The email from Lindsey asking if I’d go to Bolivia.

The speed and ease with which my husband would say yes.

©2011 Amy Conner for World Vision

The joy it would bring me to go to extremes to get my passport in time (including driving four hours to a passport agency to have it processed in 24 hours).

The willingness of family and friends to help with the kids while I was gone.

The camaraderie of our group from the moment we laid eyes on each other in the Miami airport.

The beauty of La Paz from the air at 1am, lights twinkling all gold and blue like jewels in a crown.

The clearness of the air at 13,000 feet.

Raising the Bolivian and indigenous flags at a playground ribbon-cutting ceremony. ©2011 Matthew Paul Turner for World Vision

How quickly I’d fall in love with this country, so poor that only Haiti is poorer.

How beautiful the people who work with the defenseless.

That I think about the people I met (Lizet – pictured with me below, Reyna, Andrea, Gunther, Mariella, and so many more) every single day now that I’m back.

That finally I would see my life for the overabundant gift that it is, and finally see all the hype and marketing in the States as greedy clamoring for more of my money. Now I know what God wants me to do with that money, and it isn’t to line the pockets of some corporation.

Unexpected.

Written for and linked to The Gypsy Momma’s Five-Minute Friday. She gives a word, we just write for five minutes, and then we post without editing.

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