Mario Luis

Over the course of the four days we were in the orphanage, we got to know some of the kids and learn a little bit more about their stories. Mario Luis' story was probably the most heartbreaking to me. This little guy has been there since shortly after he was born - he was even named by the orphanage staff. One would think that he'd be at the top of the list for adoption, right? Not so in Guatemala. There's no paperwork on him, so he's not adoptable. He hasn't been declared abandoned even though he's lived there all of his two years. Ridiculous.

Mario Luis was so fun to play with - he'd climb up the ladder on the big playground with no help at all and go flying down the slide so fast that he didn't stop until he hit the AstroTurf in front of the slide. Then, he'd get up and go again and again. Such a cute little kid.

Guatemala

I promised some post-Guatemala blogging and for various reasons hadn’t gotten around to it just yet, so I apologize for the delay, blog-reading friends.

A contributing factor to not having written about it yet has been the heaviness I’ve felt since getting back. Overall, the trip was really good. It was definitely challenging and stretching, which I am grateful for, but I came home with some weighty questions that I didn’t see coming. And, I think that’s okay, its just going to take some time to work through those.

Our goal for the week was to go in to the orphanage and do a VBS for the kids during the day and to just use that opportunity to love on them. Each morning and afternoon started off with a big group lesson where Robyn and Melissa shared the story of Joseph. From there, we broke into smaller groups to play games, read stories, or do crafts. My rotations consisted of tissue paper cross making, bingo/hot potato, and then my last day was spent with the babies and toddlers. I enjoyed each one, but I loved playing hot potato with the kids. They would get so excited as the potato passed from person to person. The anticipation would build and then when the buzzer went off a loud “oohhhh” would echo through the whole building. So fun.

In the evenings we enjoyed great food and fellowship with one another. Once we got back to the hotel, we did a devotional as a group and had time to share. I think this was one of my favorite times of the day. We got to pray together, sing a couple of worship songs, and hear how the Lord was working in the hearts of those who shared….a very sweet time.

By far my favorite day was Thursday. We threw a big rodeo themed party for the kids that afternoon because that was our last day there. We all wore cowboy hats, bandanas, and painted our faces. We fed the kids pizza and ice cream, danced (we taught them the Cotton Eyed Joe the day before), took pictures of them sitting on a horse, and gave them each some gifts at the end of the night. After goodbyes were said to the kids, we hung around for a few minutes on the playground. One of the men on the trip, Tim, led us in one last prayer over the kids and staff there before we went back to the hotel. Also a very sweet time.

We spent most of the day Friday traveling to Antigua where we got to sight see and do some shopping. The drive there was interesting – we had to detour around several roadblocks. Miners were striking and had blocked off the roads in a couple of the towns we were passing through. We had dinner that night in an old monastery that was converted into a hotel.

After dinner we headed back to Guatemala City, and that was definitely the best bus ride of the week – we played the iTunes game the whole way back. This was totally new to me, but consisted of picking a song, turning the volume way up on your headphones (so you couldn’t hear yourself) and singing along. Eventually, everyone on the bus joined in with you. It was great. Thank you, Jouleen, for introducing this game into our lives.

We got back early afternoon on Saturday - I had no idea how tired I really was until I got home. I slept a good 14 hours or so that night and had a couple of naps on Sunday!

So…that was a weak attempt at summing up a week long trip in one blog post, but it’s a start! More to come!