I wanna stay

"I don't know why I love this place so much but I wanna stay.  I don't know why I love these people but I do and I wanna stay.  I do, and I wanna stay."

Those are some of the lyrics to a song called "Stay" by Jake Ousley.  Click (here) to listen to the song.  "Stay" is a song about leaving a place that you love and how it breaks your heart.  I don't know where Jake Ousley was leaving when he wrote the song, but he talks about how he loved the people and the town and how he wanted to stay.  When I first heard this song, it made me cry.  I thought, "That's probably how I'm going to feel when it's time to pack up and leave Ireland."  I wanted to learn to play the song on my guitar, and my first thought was that I'd play it for the people in community here when I was saying goodbye at the end of my GAP year.  Then I thought about the fact that Chrissy (my fellow GAPper) was leaving earlier than me on June 6th.  I could play it for her!  I searched online for the guitar chords for the song, but I couldn't find them anywhere.  I found Jake Ousley's email address on his website and sent him an email asking if he could please send me the chords for "Stay".  After I sent the email, I thought that he probably not going to send me the chords in time...or at all, maybe.  It was just another email.

On the morning of June 3rd, I checked my email to find quite a surprise.  June 3rd was the day of Chrissy's last Community of Nazareth prayer meeting, and in my email was a message....from Jake Ousley!  He actually responded to my email!  He wrote, "Of course you can have the chords!  I'd love to hear your version of it sometime.  Thanks for the email!  Keep in touch, and thanks for listening!"  I couldn't believe it.  What perfect timing!  I got to practicing straight away, as I only had a few hours before we had to leave for the prayer meeting, and I wanted to play the song for her then.  When we were saying goodbye to Chrissy at the prayer meeting, I stepped up to the mic and played "Stay" for her.  I think I saw a tear in her eyes while I was singing. :)

So Chrissy has gone back to Michigan and I've got a couple months left of my GAP year here in Dublin.  I've got some fun stuff planned for the summer, including a big travel adventure with my friend Amanda, some youth activities, a Young Adult camp, and a trip to Belgium for something called Kairos Summer Academy and On Holiday 3.

First things first....my big travel adventures with Amanda!  Amanda is a friend from Florida.  We've kind of lost touch over the years, but our parents have been friends for as long as I can remember.  Amanda's parents actually came to Dublin with my parents just after Easter this year.  Amanda said she wanted to come to Ireland as well to help out with some of the work I do here, and also to travel.  I was so excited that she wanted to come, because I've been wanting to travel but I haven't had anyone to go with.  I'm taking two weeks off and using some of the money I've saved from all my hard work at Costco the last couple of years (not my fundraised money, don't worry!!).  Amanda and I are spending about half a week in Dublin doing some volunteer work with the International Eucharistic Congress, and then we're heading on to Glasgow, London, Paris, and Barcelona!  We've got quite the itinerary planned!  I can't wait to tell you all more and post the pictures when we get back.  Please keep us in your prayers for safety!  :)

As for the summer youth activities, I've already spent an afternoon with the NYPD (Nazareth Youth Programme Dublin) Middle Group (10-12 year-olds) last Monday.  A guy named Mike came down from Belfast to help, and we took the kids to the nearby park to play some games with them.  We had perfect sunny weather, and the kids had a great time.  Here are some pictures:

Mike explaining one of his crazy games

Jessie explaining a game to the kids

Haha....love human pyramids!

Another highlight of last week was having a sleepover with Leanne.  Leanne is 8 years old and is the youngest of my host family.  Up until last week, she had been sharing a room with her brother Stephen, but Stephen just moved into Joe's room, so now Leanne has the room to herself.  She was excited to show it to me, because she had so much extra space in there.  I said something like, "Wow, Leanne!  You have tons of extra space to play in here!  We could even have a sleepover in here!"  I was kind of half-joking, but the look on her face was priceless.  She said, "Really??  How about tonight?"  I couldn't back down...she has such a cute face that is pretty hard to resist.  I agreed, considering she had the following day off school and we might not get another chance like that for a while.  She helped me bring my blanket and pillows down to her room, and she kept saying how excited she was to have a sleepover with someone older than her.  :)  She told me I could choose whatever film I wanted to watch, so we sat down together with some sweets and watched The Princess Diaries until Peter and Ciara came in to tell us it was "time to go to bed".  I obeyed their orders and went to bed when Leanne did....except I had the intention of sneaking out when she fell asleep and then coming back in a few hours later.  After all, it was only about 9:00!  I ended up falling asleep when Leanne did, though!  It was awful...I kept waking up every hour and feeling all disorientated...and then I ended up waking up with her at around 7am to some loud construction noise outside.  I got up and got some work done for a couple of hours, but the rest of the day I was pretty groggy.  I might have to resist that cute face next time...

I made my second visit to the Dublin Zoo last Tuesday with Justine and her boys and her niece, and we had a great time!  It was supposed to be rainy all day, but we lucked out with just cloudy gray skies and a few brief showers.  Not bad!  During this visit I particularly enjoyed all the random facts from Justine---she knows a LOT about the Dublin Zoo animals and zookeepers!  She goes once a month with her kids, and they watch the Dublin Zoo tv show at home, so they're full of all kinds of great info.  I also enjoyed taking photos of all the cute baby animals!  I just couldn't get enough of them!  :)

Babbyyyy hipppooo!  :)

He was my favorite baby!  :)

And I can't forget the sweetest baby of them all....Justine's youngest boy, Charlie.  :)

Again, the words from "Stay" are echoing in my head....  "I don't know why I love this place so much but I wanna stay.  I don't know why I love these people but I do and I wanna stay.  I do and I wanna stay..."

Don't worry!  I will come back!  I hope you all are doing well and that the Lord is blessing you richly.  Please let me know if there's a way I can be praying for you!