Hello, June!

So it officially feels like summer! We've had great weather overall and now my teacher friends are finishing work, so we're looking forward to more summer playmates :). This weekend we went to a Royal's game for my Papa's 85th birthday which was fun... even though they lost- badly! We BBQ'd with college friends and then today we hit the nearby water park. Samuel liked the water, but Jimmy was definitely way more excited about the water slides than Samuel.



We also participated in another summer past time- garage sale-ing. We had one a couple of weeks ago, but I spent most of what we made on some toys for Samuel. I scored a Radio Flyer wagon, kitchen set and the favorite, Elmo toolbench seen here :). Samuel loves it. Lucky for us, it plays Elmo singing loudly "Elmo's working at his tool bench and building with his friends..." to the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad." It's a good thing Samuel likes it or it might have been regifted really quickly!





A few other tidbits of random info from our house...I was holding out to hopefully teach a class at Longview this summer, but the enrollment was too low, so the class was cut. We're still working on plans to return to Guatemala this fall and it continues to make me exited. Looks like we are going to spend one day at Potter's House ministry (who work with the communities who scavenge at the Guat. City dump) at the end of our trip. It's hard to go there without having a life changing moment.

We go to court in a couple of weeks to get Samuel's name legally changed. Right now, he's still technically Edgar Armstrong... so we'll get the Samuel added to the front of it. It will eliminate the awkward situations at the doctor's office where they call for Edgar and I have a delayed response so it looks like I don't know my kid's name :).

We have fun Father's Day plans- we are headed to the exotic animal farm in Kansas- it's called Hedrick's. The website looks like it's from the early 90's, but I saw them on the local news and it looked like fun, so we're road tripping out there. I'm also running a 1/2 marathon in June with my cousin, Jamie. Our game plan is just to finish. It won't be pretty, but it has gotten me running again which is one thing I really had missed in Guatemala!

That's all from here- have a great week and first week of June!!

Video of Kairos School Kids!!

Just got this from Mayra- sweet little video with more pictures of the school and kids. The song in the background is by Edgar Lira- I looked up the lyrics because they are powerful! Here they are in Spanish and then with my English translation- the English isn't as poetic and doesn't quite do the song justice!

Es la historia de casi todos nosotros
Nos cortaron las alas, mucho antes de volar
Nos dijeron que somos los de abajo
Que aunque miremos arriba nunca podremos llegar.

Que nadie te diga
Que no llegaras
Son solo palabras
Que no pasaran
Si puedes creer
Si puedes confiar
No tardara mucho
Cuando lo veras

Es la historia de casi todos nosotros
Los que nacieron abajo, abajo se quedaran
Solo aquel que crea en el nuevo horizonte
Con mucho esfuerzo y paciencia al final llegara

El sueño ya esta
Dentro de ti
Con la promesa
De que llegaras
Fuerte tienes que ser
Para resistir
Pues no falta mucho
Cuando lo veras

It’s the story of almost all of us
They cut our wings before we could fly
They said that we are from below
That although we look up, we will never make it

Don’t let anyone tell you
That you won’t make it
They are just words
That won’t happen
If you can believe
If you can trust
It won’t be long
When you will see

It’s the story of almost all of us
Those that were born below will stay there
Only he who believes in the new horizon
With much effort and patience will finally make it

The dream is here
Inside of you
With the promise
That you will make it
You have to be strong
To endure
But there isn’t much more
Until you will see

Hold on to your seat....

....more than one post in a week! I received some great pictures today that I just have to share!

Do these faces look familiar? They are the students at Kairos Christian School in Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala. I mentioned awhile ago that we are going back to Guatemala in October. I'm getting more and more excited about it as it starts to become a reality. In late Ocotber our church is sending a group of people to work with this school. We will probably hit another work site as well- still ironing out those details. I have been emailing with Mayra- the lovely woman I got to know while in Guatemala. Marya and her family run the school. Mayra sent me these pictures to share with our church as we promote the trip. If you read this and go to Gateway- you're getting a sneak peak!

Prayer time...

Lunch time...

I love two things about these pictures- first of all, in the prayer picture- the students are in lines. I'm not certain, but I'm guessing they are in lines by class. There is one line with a boy who is way taller than the rest. Mayra told me that they have students of all ages in each class, because so many of the students have not had access to education before, so a student could be ten, but in first grade. So I wonder if that is the case with the tall boy in the second line? What a blessing for these kids to have access to education! I also love that you can see Mayra's dad in the lunch picture. He is a very sweet man and I'm so inspired by the way he and his family have sacrificed to help their community.

Want to go on the trip?? :)

Please pray that we'd have discernment in the planning of the trip. We want to do what the Lord would have us to do! We also want it to be a trip where we hear clearly from the Lord as to how we (as a family) and we (as a church) can continue to build relationships with a ministry in Guatemala in the future. It's our first time helping organize something like this and I started to get a little anxious about it... who will come with us? What will they think of Guatemala? How will the building projects go? Are we crazy to go back when we're still recovering financially from the adoption? Receiving the pictures from Mayra today just really helped me refocus and remember Who really is leading this trip :)! Another blog/adoption friend, Katie, posted a video that I watched the other day. I can't do the video justice- so just check it out. It said something about "We need Africa more than Africa needs us." I think the same goes for Guatemala. I need Guatemala more than Guatemala needs me. Yes, they need our help and financial support, but I need Guatemala to keep me focused on Who and what's important....

"...to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)