Devin and Kim: Ecuador Day 18

Well, today was a special day. I guess I should say tonight. The day was pretty standard-- in addition to our normal activities, we walked down to the store and market for groceries. Yeahoo.

Anyway, this evening we met up with my dear friends Angel, Jenny, and their kids Grace, Jared, and Maibe for dinner. These guys were the directors for OSSO when I volunteered here ten years ago and were the directors for many years. Another friend, Amber, is here visiting them and she was a big player in OSSO for a long time too. She ran the office in Rexburg and basically made the OSSO world turn. :) We met at Crepes and Waffles, which is a Quito classic. They have, you guessed it, crepes and waffles of all different varieties. It is quite delicious food. Anyway, that is beside the point.

It was really fun to see and reminisce with the Chicaizas and Amber again. OSSO changed my life completely. Look where I am now, ten years later. Had I not made that decision to come down here (and it was super scary for me at the time to come down all alone), my life's path would be completely different, no doubt. Because of that decision, I have these two beautiful daughters in my life. I know Heavenly Father's hand is in EVERYTHING-- and sometimes we can't see the end from the beginning until many years down the road. This is one of those situations. When I was 19 and making the decision to come here, I never would have thought that in 10 years I would build my family through adopting two of the babies I met as a volunteer here.

Anyway, it was so great to catch up with everyone. It seems like no one has changed all that much. Angel told us that he remembered Mishell well and he started going through his phone and finding old pictures of them together! What a gift!! I have no pictures of Mishell from any ages except a few as a baby when I was here and shortly after, and then the one from 2012 when we adopted Flor, and nothing else. Angel had quite a few of Mishell from various parties at SVP. I have copies of them now & feel so blessed. It took a minute for Mishell to warm up to Angel. She said she didn't remember him, but pretty soon she was going through all his pictures with him and commenting on who she remembered. At the end, she said that she does remember Angel and Jenny from their visits to SVP (back then the volunteers did not live on site like they do now). It was really a fun evening and really awesome to see things come a full circle from ten years ago. No doubt certain people are put into our lives for a reason & I feel that my association with the Chicaizas has been a rich blessing in life.

I was feeling a little down and discouraged earlier today, just because of the lack of control in this process. We still didn't hear anything about court today, which means it almost certainly won't be this week. It is incredibly hard to be at the mercy of other people and have no control of what happens to us and when. I think I am especially prone to feeling discouragement here because I spent so much time here last time and the thought of that literally makes my stomach turn, and also because I am usually such a go-go-go type person. It dampens my spirits to be unproductive and that's exactly how I feel. So, I had a moment of despair earlier today, but the evening definitely turned my spirits around. It's really amazing how human connection and friendships can change everything. That really is what makes me happiest in life- relationships and connections with other people. So to get a little dose of that from people who are an important part of my story- and my girls' stories- was a great feeling.

Here are a few pictures of the evening: