A Little Bitty New Life in Guatemala

Over the last couple of days we've told you about taking pictures, the sinkhole, and buying a car, but here's the news we've been anxious to share with all of you. According to the doctor, the 3.6mm dot in the ultrasound picture below really is a baby. He or she will be born sometime around October 11.

As you can imagine, we're pretty excited!

There have already been a couple of questions that seem to keep coming up- people want to know if we're going to have the baby here or in the U.S., and if this is going to change anything with our two-year commitment here. The short answers are: we have a very good doctor and a very good hospital here, so we're planning on staying here for the baby's birth. Also, we are still sticking with the two-year commitment. (We want the little guy/girl to get as many black beans as possible before heading back to the states.)

More Car Information

Daniel usually doesn't provide details, so for those of you who like details... here are a few more about our car purchase.

We knew since we arrived here that we would need to purchase a car but we had been dreading that process. We had never purchased a car before, so we weren't sure where to begin. The idea of visiting used car lots or calling the classified ads and trying to discuss cars in Spanish was pretty awful.

On Friday morning, we mentioned to the mechanic at the children's home that we needed to buy a car and that we would like a small SUV type if possible. That afternoon, he showed up with one that his friend was selling. Within the hour, we had purchased the car. That was pretty scary! We trust the mechanic here and he said that the car is in great condition, so we just stepped out in faith that he is right.

It is funny because I would never have bought this car in the US. It is 12 years old, has a huge hole in the driver's seat, a repainted hood, and many dents and scrapes. However here, the more dents and scrapes, the better -- we don't want it to be too attractive and be stolen! It is also better for us to buy an older car to use for the year and a half that we need it because it will re-sell for about the same price that we paid for it. Newer cars would lose a lot of their value faster.

So we are happy with our Guatemalan car and hope that it will be very reliable for the next year and a half!

Watching for Sinkholes

Apparently news about this 330 foot deep sinkhole has made it to the U.S. because a few of you have emailed me about it. I'm not sure exactly where this is in the city, but we probably live 20-30 miles from where this happened. What I can't figure out is why the articles keep blaiming recent rains. It hasn't rained much here since October. As sad as it is that some people lost their lives in this, I think it's a testimony to God's grace that only three people died, considering how densely populated the city is.

I'll definitely pay more attention to the potholes when driving now that we've just bought this car.

A Busy Week

We are sorry that it has been over a week since our last post! We will try not to let that happen again. In our defense, internet access has been very limited since our arrival. One of the reasons is that someone stole the underground cable lines because they wanted the copper. I hope that doesn't happen again! Stealing copper cables is a big problem down here.

Our first full week back at NLCH has been a busy one as we are trying to settle in, build relationships with the children, and help share some of the workload with our directors. One of our projects from the past week was taking the annual individual portraits of all of the kids. Below are a few of the pictures.

Finshed!

We had our last day of language school yesterday! Now we're back (for good) at NLCH. We've been a little apprehensive about how things would go once we got here, but we were encouraged last night. We spent a few minutes talking to two of the older boys, Edgar and Oswaldo, and Oswaldo asked me when we were going to be able to start a Bible study.

For one thing, I wasn't even sure if they knew what our job was going to be, and then for him to seem interested on top of that was an encouraging sign for us.

Amigos

You never know who is going to serve as a reminder of God's joy or His presence with us. For me, it has at times been brief encounters with these two men. We see them almost daily as we are walking home from school. They work together at a printing press near our house. The younger man is mentally handicapped and probably in his early 30s. The older man is most likely in his upper 70s. They obviously share a deep friendship.

We look forward to seeing them because the older gentleman is always extremely excited to talk with us. When we are about 30 feet from him, he begins an exaggerated wave and continually says "Hola!" with a huge grin on his face until we get to where he is on the sidewalk. Then, he grabs each of our hands at the same time and shakes enthusiastically and asks us how we are doing. He speaks very quickly and not too clearly, so at times we do not understand a lot of what he is saying, but his joy is contagious.

We asked if we could take a picture of them. The younger man said "gracias" at least six times and the older man said that it would be a great rememberance for us of our friends (them). He said we could hang the picture on our living room wall. That would be interesting! I wish that he would have smiled in the picture. I like his smile -- it is very big and he is missing a lot of teeth.

Learning to Cook Differently

Last week Kara helped out with dinner when our host mother had something come up and had to leave. She had her first experience cooking plantains and black beans.

It was really good (and completely coincidental that we both had stomach issues the next day).

The Market

I know that I have posted about the market several times, but it an interesting place so I thought I would post some more pictures. The two photos above show the variety of fruits and vegetables sold in the market. For the following pictures, the descriptions will be below the photo.

Children of some of the vendors. The little one in the front looked like she was about ready to fall off of the table and I didn't see any parents close by.

This is the reason that Daniel doesn't like the market. It is always a busy place. They have additional security on Saturdays because the crowd is larger. You can a police car and officer in the photo.

I am amazed at how women here can balance all kinds of things on their heads (baskets, bags, firewood, etc.). This skill comes in very handy. For this woman, balancing all of her purchases on her head left her hands free to make a phone call. Maybe I should work on this skill.

One of many tables of eggs. Eggs are not refrigerated here, even in many of the homes. Our host family has a basket of eggs that sits out on the kitchen counter. Could this be why I have had so many stomach problems??

Our Sixth Month

It was six months ago today that we said goodbye to my parents really early in the morning at the Midland airport and got on a plane for Guatemala. Several things are hard to believe- that we've been here half a year, that we've only been here half a year, that 1/4 of our commitment here is already behind us...

As Kara wrote about, the six month mark has not been quite as celebratory as we would have expected. Instead, it makes us miss home a bit more. But then when I think about all that the Lord has accomplished in these six months, I couldn't be more grateful. Kara and I are as close to each other as we ever have been, and we are sure that we're following the Lord in a very unique (although sometimes difficult) opportunity.

The next month will be an important one for us as we finally get started at the home. We've been working and waiting for this month for more than a year now, so we're anxious to see how it will go.

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who made a comment on my blog post from Tuesday. It was so encouraging to hear from you! Thank you so much for taking the time to respond! Tiffany, you were right that sometimes a person just needs to express their feelings and then they are better able to move on. It felt good to be honest. That blog post was therapeutic for me and I now feel a little better. I can't say that I feel great or that I am very celebratory today, but I am happy to be feeling better.

Not Always Rose-Colored

These past few days have been a little rough emotionally for me and I am not exactly sure why. I think that it is mainly because this Thursday we will reach the sixth month mark of living in Guatemala. I thought that this would be an exciting day of celebration and that I might say something like “Hooray! Let’s celebrate this milestone with a cheeseburger at McDonalds.” However, as the day approaches, I find myself in a bit of mild depression.

If you would have asked me before we came how I thought things would be in six months, I would probably have responded that we would be fluent in Spanish and accustomed to life in Guatemala. Sure, we can get by with our Spanish now but we are nowhere near fluent. I still struggle in practically every conversation. And while I like many things about Guatemala, it is still very foreign and I much prefer home. Many of our posts on the blog and articles in our newsletter updates are about how excited we are to work with the children and how thankful we are to be here. I want to be honest that there are other days when I really don’t feel that way at all. If you asked me today if I wanted to go spend time with the children or go back home for a visit, I would definitely choose to go home.

Six months is a long time. Not to state the obvious but… half a year! I miss little things like going to friends’ houses, drinking sweet tea from Chick-Fil-A, and wearing a winter coat. I think most of all I miss my sister. It has been more than six months since I have seen her and I just want to hug her and sit and talk together for awhile.

I feel guilty for having these feelings. I know that we have been given a tremendous opportunity and I should not take it for granted. We have been so blessed and I shouldn’t lose sight of that. But for today, everything is not rose-colored.