Bienvenidos A Mexico!

So yesterday, after a long....Long....LONG day of driving, we arrived in El Paso to meet up with our old friends Adam, Whitney, and Wendy. It was great to see them again! After a bit of visiting we began transferring all of our things from one van into two different vehicles we would be taking across the border......we filled the back of the vehicles with all of our luggage, musical instruments, crafts we brought to do with the kids, and a few things Adam and Whitney needed to take over to the home as well......we LITERALLY brought everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink!!! Here is our friend Adam loading it up!! We needed photographic evidence of it. ;)

The border crossing was fairly uneventful, the ladies rode with Whitney in her car and the guys rode in the suburban with Adam with most of the stuff....so their vehicle was stopped at the border and the guys had to get out and be questioned for a minute while the soldiers looked in the vehicle. I guess they determined they were harmless musicians in their random check because of the trombone and guitars hahaha, so we were able to go on into Mexico!!

I can hardly explain the feeling of returning to Juarez!! Last year was my first mission trip to the home here...and it impacted me so much! So having this opportunity to return...is absolutely priceless! I don't know how much I am changing things here....I just know I'm loving on these kids and it changes ME. As we drove up the hill past the church and las canchas and the home and arrived at the casita we stayed in last year....I hopped out of the vehicle and yelled over to the guys...."HEY WE'RE HOME!!" ...and it TRULY felt like I was returning home. I have this thing about falling in love with some of the places I have been and especially the people...and this is definitely one of those places. Walking back into the casita really did feel like I was coming home again. Then, after getting settled in, we headed down the hill (praying for renewed energy after our intensive day of travel)....and boy did we get it! Those kids were all over us! Most of them remembered us from last year and were calling us out by name. Lots of hugs were shared and lots of energy expended before we crashed for the night! It was well worth it!

I love being here :) ~Dawn Rickerson