What's next...?

Oh. My. Goodness.


What a week! Last time I wrote here, I was all cheery and hopeful, and loving life...well here I am a couple days later not feeling the same way at all haha.

It's just been a roller coaster!

First off, physically....my body aches. My back, my fingers, my head is throbbing, my arms are sore, i did something to my wrist and my throat's been feeling irritated for the past couple of days.
This throat has kept me from getting good night sleeps. We've been waking up between 4 and 5:45 every morning this week, and being physically acitve first thing in the morning untill 3:30 for most days, including  our drives to the schools.

By the time we get back to our motel, we are exhausted. All we want to do is nap BUT we try not to otherwise we'll just end up going to bed late, and end up hating life even more in the mornings.
We've had all sorts of schools. We had a school in which the teachers refused to turn all of the lights off (the darker the room, the better the show looks) because the kids were so bad that they were scared of what they would do in the dark. They even had security in the room just in case. We've had schools with kids helpig us and not listening to a thing we were saying, almost breaking all of our equipment, making dirty jokes, goofing off and stressing me out more than helping me. We've had schools with excellent little helpers who listened carefully and did everything wonderfully! We've had schools with really old African American janitors who were just absolute sweethearts, just precious ol' grandpas that you felt bad putting to work but they insisted so we used it. We've had schools where the teachers would yell at their students as if they were in the army. We had schools in which students could care less about the video. Others that cheered so loudly at the end. Others where there was complete awkward silence at the end of my conclusion. We had a school that had a Christian team of college students there to minister to kids on the same day we presented. That was really cool to watch and interact with them. :) We had a school (our very last show of the week, today) where we set everything up, shifted everything to the other side of the gym because there were huge windows that were washing out the video, and even after doing that, 10 minutes after the video started, the principle had to cancel the show because the room was so bright that no one could see anything. :(

All in all though it was a good week. In fact, we got a LOT of compliments from different staff saying that we were one of the best teams they'd had and things like that so that was encouraging for sure!
We've done 10 schools in 5 days and it is FINALLY the weekend.

I guess it's just really awkard timing for me to have had the busiest week yet right after finding everything out. Not only have I been physically exhausted this week, the reality of things has been sinking in more and more and these poor emotions of mine have been everywhere.
On top of all of this, I haven't been eating as often due to awkward show times or laziness, or pure loss of appetite, which has been a bummer because I am in Louisiana for crying out loud. The land of seafood and gumbo and soul food, greek, lebanese, French food and you name it!!!
I've had delicious gumbo and chinese food so far.
This wasn't any kind of chinese....it was....amazing...! It had all types of sea food I'd never seen or tasted before. I even had octopus! Great sushi and tempura. All sorts of crab, and so much more.
I love food, and it's such a bummer that not only am I broke (due to having to save up for a plane ticket), but I just haven't been hungry because I've let all these different emotions consume me.

AND last but not least...I haven't been able to spend as much time with the Lord as desired, which explains a lot doesn't it?

Because we get back from work exhausted and try to avoid taking naps, we try to keep our time as filled with nonsense as possible away from the hotel room that constantly toils with our desire to just lay down and pass out for hours at a time.
So I've gone to the Mall of Louisiana a couple of times, I've spent a lot of time on the phone, I've been watching shows, going to Starbucks, and doing other random things like that. So I've slacked on using this time more wisely and efficiently.
I did begin job searching and that just became way to overwhelming, way to fast.

I must say that once again I've just been so extremely encouraged by my friends and family (all of you...) that continually send me comforting messages or call to check up on me or express your sadness, or remind me that you are thinking and praying for me so THANK U ALL!!!

So all of this being said, it only makes sense that there hasn't been much progress concerning my knowing where I'm going, how I'm going there, and what I'll be doing there.

So far, the options are still France and Senegal, and now added to the list of "maybes" are Canada and Australia :)
I've always wanted to go to Australia and just found out that being a French Citizen, I could move there with minimum amount of problems finding a job for some reason. The same goes for Canada. It isn't really at the top of my choices, but it would be the cheapest option flight wise, and being bilingual, I could probably  find a job there.
Who knows. I'm still very unsure. Time is going by fast though and even though I have till the first week of January to be here, I feel like I basically only have a week or two to figure this out otherwise plane tickets will be REDONCULOUS!

Writing this out helps me process my thinking, but still doesn't solve the problems. Other than the fact that I trust you will keep me in prayer once reading this.

I'm sorry I'm babbling a lot. I guess mentally I'm not all there either on top of physically and emotionally :)

What else...?

Well...I was going to talk about optimism and staying positive and how much of an impact that can have on our perspective of life as Christians BUT I'm tired, ready to get all cozzy in my bed and fall asleep with the comfort of knowing I will not have to wake up anytime between 4 and 6. Sigh. What a beautiful thought.
Praise God.

Oh here's an extra lil prayer request that my mother wanted me to put out here because as a mother she is very worried about this.

In order to get to Colorado and Indiana in a couple of weeks, I will have to drive to both states, by myself, in winter  weather :/

I usually don't worry about much because...well...I already explained all of that to you guys but I must confess that this does worry me considering the fact that even though I've driven a TON in the past couple of months, let me remind you all that I've only had a license for almost 6 months AND I've never driven in the snow, so we're just going to pray and have faith that it won't snow on those days. :)

So there's that. Seriously though, praise God that this week is over. Thanks for reading and being patient with my lack of making sense tonight.

Wherever you are in the world, may your time be blessed. Take time to sit down, breathe, relax, and take full advantage of time spent with loved ones. I know I took that for granted before this job, so don't make that same mistake.

love,
Dorina