Lists

Things that happened since my last blog post:

I went to

• Ronda
• Madrid
• Bilbao
• Port Aventura
• Barcelona
• Madrid
• Sierra Nevada

  

  Bilbao

Port Aventura

I saw

• Architecture
• Guggenheim
• Sagrada Familia
• Casa Milà/La Pedrera
• Casa Batlló
• Park Guell
• Movies
• Les Miserables
• The Hobbit
• Paintings 
• Picasso's Guernica in Reina Sofia
• Goyas, Rembrandts, Rubens, Velazquezes, and El Grecos in the Prado 

Getting a silly caricature done in Park Guell

La Pederera by Gaudi

Sarah and Me at the Sagrada Familia

 Books I've read

• Perks of Being a Wallflower
• Divergent
• Insurgent
• One Hundred Years of Solitude
• Catcher in the Rye
• Breaking Free (in the process)

I have

• said goodbyes to friends that went back to the States
• said hello to the Galyens who are finally back in Granada
• had a job interview for an additional teaching position
• had my first boxing class with Caro and found muscles I didn't know I had
• started an application for renewing my contract
• started an application for a justice oriented job in the States.
• become an aunt to baby Sofie Marie

Me talking to Sofs on the phone

Ok I'm done with lists.

Each week life kept compounding and I have this thing where I don't like to write out of order. So rather than writing the blog I was inspired to write I kept stopping myself until I wrote the one that "should" be written first. Now here I am two months later. My apologies.

I will say 2013 really does feel completely different from 2012. I'm growing, failing, and learning. And my heart has been full more often than not.

I did make New Year's Resolutions which I'm not going to share here except for one. Back track: the Friday before my friend Sarah and I left for our Christmas gallivanting, we went to the Youth/YA service at our church. Angel, one of the leaders, made a comment about a vision someone shared earlier in the week. And while he was sharing it I believed him. Without a single doubt.  For about three seconds.

Then my cynicism crept in. But those three seconds catalyzed my faith unlike almost anything else I've encountered. I saw what childlike faith in my life could look like . I saw who I could be if I truly trusted God. I saw what God could and would do with servants that believed He is who He says He is. And while I'm wary to sensationalize emotions, I experienced  an almost unparalleled joy, peace, and hope in God. Like I mentioned earlier I'm reading Breaking Free, and Beth Moore writes that peace follows authority.  It was so incredible to trust God's authority and experience the peace and joy that accompanies it, even if it was only for three seconds.

Since then my prayer has been, "I believe, help my unbelief."  My resolution and goal this year is simply believe God. It may sound hollow and generic, but now that I've touched a faith that could move mountains I don't think I can stop until I touch it again.

Cheers 2013!  It's good to see you.

Noemi and Me at New Year's

Caro, Simon, and Me at New Year's