Sweet Vacation

Well, I don't think I'm very good at keeping up a blog but I'm trying... =)

The last couple of weeks have been pretty uneventful and have gone by pretty slow because we have our vacation to the Dominican Republic vacation coming up on Monday! Other than settling into the Project Neighborhood house, we've been doing A LOT of shopping for our trip to the DR. While preparing for this trip I've had some deja vu from preparing for our trips to Cuba years ago. You make a list of family and friends that are closest to you and buy them a shirt, a pair of pants or a pair of shoes. Then you wrap them with tape and put their name on that so that when you get there it's easy to distribute all the stuff. We have 2 bags packed and ready to go and those bags are full of things we're going to give away. I am really excited about being able to help some people in this poverty stricken country. I'm also really excited about meeting the rest of Ismael's family! For those of you who don't know, I met his parents 2 days before our wedding so it will be nice to spend some more time with them as well.

Being gone on vacation means we'll have to leave Sasha with friends. This weekend we are dogsitting for the McPheeters. Sasha and Pele are going to be best buds this summer. We have Pele this weekend, then Sasha will go over to his house for a couple of weeks and then we get back and we'll have Pele for 1 week. So fun! Last night we had a huge thunderstorm here in GR with heavy rain and we had to let the dogs out to relieve themselves. Well, Ismael thought it would be a good idea to tie Pele to the post of the porch but as soon as we did that he ran off into the backyard and snapped his collar =/ Sorry Heidi and Scott, I'll buy him a new one today. Needless to say, it was a mess. 2 dogs. lots of rain. thunder. lightning. towels. drying. they were pooped and slept all night! success! In the future when we buy a house, I would really like to have another dog to play with Sasha...they are so fun!

By the way, about a month ago Berenice had her baby! Benjamin Sayid Mejia. 9lbs 12 oz. 21 lbs. big boy.

I'll try to update the blog while we're in DR but I'm not sure what kind of internet access we'll have down there.

Welcome!

Hello friends,

So, we decided that we would start a blog. I am not much of a writer but have always loved to keep journals, diaries, etc. We'll use this to update you on things going on in our lives, vacations and much more.

Here's what has happened in the last few weeks:

At the beginning of May we went on a cruise and we definitely recommend a cruise if you're looking to plan a vacation. If you're trying to decide which cruise line you should look into Carnvial: www.carnival.com the FUN SHIP =) The cruise we went on was Carnival Imagination and it sailed out of Miami and to Nassau, Bahamas. In Nassau we went to the Atlantis resort, which was pretty much AMAZING! 3 aquariums, the beach, a waterpark and beautiful weather made for a great day there.

This past week, I went on a young leaders retreat with my coworkers and it was great. We biked 60 miles (I couldn't have done it without their support! Thanks friends!), camped, went to Mackinaw Island and had some great conversations.

In a couple of weeks we take off to the Dominican Republic for 2 weeks. We are very excited especially because Ismael hasn't been home in 9 years!!!! He is so ready to see everyone again. I am excited to meet the rest of our family. Ismael's sister is pregnant and is due in August so we are bringing her a bunch of baby stuff...our first niece (my brothers don't really want kids...)

Another really great thing that has happened is that we are going to be Project Neighborhood mentors. Project Neighborhood is a program at Calvin College. They own 5 houses in the Grand Rapids area and at each house there are 6-8 students that live there. For more info visit: http://www.calvin.edu/admin/housing/pn/

We'll post some pictures of the house soon!

Vanessa