June 2018

 

Next week I will be embarking on a new journey. All of this has happened so fast I have barely had a chance to comprehend it all. But regardless I am so excited! I will be moving to Lisbon, Portugal for the summer to volunteer. While I am in Lisbon I will be volunteering in a local food bank. Once I am settled, I am hoping to also volunteer with in another program. However, I will not know if there is availability until I get there. I do not know many specifics of the work I will be doing due to having the openness to adapt to areas where help is needed the most and having a flexible schedule to accommodate that. 

 

I am excited for this new chapter in my life. I am hoping to grow more while I am living alone in a foreign country, to get outside my comfort zone, and to experience a new culture.  I am excited to serve and bless those in Lisbon.  Part of my decision to put a pause on my life in Michigan is that I am realizing how short life is. I want to take advance of all new opportunities. I realized this summer was my best opportunity to do this adventure of volunteering abroad. 

 

But be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you.       1 Samuel 12:24

 

 

Our first international family vacation to the land of Fire and Ice -land. Iceland is such a beautiful county. After visiting Iceland I now understand why Iceland is referred to the land of fire and ice. All over Iceland you can see lava formations from old volcanic activity. There are also several glaciers over Iceland, we saw a few of them and even hiked one! What I was most excited about going to Iceland was to see all the beautiful country side with waterfalls, glaciers, and volcanoes, and I was pumped to swim in the Blue Lagoon.

 

First activity once we landed was visiting the Blue Lagoon. This was on the top of my “Must Do” list while visiting Iceland. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal pool, and it was much  larger than I had expected. The water is this beautiful blue color hence the name Blue Lagoon LOL. My favorite part was this face mask bar. You would swim up and a worker would give you a scoop full of silica which you could lather all over your face and body. Honestly, I thought it made my skin feel much softer, so obviously I had to go do it twice. While doing research on the Blue Lagoon I had read if you put your hair in the water it can dry out for days even after deep conditioning. Because of that I chose not to get my hair wet in the Blue Lagoon, this is something to keep in mind if visiting. Yes, the Blue Lagoon is your typical tourist trap, but it was on my bucket list of things to do in Iceland, and I thought it was worth the visit. 

 

 

Hiking a glacier was my family’s favorite activity we did! We had so much fun! At points we were tethered to a rope and led up steep glacier sides. The funniest part of the whole experience was when the tour guide told us we could drink the glacier water because it was so pure. The glacier was covered in volcanic ash so technically we were drinking glacier water with volcanic debris mixed in. How we drank it was getting down in a push up position and sticking your face into the tiny stream and lapping it up like a dog. I’m not the best at doing push ups so it was interesting to say the least as I tried to drink it. To be honest the glacier water tasted like snow. 

 

Waterfall Seljalandsfoss was my favorite. These falls you could walk behind. So we suited up in our waterproof gear and headed to see what the falls looked like from behind. I think these falls had the tallest heights that we saw in Iceland. It was beautiful. Since it was so misty from the falls we did not stay behind long, but carefully walked behind them making a 360 around the whole waterfall.