GoodSearch

Here is a very easy way to give toward the ministries of NLCH: Any time that you search or shop for something on the internet, use www.goodsearch.com. It uses Yahoo as a search engine (or for shopping, links directly to many stores- like Amazon.com and iTunes), and for each search or purchase, a donation is made to NLCH!

Please visit their website to get started. Once there, you will be able to designate "New Life Children's Home- Houston, TX" as the charity to receive the donations produced by your usage (It lists us in Houston since that is where our mission's US office is). You will also see easy ways that you can make GoodSearch your default search engine and make this simple way of giving to NLCH part of the things that you already regularly do on the computer.

Quote of the Year

Yesterday after taking him to McDonald's, 4-year-old Jorge said, "I don't have a mommy, or a daddy, or a grandma... but I do have french fries!"

Belated Birthdays

I'm very far behind on posting our birthday pictures of the kids, but here they are:Brenda turned 13 on Jan. 20

Eslin turned 19 on Jan. 23

Marta turned 24 on Jan. 26

Edgar turned 18 on Jan. 29

Herbert turned 20 on Feb. 4
(Esdras turned 16 on Feb. 13, but we didn't get the picture)Luis turned 22 on Jan. 20And Randy had his first NLCH birthday, turning 6 on March 2

Not Your Normal-Sized People

Being stared at because I'm tall is not a new experience for me. Even in the States, if I had to go to Wal-Mart, I could expect a little kid or two to look at me for a second, say, "Whoa," then turn around and keep going. (Or if it happened to be at the Wal-Mart in Kentucky or Georgia, it was probably more like, "Daaanng! How tall are ya?"- even from adults!)

The situation is certainly magnified here in Guatemala since the average height is significantly shorter than in the States. For some reason it was worse than ever before when I went to our Wal-Mart type store on Wednesday. First I was pushing around my cart and there were two middle-school age girls in front of me. The first one turned around and saw me and her eyes got big. Then she turned around again, I guess to make sure she saw me right. Then she commented to her sister, and they both turned around to look. This continued for nearly a full minute- the more times they looked, the more they began to laugh, and the more anxious I was to find an aisle to turn into.

The best was when I got to the check-out line. There was a family in front of me- a boy (about 5) riding in the shopping cart with his mother and grandmother. The grandmother was the first to spot me. She, like everyone here who comments rather than just stares, said, "muy alto" (very tall). She then called the attention of the boy's mother, who looked at me and said, "muy alto." Then they had the boy get out of the cart and come stand next to me for height comparison.

I thought that it was over, but then the boy's aunt returned from the restroom with her daughter. The aunt looked at me and said, "muy alto." Then the whole process started over again with the aunt's daughter coming to stand next to me. After all of this, the grandmother starts imploring me to talk to the kids about how they need to eat more. "They don't eat anything. You can get them to eat more."

As in all situations like this, I used my privilege of looking like a gringo: just smiled acted like I really didn't understand much of what they were saying, and then their checkout was done.

I think the oddity of my size in the country is one of the reasons I like Michelle so much. She gets it. We could win an award for biggest and smallest buddies in the country.

Good Taste

We have enjoyed discovering that Michelle has great taste in music. First it was Johnny Cash. Then her theme song became "Roly Poly" by Bob Wills. (Most of you probably aren't familiar with that one... it's the country classic that says, "He can eat an apple pie and never even bat an eye. He likes everything from soup to hay..." It's Michelle's theme song to inspire her to eat.)

The most recent discovery of her great taste in music is David Crowder Band, as you'll see in the video below...


As cute as that is, it may not be quite as cute as the similar video Kendon posted on his blog. Michelle gets exposed to different music at their house. Wendy says she likes classical, but I think she just passes the time with it until she comes back to our house.

Sunday

I know that the blog is a little biased toward Michelle lately, but what can I say? She is cute and we have been spending a lot of time with her. I will try to provide a better balance in future posts.

Here are a few recent pictures of her from this past Sunday:

Enjoying the music with Kendon
With Luis at his birthday lunch at Friday's.
Guatemalans always bundle their babies, so since we were going out in public Wendy followed the culture and had Michelle all bundled up for the activities on Sunday.

More Pictures of Michelle

Trying on Daniel's shoes

I think she looks like she is gaining weight, don't you? At her appointment on Friday she is up to 6 pounds 3 ounces. (She turned 9 months on the 16th)
This was Daniel and my attempt to give her cereal. We got much more on her body than in her mouth.