Costa Rica 2

Costa Rica Continued....

After his big jump.

And here are some pics of our canopy zip line tour.  I'll admit, it was a little scary at first. But, it was a blast once we got comfortable.  Not to mention gorgeous!

After the canopy tour, we took another long hike to a much larger waterfall. It was a long, hot hike but totally worth it when we finally got there and went swimming in it!

The monkeys were there too.

Back at the hotel cooling off. I could not get enough of that pool. It an infinity and was super deep in the middle.

This is after our last dinner. 

And this is the plane we took to and from our location. It was tiny and I always started sweating before we landed.  Thankfully... we survived both trips.

Goodbye Costa Rica! I hope we meet again!

Costa Rica 1

February was a rough month. With Micah's dad passing away, it was tough to say the least. Between that, Adalyn being sick most of the month & the stresses at work, this vacation could not could not have come at a better time.  

We (or should I say I) decided to go to Costa Rica. We wanted to go somewhere warm and had heard great things about the area. We discovered a boutique hotel that only had 4 rooms tucked away in the jungle that sounded too good to be true.  

So, Costa Rica is was!

This is a picture of Micah when we finally arrived at our hotel.  We had to take a flight to Houston, a 3 1/2 hour flight to San Jose, then switch airports and take a tiny plane ride across the bay, and then a 45 minute ride thru the jungle.  A VERY long trip but oh so worth it when we were finally there.

This is our room.  It was breath taking.  All open to the jungle with our own plunge pool. H-E-A-V-E-N

Needless to say, it did not take us long to kick back and relax.

Every morning we had breakfast brought to our room. It was always so pretty and delicious.

Beautiful birds joined us every morning for breakfast.  Speaking of the animals of Costa Rica.. although we didn't see any monkeys from our room, we could hear the male monkeys howling all of the time.  It was the strangest sound. Micah and I truly thought we were hearing seals at first. 

The hotel provided us with our own ATV to get around every day.  It was a blast driving to the beaches, thru the jungle and the little towns along the coast.  

We found a great pizza restaurant on the beach. Such a fun place.  I'm holding my beer up because I feel like I should be in the Corona commercial. Ha.

One afternoon, we went on an 2 hour horse back ride through the jungle & ocean.  While it was beautiful, Micah and I were pretty miserable the entire time.  Lets just say our rears weren't cut out for such a long bouncy ride.

I think its hilarious how big Micah looks on his horse.

The best part of the ride was seeing the monkeys. They were so hard to find because they could hide so well in the trees.

We had the best ocean-view dinners every night.

Our waitress told us about an amazing beach that not many people knew about. It was beautiful.

On another day, we went to another beach town on the way to our canopy tour.  

Cheers!

While on our canopy tour, we hiked to waterfalls. It was breathtaking.

Micah jumping in.

My "George of the jungle"

My....Ministry

It was a Tuesday when Pastor Terry sent me a message.  I made another bold move the week before by sending him a link to my entry "Fire in My Bones." After all, it was his sermon that was so inspiring.  Today, he was asking me to speak at both of the Ash Wednesday services at our church about "My Ministry".  My passion for birthdays was now a ministry?? Wow.   It's strange yet exciting to hear it referred to that way.  And even more exciting was the fact that he wanted to donate all of the offerings to OUR birthday fund.  God is so amazing.

I instantly wanted to say no.  I am uncomfortable speaking in front of a few people let alone an entire congregation.  I find it interesting and almost humorous how God loves to pull us out of our comfort zone in order to do his will.  With some encouragment from a good friend and a reminder to myself that this "ministry" wasn't about me, I said yes. If I truly wanted to keep following God's will for my life, I would just have to get over it and go for it.  And... it helped that I had recruited Micah to stand up there with me. Ha. He is such a good husband.

So... the next day, we got in front of two different congregations and spoke about our birthday parties and the foster home.  I just kept praying that God would calm my nerves and speak thru me.  It's amazing what God can do because when we got up there, the fear seemed to melt away. I felt like the words just flowed out of our mouths.  I shared how special these parties are to the kids and Micah explained all of the facts about the home.  After the last service was complete, I felt a feeling I hadn't felt in a long time.  A feeling I didn't even realize had been missing for a while.  It was that feeling you get when you know you've done something right.  Like the feeling I felt as a child when I knew I made my parents proud.  A tingling of joy that I could feel all the way to my toes.

In the book "One Month to Live" it referred to your God given gifts as "The place where your deep gladness and the world's deepest hunger meet."  Several months ago, I prayed that God would take me there.  These parties might be a long, long way from the worlds deepest hunger.  But, I do feel like the joy I felt was God's way of telling me I'm on the right path.  Thank you Lord.

Today I received a check from the church for way more than I imagined.  God is so good.