planning a wedding & enjoying the rain

I feel as if I start off every blog talking about the weather, but it's hard not to. This morning I actually laughed when the weather app stated, "Today will not be as hot with a high of 91." It's funny because really anything over 90 feels the same--hot.

The rains have slowly, but surely started to roll in & to enjoy overcast days with early morning rain showers feels like a luxury. Hummingbirds are finding their rhythm once more, I'm drinking more coffee than usual (can you imagine), & the plants look like children on Christmas. Most welcoming of welcomes dear April.

Since my last post so many things have happened, two of which stand out more than others.

I GOT ENGAGED & WE WENT TO PERU!!!

**I think if I were to chronologically explain both of those events, this post would be wayyy too long. Thus, I will hit the highlighting posts & in absolutely no important order**

Peru was cold and sometimes wet, we drank the most incredible coffee, ate delicious food, marvelled at the incredibley large mountains & met the most lovely people along the way. We would occasionally get lost accidentally and other times purposefully walk random cobbled stone streets to see what adventures we could find. A lady named Chaska which means "star" in Quechua (native indengious language) owned the coolest apothecary shop. She let us try various homemade liquours & play with her 3 year old son son, Andean.

We made friends from Canada, France, and Florida. The sleeping arrangements consisted of quirky, ecclectic hostals, and we ate bread and eggs everyday for breakfast.

Cusco (where we stayed) is one of the highest cities in the world: 11,152 ft. Some days were slow to start, others we woke up at 3:30am to meet with a tour guide & hike up mountains. It was hard to breathe, pounding headaches weren't uncommon, and I thought Mauricio was going to pass out on our last hike of the trip (Rainbow Mountain at 17,060 ft). I loved every second and if you get a chance, please visit Peru.

And then he proposed. March 16, 2022 we were staying in a little mountain town, Ollantaytambo, Cusco, Peru. We both fell in love with this place & the popular archaeological site that draws tourists there. Our hostal had a balcony that over looked the site & a beautiful pasture of wildflowers, cobbled stone pathways, and mountains complimented the rest. He was too excited to wait till Machu Picchu (his originally plan) and turns out to have been for the best. There were no crowding tourists, just a dirty street dog, the owner of the hostal, and some neighborhood kids.

I came to El Salvador, not wanting any kind of romantic relationship. My ex-boyfriend list seemed to be getting longer and I wanted, I needed, time for me. Even realistically speaking, how could I date someone when I couldn't even speak the language?? Till this day, it is something I still don't entirely understand--how did we communicate?

However, like God does, he works in his timing & uses our time of surrender to provide us with the life he was planning all along. The life that is still messy, and complicated, and chaotic, but even more integrated with his presence. That's how Mauricio came along and how we've ended up here. There's so many questions still unanswered, but for now I'm exactly where I need to be.

1. Mauricio and his pupper, Jakob

2. Ring pic at Macchu Picchu

3. & 4. Rainbow Mountain

5. The view from our hostal in Ollantaytambo

• 

• 

• 

• 

•