How could I forget?!?!

You may be wondering what this title is all about, it is so very important, that I am amazed that I had forgotten it.  I am such a terrible person, I should have written about this a few days ago, but, I FORGOT. How? You might ask.  I don't know, I really don't because this is a matter that deeply saddens my heart.

                      On January 22, 2008, a legend died.  Heath Andrew Ledger.  This man could act.  This is one of those events where I remember exactly where I was when it happened.  It was my freshman year of college and I was in one of my classes with my BFF Beth.  Our teacher was up lecturing us and I was probably daydreaming about my crush at the time who was...well lets just call him Cranberry.
         Anyways, Beth receives a text message, and she gasps out loud.  I was like, "What the heck happened?!" She then told me that Heath Ledger had died, and I seriously thought she was joking, Beth likes to do that.  I should have known that she wouldn't joke about something as lovely as Heath Ledger.  So when I told her that I didnt believe her, she showed me a picture of the news article on her phone, and sure enough it said that Heath Ledger, age 28, had died in his home in New York.  I was crushed.  I definitely didnt listen to any more of the class after that.  I was almost tempted to walk out, for fear that I might burst into tears at any moment.  But, I held it together.  When class ended, Beth and I walked home in silence, contemplating the death of our Heath.  It was terrible.

                  When we got home, we discussed how we were gonna celebrate his life with our other friends.  We decided to watch his movies.  We popped in "10 Things I Hate About You" which just so happens to be one of our favorite movies anyway, and we passed around the chocolate chip cookie dough.  It was, therapeutic.

                 Who could forget Heath Ledger and his amazing acting?  I mean, the man was brilliant.  From "10 Things I Hate About You" to "The Patriot" to "A Knights Tale" and finally to "The Dark Knight" which some say is what caused his death.  Oh, Heath, we will never forget you and all those wonderful movies.  May you rest in peace.  I miss you.

                 This weekend, my friends and I, will be celebrating his life, with a collection of his movies, chocolate, coke, pizza, laughter, tears and memories.  It is gonna be awesome, I know Heath would appreciate it.

                 Remember when he sang this song?  My heart melts every time I hear it :-)

That smile, seriously, gets me every time.  Oh Heath, why did you have to leave us?  You really did make this world a better place.
UNFORGETTABLE. Once again, may you rest in peace, Heath.  We will be thinking of you this weekend.

The words I didn't get to say.

There are so many things going through my head right now that its hard to put into words.  I came back from Ecuador on Tuesday and later this week, I started school at Brigham Young University Idaho.  Let me just tell you that I did not want to come back.  I wanted to just stay in Ecuador, I wanted to be with my babies for the rest of my life.  Leaving Ecuador was THE SINGLE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE. Im sure there will be more trials later in life will be just as hard, but at this point in my life, leaving my babies is the hardest.

I cried my last day, all day.  I didn't want to leave.  I cried when I had to say goodbye to Andres and all he did was smile.  I cried when LuLu told me "te extrano mucho" which means I will miss you.  I cried when I told Camilo goodbye and he touched the tear running down my face.  I cried when Emily waved to me the last time I saw and her and she said "chao." I cried when Sara gave me a huge hug.  I cried when Sor Alba told me thank you for everything and told me to never forget these little angels and to never forget Ecuador and to come back soon.  And I cried when I was walking out the door for the last time and Jorge came running to me and clung onto my legs and said "Chao, Shala" and then gave me a beso.

They changed my life.

If I could tell them and they would understand, I would tell them that I loved them more than anything.  I would tell them to never let anyone tell them that they are anything less perfect.  That there are so many people that love you, you may not know it but you have touched so many lives and you will grow up to be amazing people.  Your Father in Heaven loves you and if you always remember that, you will never be alone.  Always choose to be happy.  Life is tough, but you can get through it, it always works itself out.   Live Life to the fullest.  Follow your dreams and never let anyone tell you, you cant do something.You may not remember me, but I will never forget you.  You will forever be in my heart and I will praying for you and thinking about you always.  I love you so much and I will miss you always.

I left my heart in Ecuador.  Oh Heavenly Father, help me and please keep those kids safe.

A song that I like to listen to when I am missing them is called "Never Alone" by Jim Brickman, sung by Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum.  Here are the lyrics and a link to the song:

May the angels protect you
Trouble neglect you
And heaven accept you when it's time to go home
May you always have plenty
Your glass never empty
Know in your belly
You're never alone

May your tears come from laughing
You find friends worth having
With every year passing
They mean more than gold
May you win but stay humble
Smile more than grumble
And know when you stumble
You're never alone

Never alone
Never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart
When you face the unknown
Wherever you fly
This isn't goodbye
My love will follow you stay with you
Baby you're never alone

Well, I have to be honest
As much as I want it
I'm not gonna promise the cold winds won't blow
So when hard times have found you
And your fear surround you
Wrap my love around you
You're never alone

Never alone
Never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart
When you face the unknown
Wherever you fly
This isn't goodbye
My love will follow you stay with you
Baby you're never alone

May the angels protect you
Trouble neglect you
And heaven accept you when it's time to go home
And when hard times have found you
And your fear surround you
Wrap my love around you
You're never alone

Never alone
Never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart
When you face the unknown
Wherever you fly
This isn't goodbye
My love will follow you stay with you
Baby you're never alone
My love will follow you stay with you
Baby you're never alone

I will never forget your beautiful faces and spirits.  I will love you always.

My last post in Ecuador.

So this is going to be my last post in Ecuador, how sad is that?  That means that I am leaving in four days and they will be some of the saddest and happiest days of my life.  Gees, I don't want to leave my beautiful babies and this beautiful country and all of the friends I have made.  I wanna live here forever and adopt all of my babies so that I don't have to live a day without them.  When I go back to the states, I'm starting back at school which should be fun to see my friends, but I also think its gonna be hard adjusting back to real life and its gonna be hard to not miss my babies.

So anyways, enough of the sad stuff.  So since the last time I wrote, I have had some wonderful adventures, absolutely wonderful.  We had Christmas down here and on Christmas Eve, we went to some of our sites and we gave them Christmas gifts that we had purchased with some of the donation money.  We also had a family come down from Minnesota that brought a whole bunch of toys and so we were able to give them those too.  The sites we went to were, TA, which is an orphanage for children that have been taken from abusive homes.  We went to a boys orphanage way out by the Equator, and lastly we went to Casa H, which is another orphanage near the boys.  We dont usually go to these but since it was Christmas we decided that we should.  We also had presents for LAS and our special kids but we weren't able to make it to those sites on Christmas Eve so we gave them theirs on a different day.  It was so wonderful giving gifts to these children who dont have anything, and it was so sad to not be able to afford a gift for every child.  I decided that when I become famous, that ever orphan in the whole world will get a Christmas present.  It was a very emotional day but I so grateful that I got to experience it.

  So yeah that was Christmas and it was awesome!  The other adventure that happened this week was...we went to the BEACH!  We drove up early monday morning and came back tuesday night, and it was so much fun.  The beach we went to is called Atacames and it was so pretty.  Here are some pics from the trip.

Our hotel

So the men down there, all walk around with their shirts like this...

 So that was our beach trip, it was just so much fun.  We wanted to stay longer but our babies needed us to come back.  Tonight is New Years Eve and they have some crazy traditions that I will write about later and post pics, so look forward to that!  Next time I write, Ill be back in the states, so see you soon! Chao!