{"id":2340,"date":"2015-06-16T12:58:23","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T17:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/?p=2340"},"modified":"2015-06-16T13:31:11","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T18:31:11","slug":"its-official-by-lacee-hilgen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/2015\/06\/its-official-by-lacee-hilgen\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Official. – by Lacee Hilgen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Its<\/a><\/p>\n

I have been home for almost 2 months and the dreaded day has come for me to\u00a0finally end this blog and admit that my time at Legacy is done.<\/p>\n

I am so very grateful for my time spent in Thailand, fully immersed in the culture, completely involved with my fellow volunteers, my students and the Sextons. We created a family unit in 10 months that completely changed my life, perspective and my heart.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a quick stroll down memory lane. Let the tears begin.<\/p>\n

\"10494562_10152465185349840_856257433035488384_n\"<\/a>
Forever family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"007\"<\/a>
I miss 5 hours of bonding and sweat each morning!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"10574270_10203021481311611_5811211175920093195_n\"<\/a>
My little dude. (I miss him the most)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"hlarous\"<\/a>
I can now pin point the best day of my life and this was it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"WP_20140829_010\"<\/a>
Hardworking sistas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"048\"<\/a>
I would like to relive this day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"060\"<\/a>
Thai beauty, my fave.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"166\"<\/a>
Some very special boys in my life.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"1509855_10152773160004691_3324332639652539185_n\"<\/a>
A scary good day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I<\/a>
I can now check off Malaysia from my list.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Legacy<\/a>
I like these boys.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"1379255_10203863654005402_5196041660106726405_n\"<\/a>
Some of my favorites in all the land.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"P1010205\"<\/a>
Thanks for stealing my heart!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Love<\/a>
Friday night bonfires were our favorite!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"10924721_10204172755652750_4517202391471098546_n\"<\/a>
I miss him SOOOO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"LOVE<\/a>
This girl changed my life.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
This girl cheered me up with just a smile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wonderful<\/a>
I miss this. My knees don\u2019t though.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Leon's<\/a>
Love x532620<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isn't<\/a>
Cuties!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
Rebels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A hammock above the sea. Not too shabby.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"023\"<\/a>
A life changing trip to Burma.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I\u2019ll<\/a>
I\u2019ll take them both!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pure<\/a>
Pure joy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the other hand, I was that girl running through the LAX airport to get through customs so I could finally be reunited with my family. I am so very happy to be home and back in the groove of things, despite my home sickness for all things Thailand. Upon coming home I was overwhelmed with emotions as I saw all my family, hopped on my surfboard, and slept in my overly\u00a0soft bed. Some other fantastic things were eating In N Out, (a few more times than I shall admit to) dryers, and good beer. I loved seeing my friends after a week or two. (Thanks friends for being patient as I acclimated to real life again)\u00a0Some things that were a shock was the fact that I was freezing at night and walked around my house in pants socks and a hoodie, being in large groups was even more terrifying than usual, and turning on the shower for the first time led to loud screams from yours truly because of the overly high pressured weapon of a water stream that was attacking my body. (No wonder we are in a drought people!) I also got pulled over for running a stop sign but the officer was understanding\u00a0as I frantically sputtered out, \u201cThere are no stop signs in Thailand. Everyone is white here and I can understand EVERYONE\u00a0and I\u2019m confused and I\u2019m sorry.\u201d I also\u00a0say \u201cThank You\u201d in Thai to people in the customer service field and I just ignore their\u00a0looks of confusion.<\/p>\n

It was a total overload to be home, it was actually very very hard. I am finally\u00a0getting used to our fast paced and irrationally stressful society. (But I have promised to not go back into that world, because I unknowingly lived there for 24 years) Despite the fact that I miss my students so bad that it hearts my little heart, I came home worried that I wouldn\u2019t feel like I had a purpose. I had a few moments while being home that I wanted to up and go back\u00a0but thankfully God opened a number of doors for me to serve others at home\u00a0and to remain involved with Legacy until the end of my days. I \u201cfound my niche\u201d as one of my besties told me while I was skyping her at Legacy. I didn\u2019t believe her then but I now know that her wisdom was true. While being away, God showed me\u00a0my calling. And I realized we ALL have one. I thought it was just the important people. But it\u2019s us too! Be excited.<\/p>\n

Now that I am home, I do realize I don\u2019t have to travel the world non stop to feel accomplished. I do know that I DID have to go to Thailand to understand what God\u2019s job for me on this earth is though. It\u2019s all a wonderful and amazing process to look back on and piece together all the steps and instances and revelations.<\/p>\n

To answer the #1 question I get asked, \u201cAre you going to go back?\u201d YES! (Wait don\u2019t freak out yet, keep reading) I am totally going to go back to visit when I make\u00a0myself some money! I don\u2019t plan on serving at Legacy again but I am not shutting the door to any opportunity to go back there or any other place in need. Wherever God wants me, I\u2019ll be there\u2026 even though praying that prayer was the scariest prayer I have ever prayed and afterwards I said, \u201cWAIT\u2026 NO I take it back! I can\u2019t do that. Never mind God, I don\u2019t take it back. Let\u2019s do it.\u201d <<< My brain, ladies an gentleman.<\/p>\n

I want to thank all of you who followed\u00a0my blog and who kept up with me. I didn\u2019t realize how many of you were reading about my time at Legacy, let alone enjoying them. I highly appreciate you taking this journey with me. And I will say this really quickly so I don\u2019t get all mushy. There were lots of moments when I felt lost, alone and overwhelmed while being away. However,\u00a0hearing from all of you after I would post a blog, gave me comfort because I knew the prayers and love were coming in. I just really want to say thank you so much! Your notes, emails and facebook messages left me in tears many a times. Thanks for the prayers and thank you for loving Legacy and the work that is happening over there! I am going to leave a link below for the Legacy website so you can donate if you are able. Legacy desperately needs money\u2026 in all honesty, so anything would help. I want to see Legacy continue to provide for those in need\u2026 and God\u2019s church really does need Legacy to help\u00a0produce\u00a0godly leaders who can one day serve the brethren in Burma. Your donations and prayers go leaps and bounds!<\/p>\n

http:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I thank God daily for helping me realize that I should never fathom investing my life in anything other than God because what I learned over there from experience and from my students is that a life without doing God\u2019s purpose is meaningless. I don\u2019t care how cheesy it sounds\u2026 a piece of my heart was left in Thailand and Burma and there it will stay.<\/p>\n

In the words of another wise person in my life: \u201cLive a radical, devoted and committed life for God. Go deep. Exercise yourself beyond the confines of the standard, to do things that demand every bit of yourself. Don\u2019t pacify yourself with a lesser thing. Don\u2019t skate the surface of life. Be consumed by Him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you all so much. I love you all and the short journey we enjoyed together.<\/p>\n

Until the next adventure,<\/p>\n

Lacee Hilgen<\/p>\n

(Original blog address – https:\/\/laceehilg.wordpress.com\/2015\/06\/13\/its-official\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been home for almost 2 months and the dreaded day has come for me to finally end this blog and admit that my time at Legacy is done. I am so very grateful for my time spent in Thailand, fully immersed in the culture, completely involved with my fellow volunteers, my students and the Sextons. We created a family unit in 10 months that completely changed my life, perspective and my heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-generalnews","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2340"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2346,"href":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions\/2346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacyinstitute.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}