So, here' a update on what's happened since my last blog in December.

Christmas was wonderful and I had a great time with my family.  I got my sisters a little something from almost every country and gave it to them while a little slide show of my pictures played.  We then went a spent the rest of the morning at the beach..even though it was only 35 degrees!  I enjoyed being able to see my extended family for Chrismas this year as well in Michigan.

the Walcott girls and soaking up the rays!!

After that, I hung out with my sisters a lot, spent a weekend at my grandparents and have spent the most of the time looking for a full time job.  I've had the hardest time finding anything open in this area.  I've interviewed for big, salary positions to little, hourly positions, and have come up with nothing.  So, I'm wondering if I'm where I should be at and currently praying and working on listening to see where God wants me. 

I do have to admit though that I love having the time off...and not in the lazy, I don't want to work sense, but enjoying life for life.  I think sometimes we just complicate it ourselves and this is great time to remind me to take time out for things I like to do.  I've enjoyed going out on long walks each day and not having to be home at a certain time.  Or reading a good book, watching a movie (I think I've caught up on all of them, thanks to the library), cleaning out more boxes of my stuff in the garage or catching up on my "to do" list...and am working on keeping in better contact with people. (this is HUGE for me)  There are sometimes where I really wish I had a job, (okay a lot of the time) for the sake of having some "normalacy" here at home and someone to talk to, (my mother says I need a friend, which means...I'm very talkative at home) but I'm also enjoying this season of life.

I also want to add here that I just got a part time job and start Tuesday.  The hard part is it's a on call position, so I'm never sure of how much time I'll get.  However, I'm a non-medical home companion to the elderly.  This basically means I get paid to be a friend!  I get to take them on errands, help them with any housework, take them to sporting events, scrapbook, play games with them or just talk to them.  I'm really excited about it!

As always, I would love to see anyone if you happend to pass through the area.  I promise, I'll shorten my slide show, so you don't have to sit for long!  And I'll be in the Carlisle, PA  area this weekend, from Sat afternoon till Mon morning.  I'm sorry this is such short notice, but hopefully I can catch up with some of you out that way during that time!!  Once things get settled, I'll make another trip, so if you miss me this time, I promise I'll see you next time!

Love and miss ya! 

After reading through my journal, I found that I had started a list called, THINGS I'VE LEARNED...OR WON'T FORGET.  I thought it might be kind of fun to share with you.  Some of them are pretty random, but I thought post, pre, and racers now might be able to relate, can add onto or see what they can look forward to. 

So, here there are in no particular order...

-Skype and animal crackers are wonderful, cheap things

-"mine" no longer exists

-best things to take...lots of PB and body spray

-eating the best pizza in the world in Nicaragua and spending time with Nessa

-washing my hair under a well pump in Mozambique

-trips to Huarez in Peru...the mountains...

-learning how to cut a fresh pineapple

-sitting on a flat be truck on bags on food, driving through Africa at night and seeing the stars outline the African landscape and thinking this is the life of a missionary.

-worship under the stars on Casa Mateo's roof (Nicaragua)

-different kind of ice cream in different places

-having a little baby fall asleep in my arms in Mozambique

-getting laughed at by locals when trying to hand wash my clothes...and still not getting it right

-different modes of transportation

-how many boxes of All-Bran the squad can go through

-TP, TP, TP- no one brings it (went through 72 rolls)

-eating coconut in it's "original" form (same with fish, no fishsticks here)

-riding in a safari vechicle

-washing hair under a watering can

-how to make a "come here" motion

-washing walls and floors of bathrooms with a toothbrush

-running through the streets in Bangkok

-trying to eat with chopsticks

-watching a American movie in a place that doesn't get American jokes (south africa)

-coloring

-Girls go behind the truck, boys in front (this would be bathroom stops in Moz)

-taking out bar girls

-"jumping" onto a bus

-eating with a spoon and pushing things up with a fork

-theaters that have lazy-boy style seating(thailand)

-my love for independence

-not having to translate- translations

-living inside of barbed wire areas

-playing capture the flag- in the dark, in black (mozambique)

-cold showers

-picking thorns out of my skirt while coming out of the bush after coming using the bathroom

-big treats of the week being a coke and some lemon filled cookies

-people enjoying "the hotel" (my tent..a six person tent)

-being splattered by birds 4 times (2 in Peru,1 in Argentina, 1 during worship AT NIGHT in Mozambique)

-second guessing drinking the water

-not having people run into things or you because they are staring at the white chic

-watching Monk with Spanish subtitles in China

-the phrase "this is how we roll"

-learing about each other on long trips

-"Whoa, are you sure this is really Minute Maid?"

After being away from blogging for two months, I've decided to do a couple more blogs, just as quick updates.

When I first got back from the World Race, a friend approached me and asked if I'd be willing to talk about my experiences in Asia for a women's Bible study.  The theme for the night would be ringing in the Chinese New Year.

So, last Thursday, I celebrated the Chinese New Year with over 40 women of all ages.  We had a awesome Chinese potluck and then after dinner I got up, spoke and shared pictures about my experiences in Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong and China.  I found out that it's very hard to squeeze Asia into 30 minutes, but is possible!! 

It cracked me up though cause during the question and answer time, I saw a couple of women move back by the doors.  Afterwords, they told me that they really needed to use the bathroom, but found my talk so interesting, that they didn't want to miss out!  I got to personally talk with a many of the ladies afterwords who encouraged me to do more with the presentations (many said they could have sat for another 30 min. listening to more)  Another neat thing is that I was invited to speak on March 30th for a service.  They will be talking about breaking the chains and my part in the service will be talking about the sex trade and Nightlight in Bangkok.  

The night overall was a huge encouagement and a high for me.  I was really blessed when they took up a love offering for me at the end to help me out with post race life.  So, to the ladies at WEB, thank you for the enjoyable night!!  Enjoy the pictures!!!

(I feel like I just started the Race.  Apparently, even after 14 months of doing this, I still don't know how to upload photos.  I'm using a new disc this time and then thought I solved the problem, but they are still coming up sideways.  Sorry!) 

I've had quite a few e-mails, phone calls, text messages, etc welcoming me back home and asking how is it to be back.  To be honest, it's a mixture of emotions and it's something that I haven't fully thought about, because I haven't really fully debriefed myself yet.  The first things that come to my head to describe it is sometimes I just want to cry.  Or I do break into tears after looking at my pictures, listening to a song and putting together a slide show in my head.  It's a story, my story.

Sometimes I want to just talk to someone about what happened for hours..maybe even days, but then I don't want to call anyone and rarely answer my phone.  Sometimes someone will say something like, "you know, when you were in Peru..." and I'm like "Was I really in Peru this year?  That was me?" 

It's nice to see everyone, but I'm ready to leave again.  As I told one friend, let me go for 6 months, give me two weeks back here and then send me out again and I could probably do this for the rest of my life.  Yet, I also realize that I'm suppose to be here for a year-that's the season I'm in right now, so I need to breathe it in fully and take advantage of the time here...but that's sometimes easier said than done.

It's also rough cause "home" is not "home" for me.  I'm currently living with my parents, who moved to Ohio about 4 years ago.  I was living on my own in Pennsylvania before the trip.  My friends, church family, and work friends are 6 hours away, and I don't know a soul here!  It's made me realize what life is like for other missionaries coming off the field.  Whether it's for a year, or indefinatly, I realized now what they go through.  They've most likely, also sold their house, car,etc and have to readjust not only to the culture, but the freedom they lost, the friends moving on, etc.  They can always see them or they might be given a car, a house, where they can go whenever they want, but it's different and there are adjustments that they have to make within them. 

With all that being said, I do appreciate living with my parents. It nice to be able to go in my room and close the door when I want to be alone, and it's nice to come out and just start talking.  I'm loving the  "daddy/daughter dates" and constantly go out on road trips with my mom.  Sunday nights are "Amazing Race" nights.  I watch it with them, which is fun cause it brings back different memories.  As I told them, I'm glad I didn't come back and am living alone. 

All serious-ness aside, here are some "fun or interesting" little things (hopefully they will make you laugh) I've had to think about or adjust to since I've come back...  

How often I have to make split second decisions- It's gotten better in the past few weeks, but at first it was like does the paper go in the toilet or trash?  Oh yea, I can flush it... or  Can I drink out of the tap? as the water is running.

Directions are given by street names- I'm a very visual person, so it was easy for me to get around abroad.  Directions usually went like to go to the guy's house at the end of the alley, the one with a couple of goats and chickens in the yard and turn right.  Walk past the butcher shop to the...  Here it's like take Susan street till you reach Oak Ave.  Then, turn right on Oak Ave...much more difficult!

Trouble filling out resumes and applications-  I'm one that has a hard time using big words on my resume, like "participated in" instead of "did" or "supervised" instead of "watched"  So, with all the incredible "jobs" we had, how do you describe the past year?  I spent my days sitting in the dirt with a bunch of little grimy kids on my lap, scratching their back as they ran their sticky fingers in my hair ...becomes I participated in activities where I was given the opportunity to bond and develop a rapport with underpriveleged children and adolecesents in multiple countries.  hmmmm...it's just not the same....

I'm not the only one who has to readjust...I confuse the dog- I guess to her when someone puts on a sweatshirt, it means they are going to take her on a walk..to me, it means I'm cold.  Or, when I eat banannas or lettuce and her head is in my lap, apparently she wants something...It took me a while to give in.  Then again, who could deny a face like this..

Watching what I wear-  No more "pick up a shirt and see if it smells...if not, wear it for the 4th day in a row" times.  I also have worry about matching!  No more mixing the blue top with the black skirt and since it's after Labor Day, I had to put away all my white stuff! :)

 The phantom vibrating phone- In the beginning, there were times where it felt (or sounded like) a cell phone was vibrating on or next to you.  We kind of looked around, patted ourselves down,  only to remember that our phones were at home.  It was like the phantom phone ring.  Now, it takes a while for it to register (or someone has to say)...Hey, that is my(your) phone!

No more translating translations-  Where it took a couple times to read a sign to figure out exactly what they wanted to say.  China was famous for this!!  I have quite a few pictures of different "translations"

Customer service and what line?- This hit in the first few days I got back.  I think it was because we were so use to shopping in open air markets that you always had people hounding you to buy stuff.  You never had to get someone's attention to help you out.  When you paid for stuff, you never had to wait, especially not in a line!!

And some things haven't changed....

People drive you everywhere- I will be borrowing what was formerly my car, from my parents, but we are still waiting on the title, insurance, inspection, etc. for now. So I'm still being driven places by someone else!

Why are you taking that big bag? (thanks, dad) - I'm so use to packing a day pack, that it comes naturally.  And since I'm left waiting to get rides from place to place, it still comes in handy!  I'm so used to "hurry up and wait", (and we did a lots of waiting) that my bag still consists of a book, notebook, couple of pens, camera (you never know...), toilet paper (yep), Christmas cards, stamps, and a resume folder!  And that's just my bag, not my purse. 

These are from our debreif times before and after China in Hong Kong and on the way home...

Hong Kong Disney

bbq dinner with January and June racers

worship on the roof-Hong Kong

Michelle, me, Tana in the subway

flower market in Hong Kong

despite my year with birds, I went to the bird market- Hong Kong

This is Finding Nemo... I visited the goldfish market where there are tons of little baggies full of fish, hanging on a wall and you just pick one and pay for it.  Much easier than trying to pluck one out of a tank with a little net.

The world's longest esculator-it takes 20 minutes to ride it to the top and then you walk down along the street next to it

We also had Girl's night as one of our final nights there.  As part of my story, (see earlier blog, Why I'm on the World Race) I had been growing out my hair since the whole ordeal started.  So, for Girl's night, I decided to chop it off and lose the weight!!.  This was more than just a haircut to me and it was neat (and a great encouragement) to be around my sisters.  Special thanks to Candice for giving me a cool new do!!  

And finally...coming home!!!

50 people and 11 months worth of stuff!!

final leg home -Taiwan to LAX

Arriving at LAX in Los Angeles...and home in Cleveland, OH!!  (Youngest sister, Mary Kate, welcoming me with a t-shirt she made as a prop for her speech about me in her speech class and me with all my stuff!

A couple more blogs to come...

Aghhhh!!!!  This is coming out a lot later than I told most of  you it would!!  I promised some of you that I'd blog a couple days after getting back.  Sorry about that!!  However, here are a couple of photo blogs!!!  One is of our ministry time in China.  While there, we were ministering to the missionaries that lived there.   We also checked out some places for them to tell their backpacking friends about, at the restraunt they owned.  (hence the camping and riding the horse in the mountain pics. ) The next one will be of Hong Kong. Enjoy!

PHOTOS OF  CHINA

loading our stuff in the sleeper car-the best way to travel!!!

on my bunk in a sleeper car with Agapetos

why we pray that our luggage makes it to the same place we are going to

afternoon hike in the mountains

on the Tibetan plateau

part of the monestary- China

the men in China will sit around all day playing this game

 the guys starting a fire while camping in the mountains

 snow on our tent in the morning

 mountains in the morning

 a new friend, a yak, who later became our lunch (just kidding..though we did eat yak and it isn't bad)

 our favorite (and cheap!) thing to eat.  It's steam cooked and has different fillings in it.  This one is all veggies.  You dunk it in some hot sauce, and yum!!

 a little boy I played with and his grandfather

 at the park

horseback riding in the mountains of China

 eating lunch

 on the Great Wall with Mal, and Tana

 more of the Wall

Lunch!!

pics in Beijing in Tiannemen Square

what it looks like when we travel!

Here are some pics from my birthday!!

  my "birthday bed" with balloons all over

 birthday cake!

cake #1

 cake #2

 Michelle, me and Tana

Plus a trip to Disneyland in Hong Kong today!!!

Just to let everyone know, I WILL NOT be able to have any internet access in China.  So, I will not be back online to post blogs, check e-mail (both address) or anything else till November 14!!!  Don't worry, we are okay, but you won't hear from us till then.  I'm also still short of my goal by about $1,000!  If you can help, please click the Support me button to the left of this screen or see the physical address on my blog titled "I've almost Made It"  Thanks guys!!!  I love you, miss you and will see ya soon!!!

October 12th is a day of celebration.  My big plans for the day are to get my haircut and wear some make-up.  This may sound like a ordinary thing to most, but for me, it's something different.

This year God has really been showing me what true beauty is and where it's found.  At home, I could spend hours in the morning getting ready for the day.  I was so focused on how I looked outwardly, that I forgot what was on the inside.  On top of that, I would often find myself preparing physically, but not spiritually.  Devotions happened if I got ready on time and had a couple of extra minutes to spare. 

So, as I prepared for the trip, I felt like God was telling me that he wanted to show me a whole new side of beauty.  At first, I thought, no problem...I don't mind.  But usually when God wants to show you something or teach you a lesson, it's not  "a easy road to walk."   I ended up not being able to bring hardly any make-up or hair things (and my hair is long, which is unusual for me) due to my pack being full :) and something that I could easily get over.  But then, I found out that I would not be able to wear my contacts til close to the end of the race.  That was the pill that was hard to swallow.

 The first few months were rough.  I found myself constantly comparing myself to other girls or saying, well, normally it's different...without really taking in what God was trying to teach me.  Then Argentina hit, where not only was I splattered on by birds a lot, but also burned off a chunk of hair.  It was then that God was really grabbing my attention.  It's just the outward me that mattered.  Not how I looked or how much attention I got, but just me was what He was entralled by.  Not only was there beauty in me, it was then that I discovered that beauty that dwells in the people and places that I'm around. (like finding beauty in a trash dump)

As much as I looked forward to the day that I would "change", I was also beginning to love me for me.  So, tomorrow is not only celebrating the lesson that I'm continuing to learn, but also a time to show where I've come from in a different sense as well, a sense of healing.  This is my story...

In July 2005, I was given pretty much a clean bill of health.  With in 2 weeks of that Dr's appointment, my life dramatically changed.  I was taken to the hospital one night with intense pain in my abdomen.  They discovered that I was passing a kidney stone, but the x-rays showed some other things as well.  It seemed that I had a "mass or tumor" along with a cyst.  I was sent to a specialist and from there it was a downhill mess.

Instead of getting better, I got worse.  I was put on this drug and that drug.  I went through every kind of medical test you could go through.  It was draining physically (most of the doctor's offices were 30minutes away from where I lived) financially and emotionally.  Due to my exhaustion, I hardly ate, and lost 20 pounds in 3 months, which for someone my size, is not good.  I was wondereing where God was in all of this and why He let me live in this kind of condition.  To put it simply, what I was experiencing was exactly like the woman in Matthew 9.  It took it's toll on me and I remember in November, lying on the floor of my apartment, in pain and just wondering how I could live the rest of my life like this.

Christmas came and went with the hope things would change in the new year.  At first, they didn't.  By then, I was seeing 5 specialist for different issues that had started popping up.  Each had their own way of healing me.  I was even slated for surgery.  My friends at home prayed for healing, and that something good would come out of this.

I was also  feeling something else at the time, which I only shared with a couple of people.  I felt like God was calling me into missions.  I had wanted to do that since I was little, but came up with excuse after excuse of why I couldn't or shouldn't.  When I was young, I loved watching the slide shows of missionaries when they came to our church and to hear of all their experiences.  I fought the feeling over and over again, then I started to look missions trips up on the web, came across The World Race and started to follow the 2006 racers.  I felt like I was suppose to do more than just follow them though.  I felt like I was actually suppose to apply for the Race, which made absoultly no sense in my condition.  

The "interesting thing" is that the more I looked into it and started to apply, the better I was physically getting and feeling.  Then, the surgery that I was suppose to have, got cancelled because she had a conflict.  I went for counseling( to a christian counselor) told her my thoughts on going into missions.  She told me she didn't think it was a wise idea seeing the state I was in.  I, however, knew that the plans that God spoke earlier, were the plans for my life.  I learned a lot about trust in the next few weeks, and even though it wasn't what seemed right in the eyes of many, I applied for the race, and was accepted.

At first, I was not thrilled about being accepted.  I was still trying to figure out why was I suppose to do this and why now?  I wanted to call them back and tell them it was a big mistake....I had no idea what I was thinking and that this just would not be possible for me to do.  Talking to my parents about it would be the confirming factor that I was not suppose to go.  Who would let their kid travel all over the world for a year, right?

Instead, my parents told me, that if that was what I believed I should do, then I should be obident and do it.  I came back home  (to PA), told my close girlfriends that I was going, but I had no idea how this would all work.  How would I do this physically and financially?  They told me it wasn't for me to figure out, but to trust God that everything would work out.

And it has! :)   I was signed off by all the doctors to be able to go on the trip.  In another way, all of them also encouraged me to do the trip and I got to talk to many medical staff personel in hospitals, dr's offices, etc. of what I was doing.  Physically, I've been holding up much better than I ever thought.  I've had my boughts with weird things (like root canals and fungus :) but overall, I'm feeling better now than I have in literally a couple of years.   

To date, I have hardly put any money down on this trip.   From my support, to my supplies, and some preparation things, everything has been taken care of by others.  I'm still a little shy of the overall goal, but believe that will work it's self out as well. 

So, tomorrow, I'm not changing because I'm turning 30 and having a mid-life crisis. :)  But to share of where I've been and how God has taken care of me through everything and the healing that has come from that.  

Sometimes things in life just don't make sense.  Often there's pain and hurt that come from these times, yet there's also beauty that rises from the ashes.  For those that see what we are doing, would love to do something like this, but think it's impossible because of this or that, my story is proof that anything is possible.  It just requires taking a little step... 

No, this isn't a blog about the band...it's really about my lips.

I think at this point, I might be in the lead with weird health issue this year.  At least with this one, I got to visit the best hospital in Asia!

It all started on Friday when i noticed little bumps on my lips.  It kind of looked like a white film in the corners of my mouth.  I thought it might be a allergic reaction to something I ate and hoped it would go away.  However, by Monday the little bumps were all over my tongue, the inside of my mouth, and it hurt to swallow.  On top of that, I seemed to have a runny nose, stomach ache and just did not feel well. 

This was bad timing (in my opnion) because this Friday is a day of celebration for me in many ways, which some of it has to do with my looks.  (more on that in my blog My Story, that I'll post tomorrow)  Plus, it had been a wonderful month, so emotionally, I was down that everything had come to a close and honestly, didn't want to go another month on the race.  I was tired, worn out and wanted comfort, even though I now live outside of my comfort zone.   I just wanted to go home, put my head on my mom's lap and have her rub my back and run her fingers through my hair and listen to me jabber away and tell me that everything was going to be okay.

Monday night, when we arrived in Bangkok,  I asked one of the girls, who is a nurse what she thought it was and told her everything else that was going on as well.  When she looked it up in her medical guide, she said, "now, I don't want to freak you out, but it says in here that it could be the beginning stages of measles." AGHHH!!!

So, Tuesday we decided that I should get checked out by a doctor.  By now, it had started to spread down my throat, I couldn't swallow and my lips and tongue felt like they were on fire.  The day began with a trip to the Chinese embasy to get a visa.  The whole way there I was really not feeling well and for some reason, I got really upset while waiting in line for the visas.  I think I just was not ready to move on to China.  While they were processing the visas, we decided to go down the street to what we refer to here as "Thailand Target".  While I was waiting for everyone else, Shawna came over to me and started talking.  And then it happened...I fell apart in the middle of Target.  I sat there crying about all the issues that were going on and how I just wanted to go home.  She prayed for me and Erin, Youell and I left then to go to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital, I was seen by a doctor who first of all ruled out measles.  He then thought it was a fungus, but had never seen anything like it before.  He refered me to a specialist, who took some samples and confirmed that it was a fungus (I even got to see it under the microscope.  Oh boy!!!)  He kept asking me though "Are you healthy?" and " are you on any medication?"  He told me that I shouldn't have it if I was healty.  So, then I went to the lab to have some blood work done.  An hour later, the tests came back negative.  What he thinks happened is that I've been on and off doxy (for malaria) from the beginning of the year(they tell you not to do that...now I know why).  When you go on and off, it weakens your immune system.  So, I probably touched something and then touched my mouth.  Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but because my immune system is weaker, it hit me harder.

So, I'm on some meds.  My lips and tongue are still a blazing, (I almost cried today while eating thousand island dressing because it hurt so bad) but actually this has turned my thinking totally around and I'm actually looking forward to finishing with everyone else on November 19 in China! 

Pictures from the proviences

CEH staff and daily activities

Our roommate Annette