Friday, January 13, 2012

New Year, New Beginnings

2011 was a life changing year for me, I was tried, stretched, and blessed to much. I believe I grew a lot as a person and gained back some of the confidence I feel like I somehow have lost over the years. I am discovering who I am as a person again. I have come to realize we are always learning and always growing. This year I want to challenge myself and actually accomplish things.

Something I have struggled with since having kids is my body imagine. I spend a lot of time thinking about it and being upset. I have worked out before and become discouraged after not seeing much results. This year with the encouragement and support of Dan we have set out on a body changing journey. We bought a very intense workout program called Insanity. It is a 60 day program where you work out 6 days a week. I am starting my 4th week this week and I have to say I am proud of myself. It is pure torture and I hate every second of it BUT I am doing it and sticking to it. I have set a goal to complete the 60 days and I am going to come hell or high water.

Another change I have made this year is to really try and start cooking and by this I mean making real dinners, not just tacos, sloppy joes, or something out of a box. I am trying to make at least one new recipe a week and this will be my 3rd week of doing this. A couple haven't turned out as great as I hoped but most of them have! I am feeling a great sense of accomplishment from making a meal from scratch and not just throwing packaged ingredients together.

So these are some of the challenges I have for myself this year, have you all made any and if so how are they going?

Monday, January 2, 2012

Day 6

Friday was our last day of ministry in Kolkata. We woke up and got all packed up to leave the BMS. It was such a nice place to stay and I considered myself blessed to be able to stay at such a nice place.
Here are some pictures of the grounds.

After that we traveled fir the last time to the jewelry unit, which again was in "china town" here are some pictures of our ride there.

We got to spend some time with the ladies and then said all of our goodbyes.

After saying our goodbyes we headed downstairs to wait for the bus. The floor level of the building is used for the slum school and when we went down Therese got to see all of the school children. They were the cutest things in their little uniforms. They came up to us and wanted to shake our hands. We didn't realize we would get to spend time with them but this was another unexpected highlight of the trip. The kids were so precious and so happy. They were so happy to be in school learning. It made me realize how vital these programs are, how an education is the only way to break the cycle of poverty. By this one child getting an education, it will create a snow ball affect and change the course of the whole family and especially the generations to come. It was a true a blessing to be able to spend time with the

These picture are of where we stayed
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Here are some pictures of the beautiful children from the slum school