Sleepovers

One of our desires since we moved to Hogar de Vida a year and a half ago is to spend quality time with the kids in smaller groups. One way we have done that is to have each kid over for dinner with just Norman and I on their birthdays. Another thing we tried last year was to have small groups over for dinner, movie, and a sleepover. It was such a great hit they wanted to do it again right away. So we had them all again last year during their summer break from school right before we left for the states for a few months. After that we decided that once a year during school break would be perfect and make it more special.

So just like that, a year has passed, summer vacation has come, and it is time for sleepovers! So we started last week. We decided to split them into smaller groups this year for two reasons: better crowd control and smaller groups can all fit to sleep in our living room. Now that we have our own place, it feels more homey and special to have them over to "our house". We started with the 3 little girls: Meliza (4), Tianna (5) and Hemerlinda (2). They had so much fun!

The next night we had Venancio (3) and Luisito (3). These two are hilarious! They are like brothers and are best buddies. Their personalities are polar opposites but they get along great. They were a lot of fun and our home was filled with a lot of energy!

This past weekend we moved up to a little older. Friday night we had Marta (11), Lesly (11), Grisma (9), and Josefa (7). Once again our home was filled with laughter and energy. Boy, little girls can be goofy but a ton of fun! :-)

Next were 5 boys: Minque (12), Santiago (12), Benny (11), Samuel (9) and Adriel (8). Believe it or not these guys were quieter and less rambunctious than the girls! They filled up our living room though! And what is it about a group of boys in a small area, in no time at all it smells like a locker room. Nothing air freshener won't cure though. :-)

We finished up the weekend with dinner and a movie with Angelita and Chepa, our special needs girls. Angelita has down syndrome and is in her mid 30's and Chepa is in her lower 20's and has a brain tumor. We had a great time with them!

We have two more groups to host after we finish hosting a team this week. The older girls and the older boys.

Two things stand out to me as I look back on the past two weekends. One is how we are all created unique and special by God and no one is a mistake. Angelita and Chepa are very special girls who make me smile. Chepa is so perceptive and even though she can't verbalize it very well, she knows what is going on and doesn't miss a beat! Her smile and laugh are contagious and warm my heart. Angelita can be stubborn at times but she has such a servants heart! They both have blessed this home and we all wouldn't be the same without them.

The other thing that impacted me these past two weeks is how God uses us in ways we can't imagine. The night little Josefa stayed all night she announced that Oralia and I are her mamas and Sebastian and Norman are her papas. Then she called me mama all night as she jumped into my arms periodically. If our only reason to be here is to give a little girl security in knowing that she has a "mama", even 2 mamas, that love her, then that is enough for me!

Sixth Grade Graduation

Three of the girls from the home had their 6th Grade Graduation ceremony this past Friday evening. This is a very big deal and a big accomplishment for these girls. We are very proud of them. They are now ready to start Junior High school, called Basico here, when they return back to school mid-January.

Cata, Wendy and Blanca at 6th Grade Graduation

Imitation - The Best Form of Flattery

Yesterday we were finishing up a staff meeting when one of the older girls brought in 3 year old Luisito. He had decided to play Barber and had cut his hair with scissors. He cut right in the middle, front all the way down to the scalp. We asked him why he did that. His response, "Because I wanted to be bald like Norman." So here are 5 adults standing there trying not to laugh. It was hilarious. We didn't win the battle. We all ended up giggling. Then we informed him that he was going to have to be like Norman and have his head shaved just to make him look presentable. I thought he might be upset about that announcement, but he wasn't. So Norman went and got his clippers and proceeded to shave Luisito's head. When he was done, Luisito looked in the mirror and giggled. :-) Then he said, "Norman and I are twins." I'm not sure if he learned a lesson in this one, but he did give us all a good laugh!

Luis before:

Luis after with his twin Norman:

Special Visitors

On our way back from dropping off the Lifegate team at the airport last Tuesday, we picked up Pat Duff and Katie Kuhns in Antigua. Pat is a missionary from Westside Church in Omaha who is serving in Antigua Guatemala. We met at the Westside Christmas pageant in December 2007 through a mutual friend. We were both feeling led and preparing to go serve in Guatemala full-time. We left about 10 months before Pat as we didn't have a handle on the language like she did, but we arrived in Guatemala only a month before her. We had the opportunity to visit her in Antigua in March. Katie just graduated from High School and is the daughter of a friend of ours in Omaha. She went to church with Pat in Omaha and has come to Guatemala to serve with Pat for 2 months this summer.

We were thrilled to have them come visit us for a few days and see where we live and serve. Pat had to get back after a few days, but Katie was able to stay a little longer. We will be taking her back to Antigua on Tuesday when we head to the city to pick up the Christ Community Team from Omaha on Wednesday.

Pat wrote a journal of the time she spent here at Hogar de Vida. I have attached it below to give you a chance to hear about where we live and serve from a fresh perspective. Enjoy!

Day One, Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Early this morning Vickie and Norman Sutton picked us up to travel with them to the Department of Quiche. to visit the children’s home where they are serving. (Norman and Vickie are missionaries from Christ Community Church in Omaha.) I have been as far as the town of Santa Cruz Quiche on previous trips, but had never been to the “back country” in this part of Guatemala, and had been wanting to see Hogar de Vida since Vickie and Norman visited me in Antigua a few months ago.

On our way out of Antigua we stopped briefly in Chimaltenango so Norman could look at Dick’s old Land Rover which he’s trying to sell. I got to hang out with Brian, Jason and Fernando while the group took a “test drive.” I have not seen much of Fernando lately since he attends a church in Chimal, and is busy keeping up with his school work. (Fernanado is one of the first of Dick’s kids I really got to know, and will always hold a special place in my heart!) As we visited, I could hardly believe that the handsome young man before me was the same little boy who used to “dive bomb” my bed when we were traveling just a few years ago. Fernando has a real heart for Jesus and for children, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for him in the future.

The rest of the drive was mostly on paved highways, and time went quickly as we all visited. The last bit of the trip (from Quiche to San Andres) was on a dirt road that could challenge almost any I had traveled on before with its curves and ruts.

We arrived at the home and were greeted by a number of the children who were just returning from school. Some of the kids seemed to be a bit shy around these new gringas, while others asked Vickie, “You only brought 2?” (A team from LifeGate Church in Omaha had just left. . .)

After a quick lunch, we spent some time getting to know the kids. I helped with some of the homework the kids had, and Katie got to spend the afternoon holding Alicia, an 8 month old who is the “baby” of the home.

Vickie had asked me to particularly concentrate on Leslie, a ten year old who is still in first grade. I don’t begin to have a handle on what is causing her difficulties, but I do know she reacted to her homework as many of my kids in the past have—what can I do to get out of doing this? After a short time in which Katie and I absolutely refused to give her any attention if she was not working (we wouldn’t even look at her!) she broke down and started working. She really seemed proud of herself when she finished her work.

After a quick nap, we headed over to Canilla, another town about 30 minutes away from San Andres, to visit Duane and Leslie Ficker a married couple who moved, with their children, to this part of Guatemala a number of years ago. Leslie is a nurse and with her daughter-in-law Katie runs clinics in the area. Duane is a pilot, and uses his skills in a variety of ways to minister to the people in this area, including flying Leslie and Katie into a remote area inaccessible by even four-wheeler, to run a clinic there once a month. They even have their own landing strip on their property! (Dick, are you jealous yet?)

Since Wednesday is a day off for both the Fickers and the Suttons, they get together each Tuesday night for a time of fellowship and worship to begin their Sabbath. It was an unexpected blessing for Katie and me to be included in this special time of prayer and I enjoyed getting to know their family and ministry just a little bit during this visit. Sharing the wonderful challah Leslie had made was just an added bonus.

I could hardly believe it was nearly 10 PM when we headed for home. The drive back, though on a dark dirt road, had none of the “stress” of driving the same type of road around Antigua or Chimaltenango. Norman said that they are not too concerned about bandits on these roads, as we are back home. Guess there are not enough gringos here to make it worth their time!

Day Two, Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Our second day here got off to a leisurely start. Since it was a day off for the Suttons, we all slept in. I woke about 8 am and did some computer work and prayed. When Norman and Vickie got up, they made us a wonderful breakfast of bacon, eggs, and homemade sour dough toast.

Since the children were in school for the morning, I did some more paperwork, amid visiting with Vickie. Shortly before noon we took a walk through San Andres.

This town is so different from Antigua, or even Santa Maria de Jesus. It’s just quiet, almost sleepy. Walking by the market stalls, we could look at items without being immediately assaulted with, “For you, I have good price!” I actually enjoyed the time in the market, though we really didn’t buy anything.

We headed to a Liberia (book and school supply store) where I wanted to get some things to work on with Leslie. I found a couple of neat puzzle activities, as well as some books that are not available in Antigua. The store owner seemed a bit surprised by how much I was buying, and I bet this was his biggest sale since school started last January.

We stopped on the way back to get some snacks and soda, and I was excited to try the cream soda I found. It was the first time I’d seen this flavor in Guatemala, and the taste was every bit as good as the cream soda back in the States. Score!

After lunch Katie played with the kids as I spent some time with Leslie working on combining letter sounds to form words using some of the puzzle pieces I had bought earlier. I think we’ve found something that will hold her attention as well as challenge her to learn. She seems to love anything she can manipulate, and I think we can get a lot of mileage out of teaching her with tangible objects. This is not often done here in Guatemala, but Alfredo, the tutor at the home, came over and watched and seemed quite interested in what we were doing.

At first she didn’t seem to understand what to do, but after a few demonstrations, she caught on quickly. She would try to “read my reaction” to tell if she was correct. Using my best poker face, I tried to teach her to check herself to decide if she was right. It took a while, but the high point of my day was when she put together a word, and immediately said “perfecta” before even looking up. She really was excited to succeed, and succeed she did.

Since the other kids had seen what we’d brought, I took the puzzles over to the kitchen area, where Leslie very willingly shared her treasures with the other kids. They had a ball building the piece into cubes, and shooting “dice” to read the letters.

About five o’clock I decided to return to my room, and passed through the team kitchen. I saw a group of children crowded around an adult who I could not distinguish. As I circled the group I saw Norman sitting on a stool as three of the girls were cutting his hair. They were having a ball, and since he keeps his head basically shaved, there wasn’t too much damage they could do. I think of all the things I have seen here, this touched my heart the most. What I saw here could only be described as a family—with the kids enjoying the privilege of cutting “Dad’s” hair. While this may be a children’s home, it is so much more. Here the children experience the love they had never found in their own homes—they are a family in every sense of the word.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

I spent some time this morning working on my newsletter for this past month. Each month it seems harder to find the time to put one together, but I do enjoy sharing with all of you what God is doing here in Guatemala. Sitting at the dining room table in the team area of Hogar de Vida is the perfect setting to get into the mood to write about this amazing country.

About 9:30 Vickie reminded me that their pastor’s wife would be selling granizadas (as she put it “snow cones on steroids”). Would I want to walk down with her and the girls to get one? If you know me, you know that sampling “local” food is one of my favorite pass times, so we were off in short order. Not before, though, we picked up about five of the preschoolers, plus Marta who did not have school today.

Again I enjoyed the peace and quiet of walking through the streets of San Andres. It was a bit unusual, though, to walk through a town where I am “inspected” as the new gringa. Norm and Vickie seem to be the only North Americans living in San Andres, and though they bring teams in, we are still somewhat of a curiosity to the local people.

The granizadas were nothing like those I had seen in Anitgua. Here they are crushed ice, two juices, bananas, and two types of fruit toppings. They were amazing. There are what they call “taco granizadas” which are savory rather than sweet, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to try them—somehow salty ice didn’t hold the same appeal as the sweet.

We sat down outside one of the local schools so the kids could eat their treat. They had great fun sharing with each other, and even mixing the fruit and taco flavors (yuck!). They were really sweet—when I complimented two of them for sharing, they all began to share and want their pictures taken doing it. The kids in school were having their morning snack break, and discovered we were outside, and soon filled the windows. I was afraid that the school kids would be jealous that the little ones had treats. Instead, they were passing their crackers out the window to share with the little kids. I have seldom seen such generous kids.

When we got back, Katie, Amanda (a young lady from Arizona who is staying with the Suttons also) and I prepared lunch which we shared with the Fickers who had come to San Andres for a meeting. I also got to meet Victor, who runs a drug/alcohol rehab program in Quiche, as well as Roy, who works with Agape ministries in Quiche. Victor was very excited when he discovered that I knew about the Celebrate Recovery program, and we talked at length about how he was planning on implementing it in his home.

After lunch I again returned to my newsletter, at least until Vickie came over about 5 o’clock to tell me that Leslie was sitting all alone in the dining area with her homework. I went over to find that all she had to do was write 7 words twelve times, but the task seemed to overwhelm her. Couple that with the fact that the kids that Norman and the girls had taken swimming had just returned, and it was almost impossible for her to pay attention to her work on her own. With a little encouragement, and a lot of blocking of distractions, she was able to complete it without too much distress. Vickie and I talked about ways she could help Leslie on a regular basis, and will begin letting her do her homework in the team area away from the other kids, where it is more quiet.

I still don’t really have a handle on why school is so hard for Leslie, but did discover that with a little one-to-one attention she can accomplish a lot. However, individual help is not something she’s going to encounter in the over-crowded Guatemalan school system.

For supper we had homemade pizza (a la Vickie and Norman) and no bake cookies to celebrate Manuel’s (one of the Hogar kids) birthday. That is, we celebrated after he got dunked in the “pila”—a tradition at the home!

It will be hard to leave here tomorrow. I’ve grown quite fond of the kids, and even more fond of Norman and Vickie. I love the fact that God has provided me with friends from “home” even though we didn’t know each other in Omaha and now call Guatemala home. I think this is part of the “hundred-fold” He promised us.

Thanks, Vickie and Norman, for a wonderful four days. I can’t wait to come back!

28 Years

Saturday we celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary! My how time flies! We are so thankful for the years the Lord has given us! If someone would have told us on June 25, 1983 that when we celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary in 2011 we would be living on the mission field in Guatemala, we would never have believed it! But here we are. It is such a blessing to be able to serve the Lord side by side with your spouse, best friend, and soul mate. (They are all the same person by the way.) It has been such a joy to see how God has used each of our spiritual gifts to serve Him and how much they compliment each other. It was like we were made for each other! :-) Words cannot express my gratitude to the Lord for blessing me with such a wonderful husband and allowing us to carry out His plan for our lives together in Guatemala!

We currently have a team here from Lifegate Church in Omaha. They head home tomorrow. They blessed us with a surprise candlelight dinner on Friday night. We were joined by another couple on the team who also had an anniversary on the 25th. The food was delicious and the fellowship was wonderful. We even had Mountain Dew to drink! Can't get Mountain Dew in the country, it was imported! We were greatly blessed! It was a great way to celebrate our anniversary!

Home Sweet Home

Since we left the States in August of 2009, we have been living in limbo. We have either been living with someone or in someone else's apartment. We are very thankful for the hospitality we have received and we have been well taken care of. That said, we are ready to have a place to call our own and that time is getting ever so close.

It was decided to remodel an existing large room with a bathroom here on the compound into a living room and bedroom and then add on a kitchen. This will then become our humble abode. Construction and remodeling has started and we are making progress. The goal is for us to be at least moved in by the beginning of August. The kitchen might not be totally done by then but we can continue to use the outdoor team kitchen until our kitchen is completed. Below are progress pictures of the building of our new home.

Breaking ground.


Genaro starts building the outside wall...

Ryan and Norman start building the inside wall.


Little by little our kitchen starts to take shape.

Love Our Kids

We have really enjoyed having our kids here these past few weeks. Our biological kids, that is. First Ryan was here May 19th through June 2nd and then Heather arrived June 6th and will fly back to Chicago bright and early Saturday morning. It would have been nice to have had them both here at the same time and have the whole family together, but we also enjoyed our individual time with them.


Both Ryan and Heather's desire when they came here was to help us out in whatever way needed. Well, they accomplished their goal. Ryan used his architectural skills and designed the roofs for the two new playground towers. Norman and he then built the roof structures and got them both installed and we are just waiting to get some metal sheets to put on top and the roofs will be done. Ryan also helped Norman bend and install metal for the spiral staircase railing. The roof structures and the railing turned out very nice! But we're not done yet. They also put up metal studs for a wall in our apartment remodel and wired some electricity. So as you can see they had a very productive 2 weeks!

Ryan helping install the railing on the spiral staircase.

Installing the roof structure on the highest tower

The new playground. All that is left is the metal on the roofs and a couple more climbing structures.

Installing the metal studs for the wall in our apartment remodel. One big room is being made into a living room and bedroom. We are adding on a kitchen.

Though Heather's projects weren't as big and noticeable as Ryan's she was still as equally helpful. She helped me translate some letters the kids are sending to their sponsors and get them ready to go. We did some packing and moving of a few things so that I have less to do when the true moving day comes. We had the opportunity to do some activities with the kids and the staff and to just hang out with them. Heather also was able to help out Adonai International Ministries with two of their clinics in addition to performing a few first aid tasks on some "owies" the kids obtained.

The girls enjoyed making headbands and clips with flowers on them to put in their hair.



The boys had lots of fun making creations out of pipe cleaners and pom poms.

Last night we had a ladies night and invited all the female staff over for dinner. After dinner we had a spa night and enjoyed being pampered!

We were so blessed by our kids coming to visit us and are so thankful that it was possible!

Chicenas

Though "chicenas" may sound like the Spanish word for "chicken" they are actually quite different. Chicenas are large ant-like bugs that come only once a year and bring much excitement to the Guatemalans. They are announced by a bug that look a little bit like a mayfly that comes out in the evening. Then that night around 4 a.m. the people get up to look for the chicenas that come out of holes in the ground. They are a delicacy and are cooked up on the stove and can be served with lime juice and salt. The kids here at the home also participate in this tradition.

Here is what a chicena looks like alive...


Here are a few of the kids cooking them up on the stove...




And here they are almost ready to eat!


This is a tradition that I (Heather, Norm and Vickie's daughter) have never experienced before, and though I did not try one, it was pretty funny to watch the kids get so excited and cook them up on their own. Mom did not think it quite so funny (gross is a more accurate description of her feelings), so here I am writing the blog so you can choose for yourselves which adjective you want to use.