More on Guatemala

A friend of ours talked to Mayra (whose family runs Kairos Christian School) in Guatemala today. In addition to the volcano eruption that has ash all over Guatemala City, tropical storm Agatha has caused damage in Guatemala, including Ciudad Vieja, where Mayra lives and where Kairos Christian School is located. There is water damage in the school and in their homes. I got an email from Mayra saying some of the homes of the Kairos students have been damaged also. Mayra's family has been without internet and electricity. Mayra's parents have to replace their entire roof. Three of the students' families lost everything. One family lost all of their crops for the year. Please pray for their safety and for the recovery work that needs to be done.

If you haven't heard about the massive sinkhole in Guatemala city, here are some impressive pictures.

I've also gotten some emails from Potter's House, the dump ministry where we spend a day last October. Several of the communities around the dump have been damaged by the storm. The dump has also been closed a few days because of mudslides which means the scavengers can't work and hurts their families.

Lots of people to be praying for in Guatemala!

Some pictures from Ciudad Vieja, where the school is located...

Guatemala in the news

Guatemala doesn't make the news a lot... especially not the KC Star, but HERE is a link to a recent article. Volcan Pacaya has erupted and the ash has the airport closed. Pacaya is the volcano I hiked when I was in Guatemala in 2008 (and the one some of our mission team members hiked last fall!), which makes the news story closer to home.

Another adoptive mom friend, Katie Mohr, is currently in Guatemala leading a mission trip and their trip home has been delayed. She posted some interesting pics on her blog of the ash.

In other news... we are having fun with our little foster baby. She is precious and even the night time feedings aren't too bad. Children's Division gives clothing vouchers for the children. I took that voucher and did some serious shopping this weekend. Jimmy asked if I bought anything that didn't have pink in it :)!

Happy Memorial Day!

Florida

Ten days on the beach in Florida- that's a vacation!! Due to the generosity of my grandparents we had a great place to stay in Cocoa Beach. We played on the beach and in the pool and did a one day visit to Disney. At night we tried some fun restaurants and hit the pier. Jimmy's mom joined us for part of the trip. I loved having no agenda!

Here's the trip top 8 in no particular order...

1) Disney...We debated about going with Samuel still being so young. He really did like it and we had a blast watching him... made up for the ridiculously expensive tickets! Samuel loved the shows, parades and seeing Mickey's house. Besides watching Samuel, my favorite part was the people watching. I loved watching the expressions on the faces of many of the fathers. They would either look like they were in pain or they were loving it- these macho looking guys sporting Mickey mouse apparel.
2) Seeing a fisherman catch 2 sting rays and baby hammerhead shark on the beach (the nice fishermen let Sam touch the shark before he released it!).
3) Samuel's first go-kart riding experience... he talked about it non-stop after, but looked scared to death during the ride!
4) Samuel learning how to "swim" and float on his back (with his life jacket).
5) Running on the beach!
6) Good time with Grandma Mary
7) Finding an amazing ice cream place (homemade chocolate peanut butter ice cream!!)
8) Resting- lots of good sleep and naps (which was good considering our new foster child placement... see next post!)

One tiny princess

So Jimmy flew home from Florida on Saturday and Samuel and I stayed until Tuesday. Monday afternoon I got a call from Children's Division. This is our 7th call. It was the 3rd we received while on vacation. This call was for a newborn baby girl. I was excited- it was only the second call of the seven that was for just one child. So we said yes. And my valiant husband picked her up from the hospital and made it through the first night. He got a quick swaddling and burping lesson from my friend Amie!

She is precious and so tiny! Besides being sleep deprived from being up with her at night, today was a good day. Samuel loves her, but is constantly in her face. We were at CVS today and a man commented on her being cute to which Samuel replied "HE my brother." I didn't want to correct him on how he was wrong on two accounts!

I've had a couple of people ask me how long she'll be with us or if we'll adopt her. I appreciate the interest, but the questions make me realize how much misunderstanding there is about the foster care system. The goal is almost always reunification with the parents. The initial paperwork has a guess as to how long the child will be in care, but no one really knows at first. It all has to do with what the parent/s have to do and how quickly they do (or don't!) it. Most children are reunified with their parents, although many are placed in foster care again at a later date.

With our current case, we don't know how long she'll be with us, but after meeting her parents today and learning more about her situation, it seems like she will be reuinified before too long. I can already say that my heart will hurt when she has to go! I was praying for her today and had to say out loud "God, You are Sovereign. You knit this tiny girl together and knew the situation she was being born into and You will go with her when she leaves my house. You are in control." Day 1 and my stomach is already hurting!

One of the neatest parts about doing this has been the incredible support we've received from people around us- thank you! Just in the last 48 hours, the William's helped Jimmy get this little one settled in while I was still in Florida, my friend Aimee watched her during the day so Jimmy didn't have to miss work and my mom watched her in the evening. Then another friend lent and delivered a baby swing, bouncer, carseat and clothes to our house! I catch myself feeling badly about asking for and receiving so many favors, but I'm SO thankful for the blessing of our sweet friends, family and church.

Can you tell we're enjoying Florida!?

Rain rain go away!

We are back to our little family of three this week. It's a long story which Jimmy says I shouldn't be blogging about :), but the boys are no longer with us. It was sad to see them go, but also a relief- don't know how long I could have kept up with three little ones. I know there are lots of people who do that on a regular basis- bless you! Samuel asks about them a few times a day and we think of them lots. Lots of learning/thinking/processing going on in my head about this....

We're heading out soon for a family vaca. Thanks to my grandparents who have had a condo in Florida since before I was born, we have a free place to stay- can't beat that! This will be our first real family vacation besides the mission trip back to Guatemala last fall (which was great, but not exactly "relaxing and restful"). We are planning to go to Disney for one day and spend the rest of the time playing on the beach! My white body is going to scare some of the locals, but hopefully they'll recover and I'll get a tan.

A couple of other things that are making me smile today...

1) I give my last final tomorrow and then I'm done for the summer (well, after I grade it)! Woohoo!

2) There is now a train that you can ride around the mall. Did anyone else already know this? It's run by a cute little man with an accent. For $3 you ride around the lower level. Samuel thought he had died and gone to heaven. The "conductor" hands you a ticket and makes sure you know not to lose it before he comes by (about 30 seconds later) to "punch" it. Then there was the obligatory "all aboard" call. I was laughing so hard I almost peed. All 6'+ of my husband in this little red train car going around the mall... priceless!

Sam, Erick and Jimmy... ready to ride!


Super fuzzy (new phone and bad photographer)


And a random shot of Samuel and his buddy, Luke- love it!

Snapshot of today...

So we canceled our landline last week because "we never use it." Then, last night Samuel dunked my cell phone in water so now it only halfway works. Today I was at home with three boys and I needed to make a work related phone call. I could call on my phone, but it beeps every 5-10 seconds, which hardly seems professional, so I packed all three boys in the car and headed to my parents to use their phone. A safe outing, right? As I made my phone call, I heard one boy playing the piano and the other two seemed occupied with my parents' dog. I kept my conversation brief and ducked back in the living room just as my son ran around throwing what looked like flour into the air. Nope, not flour. He and the 3 year old had figured out how to open the door on my parents' fireplace insert and had thrown ashes around the room. Lovely. So I quickly vacuumed, cleaned up as the chaos continued. Then we packed back into the car, grabbed Chik-fil-a and headed to the park. This was my second park attempt of the week and this one was much more successful- we stayed a whole hour. The child with some tantrum/running issues was at my side and I was smart enough to contain him in the stroller while we ate lunch. Phew!

So we are surviving and learning a lot. We are not sure how long we'll have the boys, but probably no more than a week more. I have just ONE final left to give and then will be done teaching for the semester. I'm looking forward to the weekend and celebrating Mother's Day!

The men in my life

Well, I'm completely outnumbered. I never really thought about being outnumbered when it was just the three of us. Now that there are two additional little boys running around- I notice. One of the children with us is very proud that he can stand up to pee. While I'm thankful he's potty trained, I think he needs the remedial course for the stand up pee as I witnessed him successfully hitting many surfaces in the bathroom today in addition to the water. Yikes.

The past two days have been a blur- feeding, cleaning, holding, reassuring, playing with and keeping up with 3 kids 3 and under! The kids (Samuel included) seem to be doing well considering the circumstances. I prayed that Samuel would not be negatively impacted by us becoming a foster family and so far I'm so proud of him- he's sharing well and enjoying having playmates 24/7.

Our classes had done a good job of preparing us for many things, but I don't think anything could really help me fully understand the whirlwind of the first 24 hours. The kids show up with very little and we're trying to piece together clothes, diapers, food, shoes, carseats. I kept thinking... could I have been better prepared? But there is so much unknown until you get that call! So we returned the infant carseat from the last call, packed up the infant clothes, packed up the premie diapers and replaced them with booster seat, the biggest size diapers and much bigger clothes! We appreciate people around us who, instead of saying "What the heck were you thinking?" have jumped in to help. We even had Costco size boxes of fruit snacks and cheese-its anonymously show up on our doorstep!

So despite being exhausted, I am excited to get to love on these boys, even if it is just for a week. The best part for me has been seeing Jimmy interact with the boys. He's good with them and not in just a "oh, he's nice to them, isn't that cute?" kind of way. It's like a "I get goosebumps when I watch him" kind of way. I can see God using Jimmy's gifts, past, passions and personality as he interacts with these boys and they respond well to him. It's got God's fingerprints all over it. The conviction with which he has continually reassured these kiddos that they are safe, that they can talk to us, that it's ok to be sad, that no one will hurt them here- it's awesome. AND he has a magical way of calming one of the kiddos' tantrums. OK, enough about Jimmy, but seriously, you should see him in action.

That's all from here...