Two reasons I love life...Because I knew you, I have been changed for good

Do you have these kind of friends? The kind of friend that even though you are miles apart and can't talk all the time, you just love each other and have a bond. Literally the best friends you could have even though life goes on and you're not five anymore, your lives are completely different. It doesn't look like the typical friendship, but yet, it works. I have five of these friends. We literally are all over...Dayton, Columbus, Raleigh, Chicago, Colombia...special bonds with special ladies.

This is one of them. My Sarah, known fondly as Sarah Kate, Say-rah, but mostly to me as my best friend. We met when we were two. There was a group of us and I keep in touch with most of them, but Sarah, Beth and I did spend our sunday mornings together long before AWANA started. Sarah and I haven't had the perfect relationship. It was seemingly perfect and than came crashing down. And I mean crashing...painful, heart-wrenching time. But I believe this time cause both of us to turn to God and good counsel harder than we ever had before in our lives. A few years went by and things were awkward as we waded through desperately wanting this friendship back, but not really knowing if it were possible. I stand here today being better for knowing and loving this beautiful young woman. As only Christ is able to do...we have been restored. There has been radiant reconciliation! I praise God that He had brought us together again, to share in life, and what an honor to stand there with her as she excitedly moves forward into this new chapter of her life with a fine man who loves our Lord. At the rehersal, we both ate our typical meal...only instead of walking to Dairy Queen, we drove to TGI Fridays. Yay for chicken fingers and fries!

Sarah and her father. She got married in the backyard of her childhood home...just like her mom did.

She did in GREAT job of picking out beautiful dresses and colors

Myself, Elizabeth (sister) Sarah, Christina (sister) and Stacey (sister)


Also, since Justin (Sarah's hunsband) and I went to high school together and we all went to the same church. How funny is it that Bo was one of his groomsmen. Bo was Prom King and I was Prom Queen in addition to being great buddies...Here's a picture of us in the Fall of 2002.

And here we are in the fall of 2009...and now I feel old!!! What the heck happened!

The end of a busy and fun day. Oh Sarah, I love you!

In any given box of pictures at our houses, there are atleast 100 pictures of us in 100 different outfits on 100 different days, but the same pose. I have long arms =)

Here is the second reason. This is the Lovely Lindsey, AKA Lou, Linds and aggressive twin...of which I was the other half. Lindsey and I met in 3rd grade but didn't really become friends until we started playing volleyball. Even that was a bit rough at first as we both played the same position and are both highly competitive. Once we figured out that we both can play the whole game,just opposite of each other, our friendship blossomed. Both being believers on the team and going through the same things outside of school at the same time, we became a stronghold for each other and constant encouragement. Our friendship has continued through going to different universities, me traveling and her traveling both for our jobs. James is one blessed man and I could not be happier!

Also at the wedding was Andrea. She is a dear friend of the family and we laughed...a lot

Lindsey's photographer caught this shot. I had no idea, but it is one of my favorites! Linds mom told me to go up and see Lindsey before the wedding. I came around the corner and she came running across the room in her dress. We did the typical hug and scream...can't express my excitement for her!

Also, Sarah and Lindsey, thanks for both getting married in the same weekend!

Love Thy Neighbor?

Situation: My upstairs neighbors are LOUD. I hear everything. Every step, the cabinets, when they move stuff. Pretty much everything but conversation...and they constantly seem to be on the move. I've gone up to talk to them, the man was smug, denied everything and basically told me I was wrong and must have been hearing someone else. I went to the office, spoke with the manager who promised to send them a notice. A few nights later, I had to knock on my ceiling three times to which they stomped three times. And there went a call to the security officer. Then tonight...doors open, two fans on, and my TV on watching the game and I can STILL hear them. I knock, they stomp, I lose it. I walked myself right up there and knock firmly on their door. The man looked at me like "here we go again, what's your problem?" The first words out of my mouth..."Why do you insist on being so inconsiderate?" I said it calmly and with a look of dumbfoundedness. That was the beginning of me being berated by the man and the two women. Once again, they were rude, denied everything and implied I was the one with the problem. The conversation ended when the woman told ME that I was disturbing THEM and to please leave. I strongly stated, "I'll leave, and you have a WONDERFUL night!" but part of me wished I would have said right back "WHY DO YOU THINK I AM HERE WOMAN!?!"

Upset, I called Mom who sympathized and told me that I needed to continue to pray about the situation and pray before talking to management agian tomorrow. I did that very thing, and as only Jesus can do, I was covered in peace. The noise hasn't stopped, but my heart is sad for these people. And once again, the question rose to the surface that I always seem to struggle with...How do you love others without getting walked all over? If they were purposely being loud because they wanted to annoy me because I was a Christian...I'd let them bang away and I doubt it would bother me. But they don't know I'm a believer. A fact that I am ashamed of and considering that our only interactions have been heated discussions, I doubt that it has even crossed their minds. I'm annoyed with them for refusing to acknowledge that maybe they might be louder than they realize. I'm annoyed in general when others live in their little world and don't consider others. Small things like stopping in the middle of a walkway, putting your cart in the middle of an aisle, talking on your cell DURING a movie and having to be the first person on the plane bother me just as much as a parent insisting their child is sicker than every other child when my other pt just died or found out they have cancer, or that people state "I don't care, I'm not paying for it" when I work hard for my paycheck and insurance. On every level, lack of consideration and thoughtlessness are like fingers on a chalkboard to me. Not that I am never guilty of this! I feel bad everytime I am on my phone when I am checking out or am lost in thought and make a stupid move driving.

But I am to consider others better than myself. I am to be a representative at all times. I am to extend grace and mercy. I am to practice patience. The fact that I love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength should be shaping my every interaction. I'm mad that they just won't simply say "sorry, we don't think we're making that much noise, but we'll try and keep it down." when I should be devastated that they could be going to Hell. Who knows why God placed them above me. All I know is, my attitude needs to change and I need to be praying more for them. As my mom used to say even though she thought it sounded cheesy...you can't kick those who you are on your knees for. And honestly, if I wouldn't be charged for assault or I was still a two year old...I would have been happy to kick them.

But the question still remains...how do I love without rewarding their behavior? How do I love without feeling I am getting walked all over and am constantly just having to let things go. I'm a pretty easy going gal, it takes a lot to upset me...but inconsideration and lack of respect will put you in the fast lane to reaching that destination. How do I love and express my frustration when we can't see eye to eye?

So I have learn to love my neighbor as myself...I just have to trust God to show me how.

If you're wanting to help...

Hello all! So for some reason unbeknownst (yep, that's right, I used that word) to me, the children of the DR have been heavily on my heart over the past couple of weeks. It's normal for me to think about them once or twice a day, but it has been a flood. I've even had a couple of patients that looked just like two of the little one's still living their little lives in La Republica Dominicana. I cracked up when I heard a girl at church laughing just like Cara...who has the most contagious laugh ever. And I watched a video made by Makarios' newest staff member Jody Chance that made me miss the kids all the more.

Facebook, of course, played a huge role tonight. I started talking with Cara and she told me about Ronal. Ronal is a teen that lives in Chichigua, a Haitian Batey and has no income. Last year, as a medical team, we learned about Ronal and his health issues. We examined him and found out he has what's basically a hernia that causes lots of swelling and guessing by it's location...pretty uncomfortable. Makarios has been working really closely with Ronal to get him ready for this much needed surgery. It has taken some time, but we found out in May that he is finally ready. His bloodwork looks good...he's been having to take vitamins/supplements to level it out so that he would be safe during surgery. This is a huge deal for him! In the US, we just expect people to remember to take pills everyday and have access to the pills. Well there, the staff would have to buy it and then take it to chichigua and then he was responsible for taking it. Again, this seems simple, but as I said before...nothing is simple in the DR and this is a huge deal for him! Cara told me that they have a doctor, they are basically waiting on the funds to come in.

I know that times are hard. Money isn't really something that we are willing to part with these days. But I know for a fact that God is bigger than the American economy and that there is a precious human being in the DR who could forever be impacted for the Kingdom of God by those who are being faithful to care for those that have less than we do. I wouldn't ask you to do something I myself am not going to do. The surgery will cost approximately $1000. The Mak staff does a great job of seeking out honest and good care. If you want to offer some money to help pay for the surgery you can send it to

Makarios International
3267 Bee Caves Rd
Suite 107-71
Austin, TX 78746

Just put a note with the check saying "Ronal's surgery" or "Medical Fund"

Big Girls Don't Cry

That was inspired purely from the musical Jersey Boys and has no reflection on how I am actually feeling at this particular moment. If you know me at all...you know I only cry when it's appropriate and it usually has nothing to do with my own life! I saw this musical this weekend with my wonderful Rachael at the very fun Fox Theater. Terrible language...great music...that's my review.

This isn't a great post and really has no point. Just kinda a recap. Got back from the DR and went to Ohio and then onto Atlanta. On my way back Jordan, sister in law, went into labor which led to me being in ATL for less than 24hrs before I was on the road down to Ft. Walton. Ethan Davis Simpson made his way into the world on June 2nd (also my grandma gouge's birthday) at 0716 weighing in at a hefty 10lbs 1oz and 21 in long. He's huge! And cute! Got to spend some special time with Emma and thought to myself more than once, "I would be so content to have her with me everyday." It just seemed so natural. Obviously Skype plays a huge role because I am not a stranger, she knows who I am...and she comes running right up for some big hugs and kisses. Here we are...a very happy Aunt with her precious niece and nephew...


I came home long enough to get everything ready for my good friend Justin to come down and visit from Ohio. He stayed at my place while I stayed with my friend Charlotte who lives in the same complex. He was here two days and we packed in the goodness of Atlanta. Lunch in Centennial Park, World of Coke, Aquarium, Stone Mountain complete with laser show, walk up to twisted taco with coffee at the bakery on the corner...and then a Braves game. A good visit with many laughs. I'm pretty sure all the business and traffic of this city was too much for him and he thinks I drive crazy...but honestly, you have to go with the flow down here. I can't help it if the flow is 85mph! =)


Rachael and I have been able to hang out a lot and started a new Bible Study on the life of David. It's pretty much life changing and I am loving every second of it! We did head down to screen on the green to watch Field of Dreams, of which we left early, but did thoroughly enjoy watching people get together play, sing and dance. The Cupid Shuffle was calling our names...but I'm not one to dance in front of thousands. That's right...rockin' the Ohio State Buckeye hat


Had orientation the past couple of days and am working the next two nights. I have missed the people, but not really the job...for the first time. I am sure once I get there, it will all come flooding back and it won't even feel like I've been off for a month.

As I sit here and write this, I feel so content. I love my new place. I love walking through the door. I love people saying it's "cozy and homey". I always want people to feel comfortable in my home. I grew up in a comfy home, a place people could drop in.

Guess that's all for now...looking forward to seeing everyone at work again and lunch with friends next week. Trying to stay up late tonight so that I can sleep late tomorrow in an effort to not be exhausted tomorrow night. A month of days...might take me a few nights to get back into the swing of things. Although, I could just keep reading about all my benefit options and be right to sleep in about two minutes.

Here and gone...

Time flies. I feel like I just got here and now I am already leaving. A dentist and another family have come and gone since I've been here, so I should just be grateful that I got to stay 10 days instead of 4 or 5.

Yesterday was a success at Maternidad. We got there at 7:15 and there were already a lot of people there waiting with numbers. We got a number and waited for our turn. The doctor was pretty nice and added in the letter "s" when he spoke which made it immensely easier for me to understand. One letter...amazing. Our time with the doctor took about ten minutes, but the tiny little office we were in had about 30 degree air blowing out which was a much better alternative to tropical island weather and being packed in with tons of other people. Cara and I looked around the room and saw the bed half falling apart and an isolet (where you put babies when transporting or they need extra protection) that was being eaten away by rust. The doctor had a little table where he did his thing. The sharps container was an old Ajax bottle. It's not like that everywhere, but it's like that here. And this is all they have. We got out of there around 10:30-11 and dropped Joslina back off in PM. We went back to Cara's place for lunch and had incredible conversation. About language, God, our gifts and our life experiences that we have learned.

I didn't get very far to finding out about the vaccinations. Maternidad said that we would have to bring the kids five by five to get their shots done. They can't send them with a group because they need to be refrigerated. I'm thinking a cooler would work, but they aren't really budging. So that's one option down, but we do have a couple more that if I had more time, I could have explored. Hopefully, it'll all work out with email.

I always have this internal crisis while I'm here. Mom says that I get really introspective everytime I come down, which can be a wonderful thing since I am usually too busy to see or notice the things I should while I am living life in the states (my words, not hers. She'd say something like that, but with a lot more love). I have new goals in mind for my life back home. Things that need to be done and made into a firm part of my everyday life. Once again, I feel like I am leaving having learned more from my time in the Dominican Republic than I have given back. But God sees the bigger picture, He is able to communicate between our native languages, He is able to reach down and heal things I have no clue how to treat, and He has the ability to protect the little bodies that I can't. Because I can't. I'm not God. I do not know His ways. Yes He gives us knowledge and skills, but we first and fully rely on Him.

Cars, Crazy women, Healthcare and Movies

I had to take public to get to Cara's apartment. I hadn't seen a guagua for atleast 10 minutes and a public car is flashing its lights at me. It's only 5 pesos more so I give him the "I need a ride sign" and hop in. We get up the road a little ways to drop off one of the passengers when the driver asks me where I am going. I tell him and he states he's not going that way. Apparently I was too taken with flashing lights to notice he was going to Munoz instead of Sosua. I offer money for my little ride and he says it's no big deal and lets me go. Not a typical Dominican thing to do, so I am telling him thanks when his car dies. Yep, just shuts off. The car behind him stops to jump him, but some random guy across the street yells at them to just push it and jump in the car. I move to help, but being a woman, they tell me to stay where I am. Ah, chivalry...I'll never fight it. I did get a picture, one of the guy is running to jump in the car. The next public car was going to Sosua and it was just the driver and myself. He asks me if I like Obama, because they always do, and I reply absolutely not. I respect the office, but I greatly dislike his ideology, policies and worldview. This puts us into a good political conversation and ended by him telling me my spanish is really good. It's not, but I appreciate the compliment.

Yesterday Cara and I went to take Joslina to Maternidad to see a doctor for a specific issue she has going on. Maternidad is a free clinic that Anne calls "straight out of Africa" and since she's been there, she can say that. That's how I feel about it too. Everytime I go for whatever reason, I leave just hating that this is their option. I cringe at every part about it. Healthcare here is weird. There are both public and private, but the private Doctors have to give so many hours a month to the free public clinics. Regardless, we only need one slip of paper to ensure that the furture treatment is taken care of and even though the lady had it sitting right in front of her, we were told to return on wednesday. The doctor that was going to be there that day doesn't deal with the issue that we were bringing. That's a little frustrating. So since we were up se early to get a good number and hopefully avoid sitting there all day, we couldn't even go to the pharmacy because it wasn't open. Cara and I took Joslina back to her apartment and gave her breakfast and looked through magazines. Finally the pharmacy opened, we bought the medication we knew she needed and took her back to pancho in Cara and Ashley's new car.

Next we had to go to Chichigua to drop off some medicine for Renal, who's in much better health and is on his way to getting his surgery done! Along the way, this old woman needs a ride, so we give one to her. At first she's going on and on about how beautiful we are for giving her a ride, she rips off the lid of the box she is carrying and hands it to me. There are drawings on it and she's apologizing that they were colored in. She kept saying "There's no one to help me and give me money, so I don't have colored pencils" Um, I'm confused, is that how life works? She offered us a tomato and pepper in exchange for the ride. I knwo we will have food later, but I don't know if she will. We tell her that it's her food and we are happy to just give her a ride and don't need anything in exchange, the drawing was enough. I gave her my diet coke too. The woman is old and frail and I immediately think that water would be a much better choice for her, but I don't have water on me. Plus, this could be a treat for her. Maybe she just wants to tastle the bubbly goodness like I do every once and a while. Then she kept going on and on about stuff I didn't understand. I looked at Cara to translate and she said "I'm pretty sure this woman is crazy. She's making no sense" She hopped off at Chichigua with us and that's there she stayed. I wonder if the chichiguans are wondering why we brought this woman and then left her.

The rest of the day was uneventful, but full of community. Even with Anne and Garrett at the beach with their days off, the four of us left in the house have still eaten almost every meal together, shared life stories and shed a few tears watching Finding Neverland and The Green Mile. A couple of them I have only met for one week, and there's a good chance I'll never see them again. However the time is sweet and will not be forgotten quickly.

Hola Sr. Tarantula...now go away

Last night Garrett picked up his backpack and SURPRISE! There is a tarantula. It was small compared to others seen on the island, big by my Ohio standards. I immediately hopped up on the bench that I was sitting on and Garrett starts trying to shoo it out. It's not cooperating. Leave it to the broom to do the trick! Of course, the rest of the night, I was very shifty and inspecting everything before I committed to using it or entering the room. Here's the little guy. Obviously, I am across the room and zoomed in as far as I can go.

Dr. Steve left today and we took him to Lax in Cabarete to eat. The picture isn't great, but the sun was out and conversation was wonderful. It's always fun to watch people's perspectives change from what they think poverty is to what they now know it to truly be. Until you actually see true poverty, you can't understand it's impact...and you will never be the same.

Yesterday was a hard day physicaly speaking. Every person we saw needed to have work done...like 6 or 7 teeth. One boy flipped out and we all assumed our now very familiar positions. We saw less people as we were more focused on the adults, but adult teeth are much harder to remove. We had no idea what we were in for. The last guy had three teeth, it took an hour and a half to just get two of them out. The third one was from a broken off tooth with semi-infected roots and he wanted to save it for another day...he wanted to be able to chew tabacco. His was an hour and a half of bending over, teeth breaking, blood pooling and terrible sounds. None of it hurt him, but the noises always sound so awful! It became a personal mission for Dr.Steve and I to finish. Mission Accomplished.
This is a house at the end of the street leading into the school. I don't know what goes on there...but this is always what the porch looks like...tons of kids. Must just be a good location.

This is sweet Amaury, he actually lives in the house across from the one above. I don't know why, but I just love this kid. He is always so good with his sisters and sweet to me. It's so funny, every time I see him six months has gone by and he is looking more and more like a man instead of the kid I met. Life goes on...

This is amaury's siter Heidi (Jasmin is his sister too) Heidi always has gripe, a cold like illness, but she is cute none the less and on bad days I give her motrin to help with the fever. Otherwise she is a happy girl. The mother, Mercedes, is one of the sweetest women I have met on the island. She always remembers my name and welcomes me in and we chat about the kids. I hope I smile as much as she does in my life. P.S. in the picture Heidi is chewing on something...she doesn't have a dental abscess =)

This is Esmili, in the yellow. Neither she nor her sister, Escarlet, every say anything to me. In fact, they usually keep their distance. I remember their family very well since they were one of the first families we helped the first time I came down. Well, yesterday, she had to get a tooth pulled and was doing great...no crying. After she got her shot of lidocaine she just looked so sad and I picked her up off of the table. She wrapped her arms around my neck and laid her head on my shoulder...dead to the world. I stood rocking back and forth and she shut her eyes. It was an incredible moment! After the tooth was pulled she was up and out of there with a quickness and I didn't get to talk to her much. Today we stopped by the school to grab something and she came RUNNING to me and jumped in my arms. My how one moment changes everything. I have a picture of her up in my new apartment along with other faces of the dominican, but I kinda thought twice about putting her face in the frame since I was pretty sure she is scared of me. Now, she'll be one of the first faces I see when I come home and a gentle reminder of what I am living for.