Fairy Tale?

Hello again all. So tonight I'm missing home and everyone in Arkansas more than usual. I'm not sure why, but I'm just feeling a bit lonely. Crazy, I know, what with sharing a small space with three other girls! It's been almost exactly two months since I left home, and I guess I'm beginning to feel how long that has really been. Granted, that's not very long at all compared to how much time so many people spend apart, but for me, two months is a long time. The crazy thing is, the two months until going home mark isn't that far behind the two months being gone mark. Time is a crazy thing!

Now, currently I miss being at home, but I can tell you without a doubt that I will absolutely miss being here in Oaxaca once I'm gone. It is such an amazing place, and I love the people I'm working with as well. Jeff and Liesa are great adoptive parents; Sandi is a wonderful older sister; Anna, our fearless leader/jokester; Natasha, our sweet and compassionate northerner; and "not the kid" Jennifer, the most outgoing and energetic of us all. We have really been having a great time. Honestly, it is by God's grace that we have been getting along so well. Over two weeks down with very little drama and about a trillion laughs, so that's a huge blessing/answer to prayer.

I guess I'm writing this post not so much to share about Mexico, but rather to share honestly about what's going on with me. Don't get me wrong, there is a part of me (a newly discovered part of me) that wants to persuade every person I know to get away from what is normal life for you and go serve on the mission field for a while, wherever that may be. I want to fill this blog with stories of all of the amazing things I have seen, experiences that I have had, and people that I've met so that you will wonder why you ever didn't want to do missions.

So yes, I'm still going to do a little bit of not-so-subtle hinting on here, but today I also want to give you some straight up honesty. Being away from home is hard. Living in a foreign country where people stare at you, laugh at you, stare at you, don't understand you, stare at you, whistle at you, and stare at you is hard. Buying groceries in another language with a different currency is hard. Moving in with complete strangers is hard. Living out of a suitcase is hard. Not being able to make normal chocolate chip cookies is hard. Missions is absolutely not the fairy tale that it is sometimes portrayed to be. But it is worth it. It is absolutely, without a doubt, worth it. I am grateful that God has brought me here to do the hard things, grateful that He is with me and strengthens me through it all, and above all grateful that He makes it worth it :)