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.