1. This was my first year teaching first grade and I loved it! I was very very worried about teaching first grade and tried many times to work up the courage to ask to switch to a higher grade that I was more comfortable with. Now at the end of the year, I'm so glad I stayed with first grade. I fell in love with my students and their enthusiasm for learning. In first grade everything is new and exciting and it was so fun to spend time with them. All of them are English language learners and so watching them grow in confidence in reading and writing was an experience all to itself. I'm going to miss each and every one of them, but I'm glad they will be right across the hall in second grade. 
2. I joined a new church. - I started out the year attending a megachurch here in Santo Domingo. I loved the music and sermon, but I realize that the advantage of slipping in and out unnoticed was also a very big disadvantage. I really wanted to build a community around me and find a place where I could get involved. I knew myself and I also wanted to find a church where I wouldn't go unnoticed and would have to communicate and talk to the other members. Well, God heard my prayer tenfold. I found a church in East Santo Domingo that was very involved in the community with hospital visits, community English classes, medical outreaches and mission trips to other cities. Also, it was impossible to go unnoticed. The church has about 50 people on a regular basis and if you are there, there is a very high probability you will make in on the program. (See if you can find me in the picture above) For the offering prayer and closing prayer, you are never asked to do it, your name will simply appear in the program. The second week I was there, my name was in the program to close the service in prayer. I guess the pastor knew I was coming back. I also have the opportunity to teach English classes every Sunday at the church before the service and have really enjoyed the opportunity. Rovian joins me every Sunday he can, and his knack at learning languages helps him as a teacher as well. I will go on and on trying to explain something and then he will say one or two words and they get it instantaneously. So of course whenever he has to go back to Jarabacoa, the students miss him.
3. I have had 5 roommates and 3 cat roommates this year.-This year has been adapting to a lot of different scenarios. For the first half of the year, up until January, I had one roommate, Amy who is pictured to the right. She had a cat named Buttercup who sadly died during Thanksgiving break. It was pretty quiet aroundthe apartment without Buttercup, so right before Christmas, Amy got two new kittens named Carly and Rovi respectively. So you can tell which is which, Rovi is with Rovian, surprise, surprise. Anyways due to unforeseen circumstances, Amy had to go back to the States and unfortunately, I couldn't keep the cats, though I did ask to keep little Rovi who was the perfect mixture of cat and dog mixed. He came when called, loved to play, and cuddle in laps but didn't have to go outside to the bathroom or bark. I didn't like the idea of living in the apartment by myself, but again my prayers were answered in tenfold. In about a week or two after Amy left some other American teachers who lost their housing for different reasons, moved in and finally we had a couple more temporary stays such as a student teacher to bring our total up to five people living in the apartment. It was a little cramped as we had two people sleeping on the couch, but it was so fun to make dinners, swap stories and watch movies together.
4. I got to cross off many amazing new places. One of the best parts of this year was traveling. Santo Domingo is much more centralized than Jarabacoa and since it is a big city, there is a much bigger need to "escape" to other places. I traveled more this year than the other years combined and I absolutely loved it. One of my favorite adventures was going to Puerta Plata where I FINALLY got to cross off 27 CHARCOS on my bucket list.This is where you hike for about an hour to the top and then jump, slide, cannonball, down 27 waterfalls. We stayed in a apartment hotel where we made our own meals, watched movies and got to walk down to the beach. On this trip, we also took a teleferico or cable car, up to a nature reserve park with a variety of trees, and flowers to visit. We enjoyed the trip so much during Thanksgiving break, that we went to the exact same place during Spring break with more people and it was just as much fun.
5. Speaking of bucket lists, I went paragliding for the first time. It was super fun, very much like swinging in the sky. Also, I'm so proud of both Sondra and Janice who went with me on a moment's notice. After wanting to go for over a year, I showed up in Jarabacoa saying I was going and if they wanted to come they could, but I was going one way or another and so thankful they are such great sports and joined in on the adventure! It definitely wouldn't have been the same without them.
6. Courtney FINALLY came to visit me!! After two years of trying to convince her to come, she finally decided to brave traveling alone to come and see me on my island. It was so so much fun to be able to show her the places I've described in our countless skype talks and have our own Dominican adventures. We got to stay in a resort in Barahona (Southern DR) l that I had won in the Christmas raffle for our school. We went to the beach, zip lined and even went on a LONG sweaty, adventurous bike ride to see a waterfall. Merecia la pena :D
7. I celebrated my Golden Birthday. I turned 27 on the 27th and my friends made sure it was a golden day. First, my students and my assistant brought me balloons and a beautiful cake to celebrate my birthday in class. I felt very much like Carl Fredricksen from UP, walking back with my balloons ready to float away at any second. Then my roommates made me a fruit pie pizza.. It was as delicious as it was beautiful.
My birthday was on a Friday, and the next day one of my friends from Jarabacoa was getting married so, I traveled down to Jarabacoa. My Jarabacoa friends aka Sondra and Janice made me the most delicious chocolate cake. I think, no I'm sure I ate the whole thing in that weekend and for not eating a lot of sweets, that is a big compliment. Then my friends surprised me on Sunday by doing my hair, giving me clothes to wear and taking me to a very fancy restaurant that I had never been to called Jamaca de Dios *God's Hammock* where there is a lookout over the entire city of Jarabacoa. Suffice it to say, I had high expectations for my 27th birthday, but my friends delivered and I'm so thankful and so humbled by the love they showed me on that special day.
8. Christmas Vacation
I know Christmas vacation seems out of place here, but it felt out of place in my year too, so I figured it was perfect. It was very difficult to adjust from having warm sunshine one day, to stepping out of a plane into an icy blizzard. . My dad had a sabbatical in Colorado, so I got to have my Christmas vacation in Fort Collins instead of Hillsdale. I love being outdoors and being with family, so despite the cold I had a lot of fun hiking up mountains and skiing down them
9. Finally, so thankful for this boy. I'm so glad I got another year with Rovian. He is working hard in his second year of med school, but still makes time to come and see me and try to best me at Sporcle or geography games or UNO though we all know he cheats. Rovian has been very supportive and his steadiness allows me to lean on him when there is drama everywhere else. I'm so thankful for his heart of service and that despite his busy schedule he is always around when I need him
10. God showed up. I feel so humbled and blessed by the love that God showed to me this year. It confounds me how the God of this universe could love and desire someone as flawed and as vulnerable as me. There were moments when He gave me so much more than I needed before I even asked and tears would flow down my cheeks, because just like Noah's rainbow, I knew that it was a sign from the Almighty, It was a sign that I wasn't alone and that even my unspoken requests and needs that were too small to bring before the king were heard.To end this long, long highlight reel I would love to leave you with this song that I recently came across, but I listen now to about 3-5 times a day. It reminds us that we are fiercely loved with an "overwhelming, never ending reckless love of God. There's no shadow He won't light up, mountain He won't climb up coming after us." It gives me chills to imagine God's love finding me no matter where I am.
Reckless Love Song
