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Well, we're finally back. I'm happy to have a real shower, and a nice bathroom that can flush, and my own bed, but I miss Mexico. I would have stayed there for much longer if I could have. The camaraderie among our team was amazing. I was really good friends with people I had never met before. A couple of the girls I hadn't seen since Mexico last year, other than a couple of meetings we had this spring, and we were the best of friends. It was also great to get to know my classmates and those I already knew better. We had so much fun together, and there wasn't even much real drama. I saw a much different side of my principal than I'm used to as well. (One thing I learned - he can be very scatterbrained. Or maybe it was more like preoccupied. Either way, I never imagined he would be that way.) Sometimes it was a little bit of a struggle to love everybody on our team, but I think I learned a lot from the experience.

I also learned a lot of other things. As of right now, I don't really have a huge, obvious, amazing God moment from the trip. I have a few smaller ones. I really thought God was trying to show Himself to me in a different way this trip. That was somebody's prayer for me, and it really resonated with me. I think that was accomplished. I learned that God doesn't always work in big, conspicuous ways. Last year building the house, the first couple of days went amazingly well, and we finished on the last day a little after it got dark. This year after day 2 (out of 4) we were about 40% done with the house. However, we finished on the last day a couple of hours earlier that last year. We don't know how, and it didn't even seem like we were working harder than usual, but we caught up all the same. It was a very quiet miracle. It never would have happened without God, but it wasn't really obvious what He was doing. It speaks to me that God is in control of everything, because He's always working even if we don't see or sense it. (Sorry this is probably just a big blob of words. Oh, well. I'll write more stories later!)

Two Days!!!

Strangely enough, I think I used up most of my excitement already. It's not like I'm indifferent to the trip, I'm just not as extremely excited and bubbly as I have been already. I think part of it is that it just seems a little surreal. In three days, I will be in Mexico. It seems too good to be true! I've been waiting for this trip for a long time, basically until we talked to our team leaders last year about going with our school. Now it's finally here. I didn't think it would ever happen. I'm sure it will hit me the moment we get on the bus. That's good, though, because I think I need that excitement to survive all week with how much sleep we will get. It's usually not much, especially on the bus. Just two days!

Two Weeks!

We only have two more weeks until Mexico! I can't believe it's so soon. In exactly two weeks I will be sitting on a bus, probably in Kansas or Oklahoma, enjoying the (hopefully) snow-free landscape and starting to think about how in the world I'll be able to fall asleep on the bus... well, I guess that's all part of the experience. I'll definitely have more to say when I get back!