Ines Izarnotegui Lay

I think I am in a real trouble here. I have great stories to tell, and experiences to share, but they are so many they all come like a flood in my life before I get a chance to write them down. Abu!

I’m going to start just saying thanks for all the sweet birthday wishes:
Thank you!!! :D Now I will thank you all by sharing how I celebrate this special day…

I celebrate not really a new year that is starting, but the year that has been completed. So I take the time to thank God for the year that just passed and embrace the joy of the memories… I made it! I survived my life ONE MORE YEAR!! If you were to take a look at my schedule you would agree that is quite an accomplishment itself.

So… every birthday wish I received on my Facebook wall and messages and texts mean A LOT to me… I’m a kid when it comes to this, I know it

Working with 128 people from Johnson Ferry Baptist Church this week was a delight! I think I started celebrating my bday dancing the Super Hero song at the main square of Huaycan Wednesday night during the outreach. My interpreter friends told me it lloked like I was one of those chinese characters from chineses stories, those that fly around because of al the jumping while dancing…

Thursday I visited the Home for Special Needs Children and Burn Victims. I had gone the day before and felt a little bit of stress from the teenagers but on Thursday I got some good smiles and giggles from the teens when they saw my hair ornament (part of my Bday outfit). That was sweet. Hopefully I can show a picture of it (I don’t have a camera, but some people took pics of the ‘bday outfit’)

I also felt that I needed to address the people that were working with me at VBS site 1 (we had 3 simultaneous sites and I was leading Site 1), just to say thanks because they were doing a great job. When I did, they started singing Happy BDay to me… I almost cried… so sweet!
Monica, who I just met during this week, happens to be Pepe and Roger’s cousin and a stickers psycho. She covered my forehead with foam stickers that said “BTHDAY GIRL” and kept adding more around my face as I removed them… I changed the ‘sign’ to “B-DAY GIRL” and removed it from my forehead to my sunglasses (compliments of Stanford’s student 2 weeks a go). Still, that was cool, I love Monica!

Then, during VBS the students just interrupted me and Cristobal (aka la jirafa) grabbed a mic and said it was a special day because it was my birthday and they all sang again… after VBS the children from Huaycan came and said: “Is it your birthday? Ooooh…. Happy birthday!!!” The look in their eyes was too sweet, like, I could hear Jesus saying “my little ones” when I look in their eyes as they came to hug me…*tears&smile*

That evening Monica and Janet (fellow interpreters) had balloons and signs and escorted me to dinner and then asked me to walk in and wait… and act surprised when they walked in the dinning, LoL… That night Pepe finished our Frontline meeting praying for me and then we all went to the little square… more fun goofy times…

So… my birthday had important moments that only God would understand, goofy moments, basically loud and quiet moments… it was good. Yes, I turned 26, although I still look 16.

I am home for just a few more hours. Packed and ready to go tomorrow for another week of intense missions along with 128 people from Georgia and about 30 interpreters.
I will be visiting the Special Needs School and leading the VBS site 1 (we will have 3 running simultaneously).

The last couple months have been busy for sure!

I really need to catch up here… I just feel like 2010 is a year that is flying away.God is doing SO MUCH!!!
Working with the last teams (Spring Break) was exhausting, in a good way. I have really experienced His strength in my weakness and His amazing protection! I wonder if I still struggle with feeling tired too easily…I still think I can do better on that part.

The teams have been a great blessing to me. I have been strengthened, inspired, blessed in so many ways by them. I really thank God for their lives and pray they continue blessing many serving with God’s love.

It is so strange how it has been exhausting and refreshing at the same time. Something I really appreciate is that only going through extreme preasure I can realize it is His presence taking us through each day and not our own hability.

…the city where “I live” but really this year has just been a storage of my belongings because I have spent most of the time everywhere but there…I mean, here.

My last week in Arequipa was a little hectic. I had to take care of vaious things and to add to all that I got a stomach infection. The morning after various vomits and diarrhea, I got back to be (after cleaning the bathroom) and I thought to myself : the devil must be trying to laugh at me… How can I not let him? ah! Thank you God for this… now I can rest!!! and I sang a song of praise.

(this is a picture of me my last Sunday with pastor and friends who saved my life with their company and support and gave me a nice farewell dinner)

I followed what the doctor said (almost) I mean… a week on bland diet… I really did 4 days because I was starving, you know me… I better not tell y’all everything I ate that day…hehehe.

Hey! That Anís Najar licor really works for indigestion! (although my alcohol allergies also reacted, but nothing serious just a little red and heat on my neck and face…)

So… I was doing great! But then something was not right and I am not going to give any details…

My aunt who is almost 80 years old and has A LOT of experience and knowledge told us what I had could be caused by stress and said rice soup should help as well as drink cevada and linaza.
She was right. It helped… my symptoms went away as soon as I did what she said.
But! As much as I enjoy my new affair with an old time friend and now lover…rice… I am not going to live eating just that..oh me?! Hmm…

Sooooo I finally went to see a doctor. There are 3 options:

1.- The medicine they gave me in Arequipa didn’t work (I explained how the first cypro I took was from the US and it stopped my diarrhea inmediately but as soon as I started taking the peruvian government generic cypro… diarrhea came back for 5 days).

2.- Stress. Although if this was the cause, then my symptoms should stop now that I am home and without stress… if stress was caused during my traveling.

3.- Parasites.

So he has given me antibiotics for parasites and I have to do stool tests for 3 days (ew!!!! who’s idea was that?!) and see him again next week… and follow a diet.

Tada!
Thank you for your prayers. I have lost some weight and my face shows weakness, but nothing serious

I will have to write again because there are other fun things that have happened in my life (like a french guy with a crush on me… that’s a new country I hadn’t had interactions with before…Do you see me living in Paris? LoL)

This is my dear friends making fun of my skirt. I have been called Snowhite before but this is like the full picture with the old witch and the dwarves..he he he