So before you begin reading this blog- I want to go ahead and warn you it might be kinda long. I’m hoping that through it everyone can not only catch up on week 4 but maybe just see some of the things God has done for me here and I want everyone to understand my plans for staying here in New Orleans.
So first things first- I must catch you up on Week 4 of Up2Hope. So as I talked about in my last post- I was pretty sick Monday and laid in bed all day. However, when I woke up I was able to clean and put nail polish on the hands and feet of a lady who is a regular at our center. That was a very humbling experience just to see how that little bit of nail polish changed the woman’s day. While at the beginning of the week I was a little discouraged my girls truly showed me that I can’t get discouraged. They are amazing and I love each one of them. On Tuesday we discussed death, which I knew would be hard. I was expecting a lot of stories from the girls, but instead they were so numb to the pain. They simply treated death as if it was an everyday occurrence and showed literally no emotion with it. They have all been thru so much and have seen more than I could ever imagine seeing. It just broke my heart that they have experienced so much pain. I began to have some behavioral issues with a few of my girls and one of them literally has one more chance. If she gets in any sort of trouble she is out for the rest of the summer. This girl was kicked out last summer and I so wish that she would just grow and realize she can’t keep doing what she is doing. Luckily on Friday, she showed me the potential she has. We went on a field trip to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Two of my girls (one of them being the girl on her last chance) and I went through the whole thing by ourselves, just us three and it was amazing. They were so happy and they wanted it to be just me and them. And I just went with it. We had so much fun. I think it was truly a growing moment for the three of us and I could see some of their walls coming down. These two girls are tough and hard and have very very strong walls up, so for them to be like they were on Friday was such a blessing for me. I was so proud of them as well. We had a little bit of an issue with another tourist at the Center and she just fussed at my girls and they had done nothing wrong. I am so proud of them though because they didn’t yell back or anything, they simply came over to me and talked to me about it. I just told them how proud I was of them and that the lady would leave in a few minutes…. I’m telling ya’ll- for them not to go off on her was a huge accomplishment. So now we are halfway done with camp and it is to sad to think about it. I can’t look at it as we are halfway over, but that we still have 4 wonderful weeks left with these beautiful girls.
We had a pretty busy week outside of camp as well. On Tuesday, my director’s boss came into town and she ended up taking us all out to dinner. We went to a place called Margaritaville and let me tell you- they have some amazing food. Me and Lauren split the Volcano Nachos- they were unreal there were so many of them. We made some huge progress on them though. Wednesday we had like a Mexican night here at the center and it was delicious- we had amazing guacamole. I am in love with that stuff! Thursday we went to the circus- let me just say me and clowns are not a good combination. We were down on the floor for all the pre-show stuff and were just standing around. These clowns had been walking around and I could see they were asking for trouble. Before I knew it, I feel something rubbing on my butt- so I quickly turn around and that joker is lucky I didn’t pull some tae-kwon-do on him. The clown had taken his hat off and was rubbing it on me. Then before we left, me and Mrs. Kay (my director) got wet because those aggravating clowns threw water on us!!! Needless to say it wasn’t the best experience. I enjoyed the circus for the most part, especially the animals but all the acrobatic stunts scared me. Friday we all made a trip to McAllister’s- a place I am falling in love with- and Wal-mart, which consumed a lot of our evening and then we just chilled. Saturday I stayed in my pajamas all day until about 7:00 pm when me and Julie decided to go for our run. We have discovered a new favorite thing- running through the French Market down by the Mississippi River and back…. Not only is it a workout but it just refreshes my mind and reminds me why I am so in love with everything here. Today I went to a church that I really enjoyed and could definitely see myself going back to. It was more contemporary which is what I am pretty used to now and I just really felt good there. So that has been my week four. I can’t wait to see what week 5 will hold.
So I’m actually kind of tired of typing now and this is getting super long- so I will save the whole spill on me staying here in New Orleans for another post- which I will do soon. But I will end with this quote that I got from a really great friend. It will just give you a little insight on God’s power and plan.
"how do you KNOW when it's GOD speaking to you?" The answer was: "If it is something constantly in your mind that you yourself wouldn't have come up with in a million years and you can't get it out, then God's speaking to you!!"
<3 Kendall
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