Traveling Mermaid : segundo mes

I want to share something that happened last week that has been one of the hardest things I have had to push through.

Just as I was entering the beloved "honeymoon stage" of culture shock, I was thrown back into anxiety, homesickness and sadness.

Last week, my friend Veronica and I took an opportunity to house sit at this beautiful house for the week. We were left with the responsibility of feeding the animals and were given a 4x4 buggy to drive up and down the mountain. It was a windy STEEP dirt road but we felt as though it was safe since the owner of the house did it every day. After school on Wednesday I was driving the buggy up the hill to go to the house since Veronica was working at her other job. As I started going up the hill, the gas gave out, all of the lights went on and I tried to press down on the break but was not strong enough. The malfunctioning parking brake did not work. In a split second I made the decision to jump out of the side of the buggy in order to try and stop the car from rolling back ( I guess I thought I would become super woman) . As I rolled onto the dirt road and popped up, I watched as the buggy hit the embankment, flip over and roll down the side of the mountain only to be stopped by a tree before a 100 foot drop to a waterfall.

In the buggy was my laptop, charger, phone, ID, debit and credit card. I stood up after hitting the road and looked down to see my legs, and hands were cut up pretty badly. I flagged down a car driving down the mountain and they must have seen how white my face was as I was in total shock. Two Ticos got out of the car and said they would wait to show my friend where the car was while the driver ran me down the mountain to my friend Martie's house. When I got to her house, she took off with a dad from my school (Thanks Jason and Martie!!) to look at the accident. The two Ticos were waiting for them to come and the man had already gone down the mountain and retrieved my school bag and purse with everything inside.

I had to go to school the next morning and was totally wrecked. It was probably one of the toughest things I have gone through so far. I had an anxiety and panic attack in the bath as I was tending to my wounds asking God why the heck am I here. To me this was the cherry on top of all of the things I have been struggling with since I have moved here. This has been the hardest hurdle to jump over and has made me realize what I am really made up. Without the comfort of my family and having to work every day since the wreck was really tough. But since then I have come to realize that the while I may be down, I am not out. I claim and believe that breakthrough is coming. I do believe God sent me here for a reason and while I might not feel it now I am confident I will know in due time. For now, I am learning what it means to be a missionary. What it means to trust in God for everything and to know that he will protect me. I believe that He saved me that day for a bigger purpose.

I am confident that I will look back at this accident as a monumental day in my life where I realized that God has great things in store for me. He grows us through the trials, so hopefully I will be wonder women strong by the end of this year! Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts.

" When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul."

- Psalm 94:19