Dustin, a professional photographer and member of the Asbury group, took some spectacular Easter pictures of our children while the team was here.  The children loved getting dressed up in their Sunday best and they all looked so beautiful and handsome.   Here are the pictures.

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In mid March, Brenda and Jennifer, founders of Hope For Tomorrow Children’s Home, were here in Guatemala visiting.  For Brenda, who hadn’t been here for almost a year, it was especially wonderful because she was able to meet for the first time so many of our new children.  Here are some pictures from there trip.  Enjoy!

Remember, once you click on an image and it enlarges, you can navigate to the next image by clicking on the right side of the image (a “NEXT” button appears) or return to the previous picture by clicking the left side of the image (a “PREV” button appears). When you are done, click the “CLOSE” button or click outside of the picture. 

Recently Jane, a friend of our ministry and adoptive mother, contacted us regarding her daughter who was turning 16 years old.  Usually, the family doesn’t do big birthday celebrations but this year was going to be differente because her daughter Jaqueline wanted to have a party and instead of asking for gifts for herself, wanted everyone to bring a donation for our children.  Here’s the letter she sent out to friends and family:

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that you will join us in celebrating my 16th birthday.  I am thankful to be celebrating with you here in the United States.  I am blessed to have such a great family and friends that have accepted me when I joined the family through adoption.

There really isn’t anything I want or need for my birthday.  I am thankful for what I already have.  So, in honor of my birthday, I would like to help other children that were not as fortunate as me.  There are many children that were left behind in Guatemala without a family to call their own.  In addition there are many that are starving, have no shoes, clothes, or shelter.

I will be traveling to Guatemala on January 18th… While I am in Guatemala, I will have the opportunity to help other children in need.  I plan to spend time at Hope For Tomorrow orphanage.  My plan is to buy things the kids need and take them out for a day of fun.  Hopefully we can have a pizza party for them, go bowling, or anything else that we can arrange.

So, instead of a birthday present for me, I hope that you might consider contributing to my cause to that together, we can help those who were left behind.

Love,

Jacqueline

What an amazing story of self sacrifice and willingness to serve others.  In the words of her mother, “I am SO PROUD of her for wanting to do this.  She could get a lot of gifts/money at her party but she is willing to forgo that all for other children in Guatemala.”

Fast forward a few weeks and Jaqueline, her sister Karly, and her mother Jane were down in Guatemala celebrating with our children.  Through her birthday party she raised more than $1000 and with that money bought our children school supplies, clothes, and some wonderful gifts for Miguel’s 14th birthday (like an iPod nano!!).  But by far the best part of it all was taking all the children out with the family.  On a Saturday morning we packed the kids in the van and went bowling!  This is one activity we had never done before and the children were really excited.  After bowling and some pizza, we were all still excited and full of adrenaline so before heading home we took a detour to the park and spent some time there just hanging out and playing.  The entire day was incredible and the children had a blast.

We are all so thankful to people like Jaqueline who have put the children of our Home before their own personal wants or desires.  Being able to witness these incredible acts of kindess and grace is encouraging, not to mention the wonderful examples they are for our own children.  We pray that they will learn from people like Jaqueline what it means to “love your neighbor”.  Thank you Jaqueline for your passion, your sacrifice, and the example you are.

Here are some pictures from our bowling adventure.

This Christmas our children were blessed to have three different groups of people donate gifts for their Christmas.  The first group was led by some friends of our from our church small group.  They spoke with friends and family member and raised fund to not only buy Christmas presents but to also have dinner and a piñata. We wrote about it before and you can read about the wonderful evening here.

On Christmas eve, we brought the rest of the presents over and celebrated Christmas with all the children.  We started the evening reading about the birth of Christ and explaining that this is the true meaning behind Christmas.  The gifts and presents, while exciting and fun, are meant to symbolize the greatest gift of all: the birth of Christ.  Diana did a wonderful job reading the story with passion and excitement and afterwards, we prayed with all the children.  Then after a brief photo session, we dove into the Christmas gifts.

The second group of gifts also came from our church, but this was organized by our Operation Christmas Child program.  If you aren’t familiar with it, church members fill a shoe box full of items for either a boy or a girl of a specific age.  Then these christmas boxes are delivered to children who might not have gotten a present.  Best of all, they include a personal note in the box, sharing about their families, favorite Bible verses, and what Christ means to them.  It truly is a wonderful program that puts smiles on faces of thousands of children around the world.  Thankfully, this year the program leaders selected us as one of the groups that would be receiving these gifts.  We picked them up from church and brought them over to the children on Christmas Eve and they loved them!  It’s amazing how much stuff can fit into a shoe box.

The third set of Christmas presents came from Diana’s sister that was in from Spain.  She and her husband graciously donated some gifts for all the children.  When we handed out these gifts all of the children were in awe of what they received, but no one more than Willie.  He received a plastic yellow truck and when he saw it he couldn’t contain his excitement.  He repeatedly went around to all of us showing his bright yellow truck with a smile that stretched ear to ear.  Even after handing out the other presents, he always went back to the truck and even when we left a few hours later, he was still running up and down the halls with it.

To us it’s always amazing how such small things can have the biggest impact in the lives of children.  While they of course love the gifts, what truly brings a smile to their faces is to know they aren’t forgotten.  They realized that there are people beyond the children’s home that love and pray for them.  That’s the greatest gift of all: to share hope, peace, love, and comfort to children that sometimes feel abandoned and ignored.

We would like to publicly thank all of the people that were involved in making this such a wonderful Christmas for our children.  People sacrificed time and money to bring a smile to our children’s faces and we can’t be more thankful.  I would also like to thank Diana publicly for contacting, planning and organizing the three different groups of presents.  She was the catalyst for all the gifts the children received.

Thank you all and God bless!

Here are some pictures from our Christmas

This past week we had a few of our friends from church come over and celebrate Christmas with our children.  Two couples, Pablo and Wendy, and Byron and Jennifer, came by Friday afternoon with a few surprises.  They started off with dinner from Burger King, which the children just loved.  In fact, it was Juanita and Willie’s first cheeseburger ever, and they didn’t quite know what to do with it!  After dinner, they brought out a piñata for everyone to enjoy and one by one the children took turns whacking the paper mache Smurf.  Finally, for the main event, we moved to the living room where one by one the couples gave each child a Christmas gift.

The evening was quite special, not because of the food or gifts or presents, but because of the interaction between the children and our friends.  It’s not too often that Guatemalan’s come by and visit the children, but when they do, the connection between the two groups is always very special.  They understand each other cultural which is so important.  They speak the same language, share the same jokes, know the television shows, remember the same games they played when they were younger.  This, more than anything else, make these moments so important and inspiring.

So thank you to Pablo, Wendy, Byron, and Jennifer, and to all their friends that donated to make the evening possible.  It was wonderful!

Our friends took some pictures while they were there and we wanted to share them here.

August and September Recap

August and September were activity packed months for the children of Hope for Tomorrow Children’s Home.  It started just a few days after we took the older children to the movies in July.  Since we didn’t want to leave the little ones out, together with our volunteer Kristina we organized a trip to Islaventura, a gigantic play place that we have taken the children to in the past (see pictures of our trip to Islaventura here).   The preschoolers had a blast climbing and running around the three story high jungle gym, especially Carlos who feels at home since there are so many places for him to grab ahold of.  This was also a great environment for us to interact with Rosa and Diego since they had just came to our home a few weeks back.  Both of them had constant smiles on their faces and it was evident that they had never experienced something like this before in their lives.  After we returned, the older children were a bit jealous, but we graciously reminded them that they went to the movies just a few days before.  “Oh, yeah, you’re right,” they replied as they recalled the trip.  While it’s fun to do activities with all the children together, it’s also good for us to be able to split the children up and do age appropriate activities with the different groups as well.

The following week, our second oldest Edwin, turned 10 years old.  To make the event unforgettable Kristina lovingly paid for a clown to come to the party.  It was something we had never done with the children and we knew it would be a hit.  However, when the clown came to the home dressed up with his painted face, red nose, and big shoes, Edwin ran away screaming!  He hid behind Blanca, noticeably shook up, as Clown Peace rolled his suitcase of props into the living room.  Diana and I both looked at each other wondering if we had made a huge mistake.  If Edwin didn’t like the clown then the entire party would have been a disaster.  But the clown, very professionally began his show and little by little, Edwin warmed up to him.  It was obvious that this wasn’t the first time the birthday child had been scared of a clown.  Within a matter of minutes, Edwin was volunteering to be the clown’s assistant and spent the show helping him perform “magic” tricks.  Edwin felt like the king of the afternoon, exactly what we wanted!  All of the children (and adults!!) had a blast and it was wonderful to hear, weeks after the party was over, the children still singing the songs they had learned with the clown (see pictures of the party here and watch videos of Edwin’s party here).

Independence Day Parades and Activities

A few weeks later we were in the month of September and all kinds of crazy took place.  September is usually a busy month because Guatemala celebrates its independence on the 15th and most schools have some sort of patriotic activity with their students, be it a parade or presentation.  The school the older children attend has a first class marching band and the entire school participates in some way.  The first graders, where Lidia is, dress up as different representations of cultural aspects of Guatemala.  This year, Lidia was the Guatemalan flag!  The second graders on march normally behind the band, but the students with the highest grades become flag bearers and have the special honor of carrying the different flags in front of the other grades.  This year, we are proud to share that Amelia had that honor, as she had the highest grades among her second grade peers.  It was an incredible feeling to watch Amelia, wearing white gloves, walk with her head high as she carried the flag and led her class in the parade (see pictures of Amelia, Lidia and the parade here).

During all these festivities, Miguel and his fifth grade class were back at the school getting ready for the typical market to begin.  All of the older classes split up in groups with some cooking and selling food and others, like Miguel, putting up decorations.  Everything from the parade to the market afterwards is a wonderful time for the children to not only have fun but also to learn about their country.

Continuing with the independence festivities, the following week our own preschool organized a market day as well.  The morning began with the preschoolers doing some dances common among the indigenous populations.  All the children get dressed up in cultural outfits and they even painted little mustaches on the boys!  After the dances, the children helped make and serve Guatemalan food like “tostadas” (hard corn tortillas with guacamole and cheese in top), “chuchitos” (potato based ball filled with chicken), and “atol de elote” (a thick corn drink that is hot and sweet).  Last year, when we did the market there were only 3 children that participated in the dance.  This year, with the addition of the new children, there were seven!  Oh, how we have grown (see pictures of our Hope Preschool Market Day here).

The special school activities came to an end with Edwin’s school and their presentations.  Like last year, Edwin participated in a cultural dance, but this year he was paired with a girl!  It was adorable to see Edwin and his partner dancing away.  By far they were the cutest couple (see pictures of Edwin here and watch him dance here)!

To the Park

As the month of September was coming to an end we did one final activity with the children, taking advantage of the fact the children were out of school due to the presidential election.  We always like to take the children on new adventures so this time we went to a huge park outside the city (see pictures of our trip to the park here) on the way to Antigua.  Unfortunately when we arrived it began to drizzle and we were sure it was going to ruin the morning.  Thankfully, within a few minutes it let up, the clouds parted, and the sun began to shine.  While we have gone to parks before in the past, this was by far the biggest and the children really let loose.  They were running around enjoying the freedoms on the great outdoors.  Lidia, bless her heart, fell down about a half dozen times, since the ground was a bit slick from the recent rain.  And being the rather sensitive person she is, she probably spent half of the time crying on Diana’s shoulder!

About half way through the morning we got a group basketball game together and it was fun playing as a family, passing the ball back and forth and helping each other score.  A little later, we played some hide and seek and during one round, Diana laid 2 year old Daniel on a tree trunk that was slanted at almost a 90 degree angle.  It was hilarious because he fit perfectly on the trunk and laid there as still as he could as he waited for someone to find him.  When someone did find him he would just giggle and grin.

Goodbye Daniel

September came to an end with a bittersweet moment as we took Daniel to his court hearing. After spending the past three months with us, it was now a judge’s decision on whether or not Daniel would stay with us or if he would go home with his family.  During Daniel’s time with us his family visited every moment they could and they were heartbroken when they had to leave.  The only peace they had was knowing Daniel was in a wonderful children’s home and was receiving great care.  By the time the court appearance came, it was evident that Daniel needed to be with his family.  Thankfully, after a short, but nerve-racking hearing, the judge ruled in favor of the family and Daniel could finally go home.   Tears of joy streamed from his mothers eyes as she embraced her son.  She repeatedly thanked us for everything we did for Daniel and all we could say is that it was a privilege for us to play such a crucial role in the life of this family.

The experience with Daniel has truly encouraged us and has given us a new perspective on our ministry.  We have come to see that we are not only called to restore the lives of orphan children, but also the lives of entire families.  To children that have been orphaned and abandoned, we have become their family.  One by one, with the direction and power of God, we are restoring their lives and giving them the opportunity to become the men and women God has called them to be.  But for other children like Daniel, that are only with us a short time, it is evident that they have been placed with us so we can help restore their broken families.  We have the opportunity to not only minister to the child but also the mother, father, aunts and uncles.  Many times the mistreatment that a child receives at home is because the parents themselves are hurt and burdened and we have the privilege to speak truth to their lives and watch as the Lord repairs the brokenness.  What an incredible honor and calling.

Today was a very special day for all of us- it was Edwins 10th Birthday!  We celebrated with a clown that came to the Children’s Home and entertained all the children and adults.  We all laughed and enjoyed it very much.  We also celebrated with cake of course, which was something Edwin was really looking forward to.

It was so nice to be able to celebrate the life of someone so special.  Edwin is such a blessing to be around.  He is very loving and compassionate and it was great for all of us to have the opportunity to share such an important day for him.  He is growing into a wonderful young man.

Here are some photos from the day.

Remember, once you click on an image and it enlarges, you can navigate to the next image by clicking on the right side of the image (a “NEXT” button appears) or return to the previous picture by clicking the left side of the image (a “PREV” button appears). When you are done, click the “CLOSE” button or click outside of the picture.