Hello everyone!!!
Alright so I have now been home for one week and 3 days and I couldn't be happier :D...but I will get into that later.
I believe I left you all off right after graduation. I was one of the last people to leave the base which was nice and sucky (I know that is not a word :P) at the same time. I got to hang out with almost everyone a bit longer, but I also had to stick through almost all of the tearful goodbyes. It was difficult to say goodbye to everyone, but I was so excited to start my next adventure. That Monday morning I left to get on the train to Glasgow airport where I would wait for about 3 hours for my first flight to London and then when I got to London I got to wait for yet another 3 hours for my flight to Belfast, Ireland. To my great surprise I actually arrived in Belfast and managed to find my way to my hostel without getting incredibly lost :D Yay me!!!
My first hostel was Lagan Backpackers where I stayed for 4 nights. While I was there I became friends with all the staff and one of the staff's friends :D I wound up hanging out with them every night...I had so much fun! While in Belfast I visited the peace wall and went on the Giants Causeway tour. I also visited the botanical gardens and of coarse some of the local pubs :) Belfast is an amazing city and I really hope I get to go back some day.
After Belfast I hopped on a bus to go to a lovely sea side village in Northern Ireland called Newcastle. This visit was the main reason I decided to even go to Ireland. About an hours walk away from Newcastle is a place called Tollymoore Forest Park and this is where I wanted to go most of all. This park was by far one of the most beautiful and most GREEN places I have ever seen in my life. I have posted lots and lots of picture on facebook already of everything :) I used my time in that park to spend some amazing quality time with God...and I loved and needed every second of it :D
When my time in Newcastle was done I hopped on yet another bus and headed to Dublin. When I got there things did not go quite as smoothly as they could have haha. I had to switch currency from the pound to the euro seeing as I was no longer in Northern Ireland but in the Republic, and then I had to find my way to the hostel. The directions sounded easy but this city was a lot bigger and a lot more confusing than the rest I had been in before. In the end with all my bags I decided to give up on finding a bus and took a cab lol. I arrived at my hostel which actually felt more like a really hip hotel. There was a lift (elevator) and key cards and a cafe. The only thing making it not a hotel was that I had roommates and public bathrooms haha. My time in Dublin was a bit more relaxed seeing as I had nothing planned. I wound up exploring the Temple Bar District a bit and of coarse made a visit to the Guinness Factory!!! I poured a "perfect" pint of Guinness and got a certificate for it which I am quite proud of :P
The day had finally come where I got to go home!!! Unfortunately due to the latest airport shuttle leaving at 6:20am I had to arrive at the airport a whole 7 hours too early!!! I flew from Dublin to Boston, Boston to Denver, and Denver to Fresno. I cannot even begin to explain how excited I was when I landed in Boston. I believe I had one of the dumbest grins on my face of all time because of the simple fact that I was back in America...and of coarse that my phone worked again :P hahaha!
So after a loooooooong day traveling I arrived in Fresno. I was both unbelievably exhausted and anxious when I finally got to Fresno! Walking into the terminal I knew that my parents and my friend Leah would be there to greet me so it was everything I could do to not sprint through the terminal area. However, when I walked into the main building I was greeted not only by them but also by my friend Sarah :D Needless to say I was a puddle...a laughing puddle haha! I was laughing, smiling, and crying my eyes out while trying to give everyone hugs simultaneously :P I couldn't believe I was actually getting to hug my parents again!!! After I was able to calm down we got in the car and went to Taco Bell of coarse lol!
Now most of the hype has died down but occasionally I will find myself marvelling at just how amazing it is to be back home...or just how wonderful it feels to hug my mom and I have to hold on for just one more minute. Since I've been home I have gotten to hang with my family, play with my nieces, and catch up with friends. Not to mention talk to school counselors and look for a job. Everyday life is calling me back and while that may seem so ordinary compared to what I have been doing I am so excited to see what I can make of it...and I will hopefully have the encouragement from all of you to keep pushing for greater things.
I learned so much while I was away with YWAM it has actually seemed difficult to try and sort it all out. I'm sure there are things I haven't even realized yet but there are a few that immediately come to mind. God has shown me his love. He has shown me his love for his people and for me :D God had been teaching me how to open up and trust again. I believe that a big part of this time was so God could teach me about myself and who I am in Him. He has shown me just how much passion I have built up inside of me and has shown me what I can use it for! He has revealed to me how I view the world and how that can be beneficial or destructive depending on which lens I choose to use. There is so much but there is one thing I know for sure :) I know God sent me out for a reason, and while I know some of that reason...I know that I will continue learning more of why in the future. But God has also called me back for a reason and I know that He will be with me every step of the way :D
God bless you all and thank you for being with me on my journey :D I'll be around now if you have anything to ask me about or just chat! So happy to be home I have missed you all so much! Thank you for all your prayers and support they have meant the world to me.
-Kaitlyn Vaccaro
Saturday, July 24, 2010
I'm Home!!!
Posted by Kaitlyn Vaccaro at 5:05 PM 0 comments
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Graduated!!!
Hello everyone!
First off I am so sorry that I haven't written in so long. Since getting back from Turkey things have been extremely hectic and busy! Our first week back was entirely set on debriefing us from our 8 week long outreach. Basically it gave us a chance to sit down as an entire group and discuss what happened while on outreach and anything in particular that we wanted to bring out into the open. A lot of things were brought up and it was extremely helpful to get a chance to openly talk about how we felt during the entire time of outreach.
Our second week we had lectures on 'Purpose and Calling'. We talked about hearing from God about what we should be doing next in our lives after DTS is over and also possibly figuring out a long term goal. It was helpful to listen to their suggestions and also to hear their encouragements and faith in us all. That Thursday we all had to prepare a 10 minute speech on a passion of ours that God has sparked in us during this school. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to pick out what I wanted to talk about. God has really been building up my heart for teenagers/youth throughout this school. I also feel like I am supposed to go back to university and possibly study psychology :) I got a change to speak out loud the love and passion I hold for the youth of today...not to mention I got to hear all of my other classmates talk about what they are passionate about! It was an amazing thing to get to hear even more of my classmates hearts and how God has inspired them :)
At the beginning of our third week it really started to hit us all that we were starting a long list of lasts times. Last work duties, last lectures, last times being together as an entire group...it goes on. Some were excited while others were sad but all in all it was very exciting. Monday and Tuesday we talked about going home. Our leaders gave us all some very good advice about how to process counter culture shock and how transitioning from an environment like DTS back into everyday life can be difficult. Those two days were jam packed with our feelings about going home and practical advice about how to handle all the possible situations we might face once back home.
Wednesday was here...Graduation Day!!!!! We all woke up and headed into the Arran Lounge where the staff were meeting that day. They split us into groups and had all the staff pray for us, and pretty much send us off to where ever we might go after DTS. After that we broke off and started to clean! Even though some of us are staying for a few extra days, we all had to pack our bags and deep clean our rooms...plus some extra spaces around the base to bless the larger community. That took up almost the whole day (this is a very large building haha) and then with 2 hours left all the girls ran upstairs to get clean after cleaning and get ready to graduate!
The dining room was set up beautifully and it went very nicely with all the people dressed up beautifully as well :) Our DTS leader, Lee Howard, made us a delicious dinner with cheesecake for dessert!!! During the actual graduation we gave thanks to the many people who helped out our school throughout the last 5 months and our leaders said some lovely things about our school as parting words. Once that was over the leaders called us up one by one to give us our graduation certificates and we each had to grab the mic. and give a 3 minute testimony about something God has done in our lives during DTS. It was wonderful to hear every ones testimonies (Eileens made me cry haha). I talked about how God has been restoring my faith and trust in Him in many different ways :) It was a great moment to be able to tell a group of people how much God has done for me in my life in such a short amount of time!
After the testimonies they called us up and we were prayed for by the base leader and then we were led in a short time of worship. Then the pictures started haha! We took lots of pictures and let a Chinese paper lantern loose into the skies (funny story...ask me about it later if you want to know more haha), and then we all gathered in our newly cleaned classroom to sit and have time as a school. We talked about our favorite memories and what we could remember from our first day...it was a lot of fun :)
Today we decided we wanted to spend our last day as a group together so our leaders were lovely and drove us all into Glasgow to an art museum. The art was beautiful and I got to see a man play the biggest pipe organ I have ever seen in my life!!! Then we went into the west end of Glasgow and had lunch and went to some local shops. It was a nice relaxing day and I am glad to have gotten the chance to go out with everyone one last time :)
Tomorrow the first of us leaves...Jess is heading back to South Africa at 10am, and Jared and David head out tomorrow evening. Over the next few days people will be leaving slowly and there will be many goodbyes to be said :( I will be leaving Seamill on Monday morning around 7am to catch a train to Glasgow Airport and start my journey to Ireland!!! I will be in Ireland for a total of 8 days and will be flying back home out of Dublin on July 14th :D Personally I am so excited to come home and start this next journey of my life knowing that God is right there with me to help me through :)
Well folks that is all I have for you right now but I will be home in less than 2 weeks now so if there are any questions I will be around to answer them soon haha. I love and miss you all and will try to write again soon depending on how the Internet is in the hostels I stay at haha! God bless!!! Bye :)
-Kaitlyn xoxo
Posted by Kaitlyn Vaccaro at 12:09 PM 1 comments