guatemala city

Hi, friends! I promised pictures and here they come! I am breaking it down into a couple posts because the pictures are kind of overwhelming.

If you read the other blog then you know that we didn't leave Fundaninos (the orphanage) much. Which was great, because it was a really safe and peaceful place.

The rest of Guatemala City is kind of crazy. Good crazy, but when we did venture out I always felt like the people in charge of us (Guatemalans) were so stressed out for our well being and safety that it made everything a little tense. I didn't really realize how much trouble "gringos" can get in until we got in a wreck and they immediately sent 4 armed guards to the scene just to watch us. yikes.

It was also a weird experience for me because I am use to travelling with Drew and we are pretty...adventurous about it and I never think about my safety very much. I mean, I always feel safe with him and it was weird to not have that safety net.

ALL THAT to say- I didn't take the camera out much when we were out on the town. I just didn't want to draw more attention to our already very obvious group. Here are the couple I did get.

processing gutemala

What a week in guatemala! We had such a great time and if I wasn't overwhelmed with blog posts before I left, I sure am now. :) I will be spending my week sifting through pictures and trying to process emotions, but I thought I'd give you a brief intro.

We spent the majority of the week sitting in an office working on a website so that the kids can be sponsored to stay at the orphanage we were working with. It was tedious, it was stressful and it was heartbreaking. As a non-website coder my main job for the week was gathering and adding information to the website. This included writing some info, editing some info that was not written by native english speakers and translating some info from Spanish to English. There were 55 kids and 3 bio sections for each kid. There were 5 of us working on it and information was coming from about 30 different sources. Yeah, it was chaos.

It was painful sometimes how much it seemed like we were doing nothing. We wanted to be with the kids, but were stuck in a hot office trying to get this website done. We were all stressed and sleep deprived (and depraved) and maybe a little short with each other...but after long hours of writing and editing these kids stories, just when we were ready to quit, we would have just a couple minutes with the kids and be refreshed to continue working. Knowing them and knowing that by our work they could be sponsored to stay at this amazing place and not only survive but really thrive, and not only thrive physically, but know God's love for them through tangible love and the spoken word- made the long hours more durable.

 So expect many pictures to come, but for today here is one of my favorites. After helping with the bios and having to read the painful stories of where all these kids came from, after knowing her story, to see the joy in her eyes bring tears to mine. What a precious soul.

overwhelmed.

I have about 9000 pictures and posts that I want to share with y'all...but I haven't posted in two weeks and now that seems like such a task.  maybe later this week I will do one big catch up post.

I leave you with this picture from our drive home today:

expressions

Kead was in a rather cheesy mood the other day so I asked her to make faces and took pictures of her response. My favs are her "daddy" face, her "silly" face, and her "sunny" face (for those of you who don't know, sunny is her imaginary little bad guy/friend who comes everywhere with us) Thanks, Sara, for the fun idea!

signs of spring

I was a total wierdo today and drove around the neighborhood taking pictures of other people's trees and flowers. I only got a couple strange looks and a few cars slowed down to see what I was doing. I totally recommend it. I am loving all the signs of spring!

"spring break"

We don't really get a real Spring Break anymore, but this week Lubbock was emptied as most college students and school age families went elsewhere (who would ever want to leave lubbock)

We like spring break in lubbock because the pace of life slows down a bunch. One thing we did this week was have a fun photo walk on the barren Texas Tech campus. Well, I had a photo walk and everyone else just enjoyed the weather...good times.

underground lair

Drew and I are finally putting in a patio! I am so excited. We started the project on Thursday (by we I mean Drew tilled the ground) and then started digging out the area on Friday. All was going well when we ran into something burried a mere 3 inches beneath the soil.  First we thought it was a random piece of metal left over from some edging that was here when we moved in, but as We dug, we realized it was a rectangle. Then, we thought it was some sort of box- maybe a planter, maybe a chest of some sort. We kept digging and realized that there was concrete as well. What could it be?

Drew concluded it must be some sort of entrance to a storm shelter. "Interesting- let's re-bury it" I said. Drew looked at me in disbelief. "No way!" he replied. I then tried to convince him it wasn't worth the work. Do you think I won? Ha! We made a deal that if Drew finished digging out the rest of the patio area first, he could explore what he lovingly named "The Underground Lair".

The next morning our friend, Dan, came over to help dig out the patio area as fast as possible so they could explore. They spent the morning digging out the rest of the patio and then the afternoon trying to get inside the lair. They uncovered several pipes and wires leading into the ground but couldn't ever find the entrance. Either is is completely filled in and impossible to get into, or it turns out to be the foundation to an old room, maybe a well pump room before there was city water?

We will never know, because after several hours of digging, the boys threw in the towel. As Drew was re-burying it he said "I hate that we are doing this without knowing for sure!" Maybe in another 50 years the people who own the house at that time will figure out the mystery.

I'm just happy to be getting a patio. 

I (still) heart matching outfits.

Do you remember this post? I love it when the girls match. 

I also love it when they hold hands:

splash in rain puddles:

 play ring-around-the-rosey:

and frolic around:

and pose like little super models:

new seeds

We are going to try our hands at a garden this year. We had one before we moved but the last couple years have seemed a little too crazy for a garden, but after tasting the spoils in Adam and Kirstin's garden last year I knew we needed one!

so we bought some seeds- mostly tomatoes, peppers and lots of herbs.

and during Sayla's nap we planted them(in indoor starter kits), with Keadryn's help.

I love how intense her face is!

And now...we wait. When we were finished Keadryn said "but where are the flowers?"

being girls

I don't know if this happened to you, but I never really saw myself as a "girl mom"...I don't know why- I just assumed I would have boys. I wasn't disappointed when I found out we were having a girl...or when we found out we were having another girl, it just wasn't how I envisioned my life. Does that make sense?

Anyway- the other day a friend told me a story about her niece, who is ten. She is all girl. She has a "no boys allowed" sign on her room. She has a BFF and they have BFF matching rings and a BFF handshake/dance. She is into dancing and music and giggling and says funny girly things. My friend told me about all this and then said "Praise the Lord, I have boys and don't have to mess with all of that!" ....and the weird thing is that I thought to myself: awww I really am a "girl mom" because I can't wait to go through some of that with my girls!

I am so excited for the girl talks, and getting an outfit for the first day of school (so what if school is only my girls and a couple other kids?) and shopping, and getting ready for dances, and teary eyed drama, and being confused about boys, and late night chats, and showing them what is is to be a Godly woman, and teaching them to guard their hearts, and making "good luck baskets" for whatever things they decide to pursue...and just being girls together.

I know we aren't to those things yet, but here are some girl things we are enjoying:

Diapers! Really just being maternal with all dolls and stuffed animals. But these felt diapers are a hit!

  

And tea parties! This is with sweet Avery from playgroup- but both girls LOVE to play tea party.

And shoes. "oooes" is one of Sayla's 15 words and the girls change shoes several times a day. A healthy, very girly obsession with shoes. :)

I love my girls, I love being their mom, I love being a girl mom. 

friday

I love friday. Really, it starts thursday night with letting the girls stay up l.a.t.e. to ensure a sleep in morning. (I hear this doesn't happen with some kids?! I'm so glad it works with the girls...) We sleep in and then when the girls wake up we drag them into bed with us. I love that time of the day- just laying there being goofy as a family. I don't know how long that lasts, but I hope its still awhile.

Then we finally role out of bed (ok Drew roles out of bed and lets me take a 10 minute snooze...) and either go to our favorite breakfast burrito place that, thankfully, serves breakfast all day or we make something tasty at the house. After brunch we do a little cleaning, a little playing, a little nothing...and then we almost always go run some errands. I know its weird, but I love running errands together as a family. The errands are followed by nap and Sonic. Nap time  (well quiet time for Kead who stopped taking naps at 18 months....) is a great time to get some more cleaning done and just be here together. Drew doesn't even answer his phone. I love it.

We usually have plans on Friday night- but I am so thankful for our Friday days to just be a family.

sisterly love

The girls are truly starting to act like sisters...those of you who have sisters know that this isn't always painting nails and giggling. My sisters both just laughed out loud. ANYWAY- I don't care to count the times a day I say "no hitting!" and you know who the culprit is 80% of the time? Sweet Sayla Gracie.

...of course she is provoked:

HA! This happened when I said "kead, give your sister a hug." ah sisters.
oh and sorry for the poor quality of the picture, its what I get for trying to use my camera in manual in our awfully lit bathroom, and I didn't ask her to re-choke her sister for a better shot- although I did think about it.

365 project

I decided to start doing the 365 project. 365 days, 365 photos. I started a blog to keep track:

a photo a day keeps the boring away

I think the most challenging part will be actually posting a picture everyday, but if I can do that it should be fun.

I'm excited about it.

what a difference a year makes

I accidentally clicked on my "February 2009" folder instead of "February 2010" and this is the first picutre I saw:

And here are some pics of these three from the February visit this year:

 

aren't they so big and adorable?!

I'll leave you with one of my favorites from the trip- it brings me such joy to see these kids enjoy playing together:

aunt jojo

Aren't these little booties adorable? I got them when we were in Orlando from heartcraft, which is really cool in itself- you should check it out. And the reason I got the booties? I'm going to be an aunt again!!! Kirsty and Adam are expecting their second peanut in August!

Once again, they are going to torture me by not finding out if it is a miss or a mister- but I am so excited either way! Congrats to to the Gentrys!

p.s. if you ask Burke he always says the baby is a sees-tur. :) I'm with you Burke, but then again, I thought you were a girl, too. :)