Until next time.....

We tonight we said our goodbyes to our friends at Fundacion Salvacion.  I already miss them and cannot wait for out next visit to see them. 

An update on the last couple of days....
Yesterday we made breakfast for the children...I had scrambled egg duty.  I have never looked at scrambled eggs the same after my first trip here when we made scrambled eggs for the kids and the eggs turned green from the aluminum in the pan......gives new meaning to the Dr. Suess book Green Eggs and Ham!  Yesterday however they remained yellow and we much liked by the children along with pancakes and fruit!  Later that morning Rob, Mike and Mario took the older boys to the hotel to make spagetti and meatballs for all the boys at the orphanage.  They had a lot of fun and Rob proved that even though he is the old man he can still hold his own and won the military style push up contest!  We also celebrated Guatemalan Independence Day with a program from the children and a sample of some Guatemalan foods.  Much to our surprise there really wasn't firework activity!  Originally we were planning on having dinner at Sandra's house (she runs the orphanage) however her mother in law is not doing well health wise and had emergency surgery yesterday.  The doctors are not giving her much more time to live. So we ask that you please keep them in your prayers.

Today I went to the market shopping with Willow, Lori and Jaunita along with Juan Angel and Mario (our driver).  It was SOOOOO busy.....you could definitely tell it was closed for the holiday yesterday!  We found some of what we were looking for, sheets for the kids beds and a few new pots for the boys kitchen and the baby room.   Then Rob, Juan Angel and I went with Willow and Lori to the local Mayan Ruins while Mike and Mario took a few of the older boys out for lunch and shopping for new shoes.

We all met back together after lunch and enjoyed the few reamaining hours left with the children.  They then blessed us with a small program, gifts and a dinner of tamales.  Afterwords, we played with the kids and I had the "priviledge" of plucking chickens with the girls.....this is definitely NOT my thing!  It at least made for some good laughs!

Goodbyes are never easy but I know that this goodbye is not forever.  Lord willing I will return and continue to watch the children that I hold close to my heart grow up to be wonderful adults.  God Bless each and every one of them.  


  

Still going...and going...

   Well Wednesday has come and gone, and yet another busy day has us about ready for bed. We arrived this morning and started working on the separating wall between the younger kids and older boys. Our intent was to do some touch up, but once we started painting we only found ourselves pulling more of the old off than what we were touching up. After some discussion with Sandra the decision was made to hire someone to clean the wall properly and then have a couple of the older boys, who are really artistic, repaint the wall.
    With Mike having some running to do, we decided we would walk back to the hotel for lunch. What a neat experience that was! After a small break, the afternoon was spent in a small bible story for the kids with Lori and Willow while Mike spoke to the older kids. We grilled the kids hot dogs tonight for supper and followed that up with ice cream and the movie UP while outside the thunder crashed and lightning flashed.
    It's hard to believe that we only have a couple of days left, and of course the early morning tradition of breakfast is in the morning! So goodbye for now as the 4:30am wake-up call awaits. Please continue to pray for the kids and the orphanage as they face things day to day.

Yup...we're still here...

Here it is about 10:30 and we are just now updating the blog!  It has been a busy last couple of days....

We made it to Huehue yesterday about 1:00 pm (Michigan) time.   The mountainous drive went quite well....probably the smoothest one we've experienced yet!  Many thanks to Mario our driver :) 

We spent the afternoon reconnecting with our many little friends at Fundacion Salvacion.  Needless to say it was the highlight of our day.  We were happy to learn that they are all doing well too!  And boy have they grown since January!  We do however miss our kids a lot....we are so wishing they were here with us.  All the kids at the orphanage kept asking..."donde esta tu hijos"....where are your kids.  So I think Rob and I have both decided that our next trip here will include our children once again!

Today (Wednesday) was spent helping at the orphange.  Willow experienced having to wash clothes by hand this morning....something I am sure she will not do back home! I spent the afternoon helping with the little girls and boys.  They are all about 3-6 years old.  I helped the young workers (merely teenagers) redress the kids out of their school clothes, redo their hair and lotion them up.....I must say it was a lot of fun!

This evening we threw them a pizza party and Mike showed them a slideshow compiled with pictures from previous year's trips to Guatemala.  They loved seeing pictures of themselves from many years ago and there were some great laughs!  After that I taught them how to play "What time is it Mr. Fox?"....they really love it and it was great hearing their screams and giggles!  Finally, I helped brush all their teeth and we all tucked them into bed! 

Tomorrow we plan to do some touch up painting that Sandra asked us to do.  We will be again providing them with dinner, followed by some bible lessons and a movie. 

We are looking forward to the remainder of the week here.  Thursday is independence day in Guatemala and we found out today that all the kids have school off on Thursday and Friday!

I ask that you please pray for me (Amy).  I have had a sore throat with no other symptoms for the past three weeks or so and it is REALLY starting to bother me...to the point where I get tears in my eyes when I try and swallow.   Also pray that the rest of the week goes smoothly, we all remain healthy and our trip back to the city on Saturday goes smoothly!

Thanks again for everything!  I have attached some pictures for your viewing pleasure :)  

Here we go again.....

Yeah....so it's been awhile.....way too long!  I remember when we started this blog it was our intent to write on it at least once a week!  Well that was definitely a major failure on our part!  No excuses...just life happened and it was always the last thing that never got done!
So here we are again....Rob and I arrived safely in Guatemala without any major delays or problems.  We met up with Willow, Lori and Mike and also with our translators for the week Juan Angel and Mario.  Today September 11th is election day for the Guatemalan people.  Willow, Lori and Mike all had the opportunity to go with some locals and witness the voting practice.  They all said it was really cool!  We ended the day with an awesome meal shared with some of our Guatemalan friends new and old....it was a great time! 

Tomorrow brings an early morning for us.  We plan to leave the hotel here about 6:30 to beat the rush hour traffic out of town.  Our destination for the week...Huehuetenango!  We are all really excited to see the kids at Fundacion Salvacion.  We know God has great things in store for us throughout the week!
Thank you all for your continued prayers.  Please pray for our safety as we make the long 5 hour bus ride up the mountains to the orphanage. 

Oh....and one last thing....Rob plus treadmill equals a gut splitting almost pee in your pants moment for those who witnessed his gracefulness.....HILARIOUS!!! 

Answered Prayers?

Yeah, I know it's been a couple of weeks since our last post!  Life's been busy and things have been happening and writing on the blog always seems to end up on the bottom of the list.  

So anyways, I have always struggled with what to write on here...we want to keep our family and friends updated on what it happening in our lives but at the same time how much do we really want people to know about what we think and feel and what's going on!  I guess transparency is always a good thing... right?  People know what they are going to get and there are never any surprises!  

Life is definitely a funny thing; many times I feel like I am walking blindfolded on a tightrope hoping and praying that I don't slip or misstep.  The past week or so we were reminded that when we we feel like we are falling, God is there and will pick us up and carry us forward. 

As many of you know we lead mission teams from our church down to Guatemala to serve the orphans there.  We are also part of a nonprofit ministry that arranges mission trips for groups wanting to serve in Guatemala.  Well, as you all know, we feel a strong calling to serve in Guatemala full time and are working toward the possibly relocating to Guatemala within the next couple of years.  So anyways, the past few months we have been really praying for someone to step up and help lead the church team so if and when the day comes and we do leave, the Guatemala mission within our church will remain.  A couple of weeks ago our prayers were answered and a group from our church formed a committee which will be handling all the meetings, fundraising and planning within the church for the Guatemala Orphan Care Mission Trips.  It was like a huge burden had been lifted from our shoulders.  We are thankful to our brothers and sisters that they recognized this and really stepped up and created a long term solution.  It was never our intent to leave the Guatemala mission team, we would still be a part of the planning, going, and acting as liaisions between the church and the nonprofit we work with to plan the trip.  It sounded like things would work out well!  We were excited and it would also free up some time so we could focus more on the nonprofit. 

Well, just because we have a plan and think we have it all figured out, it does not mean that it is God's plan for us.   Last week we received a letter from the board members of our non profit asking for us to resign.   We are at different stages in our lives and they feel we are not able to commit as much time or travel as much as they would like because we have a family and we have some differing views on a few things.  They felt parting ways was probably the best option.  We have decided to honor their request and are currently in the process of formally resigning from the board.  There is definitely sadness in having to do this, but we wish them nothing but the best.  They will remain our dear friends and we will always share a common cause...helping the orphaned children of Guatemala.

So, now what?  We were reminded in a sermon this past Sunday to trust God....and that is exactly what we are doing.  Beyond that, we are plugging away, working hard and praying that if this is still God's will for our lives that He continues opening AND closing the right doors.          

I am....

I am............... oh, the things I can fill in here or what others could fill in for me.  There are lots of things I am not and probably will never be.  Aeronautical engineer, doctor, rocket scientist, just to name a few, and I am sure the list could go on for a long time.  So what am I?  I can say with great confidence that I am a mother of 4, a wife of 1 and a Christian.   So really what does that mean?  To be honest, I ask myself that a lot and really how do you measure success in any of the three?  I look at the examples.....the mom with tons of kids, everything under control and time for everything, the couple that has been married forever and still act like they just got married, the perfect Christian example of Christ.  The bar has definitely been set really high by those who came before me.  Really....what is one to do? 

I really think it all comes down to love.....just love.  Man, now I sound like someone out of the hippie era....don't I?   But seriously, I believe success in life can simply be measured by how much we love.  Think about it.  I remember the instant love I felt immediately after Andrew was born and I thought this is awesome and amazing.  This is true love in its purest form.  If this is even a small glimpse of how much God loves us....wow!  I thought there is no way I could love another as much as I love my precious baby boy....but boy, I was wrong, so wrong....Leah came, then Natalie, Nicholas and finally all the children I have met at orphanages throughout the years in Guatemala.   I love them all and they all have a special place in my heart...I know some of you probably think how in the world can you love someone you just met or have only spent 5-6 weeks with.  I guess my response to that would be, I don't know...it just happens.  It's crazy really to even fathom.  Love is there from the beginning but our sinful nature gets in the way all to often.  It's quite easy to love if we stop being so critical and selfish.  Let's face it....it's something we all want, we all crave.  Who doesn't want to be loved by someone?

So how do we love more.  I am not an author of some self help book or an expert on love by any means.  All I know is the less selfish I am, the more easy it is to love and in the end the better I feel and the better those around me feel. Just my thoughts....   

I really started thinking about the whole subject of love last night when Natalie came down after she was put to bed.  She looked at me with sad little teary eyes and tells me that she misses baby Edgar and she loves him so much.  She has done this at least once a day since we left Guatemala.  All I can do to make her feel better is hug her and love her and tell her I know how she feels because I do.  I hope and pray that one day she will get to see him again.  But unfortunately, I can't promise her that she will.  We just pray for him and stand assured that God is taking care of him wherever he is. 

So back to what I am?  Right now I am not who I struggle to be but I hope someday when I am an old feeble woman I can look back over my life and say with great confidence that...I am love.


♥If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
 
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
 
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13 (NIV)♥

Huh?

We made it to Florida last night.  It is probably a good thing that we decided to visit some family here for a few days before we head home.  There was a blizzard that hit Michigan yesterday and from the sounds of it a lot of snow, winds and drifting.  We noticed at the airport yesterday afternoon that tons of flights heading into Detroit and Chicago were cancelled, so we probably wouldn't have made it home yesterday anyways.  Rob is really thankful that he decided to park our van in the covered lot at the airport.  It was a couple of more dollars per day but now it appears to be well worth it, especially given that we didn't bring along a shovel to dig out the van.

I am sitting here waiting for Nick to wake up from his nap so we can join everyone else at the pool.  The weather here is in the 80's and we are definitely soaking it up!

So, it was definitely sad leaving Guatemala.  It's hard to even put it into words. 
It's really wierd....when we go in August with the church team we look forward to heading home because the kids are there, but since the kids were with us this time it felt like there was really no reason to even leave.  I remember we asked Pastor Jake awhile ago...how do you know if a calling is really a calling and not just something else?  He answered (I can't remember his exact words but it was something like this)....it is something that keeps popping up in different situations and everything seems to point you in that direction.  

While we were in Guatemala at the airport....just sitting there watching the airplanes and waiting for our flight an elderly woman from Pennsylvania came up to us and started up a conversation with us.  She asked us why we were in Guatemala and so forth and we asked her the same.  It appears that she was visiting her grandson or son (I can't recall which one) who works for an orphan resource agency in Guatemala and that he is from Michigan.....crazy huh?  So, are we really called to serve the orphans in Guatemala full time or is this just another one of those huh moments that we ignore again. 

All I can say is this, we are really motivated to pay off our remaining debt (thanks Dave Ramsey) and see what the future holds.  I have heard this twice this past week so I feel it quite fitting to include it here. 

"You will find success in life, when you stop trying to include God in your plans and instead ask God to include you in His!"  

So God, I am asking and praying for you to please include us in your plans....wherever they may lead....

Sunday

It’s hard to believe that it is already Sunday night.  Tomorrow is our last full day in Guatemala.  We are already dreading leaving.   We had a great day today; this morning we attended Antonio’s church, Fraternidad Christiana de Guatemala.  The service was great with a sermon on generosity and loving your neighbor and truly caring for them.  After the church service we headed to our friend Paola’s house where were served a delicious dinner of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, salad and tortillas.  The kids really enjoyed it to and cleaned their plates with minimal coaxing.  

This afternoon we also met with Steve Osborn.  He and his wife are missionaries in Guatemala.  They have been down here for about 14 years.  His wife runs an orphanage with 50-60 children located here in the city.  Steve is actively involved in a few other projects and ministries.  It was great learning about all the things they are doing down here and we look forward to developing our relationship.

Tomorrow we are planning on taking the kids to a local nature park near Antigua.   Hopefully, they’ll have a great time…..I think we may even treat them to some ice cream!  Afterwards, we will be heading to Antigua.  Kara has some shopping to do at the local market to get a few gifts.

This may be our last post until after we return to back to the states on Tuesday evening..
This trip has been an amazing experience for our family.  We are so thankful to God for all he had blessed
us with.

Goodbyes Stink.....

So Friday morning we left the mission house and said goodbye to Linda and LynnAnn our gracious hosts for the week.  Our intent was to stop by the orphanage and maybe take the kids to the Mayan ruins in Huehue and then head back to the city.  Well.......here it is Saturday morning and we are still in Huehue. Today we will be headed back to Guatemala City.  Anyways, we went to the orphanage and found out the had a party planned for our children so we decided to stay at a local hotel last night.  It was really nice spending the extra day with the kids at the orphanage.  The bathroom for the volunteers is now painted and cleaned up and ready for some volunteers (which will actually be arriving sometime this weekend).

The party they threw for the kids was really neat.  They did a musical act, played musical chairs, had a couple of pinatas (the kids did one and Rob, Kara and I did the other) we had some cake and they gave all of us a gift.  After that it was time to say our goodbyes.......Your would think that goodbyes would get easier after you've had to do it again and again.  However, I (Amy) was holding myself together quite well until Natalie started to cry and when I asked her what was wrong she looked at me with tear filled eyes and said "I'm going to miss baby Edgar soooooo much."  By the time we left we were all in tears.  We never thought the kids would get so attached to the kids at the orphanage in such a short amount of time.  We were wrong.....they were affected the same way we were.  It is definitely never easy to say goodbye.  The people at Fundacion Salvacion are our family.  They embraced our children as if they had always come with us.  We are proud to say they are our family and Lord willing we will all return someday real soon.  

By the way, everyone is on the mend from their colds and what not.  Natalie woke up Friday morning just fine, other than she was really hungry and thirsty.  We are thankful it was just a 24 hour thing.  We are looking forward to getting to the city and catching up with some friends......We are not however looking forward to to 4-5 hour drive through the twisty mountain roads!

Moving day

Thursday....
Today we spent the morning moving the dorms, assembling bunk beds and rearranging everything for the new volunteer dorm.  We were amazed how all the kids at the orphanage worked together to get everything moved.  Sandra informed us that she was going to have some new volunteers next week so it was nice to be able to get everything set up for her.  

This afternoon we decided to apply a new coat of paint to the bathroom in the volunteer dorm.  After looking through the leftover paint in the storage room we decided to use white, mainly because it was on the top of the stack and almost a full bucket full.  We were able to find some rollers, trays and one small brush so we got to painting.  The room looks a lot brighter than before and tomorrow before we leave we will be scrubbing and cleaning the rest of the bathroom.   I'll post some pics tomorrow night.of the finished room.

Nick, Andrew, Kara and I (Amy) have been fighting a head cold for the past couple of days.  We are all slowly getting back to normal.   However, Natalie woke up this morning and threw up. She continued throwing up everything that was given to her through the day.  She is sleeping fine however we will be keeping a close watch on her to make sure she is not becoming dehydrated.

Tomorrow mornings we say our goodbyes.   Please pray for healing for all of us and that goodbyes go well.

Musical Chairs

Bakery, Babies and Beds.....

Wow...I can't believe it's already Wednesday night!  Our trips to Guatemala always go by way too fast!  Today we spent more time with the children at Fundacion Salvacion.  Our kids are having a really great time playing with the children and making many new friends!  Yesterday, Rob, Antonio and I met with Sandra, the director of the orphanage, to talk about different things at the orphanage:  their plans for the future, the bakery they would like to open, the huge need for a female volunteer dorm and so on.  After the meeting Rob, Antonio, and I put together a plan that would give Sandra a volunteer dorm immediately and eventually a computer room/library room and additional dorm space.

Anyways, we met with Sandra again this morning and showed her the plan and it was well received.  With a few adjustments, it looks like tomorrow we will be a busy moving around the 3 dorms affected by the change.  There is a great need to renovate the "new" female volunteer dorm (which currently houses some of the women and older girls), I have posted some pictures of the current state of the rooms.  The long term plan is for the dorm to have sleeping quarters (3 rooms) which can hold up to 12 volunteers, a bathroom and shower, small kitchen and eating area and a living room.  Sandra mentioned that the volunteers that come provide much needed help for the orphanage and relieve them of some of the burden and cost in caring for the children.

This afternoon we also met with Carlos.  He is on the orphanage board of directors.  He is also a local business owner and comes in and teaches the children how to bake and the skills needed to run a bakery.  We discussed the possible location of the bakery.  Sandra prefers that the bakery be located at the orphanage for ease and simplicity's sake.  Carlos said the location would serve that part of the community well as there is currently not a bakery anywhere near by and there is a lot of foot and vehicle traffic that goes by.  We talked about improvements that would need to be made to the current location, supplies and everything that would be needed to complete the project.  It is very exciting to see this project become a reality for the orphanage.  It is their desire to become self suficient and this will bring the one step closer to that goal.

This morning I (Amy) had the opportunity to visit Casa Materna with Linda and LynnAnn (the missionaries we are staying with).  This is a maternity house where women come who are consider to have a high risk pregnancy or live too far a way to get to the hospital in time for delivery.  It is run by a US organizaion called PCI (I believe).  They charge very little for the women to stay there. Anyways, Linda and LynnAnn visit the home once a week and provide a time of worship, bible study and childbirth education for the women.   I pray for Anita the women I prayed with at the home this morning.  She is 18 years old and already has a son.  I pray that here delivery goes smoothly for her and that there are no complications with the remainder of her pregnancy.

I wanted to leave you with a final thought from a discussion I had earlier today that really made me think about birth statistics in Guatemala.  So with the plethera of information on the internet I decided to check out what the statistics are. It's 4 times more likely that your baby will die during childbirth in Guatemala compared to the US.  Thankfully this number is actually decreasing throughout the years but more definitely needs to be done to improve the current situation.  We have it so good in the US; we are truly blessed.  I am truly thankful for my 4 healthy children and many healthy nieces and nephews and thankful that we never had to experience the loss of a child during delivery.  I pray for the women who have.

 

Amazing Love.....

Today....
When we planned this trip we had no idea how things would go.  We wondered how our kids would react to being in a different country with a different language and away from all the things they are used to.  Overall,  I am amazed at my munchkins.  I can't say that there weren't moments because there were and have been.....however, there there will be moments like these whether we are back home or somewhere in China and I am sure there will be more before this trip ends. 

I saw a totally different side of my kids today.  They were so loving and caring with the little kids, patient, kind and compassionate.   It was truly awesome and almost brings me to tears as I sit here reflecting on the day that has gone by.  We spent the day helping with the little ones and meeting some of the many new children at Fundacion Salvacion.  A bunch of the children that Rob and I and the groups met thoughout the years are no longer at the orphanage.  We hope and pray that they are being well cared for no matter where they are.  We definitely trust that God will protect those children and that He has a plan for their lives wherever they may be.

Rob Antonio, and I spent the afternoon covering books for the kids for school.  This is a task that  I am so glad that I do not have to do back home.  It is definitely something that gets easier the more you do it and I am sure the first couple of books I covered we secretly redone without my knowledge!!!

Tomorrow brings helping with laundry (the pila way) and more time with the kids at Fundacion Salvacion.  Our kids kept asking tonight if we were going back to the orphanage tomorrow and they were so excited when we said yes.  So I am assuming they are having a great time too! 

Many blessings to all of you back home and I hope you are not freezing too bad....it was a balmy 75-80 degrees here and Rob managed to burn his head yet again!  Oh, when will he ever learn!!!!

Do you not know?
   Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
   and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
   and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, 

and young men stumble and fall;  

but those who hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint. 

Isaiah  40:28-31

Home at last!

After another long day of traveling and we finally made it to Huehue.  We were greeted at the mission house with a wonderful dinner!  Thanks LynnAnn, Linda and Jessie!  And since I am really tired and can't think of anything productive to write I think I just post pictures a few pictures of our time here so far.  Tomorrow brings our first day at Fundacion Salvacion......we are all very excited...needless to say!

Not So Early To Bed, Early To Rise...

So segment one of our journey began with a 2:00 am wake up call and a very quiet 3 hour drive to the Detroit Airport. It was nice to arrive early though, and beat the rush. Check in went well as the everyone but me (Rob) was waved through the old metal detector and I had to wait to feed every tub through the x-ray machine. I ended up waiting in the long line to get waved through one of those new scanners. The flight was smooth the whole way and the kids behaved excellent. As we were coming in over the ocean for our approach, Natalie got a good laugh from most of the plane as she procalimed good and loud, "Hey, we're gonna land in the water!" We arrived about 1:oopm back at Amy's parents house, and spent most of the afternoon taking naps and catching up on sleep a little. Tomorrow brings another early morning but we are excited, knowing our final destination is just a few hours away. We just thank the Lord for the safety he has granted us so far. Technology never ceases to amaze me. I was reading over Leah's shoulder on the plane, one of the Little House on the Prarie books, and I began to think of the miles involved in this trip, and to think that in just about 13-14 hours of traveling time you can be so far from home. How incredible to think how the Lord allows man to progress in the world and yet so many just choose to ignore the fact that it all comes from Him.

Packing

Unfortunately, with any kind of travel comes the inevitable task of packing.  I hate packing and I usually wait until the last minute.  Well, early in January I figured that since I had to pack 2 weeks of stuff for the kids too I should probably get an early start.  Well, here we are two days from leaving and the majority of the suitcases sit empty!  I did think about starting to pack quite often, however, I have yet to acquire supernatural powers which will magically get things done by thought alone. 

Anyways, we had to borrow some suitcases from relatives since we didn't have enough of our own....we'll we do kind of.  You see the one suitcase we loved and used all the time had it's wheel broken off a year ago and now it's a pain to try and lug the thing through the airport.  And then there is THE CLOSET ON WHEELS.....this suitcase is massive and I think the thing weighs about 20 pounds empty!  We used it last spring and ended up having to pay an extra $100 just to check in the stupid thing!  Needless to say, we really didn't want to use either of those. 

So back to the borrowed suitcases....they were in storage for awhile and had a musty smell to them, so seeing that we were gone all day yesterday running errands and so forth I had this ingenious idea to put the suitcases out on the front porch to air them out.  Great idea, huh?!  Now insert a stupid cat into this story and I am assuming you can guess where it will lead.....Yeah, one of the dumb barn cats from up the street decided to mark his territory on a suitcase!!!  Thankfully, it was only on one and that was the one we didn't know for sure whether or not we would use.  I guess the decision was made for us and we are NOT using the thing because I am positive that neither Rob nor any of the kids would like their clothes smelling like cat pee!

Lesson learned or should I say reinforced from all of this...cats are still dumb and only good for mouse control and food for larger carnivorous animals!  This was definitely not the way to win brownie points with me seeing that I disliked cats from the get go!  As for today....my goal....I WILL GET EVERYHING PACKED!!

The Beginning....

Ok....so here we are....a blog.  We have been meaning to start a blog for sometime now but just kept putting it off and putting it off.  I guess we felt now a fitting time to start one, so here it is.  I have no idea how often we'll actually keep it up but we'll at least somewhat try!

This week is definitely an exciting week for our family.  This weekend we will be taking our kids (8, 6, 5, and 3) with us down to Guatemala for a visit to the orphanage we have been serving at for the past 3 years.  We'll be down there with them for about 10 days.  They are very excited and we are too. We have no idea eventually where it will lead, but do we ever know the outcome of something before it happens?  Our hope is in the Lord and we know he has a plan for our life and we remain open to wherever he calls us to be. 

We know that there are some people out there who think we are absolutely crazy for taking our kids down to Guatemala with us.  Maybe we are, maybe we aren't...who knows.  Anyways, here is just one of the comments we received that I found a little humor in...."Do you think the kids are old enough to go to Guatemala?" Um...well, yeah, do you realize that there are children in Guatemala and people just like us raise their own children down there all the time?

Seriously though, I know the questions and comments are out of love and concern for our family (or at least I hope they are) and know that we have thought and prayed about this for a long time.  Here is the thing...God is God wherever we are and through whatever we do.  He is the only constant in the chaotic world in which we live.  He is never changing, was here from the beginning and will be here until the end.  This thought brings me great peace.  I would like to leave everyone with a verse that pretty much sums up my feelings about the whole thing...

"...Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:9