Guatemala

Our internet stopped working a few days in so I wasn't able to write. Now as I sit here wanting to share each moment, remember every face and tell each person's story, I don't know where to start.

We got to see Astrid again! She has grown up since March, and has gotten even more beautiful. We had a great day together! Laura and her son, Roark got to meet their Compassion Child too! His name is Pablo and he is sweet, fun and very handsome! They told us that Astrid and Pablo are friends and play together a lot at the student center.

I joked that maybe they will get married someday :) Aren't they adorable!

Laura meeting Pablo and his sweet Mom

My sweet girl!

That's all I have for now. If you don't sponsor a child through Compassion, you probably should. I don't even have the words to explain what it feels like to see her, to know she is being educated, cared for and filled with The Word of God. She told me her favorite person in the Bible is Jesus and that she really likes the stories where He does miracles.

Later, her mom and the Compassion Rep. told us that our trip to come see them was a miracle for them. She told us that after my visit in March her mom had the courage and hope to make some big changes in their family. I don't say that to suggest that I did this for them, God used that time with them, He spoke to her heart. He used us to listen, smile, laugh, sing, dance, hug and hold hands with these beautiful people. He gave us both the miracle of knowing each other. To be completely honest, I am pretty sure I am getting the better end of this deal. Knowing Astrid and her mom, is a gift to my heart that I can't explain. All we had to do was say we'd help, all we had to do was go.

http://www.compassion.com/

Our first day

Today was amazing.

Drew and I are just so happy to be here :) We feel so comfortable and just truly love being here! Our team is so great, they didn't all know each other before this week, ages range from 11-37 and we are all getting along so wonderfully. We have gotten to have some great conversations and spend good time praying together along with lots of laughs.

Half of us helped demolish a wall at the school today while the other half went grocery shopping! Tonight we made our own attempt at some Guatemalan food and it was pretty yummy!

Tomorrow we get to take Laura's and Roark's and Drew's and my Compassion kids to the zoo! We can't wait to hug them and spend the morning with them! I am having trouble getting tired enough to sleep, the whole house is quiet, everyone in bed and I can't stop thinking about singing and dancing with sweet Astrid again!

Everything has gone so smoothly. Please keep praying for safety, health, and that God would give us His eyes and heart for everyone we meet, as well as teaching, changing and shaping our hearts in new ways.

I will post some pictures tomorrow night if our internet is working.

Sending love...

Heading back to Guatemala!

On Saturday Drew and I are taking a team to go work with Kairos Christian School again!

We are so excited to be going back and taking this great team with us :)

We will be doing a VBS with the kids and helping them finish constructing their new offices. We will also get to visit some of their homes.

Laura is a wonderful friend with a beautiful heart and she is coming with her 11 year old son, Roark. Laura and I both sponsor kids through Compassion in the same area so we are going to get to take them both to the zoo in Guatemala City on Monday. I have met my little girl, Astrid before but Drew hasn't and Laura and Roark will be meeting little Pablo for the first time!

I can't wait to see Astrid and her mom, Eva again!

I will try and post each day we are there. Please be praying for our team's travel, safety and that we are able to be a blessing to the people we meet.

Half as hard, twice as good...

In the end what everyone discovers is that what matters is other people.

Human beings who give themselves to relational greatness- who have friends they laugh with, cry with, learn with, fight with, dance with, live and love and grow old and die with.

They are the people who lead magnificent lives.

J. Ortberg

I have been listening to Sara Groves song, Twice as Good that she wrote for her friends. She said that while she was in Uganda ( I think ) someone told her a saying they have is that you need to have 4 good friends. It takes 4 people to carry you on a stretcher if you are sick or hurt, if you don't have 4 good friends you don't have an ambulance! That inspired her to write this song about and for her 4 good friends.

That song and her story behind it inspired me to truly look at the kind of friend I am. I know my last post was about relationships too, and as I was writing this I realized something. I used to love hearing friendship stories, watching movies about friends and listening to songs about best friends. I used to love that stuff so much because I longed for those relationships so deeply. Now, as I write about them, hear about them, see them, I do not wish I had those sort of people in my life. Instead, I call one, send a text or write in a card, thanking them for their friendship and telling them how wonderful they are. God has blessed me greatly in this area of my life.

I used to love this stuff because I wanted it so badly, now I love this sort of stuff because I am so thankful that I do. "Raise a glass to friendship and knowing you don't have to go alone..." S.G.

So, that's what's on my heart right now, friends who become family, relationships that are more important than life itself. Having people to "laugh with, cry with, learn with, fight with, dance with, live and love and grow old and die with."

Snapshots, behind the scenes...

I went to a leader training at our church recently and one thing he talked about was how we all have these pictures up around our house of happy memories but what we don't have pictures of is the life in between, the people who come over at 2am, the ones that sit with you while you are sad, mad, silent, confused, lost. The people who make up the behind the scenes of your life. I got to thinking of our life in snapshots and what you see in them is not exactly what Drew or I see...

Let me give you an example and take you behind the scenes of our snapshots for a minute...

Disclaimer: I'm going to be pretty honest here, just so ya know.

You see-Adrienne and I after we got pedicures!!!

We see- Adrienne and I after we got pedicures because she needed to find some space to relax after her friend had just tragically and suddenly passed away.

You see- Me with Drew and our friend during a recent game night!

We see- A friend we love at a recent game night... but among the laughter and remember whens, we also got to hear a little about his search for a job right now.

You see- Drew and I on our anniversary this year :)

We see- Us on our anniversary this year, but we see people in this picture that you don't. We see my sister who I wasn't sure was going to be at my wedding, walking down the isle with newly grown hair on her head. We see our nephew Jacob walking down the isle in Colorado and not in Guatemala where at times it felt like he would never get to come home from. We see our friends and mentors up late at night talking on the phone, sitting in parking lots through tears, praying with us, challenging us and walking with us through our first two years of marriage. I said to him that night that I was so happy to be married to him, but I am so glad that those two years are behind us. I don't mean that there weren't wonderful times, and I wouldn't want to be married to anyone else, but those were hard years for us, I'm not going to sugar coat that.

You see- me and two incredibly cute boys :)

We see- me with Jack and Rocko. They are sweet, kind, hilarious and wonderful kids, we love spending time with them and I hope to be the kind of mom one day that Julie is to these boys.

You see- Adrienne helping me unpack our new kitchen when we moved out of their house.

We see-Adrienne helping me unpack our kitchen, but what's not in the picture are the words said after she left about how thankful we were for the past year together where we became more like family than friends, or the tears that surprised me when she walked out the door and my 'home' was officially not her home. You also can't see her beautiful pregnant belly that we spent half of our year asking God for and the 2nd half praising and thanking Him for. You can't see the anticipation in my heart this very moment of the giant party that will be taking place in their hospital room any day now as this little man graces us with his adorable, beautiful and perfect little self.

You see- Jess and I with my boyfriend (her baby) on his first birthday!

I see- A promise made 6 years ago to walk beside each other no matter what life threw our way, and there have been some curve balls and some that have hit us square in the gut, and even some that knocked us down but in this picture I see that promise kept.

You see- Rachel, Jill and I with adorable baby Janie, yes, all wearing the same color @ church one Sunday

We see- Two women who were new friends last summer and teach me about faith, truth and being mommies and wives. I believe with out a doubt God blessed me with them at just the perfect time.

As I put this together I realized I couldn't really be as raw and honest as I wanted to because a lot of the 'behind the scenes' in our snapshots aren't our stories to tell. But here is the best example I could give.

We are incredibly blessed with the people who walk behind the scenes with us day to day. I don't think we'd be where we are or who we are today with out them. These are a few of people who we walk through life with, sometimes we mess up and let each other down, but most of the time it is a pretty cool way to get through the rough spots and bask in the wonderful ones.

I think what Drew and I have is rare. I heard a random celebrity say the other day that she thinks we have ruined intimacy but that we are all running around looking for it everywhere. She said everyone is talking (Facebook, blogs texting, Twitter) but no one is really saying anything or being heard. We all want to know others and be known but letting people into the corners of our heart and life is not easy and not always fun. I think it is how we were made to live, with each other, learning from and with each other, challenging each other, sitting next to each other when there are no words and celebrating together every chance we get! Sometimes I have to remind myself this, but believe me... it's worth the risk.

Thanks to those of you reading this who are our behind the scenes friends, our A Team :) some of you are pictured here and some not...you know who you are. We very well might be lost with out you.

A friend is always loyal, and a brother born to help in the time of need.
Proverbs 17:17

Some of my favorites...

Riding a really empty "chicken bus" on our way to church.
These are usually packed full! I saw a family of 5 in one seat!

Church at Kairos Christian School

Watching a processional with Jake

Our time at Casa Jackson was sweet...

Drew and I took Gracie to the market with us before dinner one night :)

Some time at Kairos

They aren't raising their hands to answer a questions,
they are raising their hands as they sing praises to The Lord :)

They LOVED water games!!!

So proud to show off his VBS craft!

Update

The last few days have slowed down a bit. Drew, Ellie and I hiked Volcano Pacaya, it was a lot of fun. There was lava flow when we got to the top and the hike was pretty treacherous. I doubt what we did would be allowed in the states. The bottom of shoes melted and Ellie got a 'lava burn' on her leg! We added those and other pictures to the link on the post below if you want to check them out.

Tonight we are having Tony and Sarah's friends and their families here in Guatemala over for pizza and an Easter egg hunt. We did one at the school earlier this week and one of the teachers asked Sarah, "Why are they looking for eggs?" When I thought about it I am not really sure why we do that? It doesn't make a lot of sense when you really think about it :) Bunnies don't lay eggs, why is this bunny bringing us eggs and hiding them? We looked the reason for this up last night and came up with many different answers? What do you think?

Last night we climbed on top of the guard house of the community we are staying in and watched another processional. It was pretty cool. They go all through the night and so Drew, Sarah, Heidi and Ellie were out until about 1am finding them to watch. Check out our pictures using the link in the post below this one to see what they look like, we should have a lot more up later today. Hundreds of men dress in purple robes and carry these giant floats that each are a scene from crucifixion to resurrection. They are elaborate and preceded and followed by men in black robes playing drums and tubas and such. Before they come down a road different families spend hours making 'carpets' which you have seen a lot of in our pictures. They are beautiful act of worship. Then the 'floats' walk right through them. It is pretty cool. Possibly cooler than the Easter Bunny? :)

For now the day is young. Tony, Sarah and Grace walked to get some coffee, Drew is showering and Jake along with both girls are still in bed. I am sitting in the quiet listening to birds and thinking I'd rather be reading up on the terrace then sitting here at the computer much longer!

Tonight Drew and I are going on a date to the 16th Century Monastery that we took Maddie to before Drew arrived. He is going to love it and I am going to love getting pumpkin stuffed raviolis again :) I know it sounds strange but it is seriously one of the yummiest things I have ever eaten!

Pictures!

There are sooo many pictures to be sharing we uploaded them to an album instead of trying to put them all on here we dumped them all here!

Sarah, Grace and I are off to visit a teacher from the school who just had a baby on Thursday :) Her name is Beatrice and she is also the sister of the Principal who passed away last week. Please be praying for her heart, she named her sweet baby after her sister, this time must be bitter sweet.

Yesterday we played water games and finished VBS! The kids are sooo great! After that we did some home visits of the kids from the school, more about that soon.

More later...enjoy the pictures!

The past couple days...

Saturday we slept in! We went to the market for souvenirs and groceries. I looked everywhere to find a cute baby wrap that came with a baby in it, but they were all tied to mommies and seemingly not for sale ;)

We saw lots of chicken parts, tortillas, fruit, sweet little babies and every souvenir you could possible want! We even bought a pintata for Maddie's big birthday celebration!

Today was Maddie's 12th Birthday! We slept in a little again, then took a 'chicken bus' (a vibrantly painted american school bus that is used as public transportation here) to church at the school. I didn't catch a lot of what was being taught but I did catch that we are to be content in all circumstances... whether we are hungry or not, have money or don't, have a spouse or not... to always be thankful to God.

After church we had lunch and met up with a friend of Kel and Maddie's from Iowa who is here traveling. After some down time at the house that I spent mostly reading on the roof :) we went to the most beautiful restaurant I have ever seen to celebrate Maddie's Birthday! It is a 16th century monastery turned into a hotel and restaurant.

Now we wait for Drew, Heidi and Ellie to arrive as we get ready for our first day of VBS at the school tomorrow. ( Kairos Christian Schoool )

Before we head to the school for VBS we are going to Casa Jackson to snuggle and feed some sweet babies.

It takes a lot of time to post pictures individually so we are going to work on making an album with all of our pictures and I will post the link here soon!

Sending love...

Maybe the coolest day of my life...

Today we all got up early to head into Guatemala city to meet Drew's and my Compassion Child at the zoo! When we arrived I met Astrid's beautiful mom, Eva and then got a big hug from little Astrid. At first we thought she was shy but Jacob took her hand as we walked into the zoo. She warmed up very quickly, holding my hand, telling me about her brothers, her pink high heals, singing me a song in english and quizzing me on my colors! We looked at animals, talked about lots of different things, ate lunch, giggled and danced together.

I wish that Drew could have met her today, he would have fallen in love with this sweet girl. We will be visiting her again, hopefully many times. She is sweet, smart and kind. Her mom was the same and we could tell that Astrid was very well taken care of and loved. She has four big brothers and her mom said she likes to do all the things they do. Eva and Astrid both captured my heart in such a huge way. The compassion reps were wonderful and helped us all talk to each other and have a great time. I couldn't have imagined it going any better than it did. Every minute of it was delightful. It was a day that I will never forget and I can't wait until the next time I get to giggle and dance with Astrid again!

Astrid singing me a song in english

Little Cowgirl :)

Jacob, Astrid & me

The whole zoo crew...

Eva & Astrid

Kelli (my sister) & Maddie (my niece)

Isn't she beautiful :)

When we were saying goodbye Astrid's mom cried and thanked me for everything I do for her family and her daughter. She asked God to bless me and I was overwhelmed with love for her and her sweet girl. In this picture she is saying this to me as I looked to the Compassion Rep to translate for me. I told Drew about it and he said, " Wow, all we did is set up $38 to come out of our account every month."

It really doesn't even phase us each month as the money comes out, but it changes so much for Astrid and her mom. That $38 provides her with so many opportunities. I am not saying this to show you just how wonderful we are because we sponsor a child. I am telling you this because it is something that seems so small for Drew and I, but it has been one of the most rewarding experiences. We are blessed to get to pray for her and I believe they pray for us too. We write to her each month and pray for her as well, but seeing her, dancing with her, hugging her, all of it... it changed everything for my side of this sweet relationship. They are two beautiful people who are burned in my mind and my heart for a lifetime, and longer :)

It would be silly of me to tell you how rewarding, wonderful and beautiful this experience was and is with out telling you how you can get involved.

Compassion International

After the zoo we went to see Jacob's foster mom! Norma took care of little Jake until he was 5 1/2 months old. Sarah brought her all kinds of pictures of Jake and she cried as she hugged him goodbye. Norma and her daughters are so sweet and love Jacob so much, how could you not? :) We are all so thankful for her and her family taking such wonderful care of our little Jacob.

We made it!

Drew and I got up at 2:40am this morning to get me to the airport on time! Then I got to spend about 8 hours in the Dallas airport :)

I spent most of it reading this book:

Then my niece and sister met up with me and we got on our flight to Guatemala City where my brother met us and we took a short drive to Antigua, where we are now!

I am super sleepy so this is going to be short. Thanks for all your sweet comments, prayers and texts.

More tomorrow...Sending love :)

Remembering my last trip to Guatemala...

I surprised Jake and Sarah by showing up in Guatemala one November night two years ago.
It was going to be Jake's 1st birthday and I couldn't wait any longer to kiss and squeeze this handsome boy I had fallen in love with.

We were buddies from the start

We celebrated him being one year old with lots of cake, music and dancing...

This is a glimpse of the feeding program that has turned into a school...

Kairos Christian School !
Equipping Christian Leaders in Guatemala for the Next Generation

These sweet kids below are burned in my mind. They had no parents. This was their only meal of the week. Someone asked the oldest boy how they were doing and he said something along the lines of... I'm okay but I worry about the little ones because they just get so hungry.

As I run errands, check things off of my to do list, do laundry and start to pack, these are the images going through my mind. I am so ready to go back.

On a very sad note, will you please be praying for the school as their very loved principal passed away this week. Also, for her sister who is a teacher at the school.

What's been going on? Part two :)

This is part two. Sept-Feb ish :)

We went on a vacation in North and South Carolina and celebrated our sweet friend Martha and Luke getting married :)

We made new friends, Page and Stockton :)

Luke and Martha Habegger :)

And we got to see my cousin, his sweet wife and their adorable boys :)

Also in September ( I think) we went to a fun concert with our friends Chad and Rachel!

and of course had a sleepover with their diva girl, Janie :)

Afternoon tea with Adrienne and Emily

our friend Vanessa ( @www.flourishstudiophotography.com ) took some fun pics for us :)

I had a birthday somewhere in this space...but my computer died and Jason fixed it (praise The Lord:) but I can't seem to find my November pictures :( I did have a fantastic birthday though. I learned that birthdays for me are more about taking a moment to look around and celebrate the wonderful people in your life, than the number on your cake. This year as I looked around I realized there is not a luckier girl in the world. Drew put together a picture frame with pictures of all my closest friends and in the center he wrote, "There is no greater joy than being loved." That seems to sum up how I felt as I turned one year older. Very loved.

We also celebrated Thanksgiving with a lot to be thankful for. We were surrounded my good friends and yummy food...

Then we started celebrating Christmas... with The Graves :)

and with Jess, Mike and Ethan :)

We also spent Christmas with Drew's mom, brother and his wife...
can't find those pictures either? :(

Then off to KC to see these two (and their mom and dad :)

Next up...Adrienne's birthday!!

On January 10th we lost a dear friend.
My brave big brother did his best friend's funeral beautifully.

Got to see this pretty girl :)
It pains me to admit this, but she has a deep affection for her Uncle Drew.
It's cute except when she wants to snuggle with him instead of me!!! :)

and celebrate her 1st birthday! I can't believe you are one year old sweet girl!

I spent a week with these crazy (& sweet) kids while their mom and dad served in Cambodia

Well I am sure I forgot some things, but that should catch us up :)

Stay tuned because I actually have some fun new things to write about...always another adventure around the corner :)