Screaming, Music, Jumping. . . A BIG greeting.

There was Dancing. . .

as Steve & Ryan gracefully and stylishly show

There was Music. . .

There was Ventriloquy or Ventriloquism. . .

( I wrote both words because neither has been used on this here blog and i like those words. . .fancy)

There was a drama that told a beautiful story. . .

And of course, there were beautiful kids filling the room

some older. . .

Some younger. . .

Lots of Kiddos. . .

There was a tour of their building. . .

lead by our college students in the Leadership Development Program

a.k.a one of my fav programs

And there were cutieeees like this little guy.

And this little guy, who just happened to be

A Doctor all day.

Why? because he was dreaming of what he WILL be one day.

There was lots of dreaming. . .

And then for Shannon and Mike, from California and a little girl in Colombia. . .

There was a Gift

A

BIG

GIFT

for them. . .

The Gift of Sponsorship!

You must head on over to Shannon to let her tell you the WHOLE story

and its a

b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l

Story!

Bogota , Colombia!

Here’s a little look at our first day AND a look at this beautiful country!!

Can’t wait to share more with you this week. . .

Meet Christian, the cutie in the red!

After each photo I would take of him ( and there were quite a few) he would run over to see the picture on my camera and then exclaim. . .

Bravo… bien…mas photos?

l.o.v.e.d  .  h.i.m

Be sure to follow my fellow tripmates. . .

@ryanoquinn

@jonesbones5 who is blogging over on the jonesbones5 blog

@stephwaldrop

@shawnakirk

@theroyscountry

@kellyburton & @rodburtonmusic

@blainelarsen

@ryanbom

@bigchaff & @solveigmusic

@spimicerio

And @sprimicerio a.k.a Shannon is blogging while we are here too! Check It Out!

We are about to leave for day two here. . .can’t wait to love on some sweet kiddos!

mas photos ( more photos) are on the way!

Continuing to pray with a heavy heart for the country, the people, the workers, the families. . . .

Senye,

Ala nou kontan

se pa nou k’ap kenbe ou

men se ou k’ap kenbe nou.

Lord,

How glad we are

that we don’t hold you,

but that you hold us.

I was with my friend Clint (aka @difted aka videographer extraordinaire ) last week in El Salvador.

We first met on a trip to Haiti in 2009 with Compassion.

Clint posted a video this morning ( from that trip in 2009)

that

is

breathtaking.

it so captures the beauty of Haiti and her people. . .

Continue to pray & give to Haiti

This was my 4th time there in a little over 6months!

And each time I leave, I go with a new & deeper love for that country!

This week was so refreshing. . .

beautiful scenery.

Breathtaking colors. . .

every door

wall

and window. . .

the excitement of the World Cup was everywhere

walking the streets and finding markets

or being serenaded in the street.

All of these things make my travels exciting but the thing that keeps me going are

these

little

faces.

spending time in their classes

walking in their neighborhoods

seeing what they see

visiting their homes

and meeting their families.

being there with them

And what keeps these little faces going. . .

their sponsors!

This trip I was so moved by the story of sponsors in lives of some of the kids I met

Meet Silvia

As soon as we arrived she had a hot pink journal with letters pouring out and pictures stuck to pages ( some stuck with gum)

Pictures like this one!

So hey there Teresa from Illinois!

Thank You.

Thank

You.

Silvia is bright, beautiful and dreams big dreams because of you!

I know you know this because I read your letters ( hope you dont mind) and

because Silvia told me she wants to be a teacher

just . like . you

And Angela. . .Hello!

I found tons of your family photos and sweet encouragements at Julia’s house in El Salvador

They covered the table

and there were 4 frames full of your pictures hanging on their walls

Julia and her mother were so proud to show them to me

each

and

every

one.

She thanks you for your encouragement in your letters and she loves getting postcards of the places you & your family visit.

She dreams of traveling one day too!

Hi. . .Mr. Soh in Korea,

I met sweet Milagro.

I love that when you heard her story ( in her letters) Her story of how she was in a fire as a baby and has had medical needs you didnt just read

You Lept!

Lept into action.

Milagro is doing amazing and is gaining strength with her new arm each day!

Did you know her name means

Miracle?

Yeah, its okay. . .

I cried at that too!

Our God is Amazing.

To my surprise one of the days I got to see Shaun‘s sponsor kiddo Yanci again!

I first met them on our Compassion Bloggers trip last fall

and I really cant put words into how awesome it was to see these two girls again!

Shaun. . .

The love Yanci and her sister Pamela have for you and your family is so BIG!!

And the gratefulness that Yanci’s dad has is overwhelming.

Did you know he is now a volunteer at their Compassion Project?

He thanks you for your encouragement!

They send Big Hugs.

Thankful.

“Remember The Times
Do You. Do You, Do You,
Do You,
Remember The Times”

So then I had to google that song and listen and watch some youtubes and 15 min later I am back!

Speaking of back. . .back to “Do you Remember” .

I started singing this to myself “Do you Remember the times. . .you used to blog keely oh oh keely oh?” I did . no lie. sang it. . .Out Loud and Proud!

Anyways I do remember and I do miss it! Both blogging and reading blogs. I opened my blog reader for the first time the other day and no lie there were 6,976 unread post in there. I marked all as “read” and was excited to see the new ones the next day and thankful I didnt have a weakness in my obsessiveness to feel the need to read through each . un . read . po . st!!

So here I am starting right back up  . . . fresh!

Since we last talked here’s a lil recap of my happenings. . .

Nashville . The flood

Thankful we did not have any damage in the flood ( We live downtown,but on a hill) however our neighborhood and many many others were badly damaged.

Here’s a quick little video from the morning of the flood in our area. . .

It has been so amazing to see the community of Nashville come together! There are people working endlessly on helping their neighbors rebuild!

It is beautiful!

A few of my Nashville Compassion Co-Workers & friends helping clean up a house!

The flood happened the first weekend in May and early that Sunday morning I had to catch a flight to El Salvador.

So after some tricky driving and back roads I made it to the flight!

It was hard to leave Nashville that morning but we had an amazing trip!

So many new friends and new stories!

ooooo AND how is zip-lining through the mountains of El Salvador for a new experience??

I changed my flight home from El Salvador to make a lil stop in The great state of Texas to visit my mom for Mothers Day!

And one of my best friends Cassie ( from Nashville) was in Houston visiting with her husband Nate AND (extra bonus) her parents from Australia!

Sooo We finally got to have our parents meet and hang. . .

The month of May flew by

and before I knew it We were on a plane headed to Texas for an amazing weekend retreat outside of San Antonio, in the hill country!

We floated in the Frio River

photo courtesy of CassieNash

We Read

We Relaxed

We Watched

We. . .

well I could go on and on but I wont today!

There is a whole post about the weekend on my “need to finish this post” list!

So that is To Be Continued!

And now we are at the end of June.

END OF JUNE.

Craziness!

The end of June is one of my favorite times of the year. . .

The 26th is our anniversary ( happy 6th this year!)

It’s also my daddy-O’s bday!

Happy 60th!!!

Thats a Big Time Bday!!

And Then . . .

The 27th is my Gabey’s bday!

Happy 35th!!!

Also a Big Time Bday!!

And now we are Caught Up!

See? that wasn’t too bad! We are all caught up! Did you stick with me?

Caught Up!

Which is also how I feel in life. . .

Caught Up!

well as caught up as you can be!

The last couple months have been so refreshing and such a great time at home with my cute huz and our fun friends!

Loving these moments!

Hope you are enjoying moments this summer!

and speaking of moments & summer & enjoying. . .

It’s crazy hot this year huh?

Thought I’d give a little photo of the day today!

Tonight we have our annual Artist Appreciation dinner with Compassion.

Its A time to say ThAnKyOu to the artists that partner with us throughout the year… Taking time out of the concerts to let their audience know about the work we do and how they can sponsor a kiddo!

One of my favorite parts of tonight is getting to see friends. . . Friends that I have known forever, friends that I work with plus friends that I feel like I have known forever because we took a trip to “wherever” together. Its a fun night of getting to see some of my favorite people.

This year I took a handful of my images and changed them to black and white and enlarged them to use for decorations tonight.

I love getting to see my images printed rather than just on my computer screen. Sometimes I wish I could be all “old school”  and print off every photo, but I guess my hard drive would be sad oh and my wallet considering I take a whole lot of photos on a trip.

Anyways I wanted to share the image that made me do a little squeal. . .

Might be the story of her family

Might be the size ( its 2ft x3ft)

Might be seeing the image in Black & White

Whatever it is. . . it is making me happy everytime I look over at it.

A. I am from Texas and B. I heart Texas and C. I miss Texas well I could go all the way to Z with the reasons, but I’ll save that for another time.

I spent Easter in Texas with my family and one of my favorite events of the year was going on at the same time. . . imagine that!

The Round Top Antique Festival. Twice a year ( the spring and fall) a few hundred thousand people ( just a few!) come to the smallest town in the state to peruse the cow pastures for their next treasure.

And then on Thursday is the best party in all of Round Top/Warrenton Texas. . .The Junk O Rama Prom O Rama hosted by the Junk Gypsy girls!!

Live Music. . .Two-Steppin. . .vintage dresses. . .Boots. . .Sangria. . .lights. . .Cowboy Hats. . .Rhinestones and Turquoise. . .

Jolie and Amie are two of the sweetest most creative gals. . .I have yet to see a THING of theirs that I don’t Love! One of their latest projects was a total re-do of an airstream trailer for Country girl. . . Miranda Lambert.

I have always wanted an airstream and well now. . .phew! Don’t mind me I’ll be back going to search craiglist. . YET again!

Is that not the coolest? Just added “Own and re-do an airstream” to the list.

Oh and speaking of Miranda Lambert she was there hanging at the prom watching all of us enjoy her awesome new wine!! Red 55 winery, seriously ya’ll … great sangria… great Texas Wine!

Thanks Jolie and Amie for a great night. . .as always!

Easter Sunday before we had to leave the bluebonnets were calling our name. . .

They are calling your name too aren’t they??

Anyways a family photo in the flowers was a must. . .

ahhh love them. love them.

I feel the only appropriate ending to this post is to quote the amazing…you must start watching…best show on tv…Friday Night Lights!

“T E X A S  F O R E V E R”

Phew. . .its been a while since I have written! I have had a great week 1/2 just catching up from my travels! But now I am out again. . .

I am in Texas visiting family for Easter

as a friend of mine twittered to me “Welcome home! So fitting that you should spend Easter in the promise land of Texas!”

And did I tell you. . .

It’s Antique Week in Round Top!!

One of my favorite things of the year. . .

First may I just say the wildflowers ( bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush’s) are DIVINE!!!

And question would ya’ll still be my friend if I hung a cow on my wall? My husband said “No”.

Last night was the Junk Gypsy Junk O Rama Prom O Rama. . .the biggest and best party in Round Top. Great music, Great outfits, Great Junk and more. . .

It makes me want to move back to Texas EV-ER-Y -TIME!

Off to do more antique-ing today.

Good thing these boots are comfy. . .

I wanted to share some of the beautiful little faces I’ve seen. . . . beautiful!!

There really is no sweeter sound huh?