she's 19 today

she's still just as beautiful as last year, still funnier than heck, has a huge heart, and is my favorite 19 year old. happy, happy birthday to my gorgeous, wonderful, talented, smart, funny, wise, loving, and special sister Kelsey Lynne!!

good words

today in chaps (at gordon we abbreviate a lot. i call chapel chaps most of the time) i heard from cynthia bauer, founder and director of an organization called "Kupenda for the Children." it is a non-profit that works with kids with disabilities in kenya, many of whom have physical and mental disabilities such as cerebal palsy, missing limbs, autism, loss of hearing, etc.

cynthia was born with a disability of her own: she does not have a left hand. what i found so moving about her talk this morning was when she talked about meeting a little girl in kenya who was born without a left hand as well. the mother of the child thought that she had been cursed or did something wrong to cause this to happen to her child, but when she saw cynthia's condition, she realized that this was not a curse or something that only happens to people in africa. cynthia has now been able to develop a relationship with this little girl who is now two years old.

it is easy to be puzzled by life and why certain things happen the way they do. what i found so encouraging about cynthia's words was that they demonstrated to me the beauty of God's redemption in the brokenness of our lives. but more than that, sometimes we have to wait thirty years or even a whole lifetime to understand bits and pieces of his plan.

as i think about my own life, i sometimes wonder how God's plan is going to unfold and what the purpose was behind his timing and the different circumstances i encounter. but i am brought again to the words "trust" and "hope" and encouraged by yet another story of trust and hope where lives are continuing to be impacted even through the brokenness of a disability.

missing

i like how in spanish if you are missing something you can say "me hace falta." i think it expresses "missing" something or someone in a deeper way. it is like saying someone or something is missing from you - there is an absence that they leave because your time was special with them.

me hacen mucha falta mis padres de costa rica. i miss my costa rican parents. i miss our breakfasts together, i miss talking to papi about fruit, hearing him say my name "¡¡Alísa!!" with such joy, i miss cooking with them and talking in the car as we drove to another new place in costa rica.

i just got off the phone talking with them (by skype :)) and it gave me such joy to hear their voices. they sounded the same and i asked the same questions i asked while i was living in their house. what a blessing it was and continues to be that i was able to live with them while i was in costa rica.

my semester there was hard. i think that is the word i use most often when i talk about my experience in latin america. yet after i say "hard" i talk about the people whom i met there who made such an impact on my life. they showed me love and joy as i struggled with loneliness and fear and that is why me hacen falta.