Home, it's such a relative word, and I don't think I even know what it means anymore, much less where mine is.
The first place I ever lived, I don't remember at all. All I know is that it was in Mexico City. When we moved to the States we rented a nice little green house. Three bedroom one bathroom. After a few years of living there we moved once again to a beautiful brick house in West Homewood. When I was 19 years old I put on my big girl pants and moved to Riverside, Ca. California Baptist University would be my home for the next four years. My closest friends were my roommates, and my peers lived in my neighborhood. It was there that I experienced Christian Community for the first time. I loved it! While at CBU I had the opportunity to visit several different countries and for 3 weeks after my Sophomore year Tegucigalpa, Honduras was home.
Little did I know that after my Junior year I would go to Chiang Mai, Thailand and my life would be changed forever. I will never forget stepping off the plane and having the humidity hit me, and saying, "it feels like home outside." Little did I know that in just three weeks my heart would find the place where I felt most at home.
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| Oh Tailandia ¡me encanta! |
Senior Year I would visit Hawaii during spring break and live in Turkey for 5 weeks. Calling each place home while I was there. When I moved back to Alabama I started going to Brook Hills and joined an amazing small group there, and together we went to Peru. It was amazing to visit the place where my grandfather had grown up, with friends that were like family.
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| Some of us in Peru! |
By this time I was no longer living with my parents but with a wonderful friend in an apartment in Hoover. I was on my own. Paying rent and bills. I was a real adult. Until some sketchy stuff happened in our apartment complex and we decided that it was no longer a good idea for us to live there. She moved in with a wonderful family, and I moved in back with my parents. Which ended up being a good idea because I was just about to go on the World Race and needed to start saving money! On the race I lived in 10 different places, in four different countries, in 7 different cities. Each one I called home.
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| The view from our hostel in Cambodia |
After the race I went with Adventures in Missions (the same organization that did the World Race) to Nicaragua. I helped lead 26 college students and for 2 months that place was home.
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| Sunset in Nica |
It was time to move back home. Or at least to my parents house. While I was away, they had decided to move from the house that I had grew up in to another house in Hoover. After about 10 months of being in Birmingham it was time for me to leave again and I went to Thailand for the Summer. It was my third time in that country, and the Lord confirmed to me that I would be spending a majority of my life there, however, I was so ready to return to Alabama by the end of the Summer. After being back at my parents house for a couple of weeks, AIM asked me to lead the Fall trip to Guatemala, and the Lord made it pretty evident that I would need to spend my Fall there. Which leads me to where I am today.
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| at the special needs school |
The past 3 months have been absolutely amazing. I have grown very much attached to this place. Puerto Barrios, Guatemala has become home. The Lord has blessed me with an amazing community of girls here to lead and do life with. The people we have met have been so generous and hospitable. I have learned so much about the body of Christ. I don't know what "home" will look like when I return. I know it will be different. Some of my closest friends no longer live in Alabama. I have changed while I have been here, and so have the ones I left behind. I don't know how long exactly I will call Alabama home, before I pack up and leave again. Someone once said, "Home is where the heart is," well if that's true, then my heart is broken. My heart is in California, Thailand, Guatemala, Cambodia, and Alabama, because people I love are in those places. It's been really hard living with a broken heart. I wish I could take everyone with me/be in all these places at the same time. But we all know that can't happen. The good news is, that this world is not my home. And one day I won't have to decide where to live so that I can be with all the people that mean so much to me, because we will all be living together with our King.
