7 days...

Well 7 days from right now I will be somewhere over the Atlantic ocean headed straight for Los Angeles, and then from there to Ecuador.....I am so excited to be home for Christmas...to see my family, to be in a place I love, with some of the people i love the most...(some will be missing...) but I am so thankful that I get to go home....
But the point is....I have now lived in Spain for 79 days, and have 7 left...how crazy is that?!?!? It's amazing, and God has blessed my time tremendously! And I know He's not going to stop now...so I have an amazing 7 days in front of me....
I would appreciate your continued prayers though as I finish up here...
1. for all the finals I have...2 Friday (Oral Expressions-Spanish, Humanities-Cal Poly), 2 Monday (Oral Expressions-Written part, History-Cal Poly) and 2 on Tuesday (Grammar-Spanish, Culture-Spanish)...so its going to be a whole lot of studying in a little time...but so worth it! so just for diligence...
2. That I could finish strong- in relationships, as I'm tired and working on hwk stuff, that I could continue to love and pour into the people around me...for patience.
3. For good time in the Word, with God over the next week...as I reflect and wrap up, that in the busyness I would take time to be still
4. For the tear I feel in my heart...I'm so excited to be home, to move on and go back to Cal Poly...but you have to know how much I love Spain and everything here...so for the process of saying goodbye...not my favorite...
5. And always for Brandon and I...I miss him a whole lot, and now have been away from him for about 4 months...that God would continue to strengthen us, that we could figure out a time to be together....for him as he is waiting to hear from Medical Schools and the Air Force....for patience in the midst of that...and also as this is his finals week as well...so for strength for him!

Thank you so much for your prayers...they truly support me more than you'll ever know. I am so blessed to have such amazing people in my life...I am thankful for each of you....and I will try to update as much as possible here and there about what's going on.....oh I had a fabulous time with the Coles (Brandon's Parents)...they got to meet my Mama and her boyfriend (Rafa), my friends, we traveled to 2 surrounding cities, and then just for them to see where I live here was really neat....so thank you Uncle Curt and Aunt Karen for visiting!

Much love to each of you.....and I hope you are having a great day!

NORTHERN IRELAND!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Good day!!!!
I hope this finds each of you doing just well, and enjoying every moment of this Christmas season! I am loving all the Christmas spirit here! Everything is decorated, the town is lit up, the Plaza Mayor is beautifully decorated, and there is lots of hustle and bustle going on...but I love it! Christmas is such a wonderful time of year...so much to celebrate...the birth of Christ, and what Him coming to the world meant...we just had two days off of school, one of them celebrating the Immaculate Conception, must of been absolutely amazing...its a time of family and friends...i love it! and I am so excited to be home...yup, thats a reality now! I am leaving Spain in 9 days!! And headed to Ecuador! and am so excited!!!!!!! But not ready to leave this all behind yet...I love Spain, and all that has gone on here...but I'm not saying goodbye just yet...I have 6 finals...and lots of fun left...so I won't write all my favorite memories yet! :) but you can definitely be praying for my last week and a half, for the work to be done, the goodbyes to be said...the transition...all that leaving entails...
BUT....for starters I am doing MUCH better! Thank you for your prayers...I battled a little during the weekend, but am pretty much back at 100% with a little cough left...your prayers have been answered! :)
Secondly my time in Northern Ireland was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING....we got in about 3 am on Friday morning, slept for a little bit and were out and about later on! For those of you who don't know, I have a lot of family in Northern Ireland and I got to meet all of them in 2005 when my family was there...and so I went back with my 5 girlfriends, and we stayed with my cousin Martin and his wife Bronagh and their most precious 7 month old Callum...they rented a house by the beach in Portstewart, Northern Ireland for the weekend!!!! It was fabulous...cold as ever, but just fabulous! They took us all over, we drove along the coast, we hiked, we ate some great food...everything was amazing, we even had really nice weather, sunshine and all included...it rained at night, but that was okay because we were sleeping and then it was beautiful in the morning! The strange thing was that the sun sets at 4 pm, so that messed up how tired we were in the afternoons, its funny how tied we are to the sun! I got to see most of my family there...it is all on my mom's side, both her mom and dad, so that was super fun! I felt so loved and special being able to see all of them, I got to talk to my grandparents...it was amazing.
Sunday we spent the day in Belfast and got to soak in that part of it...then we were back in the Dublin airport by 1 am...spent the night there (although i couldn't sleep all night!) and flew back to Madrid, landed around 10:30, bussed back to Valladolid, and were pretty tired when we got back...but it was an absolutely fabulous trip! (i hope you enjoy the pictures!)
AND...today Brandon's parents flew into Madrid, and are here in Valladolid until Thurs morning...they are here on business, but decided to add Valladolid to their trip and come and see me!!!! I am so blessed! It is so fun to have them here and be able to show them all my life here...I miss Brandon a lot...but its fun to have them here! I am so blessed and loved.... :)

Other than that--things are good...lots of studies ahead of me...but life is good, and I LOVE SPAIN! :) thank you for your prayers and support! I look forward to hearing from you!
Enjoy the Christmas spirit, the joy, the peace...the fact that Christ was born so that He could die to save you..pretty amazing to grasp!

Much love to each of you!!!!!

Belfast by night...

The beautiful coast...

The beautiful countryside...

Me on the Carrik-A-Rede rope bridge...it is very high but so fun!

Me and Tiffany...

All the girls in Belfast...

Me and Dalia enjoying our hot chocolate at the International Festival in Belfast.

Me and Callum...so precious.

Enjoying our beach walk in Portstewart

Bronagh and I at Glenariff...hiking around.

The girls...they're all so amazing.

My grandpa's side of the family!

My grandma's side of the family...(for the most part)

My grandma's sisters...Aunt Wilma (left to right), Aunt Lavina, and Aunt Mary

Uncle Huston (grandpa's brother) and his wife Aunt Silvia

Me at Giant's Causeway!

Bronagh, Callum, Me and Martin

Me and Martin...my mom's first cousin!

icky...

Good morning everyone...or afternoon or evening... :)
Well things are going really good here...2 weeks from today I will be flying out! Crazy how time goes by so fast. But its been amazing, and I still have 2 amazing weeks ahead of me! Today actually we're flying out to Northern Ireland for the weekend, because due to Spain's Constitution, and the Immaculate Conception we have Monday and Tuesday off! So we're headed to visit a lot of my mom's family in Northern Ireland! I am so beyond excited!!!!
The only bummer though is that I'm pretty sick...getting better, but these last couple of days have been no fun at all...it started out just with a cold, sore throat, no big deal...and yesterday morning when I woke up I thought I was much better, but then while sitting in class I was struck hard, with chills, achyness, feverish and diarrhea--just awful feeling. So once we were done with class I came home and laid low for the rest of the day. I was only able to sleep a little during the day, but it was nice not to have to go anywhere...I got a good nights sleep last night, but still feeling not 100% today, and the thought of traveling is not that great right now....so I would really appreciate your prayers that I would feel a lot better by the time we get on our airplane tonight...I'm still stoked about being in Northern Ireland, but I do not want to feel like this...so thank you for your prayers... :) Oh and Hanna was struck with it later last night, so we both stayed home from class this morning, doing a little better, but not great....

As far as just life here, its getting pretty busy because we get back on Monday, then have 2 finals on Friday, one Monday (0f the following week) and 2 on Tuesday, then our "graduation" on Wednesday and we fly out on Thursday! Crazy...so lots of studying and shopping ;) to be done between now and when we leave...but it'll be great.
Jesse, Tiffany, Me, Lelani, Lily

We got a chance to go look at a Castle last week, as well as eat a really typical Spanish dish--Lechazo--which is baby lamb, it was really good...
Hanna and I at the restaurant--it was an old mill over the water, so cool!

...then we got to go to a winery and tour the Bodega...It was so fun to be out of the city in the country, it was absolutely beautiful, really really cold but really fun!

Me and Tiffany on top of the Castle

Aubrea, Hanna, Tiffany and Me

I love my roomie!

It is definitely getting way colder here...this week its been anywhere from 1 degree celsius, to mostly 8ish degrees Celsisus....cold....But we've been so spoiled by the weather so I really have no complaints, because I really like the fresh feeling outside, the beauty all around us...Leaves keep falling and I just LOVE it!

At the Winery...enjoying the beautiful Sunset!

The Pueblo (town) we got to go visit

Another really cool thing is that God is seriously working in some of the girls' hearts here, they're asking great questions...they want to believe, but something is holding them back, something is keeping them from just handing their lives over 100%...so its been super exciting for me to get to talk to them...to share from my life...So I ask that you would be praying for them as well...that they would not leave here unchanged, and that God would just continue to soften their hearts and for their responses...
Lastly...just pray for safe travels this weekend...that we could have a BLAST, although I know we will...but just be praying for our time as the 6 of us girls....
Thank you so much for all your prayers and support, much love to each one of you!!!!!! :)