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.