I arrived in Firenze today. It has been a year and a half since I have been out of the country. In July on 2011 I went to Honduras with a team of missionaries to work at an orphanage. The week of work, community outreach, and just loving on these children was life changing. Little did I know how it would change my life. After our last work day I slipped and fell, and collapsed a lung. Despite the pain that endured through two hospitals in Honduras, and one back home in the states, I still regard it as one of the most breathtaking (ha ha, no pun intended!) experiences of my life. God is good and He protected me and sent angels my way during those difficult last few days.

Very much has changed in and around me since that trip. I slowed down, literally. For a while I just couldn’t do a lot of the things that I had used to. I was blessed to have a full recovery, but my lifestyle has still changed a lot. It seems in the last year and a half I have seen so much adversity.  Not with me, but around me. Through that I have also seen more strength than I thought possible.

I’m laying on my bed in a hostel in Florence. I just spent the day with my best friend who is studying here for 4 months. There was a time when doing anything remotely close to this seemed impossible for her and now she is living her dreams and I get to live them with her.  I’m so grateful.