Kevin

Eleven year-old Kevin jumped off the swings at school today, fell when he landed and broke his arm. It is a pretty bad break and they are going to have to put him to sleep in order to set the bones. Because he had just had a snack before he went to the hospital, the doctor insisted on waiting a few hours before the anesthesia. His procedure will be done at 5 pm and then he should be able to come home around 8 pm tonight. Please be in prayer for him -- for the procedure, pain, and that his arm will heal completely.

This picture is the most recent one that I have of Kevin. For some reason whenever I have a purse, the little boys want to carry it and argue over whose turn it is. Kind of strange but it's a help for me (well...except for the fact that I worry about them getting into it, so I have to keep a constant eye on them).

Not Quite the Right Translation

This sign was on the beach at our hotel.

Anniversary Trip

Daniel asked me to do the post about our anniversary trip. After he reads this, I think he will regret doing that. For those of you who don't want to read a long, sappy message, consider this your warning and just look at the pictures and move on.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I went on this trip wanting time to sit and think and regain perspective. I am thankful that we had a lot of thinking time while we were away. It was the perfect time to go to the Guatemalan coast because it was during the work week and school year. On our last morning there, we sat on the beach for several hours and as far as we could see in both directions, it was just the lifeguard and us. It was almost eerie but wonderful!

I thought that during my thinking time, I would realize how I was taking God's presence, the children at NLCH, and our opportunity to live in Guatemala for granted. While this is true, I was already aware of that before the trip. What really stood out to me was how much I take Daniel for granted.

During our wedding, our pastor said something that has always stuck with me. He said that he prayed that one day, many years from now, we would be able to look at each other and say that we knew the Lord better because we always saw Him in each other. I am sad to admit how little my attitude, actions, and thoughts resemble the Lord's on a daily basis and yet I remember this line from our wedding and it makes me think of Daniel. He continually represents Christ and His unconditional love for me as no one else ever has. When I am moody and irritable to the point where I don't even enjoy being around myself (now that's bad!) he continues to love me, stays by my side and somehow sees the very best in me. I can't explain that kind of love and I know that it only comes from the Lord. I realize that there are a lot of wives who are not able to say that through their husband's character and nature that they know the Lord better, but I honestly can. What an amazing an undeserved gift the Lord has given me these past six years! I am so thankful that the more time that I spend with Daniel, the more that I learn about him, the more that I love and respect him.

I could certainly write a lot more but I will end there. Daniel is going to hate this post enough already. :) Here are few pictures from the trip:

Anniversary dinner in AntiguaWe shared a dessert -- good thing we were already full. It was pretty but was only about one bite each.

The waves were really big (the beach had a red flag the entire time we were there). So, we just stuck our feet in the ocean and enjoyed watching it instead of swimming in it.

Traffic

Now that we have lived here for a year, some things don't seem as strange or scary to me as they used to, such as driving. There are times when we are driving and I forget that we are even in a foreign country... today was not one of those days.

We were in bumper to bumper traffic driving into Guatemala City. On a hill, the car in front of us started rolling backwards and was getting very close to hitting us. Daniel started honking his horn but the car continued to roll and bumped into us. The driver got out of his car, slammed the door and started inspecting his bumper. He looked at us and Daniel waved his hand -- a gesture indicating, "that's okay, it didn't do any damage to us" but the man had a very angry face, started yelling something in Spanish and gesturing and then got back in his car. Daniel asked, "is he mad at me?" I guess he thought we hit him.

I am glad that he got back in his car because if he would have called the police, we wouldn't have known how to explain what had happened with our still limited Spanish skills and since we are foreigners, we would have most likely been blamed anyway.

As we continued on, a man was selling giant blue sponges and cowboy hat key chains on a overpass.

It was an interesting traffic day in Guatemala.

What's Left of Felix

Just for those of you who have been wondering- it has been raining very lightly for most of the evening. If this is what's left of what was Hurricane Felix, it is not even giving us as much rain as a typical rainy season afternoon downpour. So unless things turn a lot worse tomorrow (and it doesn't look like they will), us and all of our neighbors should be in pretty good shape. If these slow, steady rains keep up for long enough, mudslides could still be an issue, but for now- everything looks pretty good.

Rain's coming...

I assume a lot of you are wondering how Hurricane Felix is going to affect us, so I thought I would post this message that our director, Kendon, just sent out to his email list. We'll keep you posted on how things go here.

Dear Ones,

Several folks have called and emailed wanting to know how we are with the approaching hurricane. As I write this on Tuesday afternoon 5:30 pm (CST), it is partly cloudy and not raining. You wouldn't know a storm is on the way. We are expecting heavy rains. Folks in the interior part of the country where there are houses on the sides of mountains are particularly at risk as well as those folks living along rivers and low lying areas.

We appreciate your prayers and will keep you posted.

We do have five interns flying in tonight so please pray for a safe arrival!

Kendon

Time Away

Before Kendon and Wendy left for the summer, they encouraged us to take a little vacation when they got back. I think they already knew that we were going to need it! I still don't understand how they do their jobs since we did only a fraction of them while they were gone and we were completely exhausted and overwhelmed at times!

Now that they have returned and things have slowed down considerably, they did not have to convince us too hard to go away for a few days. Thanks to some birthday and anniversary money from our parents, we are leaving today (our sixth anniversary!) to spend one night in Antigua and two nights on the Pacific coast. I can't wait! Although it may sound very boring, I am really looking forward to just being able to sit and think. It seems like so much of our time here has just raced by, and lately I have lost perspective on why we are here and what a great opportunity this is. I have started taking time with the children for granted, being caught up in being busy instead of just enjoying the kids.

I hope that the next few days will be a time of refreshing for us and that we will come back renewed and ready for our remaining year here.