Joy Filled Homes

With 4 of us eager to use the internet and only one access stick, it has been tricky to find an oppertunity to skype and blog! Loving the weather down here. It is about 30 degrees durring the day and it cools down to about 15 degrees at night.
Steve learned to drive the Guatemalan way once we crossed the border. Mexico driving was a little crazy too, so he was broken in a bit before we reached the wild roads here! Everyone drives as fast as they can and there are very fewe posted speed signs that no one obeys anyways. The GPS doesn't work in Guatemala and we had no road map except for what was on the bottom of our Mexico map which only included major highways and cities. Once we crossed the border we were kinda depending on posted highway signs and started heading in the direction of Guatemala City, since Chimaltenango is on the way. It wasn't until we were a couple hours down the road that we realized that we were taking the scenic route! From about 5 till 6:30, there is typical rush hour on the highways everywhere. This includes flying along in bumper to bumper traffic at 100km/hr then suddenly hitting the brakes to go over one of the many speed bumps, frequent passing in oncomming traffic so that the cars comming towards you (or you if the passer is comming your way) have to pull nearly off the road to get by! Steve actually passed a line up of buses and semis causing a police truck to drive off the road to let us by and rubbing a bus with his rear view mirror! We actually need to take video of driving through the mountains because you would not otherwise believe the steep roller coaster curves and bends! Very exciting, to say the least. As it was dark and we were driving over a very steep mountain with the van on the verge of overheating, we were all earnestly praying that we were on the right road and would end up in Chimaltenango that night! We finally came into a city that was un marked like all the rest and found a Burger King with a play area! When we looked at the reciept from our woppers, it said Chimaltenango! Praise God! We had finally arrived! After trying the broken pay phone, we asked a man on the street to use his cell phone to call Naomi. We met up with her and she brought us to our house that she had rented for us and set up with beds, couches and basic needs to get us started. What a blessing she has been! Naomi has taken us around and helped us find good grocery stores and make connections that we will need while we are here.
Sunday we went to her church in Antigua where the worship is in Spanish and the service is in both English and Spanish. When the kids got back from children's church, Jalen said, "Mom, I got to play cards with a Spanish kid and we didn't even know what we were saying!" There are a few other missionary families that attend that church as well, none with kids though.
We have been to the orphanage most days this week. The kids are so fantastic! They still fight over us a bit cause we are still new. Over the next couple months I will do my best to share with you how special these beautiful children are! (Cole is sitting beside me whisper singing, "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do!") We sure have our work cut out for us! Yesterday we went through the list of maintenance issues for Steve to address and it is long! He is already at work mowing the lawns today and cutting some dangerous metal wires that were sticking out of their concrete walls so the kids don't injure themselves on them. Over the next couple weeks I will be spending asessing the kids' speach, sensory and educational needs and putting together IEPs ( Individual Education Plans) and therapy suggestions for the staff at the home to review. Please pray for me in this; I feel that the experience that I have had with Cole has given me some insight and education, but this really is a job for a professional. Please pray that God will give me wisdom and insight through the Holy Spirit that I can do this job at levels beyond my natural abilities!
Steve is a huge favorite around the Home! The kids are all hungry for a father figure and are quite happy to latch on to Steve and soak up every ounce of love that he sends their way! It really will be miraculous if he manages to find the time to work on the buildings! There are 11 children at the home ages 3-17, 9 girls and 2 boys. Daniel is about 14 years old and has the highest level of functional developement. He doesn't know yet that we brought him a soccer uniform and brand new soccer cleats! Soccer is his favorite activity, though he doesn't get to play often because he usually has no one to play with. Before we came, we talked to him on skype and he asked for a soccer ball, which we also brought for him. We are hoping to get the oppertunity to take him out of the home occasionally to play soccer with typical kids. You can pray that God will work out the details for that to happen. Daniel tells Steve every day what strong arms Steve has and that he wants to be strong like Steve. He loves to dance with Laine and I and he gave Eden her first kiss! (it was an accident! He meant to kiss her cheek.) Daniel Loves Jesus and has had dreams where he has been taken up into heaven and God has showed him the house that he is building for him there! He is a power prayer and has the kind of faith that moves mountains! We will be sure to get lots of pictures of all of the kids, I just know that you are gonna love them!