guat's up

urraco --> la ceiba --> san pedro sula --> copan --> antigua, guatemala...and back again! we had quite the roadtripping adventure in a successful attempt to renew our honduran visas this week. i'm thankful to say we made it in one piece from home to guatemala all by our gringoish selves. 

along the way was a lot of market shopping, eating, relaxing, internet-using, site seeing, and birthday celebrating. the shuttle rides between all of that were nothing short of a manu chao song. i had a hard time keeping up with the portuguese, spanish, itialian, english and whatever else anyone was speaking in our 15 passenger deluxe luxury vehicle.

we also checked some critical foods off the cravings list. this would include steaks, mcmuffins, ceviche, crepes, ice cream cones and mexican food. yes, mexican food in guatemala.

{the fanciest mcdonalds i've ever seen. aka the u.s. embassy}

i think it's also safe to say that we refined our bargaining skills at the famous antigua street market. 85 quetzales? i'll pay you 50. we made out pretty well with some fresh jeans, headphones, jerseys, a floor rug, a chess set, coffee, knives, Bibles, cds, sunglasses, baby clothes, shirts, movies and a cowboy hat. now the question is...how are we hauling it all back. nothing short of a miracle, my friends.

{yes, that's the volcano in the background}

if it sounds like guatemala was one big eating, sleeping, and shopping extravaganza, you're right. maybe next time we'll actually go see the volcano. woops!

copan is a small tourist city right on the other side of the border. we stayed here for two nights and got to go see the mayan ruins. very little of it is original but it was still cool to go see some of the structures still there. 

{happy birthday gwayden!}

it's back up the mountain for these volunteers! looking forward to being back "home" and seeing all of our favorite people again. 

i'll leave you with these precious pics...

can't figure out which one makes me laugh harder. love this girl!

ministry update

hope you are just as encouraged as i am about what God is doing down here in rural honduras. please check out the ministry's blog to read about our new kids and the team we've got down here. 

a few of us are headed to guatemala to renew our visas this week. pictures to come!

if your'e interested, check out monica and kelvin's blog here and brayden's over here to read about things from their end. 

life in january

this month has been very exciting because we were blessed with 5 new children that came to live with us! their transition to the country life has been really positive, they love helping out with the animals and spending time playing in the basketball court. it's been fun to have some new faces and be able to spend extra time getting to know them. for the two older ones we've been working on some math and reading lessons to get them ready for school. below are just a few photos of them hanging out with us. if you'd like to learn more about the kids or are interested in sponsoring some of them, check out the givehopekids page here. 

in other news...we bought a monkey for $15 named lola.

she's actually a "miko de noche" or a kikachu so it's mostly active at night, although we've noticed she usually is up around lunchtime to munch on something and say hello. 

a few weeks ago we celebrated Areli's 15th birthday and had a few friends over for a party. 

sarah also made this incredible strawberry cake for her party.

some photos of life in honduras...

above is the first english class we had during library time. we're just teaching vocabulary so it will be a supplement or a head start for those who are studying it in school. we give out lists and have quizzes every week. it's cool to see how motivated some of the kids are to learn and how quickly they pick it up. with perfect scores on their quizzes they have a chance to "buy" school supplies they will need with library money.

catching all the chickens to put back in the coop. if you can't tell by my face, this would be my first time doing that. these laying hens were a great success for egg production. we plan to get 30 more in the near future. doesn't get any fresher than that!

Josiah is going to be 1 year old next month and he's learning how to get around quick. He loves to practice his walking!

a few construction pictures -- the main projects for this that we've got going on are for Sarah and Jason's house and also the library addition. once this is all finished, there will be a whole lot of shuffling around and more place to spread out and organize the library. if you can see in the picture below, some of the guys are working on putting up a repeater so we can get some reliable cell phone service {eventually}.

some time spent with the girls in the house -- sucking on limes and salt. whatever gets a funny face outta ya!

this is our latest form of showering down at the creek on the property. the water feels so wonderful and it's a blast to take some of the kids down and hang out. {did i mention this is january? yeah? okay just checking.}

lots of projects going on, lots of spending time with kids, lots of trusting that the Lord is in all of it, working things out just the way he wants. 

thanks again to those of you who are praying for us and supporting me financially. the impact on these kids and the community as a whole up here is eternal!

i'm dreaming of a tropical christmas

as you might have guessed, it was a snowless christmas. and i couldn't be happier. last friday was spent with the girls making cookies and eating special honduran christmas food -- chicken sandwhiches and our favorite, homemade pizza. 

friday night we had a special get together for the community -- complete with a fabulous christmas drama put on by the local kids. afterwards everyone was able to hang around and play, snack, and experience their first exposure to...ready for it?...s'mores! a little skeptical at first but by the end of the night kids {and adults}  were coming back to the table for more and more marshmellows to roast. a complete success. and some incredible entertainment. 

the guys got some new slick hair-dos from the sisters. they used most of the jar of gel and i think this look lasted a total of 15 minutes before destruction. below is brayden and the youngest sister abi. on the right is kelvin with baby kelly. 

making homemade snowflakes was so much fun this year. sarah does it every christmas to decorate the house so this year we all joined in on it. i think the girls didn't stop cutting construction paper for a whole week. it was everywhere. but our house was full of snowflakes that everyone got to make. 

a photo of rainy season christmas eve below...

and of bright and sunny christmas day...

jealous? thought so.

below is a video of christmas celebration with the girls -- lots of cooking, laughing, eating, christmas music and baking cookies. hope your day was just as lovely!