Please Pray...

...for Diego de la Quintana.


He is a sweet HIS high school student who just lost his mom to cancer this morning.
His father is not really involved in his life, and he was very close to his mother.
As a community we are mourning with and praying for Quintana.
I would ask you to do the same.

Pray for his relationship with the Lord....that God would bring him to Himself during this hard time.
Pray that God would surround him with people to comfort and encourage him.

Thank you for your support of dear Diego.

ENGAGED!

That's right.
Megan Speicher.
MISS Speicher for who knows HOW long is ENGAGED!
GETTING MARRIED.
GOING TO HAVE A HUSBAND.

Here is how it happened!

Saturday afternoon my boy comes to pick me up. Now I know the plan is to go 4-wheeling outside of the city, but I didn't expect him to pick me UP in one! First surprise of the day. I grab my stuff and obliviously jump onto the 4-wheeler and off we go!

We're gone for a while, driving through little neighborhoods in the countryside. On our way back to La Paz we get off of the main road to enjoy some of the scenery and to experience the official trail...or so I thought! We are riding next to these awesome rock/sand formations and go down this fairly steep path. When we get to the bottom I'm ready to enjoy the view and get off the loud 4-wheeler. Esteban "agrees" but ends up pushing to get back up the path. Not realizing the REAL reason why he's ready to go back up, I quickly comply and dont think much of it.

We're about half-way up and he stops. Before I know it he says he has a little gift for me and I start freaking out inside! However, before I can let my imagination run wild, I see a bigger box and I quickly realize my "mistake"....he's not going to propose NOW! It's only August.

We walk over to a little spot next to some taller formations and sit down. He opens the box and asks me if know what "today" is. As usual, I guess wrong and he reminds me that we met a year ago...exactly. Second surprise of the day...I really didn't know!

With that in mind, I open the box to find his computer with a DVD ready to play. I watch the video he made that shares all of the reasons why he loves me...complete with hilarious pictures of me "being" the qualities/characteristics that are important to him. I close the computer still laughing at some of the ridiculous pictures he found of me.....and then things start happening.

A toy helicopter with an indecipherable message attached starts flying above us.
A couple of fireworks go off in front of us.
Some more behind us.
He tells me to stand.
He gets on one knee and has a ring in his hand....
THIRD (and best) SURPRISE OF THE DAY!


And the rest is history!!!!

Here we are minutes after it happened. My dear friend Lisa Miser was gathered enough to suggest a picture!
Since I had to babysit that night and he had to film something, we celebrated the next day!


CHEERS!
Sometimes I feel so blessed when I think of how God has brought us together....and sometimes I'm just shocked:)! But everytime I think of "our story," I am reminded of God's faithfulness and sovereignty!
Thanks for being excited with me:)!

From Summer to Winter

Yes.
My summer is already over.
Hard to believe.
Sorry I didn't blog much....or at all!
But now I'm ready to catch you up with some pictures and snippets of the many adventures had.
Hope you feel a part of my life again.

Seeing my family.....especially my NIECE AND NEPHEW (nothing against the other members) was a highlight of the summer!

"Little" baby Ian is QUITE the chunker now.
Love it....

Ella is SUPER precious and has stolen my heart all over again....

After Charlotte, I flew to California to meet up with the family AND the boy.
After attending my cousin's wedding, we all squished into 2 trucks pulling 2 trailers and headed to YOSEMITE!
Enjoying this beautiful National Park with the whole family was a bit reminiscent of the "old days" when the Speicher family would go on their annual family vacation. Only this time there were a few more additions to the Speicher clan that made it even more exciting...


The newly engaged couple (CONGRATS sister Laura) joined Esteban and I on the awesome "Mist Trail" ....yes that is the mist that made us so wet!!

After California where basically every family member was seen (lucky Esteban), we made it back to Idaho safely to enjoy the sites and sounds of Twin Falls....

...the bridge...

and the falls....

and that's it!

Then we hopped on a plane to head east to enjoy some DEAR Indiana friends and to celebrate!

After enjoying my 3rd (his 2nd) peice of wedding cake this summer, we headed even farther east to the beautiful and deathly humid state of Maryland!

Here we saw Esteban's brother Marcelo and his wife Sarah. Sadly my camera's battery died (are you shocked Jenny Hunt?!) so I have no pictures right now to document our time there (hopefully I'll get some e-mailed soon). However, it was so fun meeting another family member (and maybe just as nice finally being on the meeting end and not the introducing one...that can be exhausting!) and enjoying 2 days in the great city of D.C.

The end of my summer found me back in Idaho for 2 weeks.
In that time I helped Jenny move (which means we packed, packed, packed...you get the idea) and had SUCH a relaxing time camping with just the mom!!

Then I packed up all of my "treasures" and boarded a few more planes and wound up back in the cold, yet full-of-life city of La Paz....my home right now!

**Sorry for a lack of pictures at the end of this post....the internet is SUPER RIDICULOUS tonight so I was forced to focus on the "snippets" part toward the end.