Some random purely beautiful pictures of Costa Rica

My favorite bird, Toucans should be the Costa Rican animal. They can even fly perfectly with their huge beaks! So incredible!

I made it to my heart's home land!

Beautiful Volcan Arenal

Swimming like a fish

A lot has happened since I last blogged, so I'm sorry for the delay, but I plan to write a lot more and post more pictures. Wohoo for the plan! So as I explained in my last blog, Ali and I get to teach swim lessons to the kids at the local orphanage every Thrusday. At this orphanage there are about a total of 40 kids, 25 of which are old enough to play in the pool. There are two groups: the “grandes” and the “mas grandes”, which means “big kids” and the “bigger kids”.

The first week, we were able to take the grandes to the pool. There were a total of 10 kids in the pool, ranging from 2 to 5. All of the kids are required to first start out wearing life jackets in the pool until they can swim on their own proficiently. It was amazing to see their enthusiasm to get in the water. Especially after I heard that a few of the kids were completely terrified of even getting into a bathtub when they first arrived at the orphanage. One boy in peculiar, named Joseph, wouldn’t even get near a bathtub a couple years ago and now he is jumping into the pool like it was his home. So incredible.

A 2-year girl named, Pricilla, was pretty scared of the water. When the water even got remotely close to her face she would start to whine. So I started with letting her hold onto me and slowly she became willing to put her face in the water for a couple of seconds to try to blow bubbles. It was so precious to see her slowly embrace her fears and overcome them. Costa Ricans seem to have a lot of fears about things in life, fears that hold no truth. That is why many Costa Rican’s don’t know how to swim. In fact, all of the Costa Rican caretakers at the orphanage don’t know how to swim, and were asking us if we would be willing to teach them also! Oh how awesome that would be, I would love to do that, we just need to figure out time in our work schedules. But anyways, it’s sad to see the fears that the parents hold in their lives get passed onto their children. So I pray that the children can be freed from these empty fears, if anything from their fear of the water. Not to mention the incredibly beautiful beaches that surrounds Costa Rica, that I hope they can one day enjoy.

The following week, we went back to the orphanage for another week of swim time with the “mas grandes”, but then we turned out to have both the groups of kids for a total of 15 kids in the pool at once! I know it sounds like chaos, and believe me it was at the brink of chaos at times, but great fun nonetheless. During our little session, we were able to show the kids how to blow bubbles, and how to kick while holding onto the wall. It was awesome to see some of the naturals swim so well on their own, something so fun to be apart of. The time that I get to spend with the kids is definitely expanding my love for them and my love for kids in general. I pray to develop the kind of love that the Lord calls me to have for these kids.

These are two lovely girls from the orphanage that I get to teach swimmming to :)

WoHoo! I get to teach swim lessons!

Ever since I can remember, I've always loved the water and especially swimming around in it. So it naturally amazed me that a lot people in Costa Rica don't learn to swim! Which is an oxymoron in itself, since Costa Rica has some of the most prettiest and best beaches in the world and yet the Costa Ricans who live here don't get in and play in the water!

So in a small attempt to fix this oxymoron, Ali and I will be able to teach swim lessons to some kids at a local orphanage here in Atenas. I am so excited for this opportunity to share my passion of swimming with the kids here! I will be sure to take cute pictures of some of these lessons to post here later. :)

Faithfulness beyond this world

Wow, so I would like to apologize for being such a bad blog writer. Well I hope my writing isn’t too bad or boring, but I definitely need to work on writing more frequently…

There are so many things that have been learning in the past couple of months. Its amazing how once you step out of what is familiar into a situation that is new and different, you become like a sponge soaking up new revelations that seem so clear now, but weren’t always that way…

To start out with- I’ve been learning more about the faithfulness of the Lord. He knows all of our needs even before we ask, as it says in the Bible we just need to look at how the Lord provides for the birds of the air and how He clothes the flowers of the earth so beautifully, and how the Lord cares so much more for us, His children, so we don’t need to worry. Yes, the Lord’s timing is very different from our timing, but thank goodness we have this hope in trusting that the Lord will provide!! So, a very recent example of this in my life is that I am very excited to say that I have received 97% of my total financial support in order to volunteer with eMi!! How awesome is that?! I praise the Lord for all you who have supported me both financially and prayerfully. Thank you so much!! I could not be here without your support.

Another aspect of life that the Lord has been changing in my heart about is what to do after this internship, and in turn what I truly desire to live for. Lets just say that the plans I had in my head have changed pretty drastically. When I first came down here, I was thinking that after this internship with eMi, Ali and I would try to go travel South America for while after and then return to Colorado and look for a job in Structural Engineering. I also was doubtful about what the Lord was calling me to do, I was worried that Engineering is not for me. But I’ve realized that it is so necessary to take life step by step, and to not pressure yourself to decide what you should do for the REST of your life, which it is easy to fall into that kind of thinking right after you graduate.

I've come to ask myself what do I live for? And what I desire for my answer to be is: to come to know and love the Lord and serve Him by serving others in love. So from this life objective, I've learned that all other things in this world seem so insignificant. I will not get my self worth from a grand job that I might someday have, so the pressure of figuring out what my profession will be for the REST of my life has thankfully become defused. "If I gain the whole world, but not have love, than I gain nothing." 1 Cor. 13

So since then I have felt that the Lord is calling me back to Colorado right after the internship and to see where He leads next. However, as always the Lord can continue to change whatever I think might be next…. so I’m not worried just wanna be ready for the ride. ☺