Different.

What I learned in India:

Faith.

Love is not a fight, it’s something worth fighting for.

Once you get knocked down enough times, it’s not just about learning to stand back up again, but it’s about fighting for what you know is right, it’s about declaring that the truth will one day prevail.

To wake up and be happy being Natalie, knowing that my creator loves me.

I am a people, unstructured person. AKA never going to have a legit job. :(

Mosquitoes may be the most annoying creatures on the planet.

It CAN be hot enough for cough drops to melt (TII).

What a relationship with Jesus looks like.

A prayer life, spending time with Jesus--I hear Jesus most at 5 AM.

Telling the Holy Spirit my heart and listening what He is saying to it.

God’s gift of power to heal brokenness.

As Christians we are going to suffer.

You can’t trust everyone Natalie. You can't trust everyone Natalie. You can't trust everyone Natalie.

Trial=Trusting on God.

How to cross the street in India (it’s just like playing frogger!).

Listen to your heart, no matter how crazy your mind may think it’s being.

Where there is hatred, show love. Pray blessings upon that person and don't let Satan win.

How to be an adult, even when it’s hard to be.

Heartbreak…Again, and again and again.

Give, give, give, and then when you have nothing left to give, give some more.

Leading is about serving.

It’s okay to cry sometimes.

When you try to run away, He is still there…And He always will be.

The people you think are the best, sometimes aren’t…and the people you don’t even notice at first…sometimes become your best friends.

My first sin was laziness.

Yeshu Naam Ki Jay (His name is victorious, Always).

Switchfoot--Thank you for getting me through the roughest days.

Don’t eat with your left hand and don’t forget to take off your shoes when you get in a room and don’t lift up your sari to show everyone your petticoat when getting on a motorcycle…Or else you might be embarrassed.

Women are weaker vessels…but that doesn’t mean you should treat them as lesser vessels…that just means you should care for them more.

Roots and wings (Thanks Popop).

Sometimes by not understanding, we begin to understand so much more. We learn to understand hearts.

Not taking anything for granted…even the small things.

Worshipping with your spirit and not just your mouth.

How valuable friendship is, especially Christian friends.

Every problem I have after India won’t seem that bad…Because I survived India.

No one is a lost cause.

I think sometimes non-Christians can be closer to Christ than "Christians".

I am so blessed for so many reasons.

Airplanes are no longer my worst fear.

The words tension, disturb, and mad have become a large part of my vocabulary in India.

I found myself in India.

When I am weak, I am strong.

Secrets are sometimes meant to always be secrets.

His word is a precious gift--His love poured out on paper. How lovely.

Sometimes you must go to the place where you were most broken to find healing again.

I could go on for days of all the things I have learned…

But for now, I want to say that because of each second I spent here, I am changed for eternity.

I won't go back to how I was-Natalie Grace Donald

Home.

Today I will start my journey home.

I know this may come to a surprise to many of you.

But I feel like God is calling me home.

It makes me sad to leave, but I know in my heart it’s the right thing to do.

Please pray for my flight, for when I get back that God provides all that I need, that I find a church to go to, that I have a solid group of Christian friends, that I stay on fire, and that I don’t get too sick from adjusting back.

I will leave 30 pieces of my heart here always.

Map Didi

Bittersweet Thanksgiving.

All day I have been thinking about what to say that I'm thankful for.

I explained what Thanksgiving is probably a million times.

:) But truly I am happy. For so many reasons.

Here I go:

MY FREEDOM.

How lucky I am to be free.

To choose my own desitiny.

I will never take my freedom for granted again.

I can't wait to have a voice.

MY SKIN COLOR.

I was born in America.

Enough said.

Thank you Jesus for letting me be born in a place where I can have an education and everything handed to me on a silver platter.

GETTING TO EXPERIENCE ANOTHER CULTURE.

I am blessed to have the opportunity to live in India.

I'm thankful that I get to see these kids everyday and show them what love looks like.

They teach me so much about life.

Even though sometimes it might be really difficult.

CHRISTIAN FRIENDS

Honestly, I have had a LOT of best friends. Probably like 1,000. I have collections and categories of them.

But these two are more than best friends.

Kailtin Bowyer. She is my prayer warrior, my comforter, my listener, my voice of reason. She helps hold me together and pieces me back together when I'm broken. Even though we may be scary different, we understand each other's hearts, which I guess endless hours of car rides together might do to you, but really, thank you for being my best friend.

Thanks for the smushed cupcakes ;), oreos, skittles, and games for my kids. :)

Austin Greco. You know all the bad, nasty and ugly stuff... but you always point me towards what is beautiful, Jesus. :) Thank you for constantly praying for me when I was breaking down with my insides coming out. Your lame Pope jokes about his hat really do make me laugh. :)

MY FAMILY

I pray for them everyday, I hate being away from them. I truly am so thankful for them. Mom, Dad, Em, Rick, Chan, Gram, Popop, Aunt Bec (sorry you had to be alone doing accounting on Thanksgiving--please pray for her). I love you all so much. I wish I could be home with you guys.

They made a Flat Nat this week which pretty much made my entire life.

It's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me.

MY FAMILY TIMES 2

I know it may be difficult to share openly the depths of my heart with you all, but truly, you give me a reason to stay everyday. Your words of thanksgiving brought tears to my eyes tonight(and you don't even know what it is!). The thing is, everyone wanted to be my friend. I am the American, therefore, all want to be associated with Map. But you...You got to know Natalie. You know that I love to laugh and be silly, my favorite foods and drinks, you know the desires of my heart, when I'm pretending to be happy but inside I'm really crying. Thank you for knowing the real me. For giving me all you have, when I know you have so little...I love you all so dearly. Thank you for making a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner for me even though we had no gas or electricity. I will never forget my Thanksgiving in India because of you.

God, please bless this family with things of Your Kingdom FOREVER.

THANK YOU JESUS

FOR ALL OF THESE THINGS, for changing me. I had a friend tell me this week..."before you left, all you cared about was facebook, boys, and clothes..." That person was so right. God has completely and totally flipped my world upside down and made me a new Natalie. I like who I am...Who would have ever thought?!

Today on the way to my second family's house for Thanksgiving I was stopped so many times. First, I got word that my Dinesh and Robin were sick. So I found them and prayed for them. Then I heard Maryum was sick, so I stopped at the house she was at and prayed and sat with her for awhile...After not speaking for hours, she saw the tears in my eyes and got out, "I'm fine, Map Didi." :( My heart. I said, "You are not fine, baby." Please pray for my kids with malaria.Then I got stopped again by a bible college student. She was crying so hard. She is an orphan and she feels so alone in this world, without a home and a family. I prayed with her and told her that she's not alone, that she has a father in heaven who loves her very much. I continued to get stopped with people asking me to pray for them... Finally I got to my family's house, even though I was an hour late, I felt so grateful for so many reasons. I think God wanted to remind me how incredibly blessed I am. I have so many reasons to be thankful.

After the electricity and gas went out I texted my Aunt.

Her reply:

"TII...This is India."

HAPPY THANKSGIVING,

One Grateful Girl

P.S. This week when I came to my second family's house, I found my eyes pasted on their wall. Weird, flattering, funny ("so this way you are always with us!").

BREAKING NEWS! Finally figured it out:

WHAT I'M DOING WITH THE REST OF MY LIFE!

Hercules.

This has been VERY MUCH long awaited if you know Natalie Grace Donald.

For years and years I have been trying to figure it out and I think I finally have.

How you might ask?

By letting go and letting God figure it out.

So here it is:

I was blessed with the spiritual gift of mercy.

Mercy:

the divine enablement to cheerfully and practically help those who are suffering or are in need, compassion moved to action. People with this gift: focus upon alleviating the sources of pain or discomfort in suffering people; address the needs of the lonely and forgotten; express love, grace, and dignity to those facing hardships and crisis; concern themselves with individual or social issues that oppress people.

So I have been praying about it for so long and it finally just came to me, in the form of pictures in my mind during church one Sunday morning.

I want to bring comfort to those who are suffering. Perhaps, maybe even work for World Help or World Vision or Children of the Nations one day.

I want to be the person that comes in after a tsunami hits, or a village is attacked, or a family loses a child, or someone finds out they have cancer.

I want to bring hope, healing, and restoration.

I know I still have a long way to go in maturity and schooling.

But I pray that one day God can use me in these areas.

After talking with some sources, I think that going into social work at a Christian school would be the best thing for that profession (if you know any colleges with good social work programs, let me know!).

Please pray that God makes it clear where He wants me and that He provides the money that I may need once I get there. :)

Please also pray for a hard decision I may have to make in the next few weeks.

To those who care about the little things about my life like what I want to do.. Thank you.

I love you and I'm thankful for you,

Natalie

You're invited to the Pity Party of Natalie Donald

Yiggity yo,
So I haven't written a blog in awhile due to the fact that only semi-depressing things have been flooding my mind. But I need prayer and encouragement and friends. Yikes. I feel so tired. Satan keeps knocking me down over and over again. Last night ,I was legit making a plan of coming home. That's how serious as a heart attack I was. But whenever I thought about telling my aunt and the karuna kids, I broke down and cried. I couldn't even imagine it.

I guess I expected these things to happen. No, I really DID expect these things to happen. But now that they are...I feel like I'm suffocating.
I know..I'm so over dramatic.
:)
Persecution. It's the worst. I guess all of these trials are taking place to teach me that I can only trust one person. I need to rejoice in these times of trials. But my heart simply cannot comprehend that there are really evil people out there. I can only pray that God will give them hearts of flesh one day. All week I've had this verse in my head...echoing over and over again: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." 2 Corinthians 4:8.

Familiarity. Things are becoming familiar to me. Which is not good.Kids not having shoes. Families digging through trash to find a scrap to eat. Beggars with no hands. Children with dead eyes. All of it. It's not breaking my heart anymore and that scares me. Things that used to haunt my mind and scar my brain, are beginning to fade.
Restore the compassion and mercy inside of me, Oh Father.

Homesick. Straight up, realness with you...It's Thanksgiving on Thursday. And I'm sad, my heart aches. I want to be home so badly. Honestly, I don't care about the turkey or the stuffing or even the sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top...I want to be home with the people who love and care about me.

These emotions are real and raw and I'll probably regret each thing I said in the morning. But I ask that you just remember me this week. I ask that you pray for me not to be too sad...or want to run away whenever the going gets tough.

No turning back, no turing back,
NGDtheI

P.S. Thanks best friend for praying for me and in your prayer mentioning that I'm pretty baller. It made my awful day a little better.

Boredom.

1. This week I got bored.
2. Why you might ask?
3. Well, because my lovies have been on Diwali vacation for 2 weeks.
4. I never thought bored would be a bad thing.
5. But then! My brain began to semi do what it does best.
6. Worry.
7. It is professional at worrying.
8. What does it have to worry about?
9. Well: What college am I going to go to? Where am I going to live when I get back? How will I ever get a job? How will I get a car to get to my job? How will I earn money to buy a car? How can I go to school if I have no money? Where will I go to church? Where can I find a church with a good college group? Who will help me through this processing process I will go through when I get back? How will I find Christian friends? Who will pray for me when I have something as simple as leg pain?
10. I also started missing home like crazy.
11. So…My Karuna Children are home now(Praise the Lord).
12. But my mind is still disturbed.
13. So what I’m asking from you…
14. Is that you pray for all of these worries.
15. And pray for me to just give them to God.
16. And know that He will provide.
17. And He has perfect timing

Evidence of my boredom:

1. 
   Natalie Grace Donald

To the happy couple :)

http://stephbarber.com/?p=852

CHECK IT.

My sister and her future husband, my future brother, Eric.

I am soooo happy for you two.

This week I wrote down what I want in a husband one day when I get over the "I wanna be single forever" phase of my life, so I don't forget:

1. I want him to be willing to lay down his life for me, just as Christ did for us.

2. I want him to nurture me and care for me, make me feel loved.

3. I want him to be my best friend who I trust with everything. Then love.

4. I want him to know me, know my heart, pursue my heart.

5. I want our desire to be to seek the kingdom together, to further it.

6. I want him to cherish, protect, and guard my heart.

7. I want to have fellowship and prayer together.

8. I want him to love me, but worship the Lord.

I think all of these things Eric and Em have. I pray that God blesses your marriage for the rest of your lives. Looking at your engagement pictures is like eating candy. They are beautiful and the love you two have for one another is so evident. Like iron sharpening iron. :)

I love you two. Congratulations and thank you for being an example in my life.

I can't wait to help plan in 4 months (if you'll let me). :)