The Music in my Head

   I have always been a lover of music. When I was really little, I would rock out on my Mickey mouse record player like a champ and a little after that I would proudly carry around my case of cassette tapes decorated with stickers. The way I've played music has changed over the years, but my love for it has only grown.
    Music is usually closely connected to a memory for me. I love how songwriters can say what I'm thinking or feeling in such a creative way. To this day, if I hear "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks, I think of the first moments in my car alone after I got my driver's license...because that is the first song I played. It's like that with so many songs. Familiar music starts playing and I'm taken back to moments. Even the title of the blog is taken from the Matt Wertz song lyric..."Everything in Between."
   I also stamp certain anticipated moments or big events with a song. Usually, anticipated events in my life make me think of certain songs. Sometimes this turns into making playlist...like for road trips...and sometimes, it just means playing a certain song to get ready. My time in Vancouver is almost over (like I leave tomorrow!), and of course my mind browses through the music in my head.
  Today, it settle on a song by Needtobreathe called Keep Your Eyes Open. The lyrics are below:

If you could soldier on

Headstrong into the storm
I’ll be here waiting on the other side
Don’t look back
The road is long
The first days of the war are gone
Take back your former throne and turn the tide

Cause if you never leave home, never let go
You’ll never make it to the great unknown till you
Keep your eyes open, my love
So tell me you’re strong, tell me you see
I need to hear it, can you promise me to
Keep your eyes open, my love

Just past the circumstance
The first light, a second chance
No child could ever dance the way you do, oh
Tear down the prison walls
Don’t start the curtain call
Your chains will never fall until you do

Cause if you never leave home, never let go
You’ll never make it to the great unknown till you
Keep your eyes open, my love
So show me your fire, show me your heart
You know I’ll never let you fall apart if you
Keep your eyes open, my love

Open up your eyes
The weight is unbroken
Open up your eyes
Keep your eyes open

Don’t let the night become the day
Don’t take the darkness to the grave
I know pain is just a place
The will has been broken
Don’t let the fear become the hate
Don’t take the sadness to the grave
I know the fight is on the way
When the sides have been chosen

Cause if you never leave home, never let go
You’ll never make it to the great unknown
Open up your eyes
Keep your eyes open
So tell me you’re strong, tell me you see
I need to hear it, can you promise me to
Keep your eyes open, my love
So show me your fire, show me your heart
You know I’ll never let you fall apart if you
Keep your eyes open, my love

  So here's to a new place, new people, new lessons, new ways to be stretched and changed and made better.  Here's to keeping my eyes open for it....and knowing through it all that He will not let me fall apart....because He is the one holding me together....see ya on the flip side!!

Here's the Music Video

Remember that time we hiked for 8 hours?!?!?

    So growing up I was never really a hiker. Vacations were spent mostly at the beach rather than the mountains...and I still would rather have it that way (judge me if you will...I'm a beach girl and proud of it). I've never been against hiking. When friends have wanted to go, I've always been up to the challenge, but I'm not the person who looks for places to hike everywhere she goes.
    Well if you're living in Vancouver...hiking is everywhere...and there are amazing things to see while you're doing it. There are pretty famous hikes here and one of the best ones happens on the Chief.

 

If you look closely, you can see 3 different peaks that kind of look like stair steps...simple right?? I mean hikes are just casual walks through the woods and every now and then you might have to go up hill, right?? Man I was so wrong. As in the words of Honey badger (ask someone if you don't get the reference), the Chief don't play!! And it doesn't care that you have been doing Insanity regularly...it's gonna kick your but anyways...and its gonna have fun doing it. 

                                               

 The hike is pretty much straight up and like climbing stairs that were designed for a giant. At the really intense parts...there are chains and latters to help you up the mountain. I had no idea what I was in for. We did all three peaks...because after all...only wimps do less!! There may have been a couple times where I wanted to sit down, cross my arms, and say "I'm not going any further," but thankfully I kept putting on foot in front of the other....and it led to views like this:

 And this one!! I'm sitting (or trying not to die) on peak one and looking at peak 2 and 3

 

We even made a new friend...

 

 By about hour 6-7...it just gets comical that you have been walking and climbing for so long, but when you get to the top of that last peak you pretty much feel like this:

 

I Never Thought I'd Say This...

...but today, I want to be back in Chad. If it's rainy like it is in Vancouver today, and you have nothing to do...you can go back and read about my years in Chad. I kept the experiences pretty light on the blog, but the truth is that it was hard, really hard. It has been the hardest thing I've ever walked through thus far. I would by lying if I said that I wasn't relieved to be leaving Chad at the end of those two years. In days between then and now, I have missed the people that I met there, but have never had much of a  desire to go back (as awful as that sounds), until now.

I got the news yesterday that a dear national friend passed away in a motorcycle accident. Madri is a strong believer in Christ, he was foundational in the spread of the good news, and he was the administrator of the clinic where I worked. If I had a problem, Madri was one of the first people I called. He has laughed with me, challenged my faith, served me in many ways, been patient with my Arabic, and has been my brother and friend.

The extra sting in this news is that I had "email Madri" on my to-do list for a while...and never got around to it. I'm a person who just puts things off, and I put this off too long. I have always been pretty bad at staying connected with people...especially if we're not in the same area. The awareness of needing to not put things off has been hard to swallow in the light of loosing Madri. Please forgive me if there has ever been a time where my lack of communication has caused you to doubt our relationship. It is a weakness that must be improved.

So today, I want to be back in Chad.  I want to hug Madri's mom, and sit and cry with her. I want to be with all my friends at the clinic and working through this together. I want to play with Madri's nephew (named after him) and hopefully take his young mind off the tragedy for at least a few minutes. Mostly I want to be in Chad to tell people the joy that Madri is experiencing right now, and how they can know the hope Madri knew so well. He will be greatly missed. May God continue to be glorified through Madri's life and death.

and then these kids came...

I'm about half way through my training and last weekend that meant friends and family got to come and visit. I was so pumped to see Simon and Eleyse. If you know them at all you know what I mean. They're pretty awesome. It was a great weekend and we definitely covered some British Columbian ground. My legs hurt just thinking about it. The first day we hopped on a ferry and headed over to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia.

The first stop was the Butchart Gardens. They were impressive even for a girl who doesn't appreciate flowers like she should, and dad kept getting ideas to spruce up the back yard.

The Parliament building downtown.

The oldest lighthouse in BC

Great sunset on the ferry at the end of a long day.

 The Next day we did some whale watching. It took us a while (hours) to find those whales...but it was worth it when we finally did

Then, we walked all over downtown doing a little exploring and shopping:

The last day, we were so tired that we just had some quality hang out time which was great. We did manage to find a Purdy's ice cream bar. Seriously, if you eat one, you will become addicted. They're made with magic.

Mom and Dad also did a good job spoiling me (let the only child cliches begin). This famous chocolate pie was handled with care in mom's carry on. Wait didn't I just do a post about food...woops.

Love you Mom and Dad. Thanks for a great weekend. Let's do it again soon.

Fooood!!

Ok, so if you know me at all you probably already know this...but I love food. My whole family does. It only takes one look to understand that we have never been starving. I've always been surrounded by amazing food....so when I got to Vancouver I wanted to find the good food here too. I guess no one ever really goes to a new place looking for the bad food. Anyways...here is your complimentary food tour of Vancouver. And remember, I've been here over a month so there is some justification of ALL the different things I've tried.

The famous Canadian dish is called poutine. Unfortunately, I wasn't that impressed. It's basically fries with gravy, and while I am a fan of both, together they just didn't do it for me.

Another famous Canadian place is Tim Horton's. They're known for the coffee and doughnuts.

49th Parallel, however,  has quickly become my favorite coffee shop. Great coffee, cool mugs, and even better donuts. These are like fancy doughnuts. Pictured is the salted caramel one...awesome. Sorry Tim...these coffee and doughnuts have you beat.

 Sophie's Cosmic Cafe has the best breakfast. It's a great brunch place in town, but who wants to order lunch when you can get breakfast options like this:

Burger Heaven...the name says it. And everyone knows a place is legit when they offer a substitution of sweet potato fries. I opted out of getting my name on the wall of fame here by eating the 8 patty burger...maybe next time.

The chicken shawarma...oh how I love you. And Vancouver has some good ones. Just stop anywhere on the street...I haven't been disappointed yet.

I would not be myself if I hadn't found a cupcake place here. The name of the place...Cupcakes...I like it...no questions about what is in the store...just truth. What kind did I get...duh...red velvet...is there another kind??

Thankfully, these places are not super close to my apartment or else I might be rolling myself overseas. Yay for good times and good food. Now I'm off to find a treadmill.

The first few days...

  So my first stop is Vancouver for a few months of urban cross-cultural training. Let me tell you...Vancouver is an amazing place to have a first stop. On my trip from the airport on the skytrain, I was amazed at the mountains surrounding the big city. It is so beautiful here. There are tons of things to do outside, and the spring season is making everything come alive. I've been here about a week and have gotten the chance to explore a little...

 This is the Olympic torch from the winter games a few years ago. If you know me well, you know how happy this made me. I love all things Olympics. I'm excited to see some of the Olympic venues as well.

This picture is from an area called Gastown. It's a pretty touristy area, but fun nonetheless. If you need a decorative jar of maple syrup, Canada magnet, or Canucks jersey....this is your place.
 

Even though I've only been here a short time, this is my favorite spot to see the city so far. It's from Stanley Park, which deserves a blog post all by itself (maybe later). If I turned around....I would basically be looking at a forest. That's one of the coolest things about this city. There are spots where you can feel like your alone in the woods, and then they open up to views like this one. I'm so excited about exploring this city over the next few months. Hopefully there will be many more blogposts to come as I find new favorites.

The Joy of Packing...

...if by "joy" you mean complete frustration. Packing for the next 3 years of your life seems seemingly impossible, especially when you're a chronic over packer like me. Here is the process in pictures:

           It starts out a little like this. Now it could be more organized, but that has never really been my tendency in my life...against popular belief...I can usually find anything I need in this environment. Believe it not the next stage actually gets messier...here begins the process of deciding what stays and what goes...

        This by far is the most frustrating stage. I would be lying if I said there was no tears involved in this stage. There were tears of confusion of not knowing what to take and what to leave...tears of frustration that not everything fits in the suitcase...and tears of humiliation that you are actually crying of insignificant things like packing.
      Because of the 50lbs weight limit on bags, I love to see numbers like this on the scale:

 

        And at this glorious point, I put like 12 more things in my bag...because of course all those things together weigh less than a pound (yeah...I know I'm dreaming). These guys pictured below are also helpful. The packing cube not only holds a lot, but allows people like me to feel organized for a least a few minutes.

      I would love to show a final picture of bags that are all underweight and have everything I need. Unfortunately, we are not down to the last hour so of course there are a few more things to do ( I work best under pressure). The good thing about the packing process is at some point past all the frustration, you start not to care what is packed....and you'll just learn to live with whatever makes it. Thanks to Mom and Brittany for helping in this process. They are magicians that make a crazy amount of stuff fit into small suitcases. Here's to really nice check in people at the airport that will hopefully look past an extra pound or two.