So I know it's been so long since I've written. ALOT has happened, but not much I can talk about on here... for now at least.

The past 2 weeks have been SOOOOO busy. I feel like I haven't had a single second to catch my breath! I am definitely grateful to be home with nothing pressing for the rest of the weekend. Hopefully I'll be productive in some things... like, I have been sleeping on top of my comforter the past week because I've been too lazy to put my sheets back on! haha. Maybe I shouldn't admit that??

Last night I hosted our first ever English worship night at CCA. You could say it was a failure because 2 people from CCA showed up (but thanks to the DBU people and friends it was more like 10 people), but I think it was definitely a success because it was such a great time of renewal that I think we all needed during the stressful, busy week it's been. Kathy played guitar and led, I played piano (not well, might I add), and Daniel was AMAZING on violin. It's really fun to play with such talented people! Also, our friend Moses from DBU is here visiting his family for 3 weeks, so it was really nice to catch up with him last night as well!

My kids have been funny these past couple weeks. I should've been writing down their funny quotes.... I can only remember one: Me: "Hae Won, are you a puppy?" HaeWon: "No teacher, I'm a baby dog." I love it. Today we talked about land pollution (I know, right?? kindergarten EFL classes.... of course you should cover pollution) Anyway, our activity was picking up trash around school. I put them into groups and kind of made it a contest to see who could fill their trash bags the fastest... oh man were they excited. I've never seen anyone so excited about picking up trash, but they were running around like crazy kiddos. So, if you have small children and want to keep them occupied, maybe it might do the trick for yours too!

I don't really have anything cool to say, but it's been a long time since I've updated...oops.

Can't wait to be home :)

Let Go. Let God

So I'm finally ready. Really.

I've been afraid for a long time. I thought, if I let go, I'm going to be alone. I cried for a long time, wondering what my life would be like without the thing that I hold most dear.

It's time though. Time to let go.

It's time to realize that God is still filling every one of my needs, no matter what I think is missing.

I can no longer rely on the thing I was holding on to, but understand that God's love will take care of all that I can't accomplish.

I had to ask... where in my life am I holding back from fully responding to God? What's hindering me from hearing His voice? I asked God, but I already knew the answer.

God was saying, "Don't let your fear of letting go keep you from responding to my call. Come with me, let's start our journey. You will learn that I can be trusted."

So yeah. It's time.

"As children bring their broken toys
with tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God,
because He was my friend.
But then, instead of leaving Him,
in peace, to work alone;
I hung around and tried to help,
with ways that were my own.
At last, I snatched them back and cried, "How can you be so slow?" "My child," He said,
"What could I do? You never did let go.""

Mini vaca in Seoul

So the weekend of May 21st we had a 3 day weekend (in honor of Buddha's birthday...haha), so week took a little mini vacation to the Hapjeong area of Seoul. We stayed in a hostel style house (my first time)... it was interesting! The first night was Anthony, Kathy, Stephanie, and myself, and then Cameron joined us for the second night. It was a really great little vacation!

Day one:

At Suwon Station waiting for the train to Seoul Station

Tones and Stephanie

They said I looked like I was going hiking. Fine. Maybe I did.

Our lovely room... bed number one... notice you can see anthony in the mirror. Totally not planned, just creepy.

The other two beds...

Before we started our adventure, we decided we needed to stop for Potbingsu. You can never go wrong there!

Oh Kathy and Anthony... they can't take normal pictures really.

walking around the Hapjeong neighborhood area...

Praha Castle... don't worry, it's just a bar.

On our way to Seonyu Island.

View of the Han river from the brige to the island...

me, Kathy, and Stevie on the bridge

This is called the rainbow bridge. Apparently it was a grift from France.

In the gardens at Seonyu Island.

Kathy making a scene... haha

woohoo for timer shots!

remember what I said about them taking normal pictures?

to this day, we're still unsure as to what this girl was doing?? But it looked like a photo op to us!

looking out over the river

almost normal picture in front of the cool graffiti wall.

this picture is lame. I'm aware.

Heading out of Seonyu Island

Next, we headed to the trendy Shinchon area of Seoul. This is a puzzle cafe! So fun! If you order a drink, you can do puzzles for free. You can also choose to buy bigger/harder puzzles and work on them, leave them, and come back however many times to finish them. Such a fun idea.

We had a race between Anthony/Steph and me/kathy to see who could finish the small puzzle the fastest. Let's just say Kathy and I dominated. Woop!

Day 2:

Day 2, we headed out to Namdemun market. It was HUGE and crazy. I can't believe we had never been there before. So fun though, I definitely want to go back.

Anthony would have the urge to put on a creepy pig mask.

I don't think this one really needs words! haha.

After Namdemun, we met up with Cameron at Seoul station and headed back to the hostel.

Anthony, myeslf, and Cameron waiting for the subway

the girlies

sadly, it rained on us for the rest of the day...

Next, we went to have dinner at an Itallian? (I can't really remember) place.

Yes, we went to the dog cafe. They had never been and it was right by our hostel, so I took one for the team and went with them :)

wolf dog! He wasn't there when I went... most of the dogs were different actually then when I went before with Lauren. Interesting... they must rotate them out, which makes sense or it would probably be really bad for them..

Anthony is expecting.

We were all wearing fun socks, so it merrited a photo... guess which feet belong to each person?

Day 3:

In front of Kim's Guesthouse... our hostel for the weekend.

We went to Yeoido Full Gospel church. It's apparently the largest church in the world. As of 2007, there were around 870,000 members. It was crazy. They had translation in like 8 languages. It was huge and crowded.

On our way back to catch the train :(

Last picture of the trip on the train home. Good thing I got you to buy that awesome purple shirt, right Cameron?

So I finished a great book today if anyone is looking for an easy, really good read... it's called Embrace Me and it's by Lisa Samson.

It was a fun weekend filled with lots of girl time that I desperately needed. I'm definitely starting to get really homesick... it's been over 4 months since I've seen my family. I'm more than ready for Summer break to come!

Also, in case anyone didn't hear yet, I have to say CONGRATULATIONS to my BFF Amanda who got engaged a couple weeks ago! YAYYYYY! Congrats Amanda and Mike! They're getting married December 19th in Arlington!

Have a wonderful week!

Botanical Gardens field trip

We went to the Seoul Botanical Gardens in May.... here's a few snipets from the fun field trip :)

Aren't they the cutest?? My babies really are the best!