Happy 4th of July!! I do feel blessed to be from the U.S., and yet feel a bit bad because it wasn´t my choice to be wealthy, nor to have freedom to worship, nor to have a good house, plenty to eat, cars, a fabulous family, technology, clean water, education, dreams, freedom to travel all over the world without someone telling me no...you can´t come in. So many suffer in this world, and we´re unaware because we are so blessed with who is around us and the luxuries we see as the normal way of life. God Bless America, and God Bless the World...may we be more generous and look beyond ourselves to do as Abraham was commanded to do...Bless as you are Blessed!!

O.K., so now to more of a what´s been going on blog...My parents and Logan just left a couple of days ago, and we passed a marvelous 12 days together!! It was so much fun, and so great to see them. They did really well "roughing it" for 4 days in my village, even with bats flying and scorpions on the walls!! I was proud of how they reacted, even though my mom cacooned herself in a hammock. Poor things...they didn´t get much sleep for those 4 days!! They had new adventures, though! Logan was so cute because he was really good with the kids, and all of them were teaching him how to hit on girls in Spanish. It was hilarious! What was even funnier is that he was quite the little Romeo...catching all of the girls´eyes, and throwing his own comments and flirty glances as well. My little bubba´s growing up!!! : ( Then, we went travelling through the west side of the country. We saw volcanoes, lakes, oceans, coral reefs, fish, malls, hotels, cows (ask my mom about that one...she´s awwwed by all of the cows on the roads), landscape views, lightning storms, sunrises, food fairs, dolphins, tortoises, live music, etc. It was a blast, and it was sad to see them go. They met Ramfis and he met them for the first time, and thankfully, they all liked each other a lot! It all felt really comftorable for me and I was relieved that everything went so smoothly. My parents gave their blessing and "persmission" or consent for us to continue dating. It was sweet because he asked them for that and it was this big beautiful translated conversation about our relationship, the challenges and the things working in our favor, etc. The parental units appreciated the respectfulness, and all is well.

Poor Jen got robbed, tricked by a school, and really really sick, so she went home. I feel so bad that her experience was much less than desirable, but hopefully something good will come out of the bad. I already miss her and my family, though. So, pray for her recooperation. And please pray for my patience and strength. I don´t want to go back to my canton right now, so emotionally I´m a bit messed up.

A big shout out and thank you to Mrs. Tammy Perkins, the Porters, Mrs. Sherri Worley, Mrs. Jackie Pentecost, Mee Maw, and Nanny and Grandaddy for all of the goodies that you sent. I was and am much appreciative!!! Love you and thanks again! XOXOXO