I'm Engaged!

I can't believe it, but on December 21, 2007 Rodrigo asked me to marry him!

We had gone out to eat at our favorite restaurant, and then seen a movie, so it was late when we got back to my apartment. But, when we arrived, I opened the door to find pictures of him and me put up all over my apartment. As soon as I saw the pictures, I knew what was happening. We both got so nervous! There was a letter for me on my bed. We read the letter together, and then he got down on his knee and asked me to marry him! I said yes!

Here are some pictures of how my apartment looked:


Here's a closer picture of the ring.

Here's a picture of something I've been waiting to do for years! A few years ago, I wrote down all of the qualities I wanted in a husband and I wrote a prayer on the back. I put the list in an envelope, sealed it, and wrote on it, "Do not open until you're engaged." This was my way of giving all of my worries of finding a husband to God. I opened the envelope and Rodrigo and I read the list and the prayer together. As we read what I had written several years ago, it was obvious to me that Rodrigo was hand-picked for me by God and that he is the answer to my prayers!
Here I am opening the letter:

Just thought I'd share the good news!

More Pics of Ava

Hello everyone! Check out some more pictures of my niece on my mom's site. Click HERE. Only 19 days until I get to meet her in person!!

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Ok, so you KNOW I wouldn't cover up the post about the birth of my new niece unless it was REALLY important. So, here it is:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY GOOD FRIEND AND FORMER COLLEGE ROOMMATE, MELISSA REEVES!!

It's hard to believe that this gorgeous accountant is 28 years old today!


Melissa is truly one of the best friends I have ever had. She always makes such an effort to keep in touch and know what's going on in my life even though we live thousands of miles apart! I hope you have a wonderful day today Melissa! 28 is my lucky number, so I think this is going to be a great year for you!

Ava Elizabeth Worley

Here she is with her proud daddy! Ava Elizabeth arrived today at 2:38pm, weighing 5lbs and measuring 17 and 1/2 inches long. She was born about 4 weeks early, so she is technically a preemie, but mom and baby are both doing fine. As for her aunt (me), she is extremely sad that she couldn't be there! Enjoy some pics that my mom sent me!









I read this verse during church this morning and it made me think of my new niece:
"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." Revelation 4:11

It's so comforting to know that the creator of the universe also created Ava and that her being is a result of His will! Thank you God for Ava! I can't wait to see the plans that You have for her!

Ava's On Her Way!

I got a call from my mom this morning at 7:45 (6:45 Texas time) saying that Jay and Sarah were at the hospital! Sarah woke up around 3am with contractions and then her water broke.. so they headed up to the hospital. I just talked to Jay and everyone is doing good, but they still have a while to wait! Please be praying for Jay, Sarah, and little Ava. You can also pray for me too.. I'm sad that I can't be there! I have a ticket to be home on Oct. 27th.. the day after Ava's due date. I was hoping she'd hold out until then, boy was I wrong! Oh well! Anyway, I'll post pictures when I have them. But be praying for my family!!

Ava's parents and me on their wedding day. Boy are things about to change! :)

Bad blogger, bad!

Hello everyone! Is anyone still out there? Sorry, I've been a very bad blogger. It's actually very ironic because I get so frustrated when the blogs I always look at don't get updated for a while! Oh well, I'll try to make up for it now. A big event that has happened since I last updated is the visit of my mom and Becky! They were here for a week at the end of June and it was great! We visited all of my favorite spots around Santiago and, most importantly, all of my favorite restaurants! We had a great time, and I even stayed in the hotel with them most of the time! My mom and Becky both got to spend time with Rodrigo, which I know they enjoyed (and even found a way to communicate through the language barrier). Enjoy some pics!

Here we are at "Los Vikingos" (aka "the vikings" if you couldn't tell by the hats) enjoying some typical Chilean food!


Here is Mom and me on top of San Cristobal hill. We got a really great view of the smog that day!


Mom and Becky in the cable-car on the way up the mountain.


Here are Mom and Becky with a guard at La Moneda.. the building where the president works.


One night Mom and Becky made dinner for Rodrigo and me. Nachos and homemade apple pie! Yum!!! Something I had definitely been missing.



On Friday we drove out to Viña de Mar for some seafood and to get a view of the Pacific Ocean.


We had some time for some other fun stuff too, like:

Starbucks...


Video Games...


And "Once" at Ingrid's...


It was so much fun and I was so sad when they left! Thanks for coming Mom and Becky!

Baby Worley!

No, I am not pregnant (and shame on you for thinking so)! However, my sister-in-law Sarah is! We found out on June 8th that Jay and Sarah are going to have a little girl in October!!! :) I'm very excited and know that my little niece (Ava) is going to be spoiled rotten!

So, everyone keep Sarah, Jay, and Ava in your prayers! Enjoy the pictures below!

Precious tiny feet!

Can you see her little face?

Here's Sarah at about 19 weeks!


The happy grandparents with their granddog Mojo. Can you tell they're excited??

Mondays

It's Sunday night, and I'm already preparing myself. I'm preparing myself for tomorrow... Monday. Let me just tell you about my Mondays. I have four classes to teach on Mondays. I know that might not sound like much, but my first class starts at 8:00am and my last starts at 8:00pm. And, as I work for 3 different English institutes, none of the classes are in the same place, and if you didn't know this already, Santiago is a big city! By the end of the day on Monday I have taught 5 hours of English class, spent about 1 - 2 hours planning lessons, taken 8 buses, and walked for a total of about 60 minutes. Needless to say, when I get home at around 10:00pm on Monday nights, I AM TIRED. However, last Monday night when I walked in my door, this is what I found waiting for me...

The table was set, there were candles, there was music, and there was dinner, all prepared and waiting! Rodrigo had made an incredible dinner of Choripan and pebre (my favorite Chilean foods), grilled chicken and vegetables, mashed potatoes, corn, salad, and Black Forest Cake for dessert! I obviously couldn't eat it all.. but everything was DELICIOUS! It was so sweet and thoughtful and definitely turned my Monday around!

*You might be wondering why there is a pill bottle on the table. Well, I have to take a medicine with food, and Rodrigo was SO thoughtful that he put the pills on the table for me, so I would have everything I needed! What a sweetheart!*

Easter Activities!

Hola everyone! Sorry it's been a while since my last post. I REALLY am going to try to write more. I just haven't been taking many pictures lately, and don't like to post without them! :)

This last weekend was packed with activities for those of us at the Iglesia de Cristo. On Saturday the college and high school students put on "The Bible Adventure!" We created a bible-times market place for kids. There were five stations: writing, music, baking, pottery, and carpentry. The kids were separated by age into five tribes and got to go to each station and learn about how people did things in the times when Jesus was alive. We also had a temple where the kids went to sing songs and see skits of bible stories. A great time was had by all, and there were over 50 kids in attendance, which means there were a lot of visitors! :)

As you can see from the picture above, I was a tribe leader for the tribe "Jose" which was 4 and 5 year olds. I had the smallest group (which worked out well for me!) and we had a great time! The kids absolutely loved the bakery station. They got to make bread dough and get really messy!


They also loved the pottery station where they got to make a plate, or really whatever they wanted, and paint! Camilo was the leader of this station and he did a great job!


Here's a picture of some of the kids in the temple, listening to a story from the Rabi.


And here's our Rabi, Ryan Newhouse, with his fiance, Claudia. I just wanted to include this because I thought it was a cute picture! :)


Our bible times market place even came complete with Roman Soldiers, like there would have been in the times of Jesus. Here's a soldier Christian Moore punishing Rodrigo.


All in all it was a great day! And the college and high school students all did a great job! I think everyone is looking forward to doing this even again next year! Because we did this the day before Easter it gave us a chance to invite the visitors to church on Sunday. There were quite a few kids that came to church on Sunday as a result of the Bible Adventure. :) After church on Sunday we celebrated as a church family with a picnic in the park and Easter egg hunt! Have I mentioned how great it is to have a park right outside the front door of the church? Well, it's great!

I'll leave you with a picture of Rodrigo and me after church in the park. I hope you all had a Happy Easter!!!

Chile, Chile, Lindo...

Well family and friends.. I don't know if anyone actually even looks at this blog anymore... but I am back! I'm back in Santiago, Chile. I arrived on February 7th and have spent the last few weeks getting certified to teach English as a foreign language. Things here are going great! I was gone for 6 months, and when I came back it seemed like everything was different, but everything was the same. Weird, huh? And hard to explain. I just received my camera on Sunday, so I haven't had time to take any pictures. However, I promise to post some ASAP. Get ready for some bloggage!