cold feet?

HAPPPPPY EASTER!!!!!! What a glorious day!!! On top of celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord I cant help but think that 3 weeks from today John, Anthony, and I will be landing in Kolkata, India. BAH. I think my fellow travelers can agree with me that the closer that this trip gets the more and more knots we feel in our stomach's every time we think about leaving. Knots aren't necessarily a bad thing, but like always the reality of the trip is becoming so real, its terrifying. I am BEYOND excited for the experience that the Lord has in store for me this summer and that is what is keeping my excitement so strong. Without the excitement and the support I have been receiving from everyone, it would be a lot easier to give into the "cold feet" feeling and run in the other direction. But I am convinced more and more everyday that this is where God wants me for the summer. Slowly but surely the terrifying thoughts of the unknown will become moments of joy and experience the love of Christ through the hearts of my soon to be friends in India.

Every time I come home we are always running around and collecting things that I will need for the trip. This past Easter break we went to a traveling store and exchange a good amount of American dollars for India Rupees so that upon arriving in India I will be able to get a taxi from the airport to our hotel and will be able to afford food for a few days until we figure out where and how to exchange the rest of our money. I cannot lie.. with the exchange rate I feel like a rich fool carrying around all these rupees.. but in reality $1 = 44 rupees.. Just feels like a lot of money.


              On top of exchanging money this break, my parents surprised me with a hiking backpack that I will be able to live out of this summer. We have all decided that bringing only one backpack is a good idea instead of worrying about checking bags and having to deal with huge suit cases all summer long. So we are going to try and live out the life of simplicity and bring the bare necessities. So all that I will use this summer is going to fit in this nice new back pack! On top of the backpack I went out and purchased a rain jack. Most people when they think of India think of very very hot weather (which is MORE than true... its is currently 95 degrees in Kolkata today) but I know that I never thought that India was a place that experience monsoon weather... Welp! You guessed it! We will be traveling through Kolkata right in the middle of monsoon season! I think that calls for a rain jack..



Here's to starting Malaria pills tomorrow and beginning the part of the adventure that involves hallucinating, and having crazy dreams. HA!

Thank you again for all of the support and prayers. Please, if you have prayer intentions that you would like to be prayed for at the tomb of Bl. Mother Teresa, let me know.

there is no turning back.

That's right folks! There is no turning back now! Today I met my mom in KC and we visited the doctors to make sure that I am all ready to go and they shot me up with a bunch of immunizations (HepA, Typhoid, Polio, and Tetanus Booster). After receiving shots at one doctor, we visited another doctor to receive a prescription for malaria pills. My doctor first tried to prescribe me  doxycycline and as he was reading off the side effects he mentioned that this certain malaria medicine makes you super sensitive to the sun and getting sun burns. Upon hearing this I looked at my doctor and reminded him where I was going and how it was going to be above 100 degrees everyday. Needless to say he got the point and decided to change the prescription to mefloquine which has great side effects such as hallucinating, crazy dreams, and other fun things of that sort. (I am sure there will be stories to follow this one).

The trip is slowly becoming a reality as I keep making these huge steps to being ready to go on the trip. This Wednesday is the one month marker until we leave. So much to do and so little time especially with still being in school and not having opportunities to be home collecting things that I will need for the trip. But this is all just a part of the adventure! God will provide me with what I need before we leave, just gotta be patient and go with the flow!

Before I end this post I thought I would share with you my experience when receiving my shots today:
No one likes to receives shots, and neither do I. I normally do a great job of sucking it up and getting the shots while only expressing a few ridiculous facial expressions of pain and discomfort. But today was a different story.
The nurse began by preping me and telling me that I will be recieving two shots in each arm. As she begans to prepare me for my frist shot she instructs:
Nurse: " Now, when I tell you to, wiggle your toes and focus on wiggling only your toes and you wont even feel the shot." (at this point I am feeling like I am five years old).

So the nurse proceeds to give me my first two shots in my left arm and they went completely fine. (My mom was very proud of me up until this point). Now the nurse instructs that I am about to receive my HepA shot and this shot is going to feel a lot different than the two that I just received. She explained that upon giving me the shot my arm was going to feel really heavy, like a brick. And that this is just a side affect of the amount of liquid that they have to inject. At this point I look over at my mom and to my surprise her head is turned and her eyes are closed.

Me: "Wow, it looks like my mom is going to pass out before I do."
Nurse: "Do you normally pass out when you receive shots?"
Me: "Oh no.I have never passed out getting a shot before. No worries."

So the nurse proceeds to tell me to start wiggling my toes and get ready for the HepA shot. The nurse gives me the shot and I immediately feel the brick in my arm. Less than five second after receiving the shot I realize that I am feeling incredibly dizzy. In my defense I attempted to tell my mom and the nurse that I was feeling dizzy, but unfortunately, I passed out before that could happen. HA!

30 seconds later I come to it, laying on the floor, and I am more confused than ever. I dont remember where I am at first. All I could hear were people saying my name and telling me to "drink this". It takes me a while to come back to it and remember where I was and what I was doing, and when this happens I bust out laughing. My mom informs me (as if I didnt already know) that I passed out upon recieving my Hep A shot. I looked at the nurse who was a little confused as to why I was laughing and I said

Me: "Isn't it funny how right before you gave me my shot I informed you that I never pass out when getting shots?"

Needless to say we all busted out laughing and the nurse decided I should receive my last shot while laying on the ground in case I decide to pass out again.

Here's to growing in humility and now having to put on my medical records that I pass out upon receiving shots. HA!

cor ad cor loquitur

As our departure date continues to creep up on us (only 5 weeks away. Eeek.) I decided it is about time to create a blog that I (will hopefully) be able to update throughout our journey in Kolkata this summer. My inspiration for the title of the blog, which in turn I am adopting for the motto for the summer comes from a very solid guy, St. Peter himself:

"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly form the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. 

That imperishable seed, of course, is the love of Jesus, through whom we have been purified and born anew through our baptism. This is the love that speaks to every human heart and beckons us to obedience to the truth, the truth of God's love and will in our lives.

Heart speaks to heart, cor ad cor loquitur - the Heart of God first speaks to our hearts, it is He who has initiated this romance and not us - as Saint John reminds us: "not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us and sent his son" - then we, in turn, speak that same truth in love to one another, "a sincere love of the brethren," as St. Peter writes, "loving one another earnestly from the heart."

Here's to a summer of taking the love that God has planted in my heart and bringing that love to those who I am going to meet in Calcutta and learning how to love one another earnestly from the heart.