No Problems

We made it to St. Louis without any problems traveling (and no fines!), and we're enjoying our time with Kara's family...

426, but not 427

Today is my 426th consecutive day in Guatemala, and therefore outside of the United States. I know that's not much compared to a lot of missionaries, soldiers, and other folks, but considering that my longest period of time out of the U.S. previously was 7 days... it's going to be really nice to see that flag flying in St. Louis tomorrow.

We leave the children's home at 5 a.m. for 4 weeks of travel in the States, beginning in St. Louis, then on to Midland, then Atlanta, then Lexington and Wilmore, KY. We're counting on seeing many of you along the way.

Although not many of you will read this between now and then- One specific thing we'll ask you to pray for... obtaining our visas has been quite a process (of nothing happening for almost a complete year now). Since we still do not have them, we're not sure what we may run into at the airport in the morning... hopefully nothing, but if a Guatemalan migration officer wanted to use it to give us a hard time they certainly could. (We've been told that it's possible we could be fined up to $700, even though we completed everything that the law asks for a year ago.)

We appreciate your prayers during our entire trip. The blog may not be quite as active as usual while we are away, but we will do our best to keep it updated.

Cemetery Visit

Last Sunday afternoon, we went to the cemetery to see Chepe's grave stone that had been put in. All of the children went, several of the home mothers, a few staff members, and a team of five visiting from the U.S. It was an emotional time, but once again a tender time of drawing together as family and remembering how much we miss Chepe. Here are a few pictures.

The verse is a segment of Matthew 25:21. It says, "His Lord responded to him, 'You have done well good and faithful servant, come and share in the happiness of your God." Under the dates it says, "We love you, Chepe."

The children's home logo.

The children helping to plant two yellow rose bushes and flowering ground cover.Emely cleaning the grave stone with her hands. Please pray for her. She is having an especially difficult time with Chepe's loss.

Tricks

You may wonder what I am doing in the above picture. Am I preparing a meal for a baby? No, I am tricking the teens in our discipleship group into eating green beans! While I love green beans, I quickly discovered that the kids here won't eat them. That lesson was easily learned as the bowl sat untouched through a discipleship group dinner. I was so disappointed.

However, I learned from Wendy that for some unknown reason, while the kids will not eat them in their usual form, they will eat them if you cut them up in small pieces. I tried it and it works! I served them last night and as I passed the bowl around the table, one of the teen boys next to me said, "Oh, I love these and piled them on his plate!" Hooray! Victory!

I wish I knew why cutting them in tiny pieces makes such a difference. Perhaps it is because green beans are not very common here (I get cans from a store that imports things from the U.S.). So, maybe in the small form they resemble some vegetable here? Who knows! I am just glad they will eat them now.

(Lisa if you are reading this, my experiment reminded me of the tricks you use to get your girls to eat healthy things and your Deceptively Delicious cookbook recommendation. I am all for tricking kids if it gets them to eat good stuff!)

Jenifer's "15 Años"

In the Latin American culture, a girl's fifteenth birthday is a very big deal. Often a ceremony is held in a church, almost like a wedding, complete with attendants, a big dress, and a grand entrance. While we are unable to do something on that grand of a scale, Kendon and Wendy work very hard to make the fifteenth birthday very special for the girls here.

Jenifer turned fifteen on September 2nd but we had her celebration this past Saturday, October 6th. She selected the color and style of a dress that was made for her. She also got new shoes and jewelry to wear. She received the full beauty treatment: Vivian, the NLCH secretary, took her to get her hair done. I painted her fingernails and toenails. Wendy did her makeup.

Jenifer was allowed to invite ten guests and we were so honored to receive an invitation! The celebration was held in a beautiful private room in a fancy restaurant in Guatemala City. We had a delicious steak dinner. A very special part of the evening was that one of Jenifer's supporters from the United States flew in to surprise her (she is pictured on the right).

After dinner, each person around the table offered a blessing to Jenifer and/or shared a special memory of her. Kendon and Wendy presented her with a beautiful ring (the traditional 15th birthday gift) and prayed for her. We ended the night with a delicious peach birthday cake.

It was a very special evening! Jenifer is a beautiful, loving girl and we pray that this is only the beginning of many years of joy and blessing for her as she grows to walk even more closely with the Lord.

Here are a few more pictures from the evening:

Kendon escorted Jenifer into the room as we all stood and applauded.A huge candle chandelier in the lobby of the restaurant.I told Jenifer that she looks like a princess here, posing in the balcony of our private dining room.Kendon & Wendy praying with Jenifer after placing her ring on her finger.

Yami, Estela and Debora

Jenifer and her two younger sisters: Karla and Yessica

KarlaJenifer trying out the cool sinks in the bathroom. Notice how it is full of stones and the water comes out of a pipe by raising a lever. Very impressive!

Marking the Day

It may seem strange to do a post about this... also, I'm not really sure what to say. I guess I just want to have some kind of acknowledgment that this was the due date for our miscarried first child. If for no other reason than to honor the memory of that little life and perhaps to bring about further healing.

To be honest, this has been a pretty tough process, especially in the past few days as this date approached and old feelings have resurfaced. There are two other couples in my home church that are expecting babies this same week. This morning I opened my email to find that one of them is in labor. My reaction to that happy news shocked me as feelings that I thought were long over came back in a fury -- the deep hurt of something precious being taken away and the sadness that creeps in with thoughts of "what if."

I know I am not alone in this. Many people have walked this same road, even multiple times. While most days I am comforted and know that God has a great plan for us, today it just hurts.

Road Experiences

Every day that we drive in Guatemala is an adventure. Yesterday I was driving and got a good laugh out of two signs that I passed. The first one, pictured above, is right in front of railroad tracks and translates, "The train always has the right of way... even if the light is green." Good tip. The other laugh was as I passed the sign for St. Peter's Liquor Shop.

Today was an adventure of a different kind... Kara and I were on the way back from Guatemala City in our car, driving on one of the main highways out of the city. We were driving along in the left lane, so as to not get stuck behind the buses, and I had my hand on the gear shift when all of the sudden we heard a boom and the gear shift fell about a foot.

On such a busy road it was pretty miraculous that we were able to get off of the road easily and pull into a gas station since the car was still in gear. When we looked underneath the car, we could see that the brace that supports the shaft had come undone, and that's what we heard hit the pavement.

Yikes.

After Graduation Performance

I am not quite sure what to call it. After the kindergarten graduation, the preschool, pre-K, and kindergarteners had a performance. The performance had an English theme, with songs in English that the kids danced to in costumes, and in between they answered questions, such as -- "how do you say cow in English?," or "who can count to ten in English?"

Here are a few pictures and videos:

Javier

Emily & Juan David

The teachers worked very hard. I was impressed with their artistic skills on this backdrop.

Sylvia, the principal, introducing the show.

A group of enthusiastic cheerleaders. I liked the two boys who wore green knee socks!

Eliseo on the right.

Josue as an angel.

Emily, Juan David and Javier are in this video of the little professionals. I like the girl (business woman) in the high heels with the purse and the little baker.


Josue's dancing skills (mostly running back and forth across the stage)

Graduation Song

I couldn't understand most of this song performed by the graduates, but it sure was cute!

Kindergarten Graduation

The school year in Guatemala runs from January to the beginning of October. So, the children here are now finished with classes until after Christmas. Last Friday, was the kindergarten graduation ceremony -- complete with cap & gown! Emily, Juan David, and Javier are now moving up to first grade! They looked adorable in their graduation attire. I tried hard not to cry as they marched in and my heart was filled with such gratitude for their lives. Juan David and Javier just came to NLCH this year and I couldn't help but think of how their lives would be drastically different had they not have come. I thank God for rescuing them, giving them the opportunity to grow up here, and especially for giving us all the opportunity to know them.

While the lack of paying attention to time often frustrates me here (I love punctuality!), there are other times when I really appreciate the relaxed pace. For example, during the ceremony I was thinking about how we are so rushed in the States. We tell people to "hold their applause until the end" and do other things to try to save time. Here, the ceremony just goes as long as it needs to. The ceremony started more than a half hour late as we waited on one of the graduates to arrive. After each child's name was read, the child came onto the stage and received a certificate. Then parents came onto the stage as well, gave hugs and kisses, presented rings and other small gifts and posed for family pictures (sometimes multiple pictures by several different family members but no one seemed to mind). Afterall, how many times does someone graduate from kindergarten? It was a nice celebration.

Here are a few pictures with descriptions below:

Juan David and Javier before the ceremony

Emily getting ready to march in

The custom is to give the graduating child a ring, so here Kendon and Wendy are placing Emily's ring on her finger (a small gold ring with a blue stone)

Emily with her brothers: Giovani and Jans

The graduates showing off their rings

Posing with their teachers

Birthday Month

September is the busiest month for birthdays here at NLCH, with 9. Jenifer turned 15, so we had a big celebration for her "15 años" last night, which will be a separate post. The other birthdays (in order of date and pictures below) were: Oswaldo on the 11th, Emily on the 16th, Jans and Jon on the 19th, Dalila on the 21st, Juan on the 27th, Rubén on the 28th, Pablo on the 29th, and also Debora on Oct. 3rd.

I'm going to miss getting to eat so much cake.

Salomón and the New Bike

One of the Sunday School classes from Bright Star UMC sponsors Salomón, and when the group from that church came in July, some of the people from that class gave a donation to buy a new bike for our boys. Since the boys share the bikes and it wouldn't be just for Salomón, we made a deal with him that if he didn't get in trouble for a couple of weeks, he could be the one to go with us to pick out and buy the bike.

For Salomón to go a couple of weeks without getting in trouble is a big deal, but he did it. He was motivated, and even did things extra to make sure that he would be able to go. Finally, the day came last week, and we got to go to the bike factory and pick it out. He got to choose between blue, blue, blue, blue, or this black/red/yellow one that was his favorite. He quickly took a spin on it in the parking lot, and was anxious to show it off to the other boys when we returned to NLCH.