We'll remember all the times we spent together.

Alright, here it is. Tonight is our last night in Guatemala. A mere 19 hours from now I will be arriving in Amarillo, TX. I'm sure it will be quite the culture shock, but I don't really have a choice. This month has been absolutely incredible and it is SO hard to believe that it's over. Today we spent the morning traveling through Guate City touring different attractions (including a very large cemetery which I thought to be a little weird) and then ate lunch and headed over to the hotel we're staying in tonight. We got to just hang out for the afternoon here and then went out tonight for dinner at Los Cebollines, one of our favorite restaurants here.

I would like to thank you all again so much for your prayers and support. Yesterday we got to go to a community center in the morning and do a SHOE DROP!!! Oh my goodness, it was so incredible. Every single child we put shoes on was so so grateful and their parents even more so. I wish for each of you to be able to experience something like that. Giving something as simple as new socks and shoes to a child with little to nothing. In the afternoon we got to go back to San Gabriel and hang out with our youth boys again. It's funny how very simple relays can keep boys entertained for hours. Thursday our relay was running down and eating a watermelon one bite at a time and yesterday we had them run, do some push-ups, run, eat 2 saltine crackers, run back, do some jumping jacks which NONE of them knew how to do, and then tag the next person. The second time we ran the relay we had the boys dance for 10 seconds instead of jumping jacks because none of them knew how to do them. The dancing was WAY more entertaining. Oh my goodness. After that, a simple game of futbol kept them satisfied until it was time for us to go. Last night to end things off, we got to go play soccer with the transitional boys homes. Be proud, I was on the court (it was a concrete court) the entire game and kicked the ball 3 times. Yep. Against a bunch of Guatemalan teenage boys that's pretty good.

Well it's late and I need to sleep so I'm not delirious telling everyone bye tomorrow.
Please pray for safe traveling tomorrow and I will hopefully see you all in person soon.

Coming to an end...

To start things off, I would like to wish my sister a VERY happy birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, I LOVE YOU!

So... life in the city. Sunday afternoon we went to the baby home and had a WONDERFUL time hanging out with the babies and doing different VBS activities. That night, we just hung out at the office together with our interpreter Francisco. He's become our close friend, especially since we only have one boy intern.

Monday morning we got to tour the different Buckner facilities in town, which ended up only being 4 because the girls' transitional home leaders were in a meeting. So first we went and saw 2 boys' transitional homes which were such a sign of hope for these boys. They all seemed so focused and seemed to really care about their futures. After the 2 boys' homes, we attempted to go see the girls' homes, but no one was there, so we went to the mommies and babies home. After receiving the full tour of the facilities, including one very large boxer who thought he was very small, we went out back to the day care and spent some time hanging out with the babies that lived there. There were only 5 of them, but they were all full of SO much energy it felt like there were WAY more. After staying there for a while, we headed back to the office for a break before heading out again. By heading out, I mean we went back to the baby home. The kids were SO hilarious this time, partly because they'd finally gotten to know us, so we spent the whole afternoon over there working with them and doing 2 sessions of VBS to make up for our flexibility that has caused us to reorganize and redefine what we would be doing these next couple of days. Our afternoon there ended in a party of sorts with cookie faces and yogurt and superhero outfits. We brought cookies and icing (and yogurt to keep things on the healthy side) and they provided us with entertainment. The boys there all have taken on second personalities of different superheroes. Juan Pablo is Spiderman, Jose is Superman, Estuardo is Batman (the best), and Daniel is Buzz Lightyear. They definitely took the show and were CRAZY going everywhere showing us what they could do.

Yesterday was my favorite day, well maybe a tie. Yesterday we got the opportunity to go back to Manchen, the girls' home that we got cut short on a few weeks ago. As we walked in it was SO good to see all of them again and redevelop some of the friendships that were effected by the first week's festivities. As I was standing and waiting for all of the girls to come out, one little girl came up to me that I didn't remember. She said, hey, I know you. As I looked at her I didn't really recognize her, but I was more than willing to hear her out as to how we knew each other. She said, “I am new here. I just moved here Saturday and before that I was in Xela.” If you remember, we were in Xela last week. I said, did we come to your house in Xela and she very EXCITEDLY said YES! with a HUGE smile on her face. I'm pretty positive I spent zero time with this girl in Xela, but somehow she remembered me and immediately attached to me at the hip. Maribel. She was quite a joy, really. Constantly asking to sing the songs we had taught or just sit and talk. She’s 4 months pregnant, going to be 5 on Monday. She just turned 14 last week. Monday maybe. Anyway, we spent the entire afternoon together drawing, playing pickup sticks, making bracelets, and dancing a little. After we finished moving through the different groups, we were very quickly encouraged to head out so that no one was just standing around chatting. I desperately looked around for Maribel because she had run off to talk to one of the directors for a second. I finally found her and she ran over to me and I told her we had to leave and that I loved her a lot. She asked me over and over to stay there with her. She said that she needed me. She told me she loved me more than I would ever know. Yep. I cried. I had to leave this poor little 14 year old girl here alone in Guatemala where she was yet to make friends at this violent orphanage and she will soon be raising a CHILD there. Oh dear. If only there was some way I could stay here longer or some how help her understand how much I wish I could be here with her. Nonetheless, we had to leave. I quickly got myself outside so I wouldn’t have to convince her anymore. One key element I forgot to mention is that we got to go back to Manchen because a family group from Park Cities came back through to do another trip here. We went to Porta Antigua to eat lunch with the group before we were going to head on to Elisa Martinez. A few of the guys from PCBC decided to come with us because we are a group of 10 girls and 2 boys (including interpreters) about to encounter 75 special needs (mostly) boys about 8 and over. Yeah.

Ok, so yesterday afternoon we went to Elisa Martinez and I spent the afternoon making airplanes, wooden and paper. The first group we made wooden airplanes, and then we found out we didn’t have enough, so the second group had to make paper airplanes and we had a distance contest after they finished. That afternoon was most likely the most difficult we’ve experienced, in my opinion at least. It was really fun hanging out with those boys, but it was so much effort because they constantly wanted to kiss us or hug us or whatever they deemed necessary. With 70-80% of the boys being special needs it was constant effort to keep their attention occupied on something productive. It really was a great experience nonetheless.

Today turned into the other favorite day. Not expected at all. This morning we got to go to a completely special needs orphanage and tour it first. This orphanage was SO COOL! First they have a school for neighborhood children, who before the school started didn’t go to school at all because the next nearest school is so far away. The school is completely free for the students and goes to 6^th grade which is so much more than they would have learned at home. They are looking to be funded to get a high school there too, but for now they only have kindergarten through 6^th grade and the director knows English and has begun teaching them English, too. After touring the school they took us over to the clinic area. In the clinic they had a psychiatrist, a social worker, water therapy, physical therapy, speech/language pathology, and special needs workers. This was the exact situation that I would LOVE to work in some day. Oh my goodness. I’m pretty sure my jaw was dropped for a majority of the time we were walking through there, and again, it’s free to anyone who comes. The last part of the tour was seeing the kids in their rooms. All of the children there are special needs, some much more than others, but all of them nonetheless. This home was so incredible because the teachers and directors there had made such and effort to make it a happy place, not a place where you “had” to stay. All of the walls outside were covered in murals of encouraging sayings and bright colorful pictures and the rooms inside were each decorated for the children that lived there. It really was such a blessing to get to see a place like this. After our tour finished we spent the rest of the morning with a group of girls we had seen when we came in. We colored and danced and played with playdough with them. Our original plan was to head back this afternoon and see them again, but we didn’t have any activities that we could have done with them, so we asked if there was anywhere else we were needed.

The only other home we were offered to go to was San Gabriel which is the juvenile detention home of sorts. Kids are brought there by the government when they do something bad, but not bad enough to go to jail. I was really nervous about this place, but it was SO INCREDIBLE. The director and the man I’m assuming was the co-director are these 2 VERY large men who could take these kids out at any moment necessary. It seemed that they were a little rough on these kids, but I imagine that for the most part they deserved it. One boy named Miguel came up to Kaitlyn and just started telling her his life story. The minute he started talking, tears began flowing down his face. He was with his friends and they were in some trouble and they ended up killing 2 people, but Miguel kept saying “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t do anything.” Since he was with them though and had a gun (yes, that’s right, this 12 year-old had a gun) he was ordered by the court to come to San Gabriel. The court ordered him to stay there until he was 18. He didn’t think his parents or family members or friends or anyone knew where he was, but we had a feeling that the court didn’t just take someone’s child without telling them where he was. They may have not known exactly, but they knew he had been taken. Tears just kept streaming down this adorable little boy’s face because he very well knew that the consequences of his decision were to stay in this rough, rough home until he was 18. There were so many stories like this little boy’s in that home, and sadly we didn’t get enough time to hear them all, but Berta, our Guatemalan leader, told us today that we can go back tomorrow afternoon, which we weren’t expecting, but are MORE than willing to do. The boys living there have it rough, but they are in such a great facility and have more than they need. Hopefully tomorrow will bring us more excitement and fun memories.

So there’s a little catch up as to what’s been going on here. The days are getting shorter and shorter for our time left. One intern left this morning. She had to be back for a meeting, but I think it’s hitting all of us that we don’t have a ton of time left here. We continue to not take these days for granted because there are so few left, but please continue to pray for our energy and excitement for our last day with kids. I guess I should have mentioned that. Tomorrow’s our last day with kids and then Friday we’re going sight-seeing. Wow. That’s weird to think that we have so few days left.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support over the last month. It really has been such an incredible experience and I have plenty of other stories if you would like to know more.

Talk to you soon!

Back in town

So the interns are back in town. Sorry for the lack of posts last week, but there was no internet in our room that was good enough to get access. So we spent our weekend at Lake Atitlan. Thursday was our last day with any kids and then Friday morning we drove to the lake and had breakfast at an incredible hotel.

Yes. It was beautiful. The lake is surrounded by 3 active volcanoes. To the left were San Pedro and Santiago and to the right was San Miguel. So we spent our morning eating breakfast with the group before they headed back to the city to end their trip. We, the interns, then headed out on the lake to the other side to Santiago Atitlan to do some shopping. Once across we met this very nice little boy named Miguel who deemed himself our tour guide. We were concerned that he would be a beggar who only wanted our money, but he really just wanted to hang out with us. So we walked around town to different shops and just took in the city. Our little guide also decided to teach us some of his native language, Tzutujil. The first phrase he taught us was "No, thank you" which is mitiox chaba. ALWAYS helpful in situations like the one we were in where we didn't really want or need anything we saw. So we spent our morning there and then took the boat back to Panajachel. In Panajachel we got to spend the afternoon relaxing. The group mostly took a walk down this main road that was completely filled with shops. I chose to relax and take a nap instead of the long walk that others took. That night we relaxed and ate dinner at the hotel and went to bed in a nice strong thunderstorm. We got to sleep in the next morning and walk around some more before heading out and driving back to Guate City.

So now we're in Guatemala City and we got to just hang out and grocery shop yesterday and then this morning we went to Fraternidad Cristiana de Guatemala for church and it was HUMONGOUS! It was really a great worship service and we all enjoyed being there. After lunch we came back and got to hang out for the afternoon until about 3 when we went to the baby orphanage for a couple of hours and did our own VBS activities. These were the kids that we spent our first day here with, so it was fun seeing them all again. This week is going to be a little crazier than normal because we're going to be traveling around so much in town working with different places, but it should be fun!

I'll keep you updated!

Exhaustion.

I think we've all hit it. Exhaustion. It's week 3 and we have basically done the same basic active schedule every day for the past 2 1/2 weeks. I'm not at all telling you that i wish things were different. Goodness no. I couldn't ask for anywhere better to be.

This week we are spending in Quetzaltenango with Woodlands Baptist Church from San Antonio and boy has it been fun. The first day we went first to a private girls orphanage that is fairly new. They only have about 6 girls right now, but are hoping in the next year to have about 60. Anyway, so the first day we planted an entire garden! Here's proof:

Complete with the GORGEOUS background of mountains and co

So we dug and plowed and tilled the entire area and then dug trenches for irrigation and then planted all of our seeds. We planted celery and spinach and squash and green beans and cilantro and radishes and potatoes and some other vegetables I can't remember. There were 10 in all. Let me tell you I got some interesting sunburns that day. I put sunscreen on my face but not my forehead, so I obviously got sunburned there. Also my elbow pits (that's not a technical name, I think it gets the point across thought) burned because I was watering so much with that part of my arm facing upward. And lastly I have a lovely burn on my lower back from being bent over for so long (I didn't even realize I was bent over long enough for this) and let me tell you that no matter what pants you wear with that, they rub and rub and it is awful. So that was day 1.

Day 2 (yesterday) we got up and went to the temporal government home for the morning and divided up into groups to do the VBS that the church group planned. I got to meet another beautiful child also named Huicho and of course, fell in love again. I guess it has something to do with the name. Luis (Huicho) was left at a dump as a baby because his mom could not afford to take care of him, and a Buckner employee found him and brought him to this home. He is VERY small for his age, but SO much fun to be around and SO full of energy. That afternoon we went back to the girls' home and planted roses and then went back to the temporal home for the end of the afternoon and helped them bring in new mattresses for all the girls. They were SO excited to get their new beds and what a blessing it was to get to help them bring those in and assemble them. All the beds were numbered and this poor little little girl could not find her number and she looked up at me with these HUGE puppy dog eyes asking me for help. I almost teared up just looking at her. I asked her what number she was and she said "17" in the saddest voice I've ever heard, so I went through each mattress with her (she was the last one, so most of them were extras) until we found number 17. Her entire face lit up when she saw that she had gotten one of the Cinderella mattresses with HER number on it. Oh, she was so proud. I helped her heave it onto her upper bunk bed and she very meticulously began to make her bed perfectly.

Now we're here, today. This morning we got to go to a different orphanage called Cercarif, maybe Zacarif, maybe I don't know, and I got to spend the morning with the babies. Oh my goodness. They were all girls and all SO happy and beautiful and I wanted to be with them forever, even though they all had lice. Yes. All of them. One little girl named Julisa attached to me and wanted to lay on me and I was SO nervous because I was just determined that I was going to get lice. I'm pretty positive I was careful enough, but I've washed and showered and kept my hair up and all of the precautions that I need to, but how could I just NOT hold those kids so I wouldn't get lice. That's right, I couldn't. I had to hold them. I haven't been itchy, so I think I'm good. We will be going back there tomorrow for the whole day.

This afternoon we went back to the temporal home and got to travel around to the different stations to do the VBS again. This time I got to be with Luis again, but they decided to do a complete little kid group, so we traveled around with the babies. I forgot to mention this, but in Cercarif/Zacarif and the temporal home we are not allowed to take pictures unless they are of groups. I took some pics before the rule was established, so I have a few. They've had problems in the past with people taking children's pictures and putting them on the internet to say they are up for adoption and it didn't turn out well, therefore we can't take their pictures. Ok, so back to my group. I was in a group with the babies who are all SO beautiful. Oh my goodness. Luis/Huicho was with us along with Isabel, the perfect looking baby, Oliver, whose mom dropped all 6 of her kids off at this orphanage, Maria, who cries constantly, Candelaria, who we found out the hard way is allergic to apple juice, and Francisco, who came to the orphanage last night and was surprisingly excited to be with us. I'm assuming he was in a bad situation before. So we got to spend the afternoon with these incredible children. I wish I could show you pictures, but alas, I don't have any.

So I think that's all for today. Continue to pray for our energy and patience since we're on the downhill slope of the trip. We're all doing great!

Love.

Week 3

Ok, everyone. Sorry for the last few days off, but we are now in Quetzaltenango (aka Xela pronounced Shayla). Friday we did the touristy thing in Antigua. First we went to a textile mill and then on to a coffee plantation which was INCREDIBLY interesting. For instance: for those of you coffee lovers, medium roast gives you more caffeine than dark roast or espresso. Espresso actually has the least caffeine of the three. Just an interesting tidbit for ya. After that we spent the afternoon in the market and ate at the most beautiful restaurant I've been to for dinner. It overlooked Guatemala City. We told the group from Conroe goodbye and went back home to the office. Yesterday we got a day to rest and hang out at the office and then off we went again this morning! We had our first glimpse of the children at the government orphanage today and it looks like this is going to be a tiring week. We were so so blessed to have such an incredible group last week and it looks like this is going to be quite the change. I have already made a couple of friends. Another Huicho has already taken my heart. Oh how I love this country.

Anyway, I have to admit last week was awful to leave, but the Lord has called us to work in Xela this week, so here we are! Pray that we will have energy and stamina to get through this week fully showing Christ's love to the children.

Please pray that we would be fully here.

That's all for today!

Interns

Checking in...

I was informed that I am the queen of run-on sentences, so I will do my best to not have as many in this post. There's really not much to report here from Huehue, except for the fact that I DREAD tomorrow. Tomorrow is the horrid day that I have been hoping wouldn't come. No, I'm not coming back to the United States, but we do have to leave Huehue and head back to Guatemala City. We have all gotten the opportunity to attach so closely to these kids since we get to come to the orphanage at 830 every morning and not leave until 6ish. I know, for most of you that sounds like the normal workday, but not when you're falling in love with faces like these.



Every face that I see I want to take home with me.

So let me tell you about today. This morning we were told that Tom, the music minister from FBC Conroe that's with us here, was going to be baptizing 6 girls when we got to the orphanage today. Oh my goodness. I can't explain to you how excited I was to witness something like this. So we got to the orphanage and Julianne and I installed 2 washers BY OURSELVES and repaired a broken dryer and attached the other only working dryer to the wall. Yes. You're really reading that. We consider ourselves professional plumbers/electricians after the past few days. Here we are with our completed laundry room. Mike, the expert electrician here with us, gave us the steps and we got it done. He then brought in Hermana Christina to see the new washers and she immediately broke into tears. This turns out to be quite the emotional day.

So after our successful morning we ate lunch and headed over to where the baptisms would be happening where we found out that TWELVE kids were going to be baptized this afternoon! Evidently a group of seminary students from the Guatemalan seminary (I don't know the technical name) have been coming and talking to the kids often and 12 of them decided that they wanted to be baptized. My heart broke as one of the mothers of the boys walked over to the baptismal area with tears forming in her eyes. This was the moment she had been waiting for since she first brought her children to the orphanage. She prayed aloud with tears flowing down her face as Tom was praying over the children. There is so much need here for the Lord and it was heartbreaking to see this mother so passionate about a relationship with God. It made me even more excited to be here now working with all of these people.

After the baptisms we started our normal routine of Vacation Bible School for the kids and today I was overwhelmed by their presence. I don't know what got me, but I was so impacted by every child who came to me. The craziest of crazies became my best friends for the afternoon and I was just overcome with love for all of them. If only I could somehow pick this whole orphanage up and bring it back with me, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Alright, so we finished up our last complete day with the kids and began our trek through town to see Huehue in all its glory. It began on public transportation (don't worry mom, it was completely safe since all 30 something of us were riding together) and we drove downtown to take our 20 minute tour of the main town area. Haha, let me just use the word entertaining here to describe our adventure. So we walked through downtown a couple of blocks and began walking through the market there which was possibly one of the weirdest places I've ever been. The outside walls of the market were mostly meat/butcher shops and the inside shops were vegetables and clothes and all sorts of assorted things that some crazy American would come in and want to buy. Haha, it was a quick tour needless to say.

We finally finished our tour of downtown and headed back to the hotel for some quick rest time, only to zip back to Mama Sandra's (the director of the orphanage's) house for dinner. (Sorry for grammatical error in that sentence, I wasn't too positive where to put the 's) She was so grateful to have our entire group over into her very nice house and we all got to sit and talk and ask questions about the orphanage and just hang out. It was a really great time.

I had had some concerns about a large portion of the children in the orphanage because I really couldn't understand why so few of them were being adopted. Mama Sandra explained that the only children who can be adopted are those who have truly become orphans. If the children have any family at all they are not put on the adoption list. This cuts SO many children off of the possibility of adoption list because so many of them are only in the orphanage because the parents that they do have cannot afford to take care of them. I just wish all of you could get an opportunity like this to come and spend this much time with such needy children. I feel like my heart's going to literally break by the time this trip is over.

So after a fantastic dinner we are back at the hotel soon to go to bed and prepare for our last day at the orphanage. Please be in prayer for us as we have to leave these dear dear children, but also know that the adults who are here taking care of them are some of, if not THE, most incredible people I've ever come in contact with. They are all caring and affectionate and everything that these children need. Ok, really I think that's all for tonight's post. It looks like all of our stomachs finally like us, so thank you for your prayers in that aspect and thanks be to God for helping us get through it. Keep praying for health and safety as we travel back to Guatemala City tomorrow and on to Xela soon. I would tell you the day, but I can't really remember right now. If you were lucky enough to receive a copy of my schedule here please disregard any information on it as our plans literally change daily.

Thank you again so much for your thoughts and prayers.
Con mucho amor.

Way way far away in Huehuetenango

Aqui estamos. We were all so overwhelmed to move on from Antigua and all of the chaos that we got to be a part of there, but I can't tell you how excited I am to be here in Huehue. Last week was an amazing week and I can't believe we are already through our first week and a half, but this week is already so amazing. This week we are working with a variety of people from FBC Conroe. Instead of traveling every two hours and going to different people groups at different times of the day and not ever really connecting with people because we didn't think we were going to spend so much time with them. Okay, so first day we got to go to Jocotenango and Manchen, then second day we went to Joco and Manchen again, then third day we went to Alotenango which had the same kids as Joco only 300 more and then the girls at Manchen set up a revolt to get out so we didn't get to go there in the afternoon, so we went back to Alotenango thinking it would be our last time. The fourth day we climbed the volcano (I already talked about that) and then in the afternoon we planned on going to Manchen again, but there were still police blockades so we ended up going back to Alo (yep, third time after we had told them goodbye forever 2 times) and one little girl came up to me and said "I thought you were already leaving, but here you are!" I didn't know how to explain to here the craziness that we had experienced, so I decided to just say, well we weren't ready to say goodbye yet so we came back to visit! The blessing of getting to come back was that we got to give all of the people on this incredibly poor mountain food, everyday living supplies, and love. I am so grateful for getting to come to Alo so many times because the people there were always grateful for anything we could give them and just for our time. People like these: who would give up everything they had for the day just to make sure their neighbor lives.

Ok, so anyway, Friday was our last day in Antigua and we got up at the regular time and headed to the market to see what we could buy. I came away with way more than I was expecting, but nothing that I regret yet, then we patiently awaited to see if we could go back one more time to the beloved Manchen girls' home. Our answer was again, no. There was too much risk in going to the home again because girls had been trying to get out again and it was just crazy. So we decided to go pray over the orphanage one last time before heading to Jocotenango for the afternoon. As we lined the streets of the orphanage with the ENTIRE youth group who had returned from Guatemala City and all of us, we heard joyous screams from inside having no idea what was to come we heard the locks on the doors coming undone and we were amazingly allowed to come inside!!! None of us could believe it as we sat there for a few seconds with our jaws dropped, pinching ourselves to see if it was really true. It was! The director had decided that we were allowed 30 minutes with the girls to give them one last goodbye. I entered the orphanage a little reluctant to tell those girls that I had clung to so much in the first few days goodbye. As I looked around the massive amount of people I could not seem to find the girls. I asked and no one had seen the few that I had so dearly become friends with. Then someone broke the news to me. 23 girls were locked inside one of the inner rooms so that they would not break out again. My girls. The girls I had loved on so much those first two days had been locked away because they were the few who had been trying to escape. I couldn't believe it, so with my head hung low I walked back to the van, preparing myself for the children at Jocotenango. We have now been told that we will be given the opportunity to return to Manchen in the coming weeks. Hopefully my girls will be available for me to talk to and love on again.

Saturday we got to sleep in and then traveled on to Huehuetenango, which is where we are now located. Sunday (yesterday) we got to go spend the entire day just getting to know the kids with no real agenda, just meet and greet. It was incredible. Oh, and we got to visit the local fair. Not too different from the American fairs, except for a height difference. This is me on the one "roller coaster" at the fair where I in all of my 5'11" greatness got to duck under a portion of it because it was built for Mayans, but how can you turn down an 8 year old Guatemalan beautiful boy asking you to ride with him? That's right, you can't. So we got to know the boys all day yesterday and then returned today to do actual vacation bible school activities with them. I seem to attach easily to the younger Guatemalan boys, so here I am again taking hundreds and hundreds of pictures of these perfect little children who God is working with SO much. The kids in this orphanage are so blessed to be where they are and so much less likely to run away. They all love being where they are and I haven't heard any of them complain about anything yet. I have to let you know that I did shed my first tear last night when I stepped into the 4-11 year old boys' room to give them their dinner and they were all seated in a circle patiently awaiting their dinner because they were all given so little. I cried when they told me thank you as I could barely see there faces under the single light bulb that was supposed to shed light on the entire room. I cried as they each looked at me and smiled and asked me if I was coming back tomorrow. How could I not come back tomorrow? How could I not bring each and every one of them back to the United States with me to live in my room that's bigger than anything they will ever experience? Yeah, I don't have an answer to that. This morning I got to help the electrician that is here with us put new light fixtures in the rooms and while doing so also bonded with the most beautiful children you will ever see in your life. Two little boys, Vincente and Oswaldo, are brothers and they are in the baby room at Huehuetenango and Julianne and I definitely were arguing over who got to take them home with us because there is no reason that any mother should even consider giving them up to an orphanage. I mean I understand that she may not be able to take care of them, really, I do, I just wish more than anything that they could just all come home or that we could provide every need that they have and they would never have to worry about anything, but that's not happening either, so I guess I should just continue to pray for them and know that God's plan for them is greater than any that I could make for them and that the women who help run this orphanage will be mothers to them like they never have had. I ask you to pray for them, too. Here are some faces for you to pray for.This is Emerson.
Left is Huicho (Aka trouble) and right is Dino.Henry, ugh, doesn't he just make your heart melt? He sure does mine.

And Anderson. Who can turn them down?
That's all I have for today. I have a feeling these posts are going to get longer and longer as the month goes on. Please keep praying that our group would stay healthy and that we can show Christ to these people. Not just the children, but also to their caretakers and the everyday people we come in contact with. They are amazing.
Thank you.

Photo update.

This is strictly to tell you that we are back in Guatemala City for the night and will be traveling to Huehuetenango tomorrow. The group's kind of going downhill one-by-one. I luckily have not been hit with the sick bug yet, but it would be great if you could keep all of us in your prayers. There are MANY incredible stories from today, but I must sleep so this is strictly for picture purposes.

This is a picture of a few of the girls when we first got to our hotel. From left are Alayna, Sarah, Kaitlyn, me, Julianne, and Patience.


So funny story I forgot to mention is that when we were going to Antigua we were told we were supposed to pack for 3 days and ended up staying for 6, so all of our clothes got to be worn twice. Yeah. Quite an adventure.



This was our first day at Alotenango. The kids here were the best behaved kids EVER and we enjoyed greatly getting to spend our days with them. Due to the Manchen activity we got to spend more time with these children than planned.



I would also like to introduce you to the classic Guatemalan child.




I don't know this girl's name, but these are the children we get to spend time with.




These are a few girls from Manchen. They LOVED having their pictures taken.






And this is Kaitlyn with Eddy and Jorge in Jocotenango. These children are already so precious to us and I just hope that it only gets better! Thank you for your prayers and support and I will update again soon!

Volcan de Pacaya

This morning I had the privilege of getting up at the crack of 430 am and travel about an hour away to the Pacaya Volcano. We arrived at about 6 and proceeded to climb it. Yes. That's right. We climbed a volcano. I will not lie to you I wanted to turn around and go back down about a hundred times because it was so steep. I can't even describe it. Anyway, so we got to what we thought was the top because they told us we weren't going to the very top, only part of the way. So we get to this HUGE clearing with an absolutely incredible view of Antigua and other surrounding towns and they said "Ok, from here we're going to climb about 45 more minutes to the lava flow." I will go ahead and inform you that I was not one of the people who made it to the top. I opted for the stay where you are and take pretty pictures option. And it turns out the hike is not a quick 45 minutes, but an hour up and an hour down, so the group was gone for about 2 and a half hours after seeing the lava at the top. I was a little bit jealous, but if you knew the continuous incline that we experienced you would be proud that I made it as far as I did (without water I might add since I definitely left mine in Antigua, I know, bright idea on my part). The group finally came back down complete with scrapes and covered in ash from the lava, but they all said it was incredible. From there we started our decent which definitely destroyed my already weak and awful knees. We'll see how they feel tomorrow.

I need to inform you of some occurences yesterday. Yesterday morning we got to go to the town of Alotenango, a town where they receive running water 3 days a week and all find complete joy in any child that God blesses them with, and play with 200-300 kids. They were so incredible. We were planning on going there in the morning and then not coming back, but basically just making a quick trip. Yesterday afternoon we were going to return to the girls' home I've been telling you about, but we were informed that a couple of girls tried to get out by breaking some windows and making a huge mess of their room, so they were conducting interviews to see if anyone would claim up to it so we weren't allowed to go there but instead went back to Alotenango and played with the children and gave their mothers some dried vegetables that they can cook like rice. We spent our afternoon there and then came back and ate some traditional Guatemalan food in our hotel. Then as you know came the early morning to the volcano this morning.

This afternoon again we planned to return to Manchen and work with the girls but we were told that basically as discipline for them we weren't allowed to return which is so so sad for the girls who did nothing wrong. So today we set up shop on a basketball court by the church of Jocotenango. We walked around the square where the basketball court was and handed out more of the dried vegetables to the needy people who live in the area. Tonight we are about to go eat at an old monastery that they have turned into a hotel and restaurant. I'm really excited.

As soon as we get back to the office tomorrow night I will do my best to post some pictures so you can see what we've gotten to work with here. Otherwise please continue your prayers for the girls at Manchen, that they can understand that they are living in better conditions than they could find anywhere in the streets. Also pray for the people of the church in Jocotenango and their satellite church in Alotenango. They have absolutely nothing and literally give up anything that they have for their people. It's a beautiful situation, but incredibly sad.

Alright, well I hope this message finds you well and I will update you all soon!

Con mucho amor.

Antigua with Park Cities

Hello amigos.
So we came to Antigua on Sunday and I have not had the opportunity to blog because the computer yesterday at McDonald's (yes, there was a computer at McD and it was the most beautiful McDonald's I've EVER seen, complete with a fountained courtyard and Mayan ruins) and I left my laptop in Guatemala City as to not have to worry about it here in Antigua. This hotel we're staying at is probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in (Porta Antigua), which is a plus and a minus since we are working with some of the poorest kids in Guatemala, but we are safe and secure in our rooms each night.

Anyway, so we came to Antigua and immediately went to the girls' home we've been working with to get to know them a little bit. This home is incredible. By incredible I mean it is impacting me greatly. In this home there are around 125 girls, a portion of which are special needs and another larger portion of which have children. These girls have not had children by choice, but mostly from sexual harassment. It has been so interesting working with these girls everyday because they have been through SO much at a young age and continue to smile and be happy in their circumstances. Yesterday our eyes were opened to the difficulty that we would experience getting these girls involved. With some of them it can take 6 or 7 times of inviting them before they will come do whatever activity we may be doing that day. Others jump right in as they are excited to see us and work with us.

In the mornings we have been working in a community church called Jocotenango. This church is a church/clinic where people can come from the area and receive free treatment. The doctor has not been there with us because recently he became very ill and has been in a drug induced coma until last night, when they took him out of the coma and everything looks great! (Thank you Lord) At the church/clinic we painted the entire outside and the sanctuary inside and also cleaned all of the rooms there while the students from Park Cities Church in Dallas played with the kids. I didn't mention that we were with them this week. The Park Cities group is about 45 people (which when considering that one of our rules is don't draw attention to yourself, doesn't turn out too well as 60 something white people are walking around together) but the group split in half, 20 9th and 10th graders came to Antigua with us while the other 25 11th and 12th graders stayed in Guatemala and are working at a site there, so now it's only 30 something white people walking around together, which (obviously) doesn't attract ANY attention from the natives. HA!

We've been getting plenty of rest so far, considering our curfew is about 7:30 to be in the hotel, when the sun goes down, and we have to be in our rooms by 10 with nothing to do until 8:30 the next morning. The rest is greatly needed though since we are immediately on our feet doing very active things at 9 every morning. No griping here, we love it. As you can probably assume, I am in love here. The children are all incredibly beautiful and I wish that I could encourage you to adopt some of them (or all of them like I want to), but Guatemala has closed adoption because some children were being adopted then sold on the black market or into prostitution. Not exactly the life that the orphanages are trying to provide for them. Many girls have come and gone from the home since we got here, which makes a very large proportion of the girls want to run away and find them even though they are no where near their current home. I guess I can just ask you all to continue to pray for these people. It's only been 2 days with them and we already have been so impacted by their stories. It's so hard to see hope in these situations, but we continue to remember that God is in control here and we only need to rely on him to control these situations.

I'll hopefully write more sooner than the last time.
Les extraño mucho.
Escribiré más pronto.

Con cariño.

GUATEMALA!

WE'RE HERE!!! The flight was completely bearable and almost entertaining. I was seated on the very last row in front of the bathroom next to two native Guatemalans. The man directly next to me was probably about 5 foot even and he talked the entire 3 hours of the flight. The woman next to him very patiently listened to his stories about farming and his various jobs in Guatemala. As we flew over Guatemala City I very much wanted to look out the window and see the beautiful landscape we were flying over, but little mister five foot nothing decided that he needed to see, even though he lives in this environment daily. He even went as far as pushing himself up on his elbows to get a better view. I wasn't really even frustrated with him because it was just a little comical after sitting next to him for 3 hours listening to his very active and expressive stories.

Anywho, now we're in Guatemala City hanging out at the Buckner office getting to know the people here and taking pictures of the beautiful surroundings. I love it. I didn't really think I wouldn't, but I love it so much already. My roommates are Kaitlyn, Alayna, and Patience. Our luggage takes up the majority of the extra space in the room, but our luggage has become part of who we are, so it doesn't even bother us anymore. The Buckner office is an incredible facility and we are very privileged to get to stay here. The girls are in the two bedrooms and Jared, our only boy, is staying in the classroom. We're all just waiting to unload a little bit of humanitarian aid so that we aren't carrying around 2 50 pound bags each. We got to the airport this morning just praying that our bags would be under 50 pounds because it's not just that if it was over the weightlimit we would pay a fee, it was under 50 pounds or no go. My bags were 50.5 pounds each, don't worry, they let them all on. Erin, our leader, had a bag that was over 60 pounds so we had to rearrange her stuff to get it all here and WE DID!! All luggage is here and accounted for.

Anyway, this post really had no point except to say we're here, but keep your prayers up! Tomorrow we're going to be touring the Buckner facilities and the Park Cities group will be getting here. We aren't going to work with them until Sunday I don't think, but we'll be with them soon.

La Primera Noche

Ok, here we go. This morning I flew into Dallas VERY early in the morning and got to hang out at the Buckner office until the other interns got into town. When everyone got there I was SO excited to meet everyone. I guess after spending 2 days at home by myself and flying this morning I was ready to be around people for a long time. Anyways, so people started slowly coming into the office and I one by one got to meet the members of my team. They are more than I could have prayed for. Everyone is already bonding so much and it's weird to think that we're still just on our first day together because we're getting to know each other so well.

My group consists of 9 girls and 1 boy. One girl's from Baltimore, one's from Tulsa, one's from Phoenix, one's from the little ole town of Kress, TX, one's from Longview, one's from Houston, one's from Dallas. We cover the whole spectrum.

Today we had the opportunity also of going to work in the Buckner shoe factory organizing shoes. You can check it out here: Shoes for Orphan Souls. It was a hot sweaty day here in good ole Dallas, but it was fantastic.

Anyway, it's gonna be another early morning tomorrow as we leave for the airport at 5:30. Eesh. I guess I better go to bed. Tomorrow is our big travel day down to Guate. Please pray for our safety and ease of travel. I'm getting to be ecstatic about the trip. Today we watched a video that was completely filmed in Guatemala and I've never been more excited to go somewhere. Also pray that our group continues to bond. They are so great, I just pray that it will continue to get better!

Hasta manana!

Leaving...

Alright, here are the basics. 6 am tomorrow morning I will be on my way to Dallas to meet the team I will be spending the next month with. I'm headed to Guatemala. Date of return: August 8. It's 8:30 now and I'm headed to bed.

We'll catch up soon.