Joanne and Martha

Hello world! It is us, Hannah and Lauren letting you all know that we are safe after what sounded like explosions, we were in midst of throughout the previous evening.  Well, okay, they were not necessarily explosions...however the thunder was absolutely ridiculous.  After waking up multiple times throughout the night, 7:20 finally came around because we had the luxury of  being on breakfast crew.  Although breakfast crew usually only has to wake up at 8 o'clock, we had a bright and early breakfast so that we would be able to leave for the beach and play in the sun...or so we thought.  After the on and off rain storms throughout the morning, postponing our departure, our leaders finally decided on going to the beach, regardless of the weather.  With anticipation building and hope that the sun would break through the barren, dark clouds and allow us to have a lovely day in the sunshine, we headed off to the beach.  Although what we thought was an unanswered prayer turned into a really great bonding and faith building experience.  Even though we didn't get to go to the beach for longer than five minutes, we realized that we can't always be in control of everything, and that God has the best plan.  So instead of pouting at the house about not being able to bask in the Mexican sun, we created a "musical story telling session," in which we took turns telling a variation of stories to instrumental guitar songs (Hannah starting it off with her "scary scorpion story," which was non-existant).  As the afternoon continued our story time had to end when we took the kids of CAT to "Men in Black III."  The somewhat violent and extremely hard to understand (due to the two hours of Spanish dialog), film was all worth it in the end when we got to bond with the children from CAT and even take four bathroom breaks with your child throughout the movie if you are Shay.  With heavy hearts, we said goodbye to the aforementioned kids and hugged the living daylights out of them as they walked away.  Hopefully, the impact we made on them throughout the two days we were with them gave them the confidence that they are loved by others, and more importantly, their heavenly Father.  Following the movie, we went to the market to shop, barter (...not so much), and navigate our way through the jungle of over priced cedar wood (ask Hans).  The final shopping bags consisted of: fake Ray Bans, MANY woven bracelets, a soccer jersey, cross necklaces, and other sorts of jewelry (guess what gender bought more?!).  Due to the intense shopping, our stomachs were absolutely empty.  To fill them up, we ventured over to nearby restaurants for a delicious dinner.  After stuffing our faces with tacos, empanadas, salbutes, tostadas, churros, and marquesitas, we needed to burn off some serious calories.  Therefore, being the generous, sympathetic leaders they are, we were taken to the beach to play in the water for a short bit.  Although the sun was still not out, the rain had condensed to a small sprinkle and we were all able to enjoy the still water and cotton candy colored sky.  While taking pictures, frolicking in the sand, and playing "big kid leap frog," we bonded more than we had all week with one another.  So as this trip comes to an end, we are happy and blessed to say that this has been one of the most eye opening and inspiring experiences we have had in our lives so far.  Even though today did not exactly as planned, we had one of the best days this week, regardless of the weather.  

LAUREN 

To my family, I miss you all and can't wait to see those of you who are in town tomorrow :)

HANNAH

I love you all so much and can't wait to see you all tomorrow <3