2 6 Y E A R S O L D

Well I did it. I have completely finished 25 years of life. I can't believe how quickly time flew by this year - just another reason to cherish what each day brings. 

last year's celebration - birthday twin, Dudley Chancey

After celebrating another milestone in my life - 3 years in Honduras - I would say I have been tremendously blessed the past 25 years. I have lived a quarter of a century, and this life has already been more than I could ever imagine or desire. 

this time last year

Since graduating college I have had lots of time to reflect and look back at how I have done things. I think everyone feels there are things you would have done differently, but I am happy to say I have no regrets. Mistakes have been made, but I have grown from them. Challenges have been many, but God was with me every step of the way. 

Being away from my family has made me appreciate and love them more. Living in a different culture has made me appreciate how lucky I was to grow up the way I did. And having been surrounded by people who love me my entire life has only made me want to love others more. 

So here’s to 26! I think it will be an amazing year....

It’s true what they say - life only gets better with age.  

25 things I loved in my 25th year

•  Being able to tell people I was a quarter of a century old
•  Forgetting that I was 25 and telling people I was 24
•  Feeling good about being halfway to 50
•  Getting to go home several times
•  Seeing my brother get married

•  My parents coming to visit me in Honduras
•  Spending NYE at Jovenes
•  Making new friendships in Honduras
•  Traveling to Roatan for Thanksgiving (it rained all trip, but was still great!)
•  Seeing the Mayan Ruins in Copan

Copan Ruins 

•  Spending time with Harpeth Hills in Honduras
•  Going to several Honduran soccer games 
•  Getting to see Nelson finish his first year of high school with all A’s and B’s

Getting ready from 8th grade!

•  Being able to be home for our first annual JEC Fiesta 5k
•  Seeing the green houseparents’ dream finally come true with a new house of their own
•  Becoming a grandma (when poppy had puppies)
•  Getting a new car (one that doesn’t break down every month!)

• Going to the beach for holy week with friends in Nicaragua
• Spending time with several members of the missions committee at Harpeth Hills
• Having Lindy, Scat, Emily and Richy come visit in Honduras
• Seeing some of the boys at JEC wear some of my grandma’s old work jeans (she only wore men’s Levi’s

•  Experiencing the world cup in Honduras
•  Luckily being home for three days and seeing a friend get engaged!
•  Watching God bring sweet, new boys to Jovenes en Camino

And finally, #25 - Living another year healthy, loved, and so blessed 

God is so good. 

Summertime at Jovenes

Well now that summer is technically halfway over, I am well due a blog post about our busiest season. The past few years we have been so blessed to have more and more groups added to our list of annual visitors. It's refreshing to see people come back year after year who continually are blown away by our boys, our staff, and our campus.

poppy and I love futbol

Thus far we have received 13 groups since the last day in May, and during July we are expecting at least that many again. In the first week in June our four summer interns arrived, who coincidentally are all girls from Nashville, TN. These girls are here for June and July and mainly help with summer groups, working with our bilingual boys who are on summer break, and being extra hands when needed.

our interns most photogenic moment

The rainy season has also officially begun here. This means it is hot in the day, then the afternoon usually involves an intense downpour. Our roads get destroyed here during these months (June-September), meaning we drive at 5 mph to avoid ruining our NEW CARS (I'm still on cloud nine, y'all).

Bayron just taking a casual nap

This is one of my favorite, and busiest, times of year. Summer is full of both new and old faces, both of which are heartwarming to see. I love watching first time visitors fall in love with the boys, and it's nice to see encouraging faces who support our mission here enough to come back year after year.

Besides this being our busy season, we've been fully engulfed in the world cup. As most people know, soccer is everything here. Honduras making it to the world cup was EPIC, and even though we are already out - we cheered our hearts out for those three games. The boys are now mostly rooting for Brazil, Germany, and Holland.

learning about drip irrigation from Healing Hands Int'l

I personally was blessed getting to host two weekends of teenagers from my own youth group, Harpeth Hills. It was so nice to have people here who have watched me grow up in that same youth group and know they love and care for me and my mission here. We celebrated our June birthdays together, played some "chubby bunny", and obviously there was a lot of soccer.

hanging with Lenny girl - representing Harpeth Hills at JEC

I am looking forward to the month of July (my birthday month!), all our summer groups, the world cup finals, and my trip home in August to meet my new nephew (due August 29th!).

My how this boy has grown!

Thank you all for all your prayers and support! It's already been an amazing summer here again at Jovenes.