Magic

So the weekend is officially over, and, as if by magic, my feelings of homesickness and loneliness have gradually vanished as today has worn on.

I'm once again feeling blessed and excited to be in Winchester. I look forward to tommorrow, another day in which I get to be with the beautiful, spirit-filled kids who have been so welcoming to me. I'm again excited to use and further my Spanish language skills whenever possible, again amazed by the woman I'm living and serving with, again in love with the community that has opened its arms to me over the summer.

And if these renewed perspectives, along with my continued correspondence with Harry and Dumbledore and everyone else at Hogwarts (I'm coasting right along in my favorite series-- soon to start book 6), weren't enough to make me feel as though magic was sprouting up all around me, this morning I experienced the most beautiful, most unreal, most-- you guessed it: magical thing of all:

Pastora Martha woke me up this morning and asked if I wanted to accompany her to the hospital-- Larena Magdeli, a vibrant young woman who we recently held a baby shower for, had gone into labor late last night and had a brand new baby girl.

Well, of course I wanted to go! I've always found something so holy, so incredible about babies-- they make you smile, and gawk, and feel this incredible joy that is so real, so powerful, you can actually feel it in your chest.

So off I went to the hospital, expecting to stare at little Liliana from the other side of a glass wall, and within half an hour I found myself holding this tiny, beautiful child in my arms, telling her mother how beautiful she was, trying to find words as I looked down at this bundle of new life, this evidence of God's grace and love and goodness, this amazing, incredible, beautiful child who had not even been in the world for a day yet, and who I somehow got to hold, and speak to, and be touched by.

It's these types of moments that make me feel so incredibly blessed to have been given the opportunity I've been given. Sure, it's difficult at times. Sure, I get lonely; I miss my friends, my family, my BOYFRIEND. But completely separate from all these challenges is a deep sense of gratitude for the things my eyes have been opened to, the activities my hands have been involved in, the conversations I've been able to be a part of, the people I've gotten to know, and listen to, and have begun to call family.

God has an amazing way of teaching us in the times we feel most inadequate, most alone, most out of our elements. I never thought I'd be thankful for being put in a place where things do not come naturally/easily for me, in a place where I often feel I'm the outsider, but through all of my experiences, God has shown me sides of Godself, sources of God's love and strength and providence, that I never would have tapped into had I remained in my comfort zone.

So thank you, God, for new experiences. Thank you for challenging circumstances. Thank you for ultimately being the lifter of my burdens, the offerer of a new yoke, the source of life, and love, and magic into my ever-changing life. En su nombre, Dios. Amen.