Bonnette Acres

I have a re-accuring problem. Where I tend to get overwhelmed, my way of coping is to do nothing. Some of you are saying right now "well good, just leave it alone." but clearly you don't know me. When I say nothing, I mean absolutely nothing. I block out everything. I tend to stay towards the home, watch way too many movies and tv shows. I stop writing friends back. My parents are close to marking me MIA, since they haven't heard from me in weeks. I guess in my silly head the only way to deal with a problem is to act like it is invisible. You would think at 26 I would still not have such naive thoughts. Sadly I do. But today I woke up, took my time getting ready, and opened the shop. I felt something I haven't felt in a couple weeks- I felt calm. Some days feel rushed, like you are continually fighting to catch up with the rest of the world. But today does not feel like that at all. It is like everyone is on the same relaxed wave link. Everyone seems h...

This morning as I walked down the street to church, I could feel it. I felt the small chill in the air, and through the slight fog I could see the once super green trees now have yellow tips spreading all over the place. Fall is coming friends. I am not sure exactly when fall became my favorite season, but it seems every new year my appreciation grows for this time of year. Fall also has such a new beginnings feel to it, a fresh start. That is why today was a good day. For the first time since summer started, our whole church gathered together. We had a wonderful service, where almost each member of the church did something to help with the service. Me & Erica (The volunteers) led the music, with a mixture of English and Polish songs. Then one of our families did the kid's sermon, and another family did the main sermon. Afterwards we all worked together and had a lovely spaghetti lunch. It was a perfect day. For the last couple of Sundays during worship I have been ...

In the past 3 weeks the shop has tripled with buisness. It has been unbelievable, exciting, and to be honest VERY tiring.  But it has been amazing to see people filling the shop at all hours of the day. All different kinds of people: Business men and women in need of a shot of espresso to get them through the day.  Tourists that heard from their tour guide that we have the best cheesecake in town :) Students cramming for their final exams, chugging down cappuccino after cappuccino. Families that were out for an evening walk, that our in desperate need of a nice cold fresh orange juice. This is what we are to our community. We are the morning wake up call, the home away from home, and always the place to come and relax.  Last night we had a "New Summer Menu Party" and we also celebrated the shop being open for a year. Actually it's been open a year and 3 months, but it just took us a little while to get the party together :) It was a gre...

I randomly got to take a weekend trip to Edinburgh, Scotland during Easter weekend. Last year around this time I took a trip to Northern Ireland. So I was very happy to go back to the United Kingdom this year but to the other known luscious green, fun accent filled country: Scotland! It quickly transformed just from a weekend fun trip to a needed spiritual renewal for me. My friend Hannah came with me, and we stayed with a Scottish lady who lives just outside of Edinburgh. The lady's name is Rosemary, and I can honestly say I believe she has changed my life.  All my life I have had a series of people that I have met briefly, but have found myself in the most serious/ life changing conversations with. The kind of conversations where you just know God is speaking through them.  I would not be anywhere close to where I am now, without these people.  Well, Rosemary quickly became one of those people for me this past weekend. She is a true Christ follo...

I arrived in Kraków this past Friday to a couple of feet of snow, icy sidewalks, and a frozen Wisła river. I realized as I was on the bridge that goes over the river, that I had never seen a frozen lake or river before. It's one of those things that you are sure you have seen before, but then you remember it was just from years of seeing it on television and movies. I have to say it was pretty remarkable. Like always I wish I had my camera with me, because just a few days later it already had begun to melt. Apparently while I was back in the states, Poland and most of Europe had been in a record breaking cold spell. My friends told me that it was so cold, it hurt to walk home. Am I thankful that the day I got back was the end of the serious cold spell? VERY! Oddly enough the same thing happened last year when I came in January. Before I came they had tons of feet of snow, then the day I arrived it had already began to melt. It did snow some later that winter but apparently no...

So... it's been a long time since I posted on here. Ok, you got me it's been a really, really long time. But I am here now, and hopefully I will get back into the groove of updating regularly. For the last month I have been back in the states raising money for my next year in Poland. It has been so great to be back with my family. Playing tip toe with my two year old nephew, laughing so hard I cry with my brother and sister in law, and going out to eat with my parents. I love those regular moments, those every day, normal seconds that you don't realize you miss so much.  But even though I have loved being back with my family and my home church, I can not wait to get back to Kraków. I am super stoked for this next year, and I can't wait to see what God will do.   So now I just have to raise about $8,000 and were good to go :)