Hello World

Up and ready so early :( But I was finally beginning to get used to it. After loading the vehicles and such, we headed down to San Diego to pick up our rental van. We were not able to take our transporter into Mexico because of the awful roads and the transporter is too low to the ground. We waited here for half an hour or so until we loaded into our “car crews” for the mexico drive. Then we traveled to Costco :D We ate lunch at Costco while Twila did her last minute food shopping since we can not buy fresh food over the border. We seemed to be here forever, but that was okay because we got to experience something great. We all partnered up and went shopping for the children that we were going to so soon be meeting in Mexico. The family that we would be building for had 6 kids, so we all went shopping. Haley and I picked the 14 year old girl named Saraii. We went to K-Mart and bought her nail polish, hair stuff, clothes, a purse, and all sorts of girl stuff(we also cleaned out our wallets at $70). After finally sitting at the Costco shopping complex for a few hours we were allowed our phones to say goodbye to our friends and family before crossing the border. While doing so, we loaded and drove to Amor. Amor Ministries has been working since 1980! We stopped here to fill out paper work, pick up our t-shirts and get our leader for the border. Now for the scary part, the international border. When we reached the border, we were told to remain completely quiet with our sunglasses off. I found this odd but whatever. Yet, everything I had heard about the border was not like what I saw. We were only at the border for a short time before being escorted into Mexico. We had no trouble and the men that checked our trailers were all really nice. As soon as we crossed through the border, my vehicle became so quiet. There was a stillness, a silence and peace upon us. All of us just turned to the windows as our eyes began searching. What I saw is hard to put into words. Most of the houses were slums that wouldn’t even be considered a dog’s house in the United States and I knew that more than 4 people were living in that. There was trash EVERYWHERE. It was so sad. After driving through Tijuana, we drove to Rosarito where we found our Amor camp on the outside of town. There were SO many tents. Holy poop! Just looking around the flat ground of tents, you could feel the love of Jesus. The moment that the vehicles were shut off, we went to work. We set up our tents, made a fire pit, and then set up our kitchen. By the time this was all done it was 8:30-9 pm and none of us had eaten since lunch. I would like to say that I was okay, but I was starving. I got to help prepare some dinner :) I sliced chicken breasts for Twila before we finally got to eat around 9 or later. Following dinner we have worship and sharing time around the fire and then carried our tired but so excited bodies to our tents for our first night in Mexico.

Day 2 we woke up SO early, once again I was up before the sun(sort of, the California sun rises early-I love it!). We packed our totes back up, and carried our stuff down to the cars and trailers. We then loaded after a morning of devotion and prayer. We drove an our for breakfast, ate and once again loaded. This day also consisted mostly of sleeping. I quickly learned that I love to sleep in the car. It didn’t really feel like God was with any of us during the first few days but that was about to quickly change. After traveling all day, again, we reached HOPE International University it Fullerton, California. We unloaded our totes into our dorm rooms, which I shared with two great friends, Haley and Kayla. We were finally able to take a shower and get a little nicer looking before we walked to dinner, where I ate Chipotle(Mmm yum love). After dinner we headed back to HOPE for our nightly worship and sharing time where it was obvious God was. The night was filled with tears, heartache and love for one another. The trip has officially changed. After worship we were allowed to head back to our rooms for our last night in the states. The last night as we knew it. 

These past two weeks have been the most incredible weeks of my life. I got to embark on the longest drive, but best experience of my life. I spent 5 days in Rosarito, Mexico and built the most beautiful family a brand new home. It was so life altering and just an overall great time.

Day 1-Waking up at 5:30 I couldn’t even think straight. My mind was tired, but my stomach was filled with so many butterflies. We left the church around 7 am and headed down I-5. I slept most of this way in the van(which was the best van of people ever). We finally stopped a little after Roseburg to use the restroom and then headed on our way to the Oregon/California border. Finally we stopped around one or so for lunch in W-Yreka California where a sweet man with beautiful dreadlocks asked us what we were doing and told us God Bless. We then continued our travel to Stockton, California(A little south of Sacramento). We stayed at Quail Lakes Baptist Church overnight where we slept on the rock solid floor. First day was just awesome but so tiring :)

Absolutely so stunning<3