So much for which to be thankful

Wow...what a crazy couple of weeks it's been. Where to start? Well, first, I graduated from college! Woo hoo!! I was pretty excited to finish up my undergraduate degree with a 4.0 semester, eating some good food with family and friends, and celebrating Christmas. I was extremely blessed this Christmas and loved the time spent with my family. All in all it was an incredibly successful Christmas season!

After Christmas, I headed down to one of my favorite places in the world, UTRI, to help out with the huge Navidad a Reynosa celebration. UTRI worked together with over 100 people from 7 states that came down to help the people of Reynosa have an incredible Christmas. It was an awesome day! We gave away 20 or 30 bikes and a car along with food and toys for all the people and children that came. It was cold, rainy and muddy, and I spent most of the day at the border helping Clay (one of the directors of UTRI) deal with some paperwork issues, but despite all of that, God showed up and the people in the dump of Reynosa were blessed. We were all blessed as well. I loved hearing the stories from everyone that participated in the event and how amazing things happened despite the rain, mud, language barriers, and cold weather. Over 100 people were saved, and over 1,000 people from the dump came to the event.

The highlight of the 4 days for me was a little girl named Gabriela. Gabriela is 11 years old and was born and raised in the dump in Reynosa. I met her the day before the event, and we talked about little things such as how many brothers and sisters she has, her favorite subjects in school, and what she wanted to be when she grew up. She had very little, and she lived in a little cinderblock house. On the day of the event, she wasn't even wearing a jacket. I arrived at the event late and had forgotten about talking to her the day before, but she found me and asked me to wait for her because she had something for me. She had been looking for me all day. I waited for a few minutes, and she returned with a stuffed animal and a drawing she had colored for me. On the drawing, she wrote in Spanish: To: Amalia, From: Gaby, Christ loves you. She looked up at me smiling, and I was truly touched. I spent very little time with her and yet, she wanted to bless me. Gabriela is a living example of Christ's love.

Spending time in the dump at Reynosa is one of the most humbling experiences I've ever been a part of. I love those people, and I love that country. The people there have so little in the way of material things, food and money but there is one thing they will never be short on: Love. I pray that I could love people the way Gabriela loved me with her beautiful drawing and gift.

What an awesome 4 days down at UTRI! I love that place, and I can't wait to go back!

So, it's the last day of 2009, and I'm doing my best to reflect on what's happened in my life over the past year, but it's kind of difficult. It's been a crazy year! So much has happened that I can't remember half of it. I know it's been a year of acknowledging change in my life. The changes haven't actually happened, yet, but I know that they're going to be happening very soon in 2010, so I spent the past 6 months coming to terms with that and trying to figure out how to adapt.

I'm looking forward to 2010. A new decade is beginning, and I'm going to embrace it with open arms. It's time to put the past in the past and leave it there. My goal for 2010 is to make it the best year in my life thus far. In January I'll be turning 23, and I have so much to look forward to in life. Of course, I have the normal New Year's Resolutions of losing weight/getting in shape and being less stressed, but I think my main resolution is just going to be: happiness. I want to be happy this next year no matter what changes happen or what life throws my way. I'm so thankful for such a blessed 2009, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to experience 2010.

2010, you're going to be an awesome year... :-)

Lots of love to everyone and Happy New Year,

Amelia

Almost there...

So...it's approximately 17 days until graduation, and I am so ready to be finished with school this semester! I'm stressed to the max with presentations, papers, and all the other little odds and ends that need to get done before December 19th. I can't believe it's almost already here! It's December, folks! How did that happen?!

Anyway, I gave 2 presentations today, I have another one next Tuesday and I'm pretty sure I'm functioning on about 3 hours of sleep right now...oh well. I'll be sleeping tonight for sure. :-)

Part of me is starting to get excited about this whole graduation thing. I've got some family coming in to watch it and some of my friends are coming to support me as well. It's going to be a fun day. This is what I'm focusing on. Yes, I don't have a clear plan for my future, and yes, I'm terrified of the real world, but on December 19th, I'm just going to focus on the fact that I will have a college degree. I'm pretty proud of myself for making it all the way through. :-)

I've been accepted at Tech to do some graduate work in the spring, so I'll be taking 9 hours of graduate courses. I'm kind of looking at it as a trial run...will I like grad school or not? We shall see...I'm excited about the classes I'm taking, though. For the first time in a long time, I'm going to be taking classes because I want to, not because I have to. Wish me luck!

In other news, I'm leaving the country again!! Yay!! I'm going to be headed down to Alamo, TX/Reynosa, MX the day after Christmas to help with a huge Christmas event at the place where I interned this summer. I'm super excited! We're going to be holding Navidad (the word for Christmas in Spanish) at one of the dumps right across the border. I think they're expecting to feed 3,000 Mexicans! We're going to be giving toys to kids and some sewing machines to a few of the women. I can't wait to see how God moves during this event! I'm also super stoked to use my Spanish again with native speakers. I guess I'm just pumped in general. It's going to be amazing, and I was starting to get cabin fever...it's time for me to leave the country again, lol.

I hope everyone is doing well and had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Christmas is right around the corner, so I hope everyone is excited and ready for a wonderful holiday season. Remember what it's all about! :-)

Love, hope, peace,
Amelia

The tunes of decisions....

Yes, I know, it's been a while. I seem to have forgotten that I had a blog there for a bit. I remembered today, though, so I do believe I will post something.

Things have been going pretty well I suppose. I received my cap and gown the other day, for free amazingly enough, and I'm having mixed feelings. Part of me can't wait to be done and the other part can't believe that I'm almost a college graduate. The next part of my life is not planned out. For the first time in 22 years, there is no plan. In short, I'm freaking out. I don't feel like college has prepared me for the real world.

Certain phrases keep coming to mind like, "The world is your oyster," or "Grab the bull by the horns," but honestly, having the freedom to do whatever I want and go in whatever direction I want to go is a little daunting. If I had a definite direction, I would probably be a little less freaked out, but I don't. I have ideas, but how do I know which idea is the right one? How do I know when I make a right decision? Aren't these decisions that could affect the rest of my life?!

Anyway, I'm sure I'm being a little melodramatic about this whole thing, but it's just something that's weighing heavily on my mind. For right now, I've made the decision to stay in Cookeville for another semester and take a class that I would need for Grad school. Is this the right decision? I have no clue, but it's a decision, and at this point I'm glad I'm finally deciding about something. I don't remember ever being this indecisive, but maybe I always was...

In other news, I've played one gig this semester with two more coming up. Next Friday I'm going to be playing as part of a fundraiser for TOMS shoes. For every pair of shoes bought from it, TOMS gives a pair of shoes to a child in a third-world country. It's definitely a worthy cause, and I'm excited to be a part of it! My other gig is on November 14, and I'm pretty excited about that one, too.

Fall is definitely here in Tennessee and in honor of that, and Halloween, my roommates and I are throwing a Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza on Saturday night! We're all pretty excited, and I'm definitely looking forward to spending an evening with friends and just relaxing. I think my mind needs to get away...lol...as do I...maybe I should plan a trip or something. The traveling bug always seems to keep biting me. :-)

Hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to update again soon!

Lots of love,
Amelia