Simple but Extraordinary

I was talking to a friend yesterday (my old roommate) and she said something that I realized summarizes my mission to a T: simple but extraordinary. My life is simple. I wake up at 5h45, tell Daniel to get out of bed 25 times before 6h30, eat 2 pieces of bread with butter and a cup of coffee. I brush my teeth with an 8 year old where we compete to see who can brush LONGER (playing the fastest game only works for pajamas...). I run around trying to find art supplies to take to school, while creating activities in the moment. I decide if it's a painting day depending on the clothes I'm wearing as the children keep painting my backside... ie pretty clothes= crayon day. I take a bus for an hour packed like a sardine and then teach classes for disabled children and children with behavioral problems. I go home, eat beans and rice and fruit salad for lunch. I take a nap, pray the rosary, spend the afternoon with my little munchkins, cook dinner, clean house, wash clothes, go to mass, eat dinner, brush teeth again with my boy, read a book, kiss him goodnight, and am in my bed by 8h35.

Simple but extraordinary. Extraordinary that a 6 year old little girl asked for the second year in a row to not receive birthday presents. Instead all of her little friends brought art supplies for MY STUDENTS. After a year here in Brasil, I still don't know how to give like her. Extraordinary that my new bedroom, where I sleep alone in a bed that I think may break next week, faces the entire fazenda. So when my door is open, the kids come running. They think it's my workshop. I asked them if they did not see my dirty underwear lying on the ground. Somehow it hasn't stopped them from marching in. I turned the bottom bunk into my painting desk. And painting becomes all the better when I have some other little artists near me.

Simple but extraordinary that it has been raining for 9 days straight. That I shower with cold water (Sorry, I haven't learned to stop complaining yet.. maybe in the next month). And that I am happier than I have ever known in my life. Everything is going so quickly. My going away mass is july 15. I found a samba singer to play music for us. I have over 100 invites. I have my plane ticket home

PHOENIX ARIZONA
AUGUST 4, 2012
5:48pm
Come one, come all and greet me at the airport

I have this new life awaiting me. I have more hope and excitement and joy to see what He is calling me to next. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world in my simple, but extraordinary life. Thank you to each one of you who is part of it.

And I leave you with a CONGRATULATIONS to one of my very best friends and cousin, Gillean, on her engagement yesterday. I can't wait to be home to help you plan a miraculous day! Love you

With love,

 the kids in my room on our makeshift desk... my very first canvas painting to call on the living room wall

 we finally covered the ugly couch with new yellow fabric!