THE Dominican delicacy aka habichuela con dulce

Way back when I promised a post on habichuela con dulce.... and I never delivered (click here ... it was actually almost a year ago to the day when I promised this post. Hahaha!)

Me, a lover of all things food, can not believe it's taken me this long to write about a/ THE Dominican delicacy... known as habichuela con dulce, in English.... sweet beans.  OK, go ahead and say it... that sounds gross... completely and absolutely gross!!

Well, like most delicacies, it is an acquired taste, and I have acquired the taste! Ha! So, what does one do when you find out 90 minutes before your flight departure time that the flight is cancelled???? Plus it is Lent/Easter season in the DR!!!!  You make the favored lenten dish of the country... habichuela con dulce!

So, this is by no means a recipe, but rather a few random pictures of the afternoon adventures of sweet bean making.  Ingredients.. beans.. more red than a pinto bean, but not as big or dark red as a kidney bean, cinnamon, carnation milk, coconut milk, batata - a white sweet potato, raisins, cloves, milk cookies and guess what's missing.... SUGAR! You know it takes a lot of sugar to make beans into a dessert.


This time of year everybody and their mama will be making a version of this dish. Some use only carnation milk, others only coconut milk or both. Some people serve it with whole beans which I think would be weird.... just too beany, and actually when folks leave a few bean pieces floating around it still seems too beany. So, I like that my family purees it completely.  So, think smooth sweet bean soup with the flavor of sweet potato or pumpkin pie.





Step 1... let beans soak for 4-8-12 hours. Then put in a pressure cooker and blanch until soft.




While the beans are cooking, peel the sweet potato and put it on to boil with the cinnamon sticks and cloves. This makes the house smell oh so good... like boiling potpourri or something.  




Be careful that the batata aren't too soft because then they just break all apart into tiny chip sized pieces.  Oh yea, hats off to the host chef, Amalio.

 

 So, remember that part about everybody having their preferred style. Well, we take those beans and blend them down, then pour it through a sieve so you get a nice, smoothe, creamy soup. Ideally a larger sieve is faster, but we couldn't find that one... so this made for slow going but it wasn't too bad. Then the pureed beans get put back on the stove.

Add the batata, a TON of sugar, seriously, probably 2-3 lbs worth, a pinch of salt, the coconut and carnation milk and let simmer for a half hour. Then add the raisins and simmer about 10 more minutes.

Then voila!! You are ready to enjoy this uniquely Dominican treat... aka Habichuela con Dulce. So, who has enjoyed this delicacy before?? Does anything similar exist in other latin america countries??

Baking therapy

Well, remember the five minute friday thing. Scroll to the next post if you have no idea what I'm talking about. It's really cool because now the word for Friday has been stuck in my mind all week... grace. From what I'm told from a friend or two, it's kind come up randomly for them also. I looked the word up in urban dictionary.....  A favor rendered by one who need not do so; indulgence, divine love and protection bestowed freely on people. Hmm... those ideas rolled around in my head a bit.  Mostly, while I took full advantage of my first weekend not on the road in over a month. Scroll down 2 blog posts if you are wondering why or just click here. So, I planned a lazy Saturday for myself. Love it. Didn't leave the house not once the entire day! 


To be honest, I can't really sleep in because my internal alarm clock always seems to wake me up earlier than I want to be awake sometimes. However, I am always game for a lazy Saturday. You know the kind where you stay in your pajamas until at least noon if not 5pm, reading, watching TV, snacking, or better yet.... BAKING!  The light bulb went off in my head, I have an entire kitchen to myself, a lazy Saturday with nothing to do, and we have electricity....ooooo, what should I bake.

I love baking! It's like the ultimate stress relief.... well, for a moderate level of stress. I have learned too well that high levels of stress suppress the neurochemicals in my head that generate a joy from baking.  So, if I stop baking, it's probably a warning sign that all is not well.  Saturday, as I creamed butter, sifted flour and crushed walnuts whipping up 2 good creations to share with my neighbors, my mind drifted back to my Five Minute Friday Post... and grace.


The trip back from Restauracion every week was not fun. You probably got that idea from the prior post, but here's why it wasn't fun. The most frequently traveled roads from the Haitian border to the closest large city, Santiago, are lined with road blocks. Are we checking seatbelts or drivers license, hahaha, don't make me laugh. We have to make sure illegal Haitians aren't entering the country. Better yet we have to make sure that anyone who we decide even looks Haitian, be it dark complexioned Dominican or nappy hair American, can prove they aren't Haitian. It totally reeks of the Trujillo era when tens of thousands of Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans (people born in the DR to Haitian parents even if it was several generations back) were killed to 'cleanse and purify' the Dominican race. The test to see if you were Dominican or not was the ability to say the Spanish word for parsley, perejil. Haitians can't roll their r so if you can't pronounce that word you must not be one of us and off with your head. Seriously.

Well, I wasn't asked to say perejil, but over and over the guards would either try to strike up a conversation, to see if maybe I was Dominican with 'pelo malo' (bad hair, should be a subject of a post in the future) or if I was the Haitian enemy. The first 3 weeks, it was draining and I had no grace for them whatsoever. There was no love freely flowing, they got my full attitude complete with eye rolling and teeth sucking. Bad Jewel, bad. Not Christ-like. I know. I KNOW!! I know that didn't help, but it was my initial response to the injustice that is happening here. Reminds me of the apartheid system in South Africa where dark skinned individuals had to leave with their passbook to move about the city.  Finally on week 4, I made the decision to accept that these guards are just doing their job. They get paid like $150 a month, most are young 21 year olds proud to be serving their country. The issue isn't with them, but their government. Grace, give them some freely flowing love, perhaps they deserve attitude and questions about why this is happening, but show grace Jewel. Show love to these guards even as they are massaging your backpack looking for who knows what. No, there is no skinny Haitian hidden in my backpack. Promise.

In the comfort of my kitchen, with the delightful smell of carrot cake and lime coconut pound cake wafting in the air, I couldn't get the whole situation off my mind. My conscious decision to give grace liberally totally changed everything. Many times there are situations we encounter that are tough and may not change overnight. However, if we can change our response and move beyond the initial emotional response to the intentional decision to extend grace, to pray fervently and to seek out ways to be a part of the solution it totally will change everything.  

 Finally,  I arrived back to Santiago with a smile for once.  Grace does that... it changes you.

I had a mini celebration that Saturday by getting my nails painted. Here's me admiring my pretty nails.... but it's pretty obvious that I'm not used to having wet nails since I already have them messed up in no time... look close, you see it?

Beans and Rice, Rice and Beans

Hello friends,

I have hit the ground running and things are picking up! I spent the day today in the homes of 5 of the ladies who are being trained to be community health leaders. It turns out that many of them were already doing a similar role either informally or through a government program that has been on and off again the last 2 years. They are super motivated learners and a few of them are planning to host their first community "charlas" (trainings) for the World Handwashing Day in 2 weeks! Wendy, pictured below, has even decided to go back to school to finish her high school diploma. She then hopes to go to nursing school. I love spending time at Wendy's house because she just loves learning new things and is excited about sharing it with others!

Our first training together 3 weeks ago we started on the topic of nutrition. It sort of went like this... anyone know the 5 food groups??  rice, habichuela (beans), blank faces. More blank faces. They were seriously stuck. I guess when you eat the same thing e.v.e.r.y  d.a.y it's easy to get stuck. I  was so proud of them at our training last week that every single one could name the five food groups, identify a couple of items in that food group and for the most part tell you why the group is important! It only took 3 weeks to get to that point, but that's ok. LOL.  I've had to let go some of my expectations and meet them where they are.

We also started talking about the rule of 5  - 2 fruit, 3 veg a day. Again, blank faces. They quickly explained that there just are not those kind of options for the campo (rural) folks. The city really is just a 40 minute gua-gua (raggedy bus) ride away and a measly 60 pesos round trip. ($1.50 but that is out of reach for most folks.)  Going to the city is a big deal and NOT something that is going to be done weekly for grocery shopping. I almost panicked... this is not supposed to happen!! My beautiful lesson plans are crumbling. Breathe, revamp, keep dialoguing. This is good. So, we started talking about how to make our plates more colorful. We compared the drab brown and white plate with beans and rice and started exploring ways to add color. Add a guineo (banana) someone suggested. Or an avocado someone else suggested. Great -- now we have a fruit, what about vegetables?? That's where it really gets hard. It's all starchy vegetables - potatoes, carrots, yucca, plantains, and almost nothing green. We talked about eggplant - fairly easy to find here in the campo, beets - high sugar, but great for anemia, a chronic problem. We talked about fiber in cabbage versus iceberg lettuce. We really need some community gardens!! Anyone interested?

We will wrap up our nutrition module tomorrow (or next week) with diabetes.... but I'm procrastinating because I really am a bit stuck on how to approach the nutrition aspect of diabetes in a diet that is SO carb heavy... so I decided to procrastinate and catch my friends up on what I've been doing, ie blog post. There will be another post in a day or two because I was really procrastinating and wrote 2 updates. Now, it's gonna be a LONG night prepping for class tomorrow.

More pics....

Last week they were nutrition experts!

The milk experts compared the nutrition in regular milk, 2%, to chocolate milk. Skim and 1% is a grocery store item only. After comparing the nutrition label (yay!) they wisely recommended the regular milk because it had less sugar and sodium. Way to go ladies! 

Here we have the bean experts. It was a novel idea to compare two of the same items for anything beyond price. They learned that one brand of canned beans had about 200 mg more sodium than the other brand for the same portion size. They were surprised! Let's hope they will share the importance of reading labels with their friends and community!

The garlic experts compared the processed bottled jar garlic to the fresh garlic. They realized they can save money and eat less salt going with the less processed form. We had a good discussion about what is processed food and how they have seen more of it in their food supply!









Well, and since we are on the subject of food I will leave you with a picture of the outdoor kitchen typical for where most people cook their food. This one is a bit 'fancy' because it has a new type of stove that is more environmentally friendly than the typical ones that require a ton more wood and leave the women standing over a smoke filled pit for hours a day. Bye for now!

and the journey continues...

Today marks exactly 2 months since my last post. The time has flown by as I was surrounded by such a great community of family and friends during my trip home.  The first two weeks of July were pure relaxation as I spent time with family and got reacquainted with 3 of my favorite little people in the world.... my 3 nieces.  We spent a week together, having fun in the water, zoo trips and a day at the amusement park. The only movie that I saw during my trip home was Monsters University. Guess who picked the movie??!! It wasn't me :).

We also did a day fishing trip.  I haven't been fishing in over 30 years, but I can definitely report that my fishing skills have not improved in the least. I left our fishing trip having caught a whopping ONE fish. However, I did help bait many lines for these little ones using squid and shrimp. It was way too gross, but these cute faces can get me to do almost anything! 

Next, I spent 4 weeks in Chicagoland reconnecting with friends and earning a few dollar bills while working as a NP again. It was wonderful to reconnect with my Lawndale family and to provide direct patient care. Again that theme of community resurfaced as I saw how God provided for me during those 4 weeks. I paid $0 dollars for housing thanks to the generosity of a few kind folks. I was treated to numerous good meals and those of you who know me, know I enjoy dining on an eclectic mix of foods. So, during those 4 weeks I stuffed myself on American, Mexican, Afghan, Korean, Italian, Japanese and Thai cuisines along with some Chicago favorites like deep dish pizza and Portillos.  I even cooked up a Dominican meal or two to share with friends and family.  On the weekends I made a couple of quick trips to visit friends in nearby states, but there is just never enough time. 

Those 2 months went by like a whirlwind of the best kind. Now, I'm back in the DR, but this time I'm in the rural area outside of Santiago. Yes, I'm becoming a campesina (country girl).  Rural (campo) way of life is way different that city life, but I guess that's no big surprise.  (I'm sure there will be a future post on that topic.) For now, let me update you on how I am spending my days. I am serving with a local non-profit organization, Project Hearts, to continue the launch of a community health project.  Project Hearts is supported by several US organizations,  primarily Grace Cares and Christian Medical Mission (CMM). CMM is sponsoring my time here in the DR by providing housing and a stipend which allows me to fully focus on the work in the community. CMM has really been an answer to prayer. When I first began praying about the idea to extend my time here in the DR, the idea of raising support was one of the barriers that I anticipated. There just was not enough time and I was running low on energy to make it all happen. This awesome group, were indeed a godsend. Thank you CMM. 

The community health program started in June identifying leaders in the community to train as lay health promoters.  These women meet weekly for training and then are asked to complete so many home visits a week sharing this pertinent health information with their community.  The lay community health model has been used in many countries to drastically improve the health of the people.  My predecessor, Meghan, did an amazing job with leadership training with the women and discussing water safety and purification. My assignment is to carry the torch forward by building in accountability and structure into the program, along with creating new modules on topics such as women's health, basic first aid, and nutrition.  We are actively recruiting for a director for the program who can commit to spend at least  a year focusing on developing the community health leader program. 

If you have made it this far in this long post... THANK YOU! I would like to share with you a few ways that you can support the work here in prayer. 

• Pray for me that I will be Christ's ambassador and able to share his love with those I encounter. 

• Pray for unity amongst the organizations that are collaborating on this project - Grace Cares, Project Hearts and CMM.

• Pray for further growth in language acquisition so I may communicate effectively with the people. Rural accents are a LOT harder to understand, so please pray that my ears and brain will be able to decipher the rural, Caribbean Spanish. 

• Pray for the search for a Director for the community health program. 

• Pray for strong work relationships with Ruben and Anel, the executive director and project manager for Project Hearts. Also pray for relationships and a social community in this area that I will not feel isolated and alone. 

• Pray for Mark and Ruth, two of the leaders from CMM who will be attending the Community Health Evangelism (CHE) training. Pray that we may be able to incorporate that model into our work here in Baitoa. 

• Pray for safe travel. The rural roads are very bad in some areas and a lot of the travel is by  motorcycle. 

Ok, I leave you with one last picture. The view from my house every morning. Aren't you jealous??!

Pastelon

Last Saturday I woke up thinking about the ground beef that had been in the freezer for 10 days. Sort of random thought to be on my mind at 7am. Stuff just does not keep super well in the freezer here so we needed to use it up soon. Hamburgers in my family are sort of hit or miss.... with me and Melanie loving them and the others kind of not so much. What to do with this ground beef??...... Lightbulb goes off... Pastelon!

A pastelon is a Dominican version of lasagna. This is actually my 2nd time making pastelon. My first time was pretty yummy, but I got sick the next day. Honestly, I don't think the two were related, but my body associated the two so it took me 6 months to try it again. In March I bought a small piece of pastelon at the supermarket deli and it was yummy. I decided that I was over the taste aversion and ready to move on in my journey of Dominican cooking. Hurray!

First disclaimer... Typical Dominican Pastelon is with mashed plaintains. However, I found this recipe that won me over with fried Plaintains. Yep, more grease, but so delicious. I think this is more the PuertoRican version, but Shhhh.... don't tell my Dominican family.  So here is the link to the recipe that I used.  Gather your ingredients:

1lb of ground beef
3-4 eggs
1-2 tbsp tomato paste
several cloves of garlic
one onion
cilantro or recaito as it is called here aka cilantro ancho
1/4 cup of raisins
6-8 olives chopped ( I don't like olives, but they added so much flavor)
4 ripe plaintains (see below, these could have been more ripe but it's what we had on hand)

Chop all the vegetables. Add the chopped green pepper, onion, garlic and cilantro to the ground beef. Add 2 tbsp of vinegar.  Mix well. Heat 1-2 tbsp of oil on medium high heat and brown beef.  When close to brown add olives, raisins and the Goya seasoning if following the recipe link or any type of general seasoning. This is what we had on hand. This stuff is not good for you.... but when in Rome...

Next you are going to peel the plantains. Google this if needed. I can't offer any tips really, because I'm so bad at peeling plantains. Fortunately ripe plantains or easier to peel than green ones.

 Slice the plantain down the middle. Carefully peel away the peeling. Slice the plantains into strips.

 Heat oil and fry until beautiful golden yellow. My first batch were a little too golden aka burnt, but they still tasted so yummy. I actually used one extra plantain because I knew that I was sure to be snacking on these way before the Pastelon was ready



Butter pan generously. Layer the plantains first into the pan, followed by the ground beef, then cheese. Repeat again, being sure to end with plantains and cheese.  Crack 3 eggs. Mix with 2 tbsp of milk. Stir well and pour on top.

I used 2 mini pans because I couldn't find the 8x8 or 9x9 pan.  Bake in  oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Enjoy with a nice side salad!

I used 2 mini pans buy any 8x8 or 9x9 pan should work! 

Bake in  oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Enjoy with a nice side salad!

Arepa Dulce Dominican Style

I have an insatiable sweet tooth! I will choose sweet over salty anytime! Yes, yes, I know the way to kill this sweet tooth is to avoid sugar and eventually the sugar cravings will disappear. But I like sugar... a lot! SO, I don't think I want it to disappear, but I've worked on my discipline and most days I can control myself.... but not TODAY!! 

So, the google search for recipes started. And I stumbled onto this blogpost for arepa de maiz dulce. Looks easy enough. Hey, wait... I actually know this lady. I forgot Molly writes a blog too. That made it extra exciting to try this recipe. I do have a competitive streak sometime, and it came out. If she can make Arepa Dulce.... well, I can TOO!! 

So here are the ingredients: That silver shiny pot thingy is a coffee greco. It makes the best espresso! good souvenir too! My cake pan cost me 180 pesos (almost $5.00).  Yes, that was a SPLURGE for me! 

1 lb of fine corn meal (I could only find 14 oz packages)

3/4-1 cup of brown sugar ( I used azucar crema - its the sugar thats most easily found here. I didn't feel like adding the molasses to make my own brown sugar. You did know that you can make brown sugar, right?)

1 tsp vanilla (Dominican vanilla is cheap and GOOD!)

1/2 tsp salt

2-8 tbsp of butter (you decide- can your heart handle it??)

1 can evaporated milk

1 can coconut milk (LOVE THIS)

1/2-1 cup of raisins ( couldn't find golden raisins. I like them a lot better)

1/4 -1/2 cup water

Cinnamon - ground or sticks

In one bowl mix the corn meal, evaporated milk, vanilla and raisins. If using ground cinnamon add it here - 1-2 tsp based on your preference. I added about a 1/4 cup water be/c it was stiff.  Let sit. 

Next you are going to find a big sauce pot. Turn stove on to med low heat. Add the coconut milk, salt, sugar, butter, and cinnamon sticks if using sticks. Turn oven on to 350 to pre-heat. If using a Dominican oven... well, your guess is as good as mine. Strike the match, throw it inside, guess the temperature. 

I tried to be fancy and added 2 cloves and 2 nuggets of allspice. They are both super cheap here. I wanted to use nutmeg, but someone (my host dad- Amalio) used it up either in the coffee or the habichuela dulce (sweet beans). I can't complain because I like how he makes coffee with a little fresh ground nutmeg.  Habichuela dulce will have it's own post, VERY, very, Soon!!! It's an Easter Classic, although I've had it at least monthly since October or November.

When you start seeing little bubbles, not boiling, but simmering/bubbling, add the corn meal mixture. and STIR, and STIR, and STIR for like 5 minutes until it becomes ssmooth and pudding like. Then turn the stove off and pour into your well greased pan. 

Remember, to take out the cinnamon stick, cloves, allspice, etc if you used them. This was a pain because it was hard to tell the cloves and allspice from the raisins. I probably wouldn't use them next time. I don't think it added much "depth". Also, I probably would simmer the cinnamon sticks and coconut milk a little longer on a lower flame just to build more cinnamon flavor. I'm sure there will be a next time :).

OK, so a couple of recipes on line suggested adding some pats of butter on top to ensure that crispy crust on the outside and moist center. I'm not sure that it was really necessary and my heart really didn't need it. BUT, if you are making dessert, just go for it.... maybe.

So bake maybe an half hour. It totally depends on the oven. You want a firm, golden brown outside, and the inside should be moist, but not wet or jiggly. My oven was being weird, like most Dominican ovens. The outside was a little too brown, and the inside was a little too moist. I guess I will just have to make this again until I get it perfected!! :)

And this was dinner tonight! Serve with coffee, milk, or  Dominican style hot chocolate. I enjoyed my slice with a chai tea that arrived in a care package from a dear friend. Enjoy!

God Provides Food to Eat

I hit the ground running a week ago yesterday. After a quick reunion with friends and family here, I jumped right back into kindergarten classes. One of our challenges and goals for the new year is finding more ways to integrate the word of God into our classes. January started the lesson on FOOD!  Our kids are having fun learning the difference between fruits and vegetables and chapel last week centered on the creation, specifically day 3 when God created fruits and vegetables (Genesis 1:3). We used that as a springboard to a fruit tasting.  The kids enjoyed sampling fruits and expanding their vocabulary with new descriptors like sabrosa, jugosa, crujiente, gustosa and the lists goes on. We celebrated the warm weather of this island that permits certain fruits to grow here that are not available in other countries like the US. One of my favorite new fruits is guanabana, aka soursop.

I was introduced to this fruit on my first trip to the DR almost a year ago. I remember the laughs as we all tried to pronounce guanabana. I still smile as I think about Vicki and her attempts to say that word. So, I will break it down... gwa - na - ba - na,  say it again ... gwa - na - ba - na. My host dad makes a really yummy juice with gwa - na- ba - na.

Who created fruit?? GOD!! and vegetables?? GOD! We give praise to God for the food that he provides for us.  During the week, our science and social studies classes have centered on fruits and vegetables, with each lesson providing an opportunity to remember how God provides for us.

What a powerful lesson for these little ones to learn, that God is our provider. I looked out at the faces and thought about some of the really hard family situations, where families are struggling to provide food and clothes. I landed on one little face, who more than likely was squirming in her seat, giving love 'taps' to a friend or any other mischievous behavior. Our cook describes her as "the smallest little girl who eats a lot".  Her mom came to school the other day. "Is it true?" she asked, referring to a conversation the principal had with her husband the day before. "Yes, it's true."

We decided that this little one NEEDS to stay with us all day. See, her family took her out of the all day program which includes lunch, because they couldn't afford the extra $150 pesos a week ($3). We had noticed, that this little one was coming to school hungrier than ever and a few afternoons she actually showed back up on the school steps 3 hours later because there was no food at home. You see, often the way that God provides for others is by using us, you and I, to be the hands and feet of Christ. Can you imagine the relief on this mom's face to know that the youngest of her 3 children, is now receiving breakfast and lunch daily. Yes, God does provide!

November in pictures

It's amazing how quickly things have shifted into full gear. Lesson plans, Bible memory verses, craft activities, clinic schedule and the list goes on and on. I haven't posted many pictures lately, so I thought I would do a highlight of November via pictures!


We have a teen helper at school who is such a blessing. It's nice to have an extra pair of hands to help out and especially someone as sweet and loving as this young lady. She came over one afternoon for a special outing and we had a fun time baking pumpkin bread!










At school, we were blessed to have students from the 9th and 10th grade Bible class at Santiago Christian School onsite at our Cienfuegos school for an afternoon of homework tutoring. Before leaving, the youth took prayer requests from the little ones and had a special time of prayer with them.

Another highlight this month was saying goodbye to avocado season. The last avocado fell, was consumed and thoroughly enjoyed. I tried purchasing avocados at the supermarket and I was so disappointed. It was like eating a bland green cardboard compared to the sun ripened avocados of the last 3 months. On the bright side the first mango has appeared on the mango tree in the back yard! In 2-3 months mangoes will be falling from the skies.... .... at least that's what I'm told.







Lastly, I shared a Thanksgiving dinner with my host family and friends on December 1st. The turkey was yummy and moist (well done Melanie!), homemade mashed potatoes, a green salad and I made my mom's mac and cheese.  We rounded up the night by going around and giving Thanks.


For me, I'm so thankful to be in this country, surrounded with new friends, and the blessed opportunity to share God's love with an amazing group of little ones!

Youth from SCS spent an afternoon with some of our afterschool kids! 

Give Thanks...

OK, so I had so many intentions of getting a Thanksgiving post up by Thanksgiving week and obviously it did not happen. So, I started to just let it go... didn't make that goal. Shucks. Yet the idea of a post giving Thanks has remained with me and I've felt this gentle nudging to do it anyway even though Nov 22nd has come and gone. Honestly, I haven't been in much of a give thanks mood just recently. That's really not like me so I'm pretty upset with myself. Ha. Imagine that ... me upset with me.

Anyway, forcing yourself to make a list of things that you are thankful for is guaranteed to elevate the Spirit, bring a smile to your face and often, tears of joy to your eyes. So, here goes my list... even if it is almost exactly one week late, I'm glad that Giving Thanks is always in season!

1. Family and friends -  The last 6 months have been an awesome season of faith and stretching and I'm grateful for my family and friends who journeyed with me through this season of transition.  I have a new appreciation for my family and if it’s possible, I realize that I love them more and more every day. We’ve had some tough mountains, but boy we stick together and are stronger and closer because of it! 

2.  My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ - This Advent season is a time to re-focus on the true source of the Hope and Love we have.

3. Group hugs - the last 3 months I've gotten over 18 hugs a day, unsolicited, knock you down, trample on you bear hugs!  That’s what happens when almost twenty 5 year olds decide that a group hug is in order! My hug jar is full :)

4.  Make new friends, make new friends, but keep the old ones, one is silver and the other is gold. That line is from a song I learned as a child and I'm so thankful for my friends... both silver and gold. My newest friends are the Alcequiez family. They have taken me in under their wings (quite literally since the chickens now outnumber the humans) and under their roof and I'm so thankful for them. 

5.  Hot showers-- you don’t realize what you miss until it’s gone!

6.  Food -- I love trying new foods, most ethnic cuisines, and even dabbling in the kitchen. I’m thankful for this immersion into Dominican cuisine and the joys of fresh, unprocessed food!

7.  Internet -- oh boy, I don’t need cable or a TV, but internet, oh Lord, yes I’m thankful. It’s been a lifesaver to stay in touch with family and friends over email, Skype and FB!

8.  Lawndale Christian Health Center -- I spent the last 6 years in Chicago, IL, serving with this wonderful group of Christian medical professionals. The people who serve at this health center are phenomenal and I will forever cherish that faith and professional community. 

9.  Sunshine and Rain - There is a reason and season for every thing. I”m thankful for the sun that shines but also the rain in life that waters my growth. 

10.  Chocolate - I know this counts as food, but still it's different. You understand, right? I can't wait to bite into a piece of Dove dark chocolate. In the meantime, I'm having fun trying out each chocolate bar at the grocery check out :)! I'm sure there is at least a drop of antioxidants in there somewhere. 

11. I'm thankful to be an American -- Chocolate was supposed to be the last one, but I forgot this one that has come to mind so often in the last year.  The blessing of being born in a country that has a great educational system, financial resources, and opportunities galore is often taken for granted. Of course, it's not a perfect country, but having traveled a bit to other countries, we as Americans, are blessed and I am thankful.