Birthday party and Easter

Here are some great pics from Lily and Ashton's birthday party and Easter!

April Whirlwind!

Well, April has kicked off with a huge whirlwind.  On April 1st, Lily, Decka, and I boarded a plane for Guatemala to visit Bubby Patricia and Guillermo for Semana Santa.  What an amazing time.  While there we visited two different hogars (orphanages)

 The first one was Oasis, which is basically a foster care home for girls who have been sexually abused, physically abused, and neglected.  Here the girls get a chance to go to school, go to therapy several times a week, and have a safe place to live where they receive physical, emotional, and spiritual care.   Some of the girls have families and some do not. Bill and Pat act as God parents to one of the young ladies, named Tatiana in Oasis.  She is 17 years old and has a very rough past.  Including being sold when she was young for 50 Quetzals (equivalent to about $7 US).  Being kidnapped, being sexually molested and abused by family members, etc.  She has run away from previous orphanages and has been at Oasis for 3 years, apparently the longest placement she has ever had.  She could speak a little English and she and Lily bonded over "camera wars" i.e. taking each other pictures with their respective cameras. If you ask Lily what her favorite part of her trip to Guatemala and Tatiana is in the top 3.

Oasis

Tatiana



Some of the girls playing with their ipads

Tatiana

 In addition to young girls, they have also opened up a new wing, which includes a young mama's ward for young women who have been raped and impregnated and are now raising babies. Hard to believe the girls were 12, 14, and 15 with babies ranging from 9 months to 18 months. Meaning that one of the girls was impregnated at age 11.   The Tia's (house mothers) basically teach them how to parent and also parent them. 




Some of the mama's and the their babies

The second hogar we went to was called Luz de Maria.  There were 31 children of both genders from ages 6 months to 10 years.  There were three nineras (caretakers) who were responsible for them.   I think it was overwhelming for Lily and Decka.  I did talk Lily and Decka into holding a baby to help with their brain development.  Lily also handed out rice crispy treats that she and Bubby made.

While in Guatemala we also went to a wheelchair ministry called Hope Haven.  Since it was a holiday the shop was empty, but it was really cool to see the facility where families' lives are changed by gaining mobility.  Lily and Jessica really enjoyed climbing the avocado tree, playing avocado soccer, and bonding with the dogs.

Hope Haven Warehouse

Climbing the avocado tree

Hope Haven dog, Rita

Another highlight of Guatemala was meeting our Compassion child, Kimberly.  We spent the morning and early afternoon at the Children's Museum in Guatemala City.  What a wonderful experience it was for everyone!  It really broke down the language barrier!

From left to right:  Jessica, Kimberly, Lily, Our translator Kimberly, Kimberly's mother, Manuel, Kimberly Compassion teacher, and me!

Another highlight of Guatemala was celebrating Lily's 9th birthday Guate style!  Bubby made her a traditional Guatemala breakfast, yummy chocolate cupcakes, and Lily got some money to do a little shopping in Antigua!  She got two pairs of really cute shoes (wish they had my size!) and a Guatemalan purse!

Birthday breakfast!

Birthday with tricky candles

Check out those new shoes!

While in Guatemala we did a little sightseeing.  We took Lily and Jessica to Antigua so they could enjoy the Semana Santa festivities.  Lily had a chance to help make a small portion of a sawdust alformbra.  She loved picking up the remnants of floral alformbras and making her own at home!

Using the stencil!

Posing by tiny part of the finished product

Lily's homemade alformbra

Hill of the Cross

More Hill of the Cross

Pretty Lily at Casa Santo Domingo

More pretty Lily at Casa Santo Domingo

Peace out a Casa Santo Domingo

A beautiful sawdust alformbra

Lily in the tuk-tuk

We also went to Lake Atilan.  Even though we had been to Panahajael/Lake Atitlan when we lived in Guatemala, I never took her across the lake due to the "public boats" which have 15 life jackets and are packed with lots and lots of people!  But now since she can swim better than anyone in our family, we went across the lake!  Lily loved being at the head of the boat!  We enjoyed an amazing afternoon at the La Casa de Mundo and walked to the village of Jabilito.  We hoped to see a bit more, but we ran out of time.  Next time!

Lake Atitlan

Dippin her feet in the Lake

Fishing boats on the shores of Lake Atitlan

Front of the boat!

In addition to all the sightseeing, Lily and Decka endured me reuniting with friends.  We saw Antonio, Sonia, and their daughter Cessy.   It was their house that Lily ran into that allowed us to eventually leave the country!  We also saw Lily's old nanny Elaina and our former caretaker of our first apartment in Antigua, Christina, and her daughter Erika.

Christina and Erika

Antonio, Sonia, and Cessy

Elaina

Last but least through it all we got to enjoy time visiting Bubby Patricia and Guillermo.  Lily loved being there and loved their dogs...Tresy Lee, Pinky Lupit, and Lucy Kathleen.

Upon our return, Lily had her first lacrosse game.  Olav got an amazing picture of her!

Hopefully later on will come pictures from Easter and her birthday party!  Until later!

A mothers joy....

Lily is such a treasure.  There are so many things that she says and does that make me so proud of who she is and the young woman she is becoming.

For example, recently a dear friend's grandmother passed away and Lily was close to her.  During the memorial service, they asked if anyone wanted to come up and share some words about "Gram".  Lily got up on stage in front of a bunch of people she did not know and shared her special memory of Gram.  What a treasure!

Also at the memorial service was our former pastor Mark Vandeermeer was there.  Lily had written him a note a few months earlier from her heart telling him how special he is to her.  At the memorial service, she ran right up to him and cuddled him throughout the service.  It brought tears to everyone's eyes!

Her swimming!  She is such an amazing swimmer!  Yesterday when she set 4 new personal records, I had tears streaming from my eyes.  She has worked so hard to master new skills and her hard work really paid off.

Her heart for God is amazing.  She loves Jesus and it shows in almost everything she says and does.

Lastly, she is such a good big sister to Ashton.  She loves him, plays with him, protects him, and of course like any good sister tortures him. 

Lily and the shower!

And so it begins!  Lily is the longest showerer ever....and she is only 8 years old!!!!  I can only imagine what the future may hold!

Also today, Lily finally began to embrace her inner sledder. I've always wondered why my kids simply dislike going out and playing in the snow.  I can remember growing up and spending hours out sledding...only to have my mother call us in hours later.  Finally today...my kids went outside voluntarily to sled 3 times!!!!  Finally!  Now granted they wanted us with them, but at least they were out there!

On a more serious note, I have been wondering if we should search for biological family, especially in light of our upcoming trip to Guatemala in April.  I'm so conflicted.  For right now we are not going to search.  I hope we are not making a mistake.  My biggest fear in delaying the search is that something might happen to Lily's birthmother before she would have a chance to meet her.  On the other hand, there are so many other concerns that prevent us from searching as well (i.e. fear of what we may find out, long-term exploitation, and more complex emotional matters).  I guess time will tell.

So gifted and talented

So I totally forgot to write about Lily's 1st Choral performance around Christmas time.  It was spectacular!  Lily was in the front row and she was so animated!!!!  It was adorable!  She has another chorus concert this week at the local high school, so hopefully I can get some good pictures of her to post!

Also, a few weeks ago we were at a swim meet, and up until that meet Lily had never done her flip turns in competition for fear of being disqualified.  She was swimming the 100 M, and she actually flipped turn in the competition!  I was sooooo proud of her!  I asked her if she could hear me cheering for her and if was embarrassing her!  Thankfully her answer was yes she could hear me and no she wasn't embarrassed!

Lastly, today I was reminded again of just how beautiful Lily's heart is!  Jen, one of the Sunday school teachers caught me and told me that Lily had given some of her coins to a new little girl in the Sunday school, so she could put them in the offering plate as well as it went around.  Jen was so impressed, that Lily was so thoughtful of another child when most children would normally think of just themselves!  Proud mama moment!  God made her pretty special!

Rite of passage!

Last week Lily had her official "rite of passage" as a young girl.  She went to her first official sleepover at her best friend Brooke's house.  She was a little nervous to go, having never been to a "real" sleepover, but of course, as expected she had a fabulous time! Here are some pics Brooke's mom sent me!

November download

Our beautiful girl!

Well, November has come and gone.  Lily has been a gem!  I know I say this often, but I just adore her heart.  She has such a heart for others.  She has a special way of making all the people in her life feel special.  Over the last two days, she has lost two teeth!  Very exciting!  She exclaimed, "Mom my smile is a checkerboard!"  We had our parent-teacher conference with Lily's 3rd-grade teacher last week.  She reports that Lily is doing well and has shown great improvement in math.  She also mentioned that Lily is an excellent reader, who reads with "best expression" in the class!  She continues to excel at swimming.  She just recently has been adding the breaststroke to her repertoire.  She is still afraid to do her flip turns in competition, but hopefully, she will try it next competition!  On Thanksgiving, Lily bonded with Kodi.  Kodi then had the following conversation with his mom on the car ride home.

Kodi: Mom is it allowed to marry my cousin?
Mom:  Well it's not illegal, but generally frowned upon in society.  But allowed
Kodi:  Great!  I'm adding Lily to my list of potential wives.
Mom: You know you're 10....you don't need to pick a wife just yet...
Kodi:  I know, I just want to be prepared with options

LOL!!!!