the whole class “trick-or-treating” and each of the kids, these beautiful, sweet, generous kids, had bought me candy for my birthday! These kids who don’t really have anything, who a piece of candy is like a piece of gold, brought ME candy for my birthday. And they loved giving me this gift!  A tiny, but significant gift of the love and kindness that they have! It’s probably one of the best birthday presents I’ve ever gotten, from those sweet kiddos from Café.

Another very awesome thing happened for my birthday! My friends actually threw a surprise Halloween themed birthday party to celebrate!! And it wasn’t easy to accomplish either!! They don’t sell Halloween decorations in the DR, so my friends hand-made paper pumpkins and spider webs out of trash bags to decorate! When I walked into our backyard garden area, they all were there, IN COSTUMES! Almost 20 people celebrating their first Halloween party! Haha! We ate candy and cake and even had a “run way” to show off all the costumes! We also walked around the Zona Colonial in our costumes giving out all the extra candy we had telling people “Happy Halloween!” haha! AND on our walk around the zona, I got serenaded by a mariachi-type band for my birthday! It was amazing and beautiful and I felt really loved by everyone who helped and came and celebrated with me! It will be a birthday I’ll never forget, for sure!

Well, this next month I’m going to try to bring another American holiday to the DR: THANKSGIVING!  I’m really excited about teaching my students about this holiday as well and continuing to walk on this wonderful journey I’m on! I count on your thoughts and prayers, and know you have mine! :)