hello Baltimore

Also on Easter weekend, we went to Baltimore. Specifically, the Inner Harbor. Home to the Baltimore aquarium. Dragon-shaped paddle boats. The coolest Barne's and Noble store in the world. And about a bazillion tourists.  

 

 

We had an amazing dinner at this Italian place called Brio just across from the harbor. I'm pretty sure that the raspberry cheesecake we had for desert is one of the top ten things I've ever tasted.

remembering what breaks your heart

It was the summer of 2008. I was 18 and I had just gotten the email that told me I would be able to go to Romania even though my assigned team could no longer make it.

I sat there on my parent's porch, with the breeze gently pushing against me, letting it sink in. I was going to fly half way across the world by myself. I was going to go to a strange country by myself for two weeks. I was going to go because I'd read stories of the children there who have no one to love them or care for them and it broke my heart so deeply that I did everything I could to find my way to them.

My plane landed in Bucharest. I rode into the city in a small car driven by a sweet man who spoke to me in broken English of how much God had changed his life. I spent a few days a week in the small, outdated hospital in the city where little ones were abandoned and the nurses took no notice. I helped to change and feed them, but mostly I just held them and played with them. Just loved them.

This is Elena. She is the most beautiful child I have ever seen. Someone abandoned her. I don't know the circumstances of that, and I don't pretend to. But I was able to do something to help, if only for a very small portion of her life. My heart was broken over her story, one that is so common there. My heart was broken and burdened into action. 

This June, it will be four years since I took that flight and held Elena in my arms for the first time. 

Since then I've gotten married and moved across the country. I've become caught up in school and friends and home and to-do lists. And most days, I don't think of Elena. I don't remember the little ones who are still homeless and uncared for like she was. They are far away. And I am busy. And my heart forgets why it was once broken. 

This past week I came across this post on abortion and this post on adoption... My heart broke again as I was reminded of that burden I used to feel for the abandoned and unwanted. I may not be able to fly to Romania tomorrow, but I can still act. I can still remember and be burdened and live differently because of it. Shame on me for not doing so already. & Lord, thank you for the reminder.

Have you ever felt a burden to fulfill the needs of others? Do you still remember what your heart has broken for in the past? Do you still act upon that passion?

May we never forget the unwanted and abandoned. May our hearts be continually broken and burdened into action. 

xo

~ jess

p.s. If you'd like to read more about the organization I teamed up with in Romania, you can find it on their website here. 

Cherry Blossoms

Just when it felt as if the biting cold would always be here and no one would ever want to go outside again, spring arrived in all its warm, colorful glory.

We welcomed it with open arms and windows.
And with a St. Patrick's day trip to Washington DC.

We visited our long-time, Californian-turned-east-coaster friends Jordan and Kristy and spent the afternoon in DC, walking along the path where pink and white blossoms lined the streets and water for miles.

 

Kristy & Jordan and Rene & I on our walk to the monuments...

 

 

 

The Jefferson Memorial... I've been before once. But this day we took the time to read the quotes inscribed on the stone walls of the interior. The words were so beautiful and rang so true. 

If you've never seen them, you can read the full inscriptions here. 

My favorite was this.... 

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free..."

There's something about hearing those words spoken by men at a time that seems so long ago. About standing on the same steps as those who read those inscriptions for the first time. 

It makes me see myself as much smaller and my potential as far greater. 

We can look back at history and see so much change. We see how men and women saw the injustices before them and did something to make things different. And we still see injustice now. So then what? What is stopping us from speaking out, from creating and being change? What is stopping us from paving the way for those after us just as it's been paved by those before us? Someone will. 

Let it be you and me. 

I'm thankful for men like Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. Thankful that we can be reminded by these memorials of their lives that injustice ought not be tolerated and that individual people can make a difference. 


And I'm thankful for Cherry Blossoms and sunshine. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day
xo

Jess

hello Virginia

          This week we took a break from apartment hunting in the city to visit our dear friends and fellow californians-turned-east-coasters in McLean, Virginia, just outside of DC. Jordan and Kristy have been some of our closest friends since we were only dating years ago and I can't express what a comfort it was to spend some quality time with old and familiar friends in a new and unfamiliar place. It was a fun night of reconnecting and catching up. We enjoyed the road trip too...

This turtle shot is for you Colleen...

Crossing the Susquehanna river.

Kristy and Jordan's awesome kitty, Oliver McLean.

Rene was happy to get some guitar time in...

exploring a little bit of Georgetown...