Food Poisoning and a Lesson from God

Early Tuesday morning, I woke up with the most intense pain in my stomach. It felt like someone was trying to rip open my stomach. I curled into the fetal position for a few minutes then decided that wasn't working, so I put all my energy into getting off the top of the bunk bed, stumbled in the dark to put my flip flops on, find my toilet paper and put my glasses on before I made it to the bathroom, just in time.

I won't go into detail for fear of grossing everyone who reads this blog. I would rather not have to revisit it either. After spending all of Tuesday crawled in a ball, in and out of sleep, I was able to stay awake for a couple hours late in the night to try and figure out what I had. Food poisoning from the cafeteria. I'm actually surprised that I haven't had it more often or earlier. Let's just say that things aren't necessarily run how they would back in the States. Now apparently, I am no stranger to this as on my way to Argentina had some lovely spinach and cheese Chicago style pizza in the O'Hare Airport, only to spend the better part of my time in the Miami Airport puking up everything I had eaten and what felt like my liver and gallbladder as well. Luckily, I was able to pass out on whole 8-10 hour plane ride here to Argentina. Tuesday, I wasn't so lucky.

Rose had come to see how I was doing. We decided that maybe some white rice, bland bread and some juice would do my stomach some good. Boy, was I wrong.

I spent the next day, Wednesday, just chillin in my room, doing homework and being productive. It was a strange feeling. I wasn't really up to spending hours in class, didn't really want to be around people because I was grumpy since I hadn't eaten anything since Monday night and I still wasn't feeling 100%. I find myself blessed, because this week is midterms. I ended up not having class on Tuesday because my teacher was sick, but I did miss two classes yesterday. But what can you do when you're sick?

I still feel a little sick every time I eat, but I can't go without eating anymore. I went WAY too long and felt like I was dying.

On to better news: I leave Argentina in one month and two days. It's quite surreal how everything is just moving so quickly. Just yesterday it was 2010. Since being here I have given up my desire to plan my life out and give it to God. Because I've done that things have actually worked out for me quite well. I'm excited to go back to Southern where I have an awesome semester planned out for me school wise and job wise. I can't wait to get back into the flow of things and see where God leads. He's opened so many doors for me to create a network for hopefully some job opportunities in the future. I took back my summer day camp job. Something I had ingrained in my head that I wasn't going to do, but really I'm not ready PR wise to have an internship. So I'm going to work during the day and take classes at night to ensure that I can graduate college in 3 semesters.

God has so many things planned for me, I just know it. I hate to admit it, but it seems that I doubt His capabilities too often. This is where I am so wrong in my thinking. I should just automatically know because I am a child of His that He has a plan for me and in the end it'll all work out to my advantage and His plan for my life. Every time, I question His abilities, He throws something awesome into my life.

Sorry, that I've been somewhat absent for the past month. But I just wanted to thank all of you who have been on this journey with me since the beginning. Your prayers, thoughts and support has carried all the way over here and I feel them. I really do. I am so blessed to have you all in my life and I can't wait until we can be reunited again.

With much love,
Lauren