Falling in Love

I have a confession… I've fallen in love.

Last night, I sat chatting at night with Tia Nely who is one of the Tias working here and one of my dear friends. I have worked alongside her and learned so much from her in the past two and a half years. I was so blessed when almost almost two years ago she decided to name her daughter after me.
We sat chatting and remembering my first three months in Bolivia.
No Spanish and yet we were able to connect and encourage each other.
I am so amazed looking back at everything God has done and taught me here at Casa de Esperanza

He has blessed me in amazing ways.

I've fallen in love.

I arrived here a young 18 year old fresh out of high school knowing about 10 words of Spanish.
Now I'm (still young) 21 and responsible for 8 precious babies and think more in Spanish than English.

I've fallen in love with a country.
I've fallen in love with 70+ kids.
I've fallen in love with a language.

The other morning we woke up to rain and a lightning storm over on the next mountain top. A half hour later my little guys started calling out to me, "TIA LILY!!! A RAINBOW!!!"  To my left the sky was pink and beautiful, in front of me the rain was drifting away and there was a double rainbow and to my right, a lightning storm and dark clouds. I couldn't get over the beauty of it. As the storm circled away from us I just stared and exhaled at God's beauty.

I've fallen in love with beauty.
I've fallen in love with mountains.

Last night I was tired. More like exhausted. I had spent the morning at the hospital (a very dirty hospital) with two of my littlest so they could get their shots and checkups. The afternoon I had spent with a hoe, getting blisters as we finish our small garden. It went from one plant to a half circle that has JESUS TE AMA (Jesus loves you) written in grass. Beautiful but hard work and blisters. One of my little guys got scared at night from dogs barking so he pulled his mattress into my room and slept on my floor. It had been a long day.

I've fallen in love with working.
I've fallen in love with serving.

There's moments where I've got nothing more to give. There's moments where I can't stop laughing. My life here is insane. But here's what God has been showing me.
HIS love is INSANE.

I've fallen in love with God's love.

In the past two weeks I've been falling in love. I've been falling more and more in love with my Savior. I need His love for me. I've been reading more and more of Psalms and rejoicing in His nearness and love. I see such a dependency on Him.
Without Jesus I have nothing. Without Jesus I am nothing.

I've fallen in love with God's goodness.
I've fallen in love with His grace.

In the good days filled with laughter, I want to be fully dependent on God and give Him thanks.
In the hard days that are tiring and frustrating, I want to be fully dependent on God and give Him thanks.

I've fallen in love with JOY.

I need Him. And like He promises AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN.
He will NEVER leave us.

Fills me with JOY.

God has done crazy things in these past 2 1/2 years. He's done crazy things in the past 2 weeks.

I've fallen in love with craziness.

Give your life, every piece and part and hope and dream back to Him. It's His already. My prayer is continually asking God to use me up for HIM. I don't want my plans. They fail. I want His prefect plan for me.

God bless from Bolivia!
The land of beautiful sunrises, goofy kids, the best coca-cola, forever dirty feet from dirt and dusty roads, beautiful blue butterflies, bracelets, smiles and love.

~Lily Fluharty