Sigue Adelante

Z has started using Spanish words at home! 

    Sigue Adelante!  My Spanish teacher says this to me almost every class.  It means "keep moving forward", and I have needed to be reminded of that frequently in the past week.  I feel like I am at that point in my language abilities where I know enough to be frustrated by how much I don`t know.  Eloisa keeps reminding me though that it is poco a poco.  Little by little.
   What is wonderful though is having a Spanish teacher who loves the Lord.  Yesterday I was having a terrible day in class, just could not remember how to say the things I was trying to say... and she stopped and prayed for me, hugged me, and told me that she was proud of me.  It meant the world to me, and popped the bubble of anxiety that I was trapping myself in.  I am so thankful that God has brought her into my life, she is such a support to me.  (Plus, we really are learning Spanish quite quickly, even though it feels slow on the day-to-day level.)

Crepes and pancakes are still our favorite foods

    Life continues forward, we are still helping with kids club at the base, and Spanish school five days a week.  Dave has started helping in the kitchen (no big surprise there!), and I`ve started bringing a craft to do with the girls at kids club while the boys play soccer.  This past week I had almost ten little girls who all did the craft, and then read a Bible story with me.  We had supper with some friends from Guatemala City the other day and will be starting to help them with a ministry they run in the village of Puerta Abajo.  (We did a VBS to that village during our DTS Outreach.).  We`ll get started with that in a couple weeks, which is going to be nice to have something that takes us outside of Antigua every week. 

      We have decided that we are going to move closer to the base at the end of the month.  We need to save money on rent, plus I really want to get chickens!  This isn`t the reason Dave would give for wanting to move of course, but this really is high on my list!  (You can take the girl out of Quadra, but you can`t take the Quadra out of the girl!).  We found an adorable little house just around the corner from the base that has a little grass yard for Z and the chickens.  A neighbor let us in to see it, but we have yet to meet the landlord, so we`ll have to see what happens about that. 

Z napping on Mom and Dad`s bed... SO CUTE! 

     As you can tell, there`s nothing super new to talk about, but we continue to work towards speaking Spanish fluently, setting up a home where we can stay for a long time and save enough money to eventually buy a place here, and just trying to work through the emotions of living outside of our home culture without our families.  We`ve been out of Canada for more than 6 months now... it`s started to feel like a long time, but we are still convinced that God wants us to be here, so... sigue adelante!

    "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us."  2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NLT

Quiet Insignificance

Eloisa and I during class

Z and I by the fountain in Antigua`s central park

One of many artisan markets

Z and Dad playing toys, wearing his Pollo Compero hat

Our friend Collene playing with Z after staying the night at our house

Classic Guatemalan transportation

The 3-times-a-week shuttle to the market that goes right by our house

The private hospital

    Our life has eased into a place of what could be perceived as quiet insignificance.  We aren`t the leaders of a multi-faceted ministry, we don`t speak in front of churches, we don`t send out glossy newsletters detailing all of the important work we do.  Really, we are very insignificant.  But we are following a God who does not see us that way.

     We have been living in our beautiful home for almost a month now.  We will start our fourth week of language school this week, and are learning quickly.  Language learning is always a long process, and can be a bit frustrating when all we want is to be understood and be able to launch into effective ministry... but right now, we are being faithful in the small things:  practicing flashcards, attending church in Spanish, doing our homework every evening.  In all, we are spending about 4 hours a day in focused language training.  Our tutor, Eloisa, has been a tremendous support and encouragement for me, as even on the days when I`m struggling she spurrs me on by reminding me of all that God is going to do through me and Dave here.  She believes in me, and my ability to learn this language, and that helps me to believe it too... even on the days when it feels near-impossible to speak a new language.

      A few times a week we take a bus into Antigua to go shopping at the market for fruits and vegetables, and stop at the grocery store (La Bodegona) for everything we either can`t find, or don`t like to buy in the market.  Then we load it all up into bags and boxes, and hail a Tuc-tuc, for a bumpy ride back to our house.  Living without a car has been a bit challenging at times, but we enjoy the chance to be part of normal Guatemalan life, and to be honest, I love chicken buses.  That still hasn`t lost it`s charm for me. 

       I have a close gringa friend, named Collene, and she and I have had a few coffee dates, and a couple sleepovers (we`re having one tonight after English church!).  She has been a huge support for me, but unfortunately (for me) she is done with her volunteering time her in Antigua at the end of the week then is off to continue her travelling adventures in Africa!  I am sad to see her go, but I know that God will, and already has begun to, provide new friends for me. 

      You may remember Dave talking about our friend Luis who needed surgery (in Dave`s guest post).  Well, that surgery happened this weekend, and was quite successful thus far.  Tests need to be done to decipher if there was cancer in the tumor, and make more decisions from there, but we are praying for a complete healing in Luis`body and that no further intervention will be necessary.  Dave spent some of the weekend at the hospital with Luis and his wife Ana, and was there this morning when Luis was discharged home.  As of a couple hours ago, Luis is home resting and was doing quite well.  Praise the Lord!

     The theme of our life seems to be willingness.  Our efforts seem so insignificant to me a lot of the time, but when I pray I hear God so clearly saying that we are in the right place.  That He has a plan.  That He is happy with our efforts.  It doesn`t always feel like much.  We try to talk to people whenever we go out.  We had our Guatemalan friends over for a movie night and had the chance to talk to them about what Jesus has done in our lives.  We`ve gotten the chance to walk with our friends Luis and Ana for his surgery and now in his recovery (and all because Dave was willing to carry their table home in a "chance" encounter with them).

    We don`t see the plan.  We don`t know what we`ll be doing in a month, or a year, or heck, even how this afternoon will pan out.  I guess that`s normal, but it feels like higher stakes when we`ve left our families, and culture, and now we`re staying in a new country without really much of a strategy for how to be "successful missionaries".  I don`t know what God has for us here, but I believe that we are where we`re supposed to be. 

I believe that God will use this time of quiet insignificance for His glory.  That this is a time of preparation for the work that He prepared in advance for us to do here.  We have joined the staff of YWAM Antigua, and although we will be focusing on language school for another few months, we will working part time on the existing ministries at the base, until God shows us His dream for our life here.  Our YWAM director is excited to support us and help us towards whatever God has for us.

    All this to say, our lives are quiet right now, but it`s not going to be like that for long.  Of that I am convinced.

Thanks for praying.  

A Very Happy 3rd Birthday

Daddy and the birthday boy getting the pinata ready for the party

Miguel and his Mama

Z and Damaris take a break from the party to read a story

Z opening the gift from Eloisa (she`s our Spanish teacher!)

Z wearing the awesome sweater Oscar gave him

Eating pizza in the living room

Miguel loves to hit the pinata!  :)

Z and his cake

     Z`s birthday was last month, when Dave was in the States at our DTS graduation.  For the actual day, Z and I took the bus into Antigua and ate lunch at Pollo Compero.  Then we went to the market and bought the green tricycle that he loves so much with the birthday money sent to him by his Great Grandma in Washington.  (Thanks Grandma T!)  It was a nice day, but we promised him another party once Daddy was back in Guatemala with us. 

     As promised, last week we had moved into out new house, and so started thinking about the party we wanted to have.  We invited pretty much everyone we knew, which really isn`t that many people... but it was going to be a full house.

  But as we got closer to today, all our "white friends" couldn`t come.  We ended up with a party completely in Spanish.  AND IT WAS AWESOME.

    Dave had bought a cake, a pinata, and enough fruit and chips to feed an army (classic Dave).  I spent a stressful 8minutes on the phone with Dominos Pizza and got three pizzas delivered to our front door.  Z had been running around all day talking about his pinata, and about how he and his buddy Damaris were going to take turns hitting it.  He was so excited for her to come over... I think he`s missed having other kids around like we did when we were on our DTS.

     Oscar showed up first and we got to hang out and chat for a while before the rest of the guest arrived.  He was our first Guatemalan friend, who we met at the market where he works.  He`s been such a huge encouragement to us, both in being willing to have long conversations with us, not seeming to mind our broken Spanish, and in being genuinely happy to see us when we come to the market, and not trying to rip us off because we`re white.  He`s so great.

    Then the rest of the guests arrived, including Luis and Ana, and their family, and our Spanish teacher Eloisa and her husband.  It was so much fun to just get to hang out with her outside of class, and of course make lots of jokes about, "yeah, I don`t want to talk, I might say it wrong and my teacher`s listening."  Haha!

     We ate pizza, we all got a turn to hit the pinata, we had a birthday cake and Z even blew out the candles by himself.  I played Lego with Damaris, Z, and Oscar... and we just enjoyed being with our friends.  It was that moment where you go from just being part of someone`s life when you go to them- to having them come into your home and be part of a special day in your life.

    And we did it all in Spanish.

   This past week we finished our first week of language school (with Eloisa), and I thought it went great.  The lessons are fun and challenging without being frustrating.  We get a lot of chances to practice what we`ve learned in the mornings when we go to the market or for walks in the community.  I love this language and I can`t wait to be fluent.  But of course, with a language barrier, it creates a feeling of isolation. 

   Tonight was huge for me.  I saw the way our life will be when we are fluent in this language, and also the way our life IS right now!  We have great friends.  We can`t completely understand everything they say (haha), but we know that they want to be part of our lives, and we want to be part of theirs.  It`s such an amazing feeling, and makes going into another week of language study so much easier.

    After everyone headed out we got the house tidied up, but the birthday boy to bed, and I sat down to write this blog post.  I honestly feel so happy right now.  I don`t feel alone anymore.  I have lots of friends, who all came into my home and celebrated my precious baby boy`s birthday with me. 

     What a very happy 3rd birthday party.   
 
  

A Change of Direction

   We are not going to be houseparents at Village of Hope.

 

    I know, I know.  It`s Dave and I, so no one is super surprised that we are changing out minds.  But believe me when I say that this was not a decision I wanted to make.  Other times we`ve left the mission field we`ve come running back to Canada determined that God wasn`t really calling us into missions.  This time nothing could be further from the truth.  We are called to missions.  We called to bring orphans into our home and raise them as our own.  We are called to adoption.  We aren`t done in Guatemala yet.  

 

    As you know, we rented a beautiful home and are now spending more than three hours a day on focused language study, each.  We take a chicken bus to the market and buy groceries, we have to light our stove with a match, and we have to buy clean drinking water and bleach our vegetables before we eat them.  We are living the Guatemala life, and we LOVE it.  We`re a bit lonely right now because we`re still settling in, but we want to live here for a long time.

 

   So why aren`t we going to be with Village of Hope?  Well, it comes down to God guiding us away.  We have spent the last month trying to find an organization which we can send finances through in Canada, because Village of Hope is an American ministry and can`t process donations for us.  (We live in support, and can`t stay on the field without financial donations from churches and individuals who believe in us and our ministry.)  We believe that God leads through finances, and when we have been on the path God wanted, He has always abundantly supplied for our needs.  So for the past month, we have been stepping out in faith and making paying for things out of our saving, believing that God will provide a way for support to start coming through to us again.  But that door has stayed shut.  

 

   This past week we began to wonder if God was giving us a moment- a moment to think about what we were really going towards with Village of Hope.  There had been some red flags, and we`d begun to realize that at Village of Hope it was not going to be the way we imagined.  We weren`t going to be allowed to be a real family with these kids.  This is not because Village of Hope doesn`t want us to be a family, but because of the requirements of the government for the care of the kids in the houses.  We were realizing that the requirements and restrictions were too much, and that they were going to negatively affect our existing family.  We want more children, and we realized that we were about to basically sacrifice the child we already have for the sake of having more children.  

 

    Today we wrote to the directors of Village of Hope, and told them what we were thinking, and that we weren`t sure we were a good fit.  We weren`t sure if we should continue towards becoming houseparents.  They agreed that they also had their doubts if our vision was the same as theirs.  Our hearts are for giving orphans a home and parents, but we want to adopt, and we wouldn`t be able to do that through being houseparents.  To go into that position with expectations like that would only frustrate and disappoint us.  We "resigned" our future position with their blessing.  We have the utmost respect for both the directors, and the ministry of Village of Hope, and we know that although the Lord has used Village of Hope to keep us in Guatemala, that this is not the ministry He wants us to work with. 

 

    At this point we don`t know what that means for us.  But we know that God has been giving us words and visions about Guatemala.  We believe we were called here, and we believe that Village of Hope was a part of the plan to direct us in the way we should go.  Life following God isn`t always in a straight line, but that doens`t mean we`ve lost the path.  We will be in touch with the YWAM bases here in Guatemala and see what opportunities there might be for us.  

 

    We don`t know what we`re doing now, or how all this is going to work out... but we have not lost our vision to stay as missionaries, and we know that God has a plan in all this.  We`re just trusting, waiting,... oh, and practicing our Spanish flashcards... 

 

    

Superbowl Sunday in the New House

kitchen

the dining area

downstairs bathroom and stairs

living room area (out the windows are the communal parking area and gate)

patio above our parking spot

below the patio (standing on our parking spot)

the laundry room just outside the kitchen, red door leads to the back yard

the yard that the red door leads to

Z`s room

Dave and I`s room

another view of our room (with the basically useless, but fun to have balcony)

    We have now experienced our own version of House Hunters International.  We looked at 6 houses, talked to multiple realtors and home-owners, prayed, and thought a lot about exactly where we wanted to live.  Finally, one beautiful Wednesday afternoon, we came and looked at this beautiful home with a wonderful realtor named Arturo.  He thankfully spoke English, and was able to help us get through the Guatemalan rental process without anything being lost in translation. 

      House hunting in a different country is not quite the same as in Canada though.  Here, they don`t have anything like the "Multiple Listings Service" which makes it so that any realtor has access to almost every home that is available at that time... but here, every home is listed with only one realtor, so you have to spend a lot of time hunting online through every house on every realty office`website!  Plus, lots of people don`t use a realtor and rely on word-of-mouth to find rentors.  So we looked at a few places that we just heard about through the grape-vine, plus got to view a couple houses that we just happened upon while we were walking in the areas we wanted to live.  Quite the adventure, especially with our limited Spanish.

     Also, houses are quite varied here.  The cheapest type of housing are one floor, with only a few windows, and have every room separated and you have to go outside to get from room to room.  It`s the kind of home that a lot of Guatemalans live in, and we looked at a couple of those.  They were certainly cheaper, but we couldn`t find one that was furnished... and we really wanted something more move-in ready to eleviate the stress of trying to furnish a house.

    The house we chose is owned and was designed by a European man (Danish?), who owns all the houses and apartments in our little complex.  All the houses are enclosed in one big yard with a shared gate, but there are trees and plants creating "green curtains" between the houses to make it feel more private.  I LOVE it.

  We felt it was important to live near to Antigua because there are better Spanish tutors here than there are in San Lucas (where Village of Hope is).  Learning the language is our highest priority right now, so by getting this place which is furnished saves us time in getting set up so that we can start school.  Also, this house is in an area very near Antigua and our tutor is able to walk to our home and teach us every day for a couple hours each.

   So now we are living in our own home in Guatemala, starting language school tomorrow, and hanging out in our living room watching the Superbowl on our own TV (well that, as well as "Parent Trap" which is dubbed in Spanish... that way we can learn something as well as watch TV... haha, besides, Superbowl commercials are just not as good here.)

    This morning started out a little different, because we didn`t have an propane (Zeta Gas) for the stove or to take showers (we have a hot water tank instead of "widow-makers"-electric shower heads).  Also, we didn`t have any pure water to drink, and I couldn`t figure out how the washing machine worked.  Thankfully I got that sorted fairly quickly, because we had an issue with fleas last week and I had a bunch of clothes that needed washing.  In Guatemala fleas are a very common problem and can easily be brought home from street ministry or other times like that.  Anyway, we got the laundry done, and hung on the porch, then Dave headed off to figure out why the Zeta Gas truck refused to deliver to us... even though we`d called them three times; although our broken Spanish may have had something to do with that.

Thankfully, about an hour later, Dave arrived home with a five gallon jug of water, a broom, and a package of toilet paper.. and had ordered the Zeta truck to come in a few minutes.  So by lunchtime, the gas was hooked up, and we had a pot of precious Kraft dinner cooking.  

    After lunch Dave sat at the table and read his Bible, while Z played toys on the coffee table in the living room.  I washed the dishes in the glorious sunshine and I felt wonderfully happy to be in my own home again.  It`s been a very long time... but I am at peace because although there may be some very hard times ahead; we are exactly where God has called us to be... and I know He will continue to lead us. 

  Thank you Lord for our beautiful home. 
    

My Outreach Testimony - Dave

My testimony from outreach comes out of the village of San Miguel Escobar, 10 minutes from Antigua.  Our team was called by God to go to Guatemala on outreach, and week four is when we arrived in the beautiful area of the Panchoy Valley.  It was to be another day of evangelism in the San Miguel Escobar/Ciudad Vieja area.  Mike (our leader), Stian, and I headed up a guys team and started out.  We started up towards the volcano and met a couple of different people that we had the opportunity to talk to and pray with.  After that we ran into some kids playing and talked to them for a couple of minutes.  We then headed back to where the main Catholic church for San Miguel Escobar was and watched as some men played some futbol.  We decided that it was time to keep walking and so we started off again.  As we were walking, a boy passed us, turned around, passed us again, and did this three times before Stian started witnessing to him.  After a while, Stian ran out of things to say and I got a chance to talk to him.  His name was Eddy and had ten brothers and sisters.  He was eighteen, but had been out of school for a few years already and had a painting job.  I asked him if he enjoyed it or if he had dreams beyond that.  By this point I had lost Stian and Mike to a couple of clowns that had walked by and started doing an act, in the middle of the road.  Eddy had said his dream was to be a cook.  Well I love to cook, so I got to share my life as a cook to where I am now and even though being a cook is difficult that it was a dream worth pursuing.  I walked with him for about half an hour, to his friend's house and then I went my own way. 

As I was walking back down the hill to the road I came in on, I noticed a lady carrying a table, while her husband had his daughter on his back and pushing his son in a wheelchair.  Seeing as it was a heavy table I asked the woman if they lived close and if she needed help carrying the table.  She gladly accepted the help and we started home.  Turns out they lived all the way back past the YWAM base; so I trekked about 30-40 minutes with this fifty pound table on my head.  I got to talk with the woman about her life.  She had two sons with her previous partner and now had these two children with her current partner.  Their family didn't go to church anymore because of previous negative experiences and often her husband would work and she'd have to take care of her two children.  I found it admirable that this man was still with this family, though one child was in a wheelchair.  Not too often do you find men stick around when the children have disabilities here in Guatemala.  To put names to faces, the woman is Ana, the man is Luis, their son is Miguel, and their daughter is Damiris.  Miguel is four and Damiris is two.  We returned to their house and I put the table in place.  It turns out they live with Luis' mother Seville, in a typical Guatemalan cement house with tin roofing.  As I put the table down I got to share with them about God's love, Christ's birth (as it was three days before Christmas), Christ's death and ressurection, and just a few testimonies from my life of God's faithfulness and unconditional love.  I got to pray for their family and I could just feel the Holy Spirit's presence come over their house.  I said I'd return with some people from our group to pray for Miguel, who had been wheelchair bound since birth.  Something with his neck and brain paralyzes him from actually having the strength to walk.

So I did return as I said with about ten of the people from the team.  We prayed for Miguel and his complete healing.  I know that Miguel is strong, bright, intelligent, and has such joy; God has an incredible future in store for this boy.  From this point our team took it upon ourselves to fast and pray each lunch for Miguel; so the following few days there'd be two or three of us fasting lunch and interceding for Miguel during this time.  The Lord didn't only increase my love for this family, but also Lillian and Stian:s love for them as well.  When we returned a few days later, the three of us got to pray for Miguel again.  We also got to read him stories from the children's Bible; he loves the pictures and bright colours and Ana was intrigued by the content in the stories and Lillian got to have an incredible time pouring into Ana's life.  There may not be a complete physical healing of Miguel, but I could start to see the transformation in the family and I believe there was a lot of emotional healing going on.  Some things I admire about this family is their love for each other; Luis hasn't left Miguel, but continues to support his family, no matter the cost; Ana brings Miguel to Guatemala City (an hour away) on the chicken bus to do physiotherapy, twice a week.  We knew of Hermano Pedro which is a hospital for wheelchaired children and ask why she didn't go there; her response was that there you had to just drop your kids off and you don't stay with them, and she was not going to abandon her child to an asylum.  I witnessed the loving heart of a mother and father.  We left them with more prayer, some rice, and some beans.   A few days later we returned again.  This was Shawn and Z's chance to be introduced to the family that has been so close to my heart.  Z had always been napping before, so Shawn had to stay back; they didn't actually believe I was married.  The next time we showed up, we knew it was Miguel's fourth birthday.  Some of the team gathered gifts of things they no longer used: clothes, toy cars, etc..  Lillian, Stian, Z, Shawn, and I returned with these gifts, a pinata, a cake and threw him a birthday party.  The whole family was ecstatic and even the grandma got in a turn hitting the pinata. Ana had said how blessed they were to have us come for Miguel's birthday, as he has never received gifts like that before.  We were then on our way to the lake and when we got back from the lake we were going to the beach soon thereafter, so we had only a couple days left in Antigua.  Shawn and I knew we were continuing on in Guatemala, but Stian and Lillian would soon return to Norway, so we went to visit them for the Lauvas' last visit.

 What a last visit it was; we graciously got welcomed into their home again and just began to talk with Ana and Seville again.  We asked if Luis would be home from work soon, so Stian and Lillian could say goodbye.  Ana said that Luis wasn't able to go to work today because of a fever.  She then went into greater detail about how Luis has actually been sick for the past four years, but they don't talk about it much because of his condition.  It turned out Luis has a tumor on an undisclosed part of his body.  Eventually it could turn into cancer, if not taken care of.  The tumor causes him days of pain, to the point of not walking, and he gets fevers as well.  He is the money-maker of the family so if he doesn't go to work his family doesn't make any money.  The Guatemalan public hospitals don't have time for the operation for another six months at least and even then who knows?  They say the private hospitals take care of you better and right away, but it costs 10000Q ($1250) and then there would be the recovery time where nobody is working.  They are already very tight for money, living day to day, so this amount of money is nowhere near possible for them.  As I heard this, I felt hopeless for them; so much healing needed for this family: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  I felt like we've prayed so much for this family, and then another problem arises.  As Lillian and Stian said their emotional goodbyes, I knew it wasn't our last time visiting this family.  As we walked away, we discussed the only option beyond God's miraculous touch, the money.  We felt that $2000, though it seems like a lot to Guatemalans, isn't too much for the North American/European.  We felt burdened that this was our money to raise, to pay for this operation.  After all it was the least we could do for this family who drew so dear to our hearts; I weep as I write and think about them; they were so hospitable, loving, caring, grateful, patient (especially with our Spanish), and so kind.  God's love through us has been imparted to them and having built this relationship with this family has given us a different perspective on Guatemalans and just grown our heart for these people.

So you'd think this is a blog post about needing to fundraise $2000 for this family in Guatemala, but no, this is only half the testimony (long, I know, sorry).  So we travelled back to Chico, California for our debriefing time.  We had base intercession on the Friday morning that we were there, just to give a few testimonies about our time in the countries that we had outreach to.  Wouldn't you know it, the guy who hates public speaking, yes me, has to give one of our testimonies.  I went last, with the picture up on the screen of the family and shared the testimony that I just shared here about our cherished friendship and about the way God divinely orchestrated the relationship between Miguel's family and ours.  I mentioned something about how we were going to look into ways to get these finances to Luis to pay for his operation and recovery.  Little did I know, the Holy Spirit was already at work.  Afterwards I was approached and a generous and loving couple told me they'd give $1000 and they'd find a way to raise the rest.  Less then 24 hours later they found me again and said they had $2100 and that it is on its way to Guatemala.  I was at a loss for words; this family who means so much to us and within minutes every last dollar is paid for.  They said that the minute I started sharing my testimony they knew God was speaking to them.  It is rare to see such a father in this Latin American culture stick around when you have a child with special needs and they could see this man's integrity through the words I spoke of him.  My gratitude for these generous givers is undescribable.  God is so good; He is always faithful; His love for all nations is unconditional.  So the money is due to arrive tomorrow; I will get to deliver the good news to Luis that his operation and recovery is covered, and walk alongside him as we pay the costs through the generosity of others.  Please continue to pray for this family.  Pray that they would all come to intimately and personally know their Heavenly Father and complete transformation of this household; pray for the surgery on Luis (more information coming as I get more information); pray for Miguel's miraculous healing; pray for this family.

All I have to say is thank YOU.  Thank you all for your support, in prayer, in finances, in love and encouragement, as our family pursues our dreams.

A blogpost by Dave

Expecting

We are officially expecting.  But, no, I'm not pregnant.  We are expecting though... multiples.  Maybe even 10!  We have been accepted as (soon-to-be) house parents at Village of Hope.  

 (You may recognize that name from my past post about Aldea de Esperanza... yeah, it's totally the same place.  My little reference about Z wanting to live there "forever" was totally a hint to the reading public that we were thinking about living there.  haha... )

    Village of Hope has the funds raised to build the next two homes (duplex), so we will be the parents in one of those homes.  House 3, they'll call us.  We will probably be able to move in by July, and at that point we will begin to receive referrals for children, and could at any time have another child placed in our home.  We will be legally in the role of foster parents, but because Guatemala does not have an international adoption program, it is unlikely that the children will be taken away from us.  Also, VOH deals primarily with special needs children, and it is especially unlikely for these children to be adopted into Guatemalan homes.  Our home will be wheel-chair accessible, and we could have a child or two in wheelchairs who become part of our family.  Only the Lord knows who He will bring to our home, but we have requested that we would have only younger children placed with us, because we are still quite young ourselves. 

    We graduate from our DTS in exactly one week, and will be spending this last week at the beach debriefing and spending some final days together as a team.  Dave is planning to return to the States with the team and pick up our stuff/diplomas, while I stay in Guatemala and start house-hunting.  I am so excited to have our own place again!  It is sad to say goodbye to our team, but I am being left behind in a country that I love.  When Dave gets back to Guatemala we will hopefully be ready to move into our house, and we can get started on Spanish school to become more fluent, as well as begin volunteering in the afternoon at VOH. 

    This whole journey has been amazing to me.  God took us from Quadra Island, Canada, where we were drowning in the pain of infertility, and He healed our hearts enough to take that leap of faith and leave it all for California.  We grew so much in California, and some amazing restoration happened in our marriage and my family.  The Lord continued to whisper in my heart that He had my children, that He was ready and waiting to give them to me.  I received visions of my children, and my heart longed to be with them.  God intercepted us, and sent us to Guatemala, where I have now found VOH!
   
     My small group in California did a little project during our last meeting where we were supposed to write down what we expected of God during our Outreach.  I wrote:  "I want to find my children."  The Lord has been faithful to me, and has answered my prayer.  I am about to become the mother of children who are very broken.  They might have huge issues that I need a lot of help to care for them properly.  I might regret this decision some days.  But I am also going to have the chance to hold them when they cry, to cook them pancakes on Saturday mornings, to throw their birthday parties, and to help them grow into the men and women that God intended them to be.  I want to show them the love of Father God, who doesn't give up on anyone, no matter how broken.  I want to be their mother. 
 
     I came on this outreach expecting great things from God.  And now I am expecting to welcome (some of) my children into my home within the next year.  My dream has come true... I have found my children.  Praise the Lord.

(God has prompted me to read through Isaiah over the past months, and I have read Isaiah 49 almost every day.  It's almost ironic how perfect it is for my life.)

   "They will bring your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters on their shoulders.  Kings will be your foster fathers, and queens your nursing mothers... then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed."  -Isaiah 49: 22-23