Bethany Hamilton Story

This is an amazing story about an 18 year old surfer from Hawaii who lost her left arm in a shark attack when she was 13 but still returned to surfing. It seems virtually impossible to me that someone would be able to stand up on a surf board with one arm. Let alone to paddle hard enough to catch a wave. Its hard enough with two arms! This is an unbelievable story, check it out:

"On October 31, 2003, Hamilton went for a morning surf along Tunnels Beach, Kauai with friends Alana, Byron and Holt Blanchard. Around 7:30 a.m., she was lying sideways on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water, when a 14 ft tiger shark attacked her, ripping her left arm off just below the shoulder. If the shark had bitten 2 inches further in, the attack would have been fatal. Bethany had lost 60% of her blood that morning. Her friends helped paddle her back to shore, and fashioned a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash around what was left of her arm before rushing her to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. Her dad was supposed to have a knee surgery that morning but she took his place in the operating room.
Despite the trauma of the incident, Hamilton was determined to return to surfing. Three weeks after the incident, she returned to her board and went surfing again. Initially, she adopted a custom-made board that was longer and slightly thicker which made it easier to paddle. She has observed that she has to kick a lot more to make up for the loss of her left arm. After teaching herself to surf with one arm, she has again begun surfing competitively. She is now back to using competitive performance short-boards again.

In July 2004 Hamilton won the ESPY Award for Best Comeback Athlete of the Year. She was presented with a special courage award at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards.

In 2005, with one arm, Bethany took 1st place in the NSSA National Championships, a goal she had been trying to achieve since before the shark attack. In 2008, she began competing full-time on the ASP World Qualifying Series. In her first competition against many of the world's best women surfers, she came in 3rd.

Hamilton is also a devout Christian who uses her shark attack experience in her personal ministry."



Here is a clip from the documentary about her:

Feist and Canada

My wonderful husband bought us tickets to see Feist this weekend for my birthday present. So we are headed to London, Canada tomorrow for what should be an amazing show. Feist is awesome, she is one of my favorites right now. You have to check her out if you haven't already:

¡Congrats to Brett and Kelli!

I am so happy for you guys!

Thoughts of a 3 year old

"This apple is good, it takes like dragonflies. Dragonflies taste like butter, and that tastes like me."
-Isaac Odom

Fran BONZELAAR

Its been awhile since I have been on here, but this blog is in desperate need of an update on my life. If you are reading this blog, I am pretty sure you already know... The wedding was a blast! Everyone involved was such a huge help and did a great job. Especially Tricia with the cakes!


...and we are absolutely loving being married.



We went to my parent's cabin in Kentucky and spent a week secluded from the world. It was so relaxing and calming after a crazy few months. Throwing a wedding together in only about 2 months is quite a task! I have been really busy since we got back from Kentucky because I had to miss a whole week of school. I have been playing catch up with homework and at the same time trying to move my stuff in to our house. Hopefully life will settle down a bit now, things have been crazy. It was such an amazing experience but I am glad its over so I can breath. We have really missed out on a lot of time hanging out with our freinds the past few months with so much stuff to do. I'm looking forward to getting back to normal now.

Una mezcla de emoción.

Today I had a really big wave of missing Costa Rica and everyone that I love there. It made me really sad, I wish that Carlitos was on skype so I could talk to him. I feel so blessed for the friends and family I have at home, but I miss these things:





Siempre un parte de mi corazón se quedará en Costa Rica.

Kate Nash- Nicest Thing

She is my new favorite.

The "One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song"

This is amazing.

Franny la Niñera

I babysit for some cute kids. I am also trying to teach them Spanish. All it has gotten me so far is a random "¡Rojo!" or "¡Agua!" here and there, but hopefully they will catch on more.

Lunar eclipse & Going to Spain

My dad and I took pictures of the lunar eclipse last week, it was pretty cool. Doesn't it say in the Bible somewhere that the moon will turn blood red at the end times?



I am flying out to Spain at 4:00pm today. I will be in Barcelona for a week visiting my best friend Anna Keeler. Pray for safe travels and a great time!

BODIES

I am in Cincinnati with Rachel for the weekend hangin out at her cousin's house. Tomorrow we are going to see the Bodies Exhibit at the museum. My dad saw it in LA and said it was amazing. Check out the link.

Snow kicked my butt today

I just almost died like 7 times only to reach LCC and then find out that my classes got cancelled 5 minutes before I got there. So I went and attempted to snow-blow my grandparents driveway. By the time I got done, I looked back at the driveway, and it was pretty much covered in snow again. So then I drove home and almost died another 7 times.

Kentucky

My parents and I are headed to our cabin in Kentucky in a few minutes. I am really excited, it has been over a year since I have been able to go down. I guess the weather is supposed to be kind of crappy, but hopefully I still get some good pictures.

My blogging has slowed down...

And its pretty much all downhill from here. I will make an attempt to update this with what is happening in my life. It probably wont be quite as exciting since I am no longer in an exotic land with dead people in the river and armed robbers on every corner.

Becca and I were talking last night about how amazing it is to go back to the place where everyone you love is. Even though I really don't like Michigan as a location, I love so many people here. It is so comforting to see the faces that I know so well.

The transition is getting much better. I still kind of suck at speaking English and sometimes people have no clue what I am trying to say because I have translated a phrase literally from Spanish and I end up saying things like "I have cold" instead of "I'm cold." But Spanish words have stopped echoing in my head when I try and order food in English... that's good because that was getting pretty annoying.

Christmas was stressful because I had one week to do Christmas shopping since I got back from CR so late. I am glad its over. I got a plane ticket to Spain for February to visit Anna, I am happy with Santa. I am looking forward to starting school and getting into a routine again. I have lots of crap to do before that! Back to reality! Wooo Hooo.

Entonces...

I have been home for almost a week now and things are getting a bit easier. It has been good to see everyone, although everyone has been pretty busy. I drove today for the first time in four months, it was weird. I keep forgetting I have a cell phone and I keep leaving the stupid thing everywhere. It's nice to have, but it was nice not having to worry about stuff like that.

It is cold, I miss Carlitos, and I miss seeing big green mountains when I look outside.

Carlitos keeps sending me little messages on Skype chat when I am away from my computer. He writes "Hello? Are you there? Well I miss you a lot Franny D. I love you!!! A lot!" It makes me want to cry.

I'm Home...

And it's a whole mix of emotions.

It was really nice to sleep in my bed, and aparently I have an accent now?

Cute/Funny/Disgusting

I was typing Kenna an email and Carlitos walked into my room with a really serious look on his face. He pauses, then says "Franny, I have bad news." I was like "what?" He was like "I have to go poop in your bathroom. My dad and my sister are both in the ones upstairs. I have no other choice." ..."Ok Carlitos, thats fine." It is so funny how well he articulates himself for a 7 year old. Everything that comes out of his mouth is really proper but it is usually on the subject of bodily movements or something totally off the wall. Every time he talks you are thinking he is going to say something so sophisticated and it turns out the be a conversation like the one above. I am seriously going to miss that little boy so much!

Also. We have had to keep a good eye on Summo (the dog) the past couple of days. He keeps sneaking inside the house and trying to pee on the Christmas tree.

Orosi Valley

Yesterday we went to the village of Orosi. It was really nice. The oldest church in Costa Rica is there and we got to walk through it.





I am coming home in two days! Holy crap! I seriously cant imagine what its going to be like to my family at the airport. I hope my dog remembers me...

4 days, 4 hours, 6 min, 45 sec

:) = Seeing my friends, family, food I'm used to, car, cell phone, not having to pick and choose what you can afford to get robbed off of you when you leave the house.

:( = 21 legal drinking age, cold, dark, no more Carlitos and the Gomez family.

Open Doors

Franny,
Congratulations!! You should be proud of the things you have accomplished and the person you've become. I took this picture on a plantation in N. Carolina about 2 years ago. These slave quarters remind me that many of us take for granted all of the invisible "doors" that have been opened for us; & that this was the only door opened for so many others. I know that you have the heart & the mind to do so much for yourself & for others. May your love & compassion continue to break down barriers & open doors for all who enter your life.

All of my best
-Mr K.



This is an inspiring letter that I got from Mr. Keckeisen on the day of my open house. I found it in my prayer journal today. This is a picture from Old Town, but he attached a picture of the slave quarters he talked about in the letter. What he said is so true about taking for granted the "doors" that have been opened for us. I have had so many "doors" opened for me that the little kids in the feeding center will never see just because they were born into a different place and family. It makes me sick when people try and act better than another person because of the situation they were born into. Umm, you did nothing to determine the country and family you were born into therefor you are no better than anyone else just because your "Amuurican" and people who think like that should be hit across the face with a 2x4.