the after-party :))

(the reception)

the beautiful flowers

awww. memories from our wedding and honeymoon 7 years ago!

the ice cream sundae set-up! 

tons of icecream and toppings... it was soo yummy!

and a great way to bribe the kids to be quiet during the ceremony ;)

haha. fixing our icecream. nate was excited!



our own coldstone creamery... :)

apparently i was more excited than i thought about the sundaes!



yep, we totally fed each other our first bites!



silly boy... lucas was loving his icecream!



caden enjoyed his as well!

finger lickin' good!

 sweet lucas... sharing a HUGE bite with mama!! :)

sparkling grape juice for communion? yes please =)



~ picture time ~

i love him!



nate and i with joe and sharon.. so blessed by them!

me and libby... my only bridesmaid :))

so i can't tell you how much i love this picture.

even though the kids aren't looking, it's us...

the phillips family! :)

swap the parents, and add 4 more people and you have...

 the whitt family!

me and libs... love her!

 awww. my sweet nieces wanted a pic.

love these beautiful girls!!

and the boys... trace, lucas, and connor

(libby's son, aka my 4th nephew!)

no clue what trace is doing here... love it though!

typical lucas... super cute but lots of TROUBLE! :-)

i.love.my.family.

thanks to EVERYONE who helped make our day so special... especially my mom. things would have not have been so beautiful without all her decorations. and well, there wouldn't have been any icecream either ;)

thank you to shannon and libby for the awesome pics. i love them all.

thank you to each and everyone of you who have loved and supported nate and i. your friendship and prayers mean more to us than you will ever know.

“there is no limit to love’s forbearance,

to its trust,

its hope,

its power to endure.

LOVE

never fails.”

1 cor. 13:7-8

saying i do... 7 years later

nate and i celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary,

 in a very special way.



on july 17, 2011, we renewed our wedding vows. 

it was a very simple, small, and intimate ceremony,

shared with close friends and family.

the lord has blessed nate and i beyond measure. 

though we are far from perfect,

and of course our marriage is far from perfect,

i'd say this day was as close to perfect as it could have been. 

the boys walked me down the aisle.

 it was honestly one of the sweetest moments of my life.

 laura story's song "blessings" was playing as i walked

toward the front of the church, where nate was waiting on me.

it was not your traditional service,

but it was exactly how we wanted it to be.

our friend, mentor, and incredible man of god, joe mayeux,

performed the ceremony. 

nate and i wrote our own vows, and didn't share them,

 until that day, in front of everyone. 

 of course it was emotional. but so sweet. we then took communion.

 nate prayed for me after this. again, incredibly sweet. i cried.

we hugged, cried, and prayed some more.

simply beautiful. how god can make beauty from ashes.

i'm so happy to introduce...

the renewed and recommitted,

 mr. and mrs. nate whitt!



adios honduras...

a few more pics...

what a week. full of fun memories. from clinics, to truck rides, to the market...
there were so many good times.



i LOVE LOVE LOVE this pic of me and my new (dentist) friends! santos, carlos, and abdi...
i miss ya'll! OBVIOUSLY!

friday was our last day at the compound. we woke up and decided to walk into downtown el pariso. it was hot. but fun! we were able to tour the new city hall (or something..) it was beautiful. but the best part about it was- the AIR CONDITIONING! seriously... it was the first time since we had left birmingham to be in the a/c! :) then we walked back to the compound to get ready for the pastors lunch! we were able to feed close to 30 pastors and their families. also, we sent a bag full of food and things home with each of them. it was a blessing to be able to serve the pastors.



the pastors listening to sister norma while sister ortilia was cooking spaghetti!!



i already miss this beautiful place.

after we fed the pastors... we went on an adventure! :) and in typical jamie fashion, i changed everyones plans on friday! ;) kristy, janet and holli had to leave and fly out early that morning. i knew the rest of us didn't really have plans except for the pastor's lunch. backstory: so on the way home from the clinic on thursday, carlos asked if i had ever been to the canopy. of course i didn't know what he was talking about. long story short... the copan ruins (about 2 hrs away) has one of the best ziplines (canopy) in the country!! of course i had never been, but i was pretty interested! so yeah... i mentioned it to norma, chris, and lisa. they agreed we could go, and the rest is history! :) we all loaded up and drove to the copan ruins friday afternoon... where we saw the most gorgeous scenery ever! a few of us risked our life braved the canopy tour, while the rest went to see the ruins. 

the view of the river from the mountainside

my jumpy pics... thanks SANTOS!! :-) these are my fav!!!!!

so i had to sign a waiver, basically saying i wouldn't sue anyone if something happened or i got injured. don't ya know that sorta kinda freaked me out a lot!! but i signed my life away!



funny story.. on the way up to where the zipline started, we were in the back of the truck. it was me, kristen, maria jose, rocio, and nick. and the 4 zip line guides. and hey wow, they were all super scrawny looking. i was totally not convinced if something bad happened they could save me! ;) so we were joking around and singing "if i die young!" kristen translated to them and it was sooo funny! they were probably like- omg, we should have charged these crazy americans double! haha! and then i totally asked the guy if he was a christian, and if we died would i see him in heaven. he assured me he would see me there should something bad happen! ;)

so if you know me, you know #1- i'm scared of heights. #2- when i get scared, i scream. a lot. #3- at times i can be a little dramatic. jajajaja! so yeah.. that makes for one screaming crazy gringa on the ziplines! i actually had an amazing time! it was so fun.. i wish i could do it again!! how about carlos and santos said they could hear me from below. true story!! :-) they knew it was me screaming. i wonder how?!? jeje

during the canopy tour, we were as high as 350 feet high and at some places we went 35 kmph!! there were 14 different stops along the way. on 4 of them the guides went with us, but the other 10 we were on our own! :) and i will say, the guides were great, even if they could have had a little more meat on their bones. they really were stronger than they looked! ha.

it.was.so.fun.

i'm SOOO glad carlos told me about the canopy- thank you!! and now would also be a fabulous time to say THANK YOU to chris and lisa for rearranging their schedules that day.. so that i could zipline! they were in the van like all.day.long. i do wanna say i felt horrible, but in no way MADE them change their schedules :)) they were just very accommodating! ;) however, they assured me it was ok, all the while reminding me yes, it was my fault they were driving all day. haha

some pictures with our new friends before we left the compound! :( so.sad.

saturday morning we rode back down the mountain to the big city. of course i was in the awesome truck! :D we got settled that afternoon and checked into our air conditioned hotel like place, called a hostal. can you tell this southern girl loves the a/c and hates to sweat? ;o) we walked to quiznos for lunch... then we (linda, lisa, nick and i) easily found got lost walking to the market! but it was ok, we were just enjoying the sights! :) anywho. i decided to be brave and ask the next person i saw for directions, and praise the lord, the man spoke english! so we finally found the market! after buying more souvenirs than i could fit in my carryon  a few things for the boys, we left the crazyridiculouslyscorching hot market!



ummmm. i totally love these pics! carlos and maria, and me and karla!



we met up with most of our group at pizza hut that nite for one last dinner. seriously, we had an incredible week. we made lots of new friendships and it really was so sad to know we wouldn't see our friends when we got up the next morning. there would be noone to say "buenos dias" to, and no bell ringing to signal our delicious breakfast was ready. no clinics to prepare for, no more bumpy truck rides. no more games of monopoly at nite, no more sharing my ipod. *sad*

BUT we had a great time at dinner and made the most of it! after tearful goodbyes, the group from argo headed back to the hostal.

i did get to see rocio the next morning at church. then norma and fares took me to the airport. i made the trip home by myself, since the others had either left friday or were driving to miami. amazingly, i got on the right flight, both in honduras and atlanta. when i landed in birmingham, i was greeted by the best sight ever... my awesome hubby, crazy boys, and my sweet parents! as sad as i was to be leaving honduras, i was ready to be back in bama. home.sweet.home.

adios honduras... see ya soon.

the boy from guatemala

our last clinic was on thursday.

clinic 4: the village of el caobal

for some reason, we got a late start at this village. i remember the pharmacy was not yet set up. and when i walked into the room next door where the drs were, dr carlos was checking a little boy's heartbeat. the minute we got there, it was apparent he needed emergency care. you could tell that his breathing was so labored, and his poor tummy was going up and down so fast. they didn't really have the medicines needed, but they started by giving him a breathing treatment. the boy was 15 months old. he was screaming and fighting the mask. the next thing i knew, he went silent. i thought he had given in and fallen asleep. sadly, not the case. he was unconscious. it was like a nightmare in slow motion. before i knew it, the drs grabbed the baby up, laid him on the desk, ripped his shirt open, buttons went everywhere, and the drs started chest compressions. hands down one of the scariest things i've ever seen. i remember thinking "this baby is dying. this poor baby boy is going to die. right in front of me." i walked out of the room and went next door and i was almost in a daze. we asked people to pray. remember, it was only 2 days earlier that we had seen the very sick 40 day old stop breathing. i could barely handle it. everyone stopped what they were doing and prayed. 


the precious people standing in line to see the drs started praying. and when hondurans pray, they PRAY! all together, loud, passionate, fervant. to watch and hear them pray is so humbling.
i forgot to mention this sick baby lives in a village in guatemala. his mother walked and carried her sick son 3 hours to our clinic. god is so good, and he worked all things for his glory. norma was able to drive to a nearby clinic and get strong meds for the baby. the drs worked and did all they could, and god worked through them and did the rest. the baby's fever broke and he began to slowly improve.
we have since heard that when the mother started walking back to her village, someone gave her a ride to another nearby village... where she then was able to get an ambulance to take her baby to the hospital. he was treated and is now back home in guatemala. PRAISE THE LORD!!



the people praying for the sick baby boy



sweet smiling rocio



really... i could just eat this baby up.



the dentists, and maria... hard at work.

fares... if you are reading this... i miss you SO much!
* obviously!! * :)

waiting in line to see the drs



we stopped to take photos on the way back down the mountain!



lord willin' and the creek don't rise. oh wait... it DID rise...


when we were close to el pariso, we realized all the rain had made the river flood the roads! we had to turn around and go another way. iittsshh.

thursday nite when we finally got back to the compound, we went to church. it was hot in that church building. (good thing i had taken my styrofoam plate as a fan. true story.) but hot as it was, the church services in honduras are always amazing. although the service was in spanish, you could totally feel the spirit of the lord there. german, one of our incredible translators, preached! again, not exactly sure what he was saying, but it was spirit led and spirit filled to say the least! i know that god will do amazing things in german!

ok i know it's almost been a month since our trip.. but it's so hard to write these posts. even after i write them, i'm not happy with them. words just can't describe what i experienced there.
anyways, one more post to come about the last fun days of our trip...