The Lord Is My Home: The Blessings of Friends

Right after the BWO Team left we had the dear Weed family and sweet Angela Greco come down to visit and serve for a few days.

Angela, Kellie, Mrs. Carolyn, and Randy

Just to preface this sweet family for my readers, Jamie Weed was my very first friend after I moved those long 8 years ago to Lexington Middle School. I moved from a class size of a whopping 13 to an overwhelming 500+. Sweet Jamie saw my terrified face and awkward stance those many mornings before school when I was clueless to the new ways of a public school- and she in her great kindness and mercy took pity on me. We've been friends ever since and more than that, her family took a liking to me too. Thank you guys for all your hospitality and encouragement over the years, and more importantly- the love you have for my parents! We love you guys!

Now Angela's turn (don't you worry, I wasn't going to forget about you sweet girl). Angela is seriously the sister I never had. Over those awkward high school years and beginning stages of college the Greco's became my second family. We like to say it was Jesus and their love for me, but we all know it was their extremely loud Northern flare-- wait.. no it was totally their ability to cook. They are Italians from New Jersey. Yea. Fist pump.

Angela's brother Johnny is one of my best friends and as Johnny and I ventured together in Christ, Angela's relationship and I began to grow. Every time I come home I love going to see her and hanging out with her. Typical us: coffee dates, dressing up, and talking about Jesus, life, and boys.

Love her!

So needless to say- this group's visit was very encouraging and brought a sweet taste of home.

Over their week here they served in many ways both in the community and towards the Barrett family. They were able to see a lot of Jaco and experience a lot of Costa Rica. Some of the things included cleaning up the Kid's Club park and repainting the benches:

Visiting the River Bed, where conditions are extremely poor...

Putting in a stove for a dear woman on the North Side of town, helping with Kids Club, and loving on the boys here greatly:

At the NorthSide installing the Stove- one the locals cut open some Coconuts for us- called Pipa juice!

At the Park

At Los Lagos- we found a Burger King and got ice cream and CROWNS! woohoo, the boys loved them!

Later in the week we took an adventure to a resort in the North part of the country called Los Lagos. It's a beautiful drive through the cool air covered mountains covered in farms of different types of plants. The resort is right near Volcan Arenal. Here I saw my first volcano ever! Not to mention it is still active. The resort has turned the place into an awesome spot for vacation. There are natural hot springs with slides, a butterfly farm, an alligator farm, a turtle farm, beautiful gardens, and a hike up to overlook the volcano. One afternoon we decided to take the hike up to the overlook. The clouds cover it most of the time, but the Lord showed us favor this week and we were able to get full views of it. As soon as we hiked down, the clouds recovered it. However... we were able to hear it bubbling ( seriously thought it was erupting...craziest thing everrr)

I ventured to my outdoor ways one afternoon and dragged a mattress out onto the porch. It was nice and cool outside. I took advantage and took a glorious nap listening to the rain fall right before dinner. If I knew more about the insects and bugs I might have slept out there for the night-- buttt I like my life and understand I can die from a dang misquito.

The Barretts in front of the overlook

Angela and I outside the hotel

One afternoon we were able to go to the Canopy Tour. How hilariously fun. Mr. Randy is the Man.. and so is Mrs. Carolyn. It has such great views and the people that work there are awesome. We laughed a whole lot and even saw monkeys (even though Mrs. Carolyn was convinced they were going to attack her face and rip it to shreds... haha for real)

scareeeeed, but not.

It was so nice having the girls here. We took mini-adventures of our own a few nights. We went out for coffee, went surfing, and made videos-- not to mention the bedbunk talk till 4 in the morning. So great....! Miss you girls and can't wait to see Step Up 3d with youuuuu!