love Madagascar

In every person’s life, they have a list of people that have helped them on their way. Outside of the Lord, these are people that have helped shape me into the person I am today. After taking some time to remember each person’s defining moment in my life, I thought it would be best to honor them in a blog. It’s the absolute least I can do…but you need to know these people. And my hope is, that you will find people just like them, to challenge and stir you on to love and good works. (Hebrews 10:24 ) Without a doubt, first up is my parents. I seriously have the best. We went on our first trip as a family to Wales. It was fun…and a VERY long time ago. My parents have always been the type of people to teach us that everyone is equal. My dad can tell you countless stories of living in the South and how that has shaped him. In a way, it shaped me as well. My parents have taught me that there is no one too far from grace and it doesn’t matter your skin color, accent, or home country...

On any given Monday through Friday, you can find me, from 8am until 12 noon, sitting at this table studying Malagasy. Lately, I have been able to go through each class without my head hurting or my eyes filling with tears. Let me be the first to tell you that learning a language is NOT easy. Not to mention when you found out you are actually almost blind. Yeah...glasses happened too. Some days it feels like I will never learn the language. But there have been small victories of being able to read and write properly. There has also been the understanding of being spoken to. Speaking back is a different story. By the time I formulate my sentence in Malagasy, the person I'm speaking with is already 3 steps ahead of me and onto a different topic. I wish Malagasy had a "southern" region...maybe then they would talk slow enough for me to fully understand and participate in conversation. In an effort to step out of our usual routine, Sunday afternoon, Megan and I decided (...