The Hardest Goodbye...

Was by far saying goodbye to the kids at the orphanage!

Carrie and I went Sunday morning before we left for our trip to Guatemala. Jose Alberto and Maxi were in particularly great moods that day and it made me really happy to see them so happy.

I love this picture of the two of them...

Maria and Carrie

 After we played with all of them for a little bit I explained that it would be our last day at the orphanage. Jillybean did not like that and she started yelling "No" and shaking her little finger at me. At one point she was at the top of some stairs as Carrie and I were heading to other room to say goodbye to the other kids. She yelled "Miss King....nooooooo!" and then she flew down the stairs, ran to me, and wrapped her arms around me as hard as she could. I lost it and couldn't stop the tears from coming.

Jillybean and Me 

I said goodbye to Maxi and then looked for Alberto. I found him on the side of the house playing with some of the other boys and when I explained that I wouldn't be back again he acted like he didn't care, but when I turned around to walk away he ran to give me a hug. I told him how much I loved him, that I would miss him, and that I would definitely be back next year to visit him. I plan on writing him some letters from the States so he has a little bit of consistency in his life and knows how much I care.

As I walked away form saying goodbye to him, Julissa came up and tapped me. She motioned for me to lean down so I could hear her, and when I did she said "I love you!". She said it in English and so sincerely that it almost broke my heart.

Last but not least for goodbye's was Maria Jose. I love that little girl more than anything and when I scooped her up to hug her goodbye I never wanted to let her go. As I was telling her how much I would miss her she said "hold on" and ran back into the orphanage. She came back less than a minute later with a note in her hand that said "To the cutest teacher at Santa Clara, Miss King...I love you with all of my heart!" I can barely type that out now without crying!

The beautiful Maria Jose and Me

Carrie and I were both hysterical at that point and knew we needed to get out of there. We walked out as all of the kids followed behind us waving and saying goodbye. Then I cried the whole walk back home. It was so hard to walk away from all of them like that. I truly wish I could adopt every single one of them!

I hope and pray that each one of them is happy, healthy, and they always know they are loved!

“Tears are words the heart can’t express”

Final Volunteer Goodbye

I frequently ate grilled cheese sandwiches and drank a cold glass of coke while I was living with Kandice. She always made fun of me, so I took a picture of me and her with my last grilled cheese and coke before we left...

We had gone out for one last night of dancing the weekend before we went to the puente, but the teachers talked us into going out one more time before we all left...

We had a great time...

and for some reason loved showing our hands in a lot of the pictures. I think this was some sort of inside joke, but I can't remember now what it was about...

Jonesy got really into the Latin dance scene while visiting Honduras. When he told me he wanted to learn the bachata I knew just the woman for the job -- Karol...

She loves dancing more than anyone I've ever met!

It was definitely a fun time had by all...

The next day I met Yohely, Wendy, and her son Alejandro at El Rancho for lunch...

What a cute little guy :)

We all ending up wearing purple shirts...completely unplanned. It was hysterical!

Yohely handed me a gift before I left and guess what it was? A purple shirt, haha!

After lunch I went back home to change for the final volunteer dinner. But before Kandice, Carrie, and I could go to dinner we had to complete some last minute paperwork at Flavia's house.

Kandice, Me, Flavia, and Carrie

We had dinner at the same place we celebrated Maki's birthday back in December. We all had so much fun that night we wanted to do something similar for our final dinner. The foundation served us a traditional Honduran stew for our last meal together. After we ate, different members of the foundation gave each of us a speech and handed us a nice plaque with our name engraved on it. I'm sure you already guessed that I sobbed through the whole thing. I was actually already crying when I arrived to the dinner and more tears came as the night went on. 

After all of the speeches it was time to dance, dance, dance... 

This is Dan holding Andrew's shirt as he hopped around like a mad man.

Oscar and Me

 Jeff wanted to take happy/angry pictures.

First I was angry and he was happy...

Anger does not look good on me

then I was happy and he was angry...

Much better

Man house + Lacey ++ Bridget picture...

The OAF Team...

The lighting wasn't great so sorry for the poor quality on this one

Here are a few short videos of the hilarious Andrew busting some moves...

My life is forever changed by the people I volunteered with this year! I love every single one of them and I'm so grateful to have made such wonderful new friends. I wouldn't trade this past year for anything in the world!

“Enjoy every day, be yourself, pray, keep laughing and no matter how things turn out – you are always loved!” – My Beautiful Mom :)

El Puente

On Friday (June 10th) we had a staff day at the Puente. It was a beautiful place that had a big soccer field, covered eating area, and two pools complete with a few water slides. 

Sor Maglys came and sang a few songs for us on her guitar...

She is so great...


I LOVE singing this song...


I'm so happy I was finally able to capture it on video...and it has all of my favorite people in it -- so it worked out perfectly :)!

Here's a group shot of all the wonderful people at Santa Clara...

It was a beautiful day for some fútbol...

but I wanted to hold this cute little thing instead...

My baby Denise :)

The game got really intense...

Sor Maglys even changed out of her habit to play - I couldn't believe it...

Don't mess with this nun!

I love this shot of Mike and Peg...

After playing soccer for awhile it was time to eat. We had lunches of either chicken with french fries or fish with platanos. It was really nice to sit down and have a meal with all of the staff.

Then it was time to hit the pool. We started out playing a few games of Marco Polo and then migrated over to the slides. These slides were so much fun!

Here's Jeff flying down the small white one...

and Yohely plugging her nose in anticipation of the drop into the water...

Here are a few of us in front of the two slides....

After going down both slides individually, someone had the great idea to go in groups. Going down with  just one other person made you go a lot faster, so adding two and three more people was crazy. At one point I went down the white slide with Rosita and I was terrified to let go at the top because I knew we would just fly down it. She insisted that I sit in the front because she was scared, which meant she was going to land on me when we dropped into the water. It was hysterical though and I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe!

To make things even funnier Sor Maglys also got into the pool and started going in groups down the slide.

The next few photos speak for themselves...

Before we left Rosita wanted to sing "I Love You, You Love Me" (the Barney song) to me, ahaha! She had tried to sing it to me earlier in the week, but she couldn't remember the words and said she needed to go home and practice. The kinder and prepa teachers sing that song to the students so I'm assuming that's where Rosita learned it. She told me that she learned a lot of English from me this year and she wanted to sing it in English. When she couldn't remember the words she started giving me a speech in English. I love this woman...

“In the course of a lifetime, almost everyone is positively affected by someone in a life-changing way” – Swen Nater

My Team

These are the beautiful women I worked with and played with all year :)...

Rosita, Wendy, Me, and Yohely

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these people...

but especially the crazy Rosita...

we're actually both crazy and that's why we got along so well this year :). I truly could not have asked for a better counterpart than her! She gave me so much support, she's a phenominal teacher, and she made me laugh daily. I'm so thankful for her, Wendy, and Yohely who all made my year great!

Tuesday night Padre had us over for pizza and cake as a little goodbye dinner. Victor came to pick us up in the big yellow school bus and we had the whole thing to ourselves. It was awesome!

As soon as I saw this cake I teared up...

I've come to terms with the fact that I'm always going to be the emotional one in the group!

A few days later we were invited over to one of Mary's students homes for dinner. Before we sat down to eat we were served this rico watermelon juice. I had never had watermelon juice before but I am officially a fan. It was so fresh tasting and it's really healthy - a win/win! 

Then we were served this seafood stew for dinner...

I'm not a big seafood fan so this was a little hard for me to get down. I did by best though and I think I ate half of it. 

Here are our wonderful hosts...

Jonesy (Mike Jones) and Jeff looked like they were at a tea party, haha...

The last Monday-Thursday at school was spent filling out what seemed like endless amounts of paperwork. The mother of all sheets was this cuadro... 

It had to be filled out with a special pen and couldn't have any mistakes on it. It took some people five times to get it right. Carrie was really nervous about it...

WHOOOO HOOOO! This is how we all looked as we finished our paper work one by one...

Pure Joy!

This is my beautiful little neighbor...

When I was walking home one day she asked me to take a picture of her.

A few days ago Jeff shared his book "Wooden" with me. It's "A Lifetime Of Observations And Reflections On And Off The Court" written by Coach John Wooden. I thought it would be a book all about basketball and lessons learned, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. Coach Wooden talks a lot about life and the things he's learned along the way. He has some really great insights and I found myself saying "this is so true" a lot!

This is one of the things I read that I really liked...

“Happiness is in many things. It’s in love. It’s in sharing. But most of all, it’s in being at peace with yourself knowing that you are making the effort, the full effort, to do what is right” – John Wooden

"Let's Go Fly a Kite..."

The day after Sonia's farewell dinner we went to the orphanage to fly kites with the kids. Oh my goodness what a wonderful day!

As we were walking there a few people commented that it hadn't been windy for awhile -- that it wasn't really kite weather -- and they wondered how it would go. I said "maybe nature will be on our side and when we get there the wind will just come." 

I brought three kites back with me from the States -- a penguin, a panda bear, and a fish. The kids were SO excited to bust them out of the packaging and have their turn at flying one.

Up first was Maxi and Julissa. Max was flying his in a zig zag pattern as he pretended he was an airplane :)...

Jeff, Julissa, and Maxi - also notice spot off to the right who followed us all the way to the orphanage and just hung out while we played with the kids.

About twenty minutes after we got there I felt my hair start to blow and I just said "and there's the wind :)". It was super cheesy sounding I'm sure, but it was such an incredible moment!

Watching them run around laughing and smiling as their kites flapped in the wind made my heart happy...

Baby Valentina is still too little to fly kites, so we just brought her outside for the fresh air and some cuddle time. She is almost completely blind and her hearing is severely impaired, but she knows her name and she smiles when you talk to her...

I can't get enough of those cheeks!

Clara with the panda kite

I love seeing this boy smile!

There's just something about kites and children...

My sweet little girl...

THE spitfire - Maria Jose

David wasn't getting much action with the big kites so he went and found his own version...

Julissa was all smiles...

Sheer and utter joy - it doesn't get better than this...

Our travel guide...

I love Maxi throwing up that ball with a huge smile on his face!

It's days like this I'll miss most when I leave Juticalpa! 

"Gratitude brings freedom from envy, because when you're grateful for what you have, you're not consumed with wanting something different or something more" - The Happiness Project