Title: I can't think of one!

I guess I've been in a little of a funk lately. Katie, who fostered in Antigua before described it as like in the movie Groundhog Day were everyday was the same. I've gotten to that point. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have this opportunity and trying to be open to how I can serve while down here. I'm just missing home, family, and friends. Thank you Lord, though, for the friends I have here and for Emily and I being able to live together! That part has been great (the girl speaks amazing Spanish, too--not that we would use her for that :).

And Erick is wonderful. I love pulling him out of his packnplay in the mornings and plopping him on the bed to squirm around and play. He's very curious and loves to touch my face and feel my closed eyes. Not always such a good thing, though, as that translates into wanting to poke all the other kids in the eyes! He is very loving, too, and comes at the other babies with hugs of good intention, but barrels into them, knocking them over. He's turning into the kid who comes into the room and all the moms get on guard.

The two pics are of our trip to the macacamia nut farm. The tour guide is showing us a sheller that drops the nuts down, the wheel turns and crushes the soft outer shell and spits out the nut back into a pile to let the hard inner shell dry and later be cracked. Such a simple piece of equipment and they are teaching farmers to make these even out of bicycle tires. There's your nut tip for the day. We are trying to plan weekly outings like this to help stay sane! :0)

May 13

Had a great day. Emily and I met up with two super-cool fostering moms, Melissa and Kim, who have been here quite awhile for their adoption processes. Melissa has volunteered alot at Hermano Pedro, a local hospital and care facility, that houses mostly(?) cerebral palsy residents. We all took our kids and went to the children's wing to hang out with them. I wasn't sure about Erick, if I'd have to really watch him or carry him alot, but he had a ball and wasn't a problem at all.

The gut-wrenching part was seeing the kids in the condition they are in and, like at many institutions and orphanages, the lack of staff. They had mosquito nets draped over kids to keep flies, etc away as the kids have a lack of mobility with their limbs. One boy was sitting in his wheelchair with his face in the hot sun, not being able to move. The staff rotates the kids around as they can get to them, but sometimes it takes awhile. It was great just to be able to be there and love on them. You can tell they so long for someone to hold their hand or give them a hug. We plan to make this a regular visit.

Yesterday Emily mentioned reading something in Psalms so when I had a few minutes I went there, too. It was SO uplifting. I was going to jot a few verses down to look at over the week and just kept writing and writing. With some adoption process news being shaky lately, it's been easy to get a little down here and long to be home. I've had to make myself "snap out of it" and to get back to reading God's word and to get out and serve!

Lastly, if I had to be honest, I'd say that I'm really not a blogger at heart. I'm just not organized or energized enough to get this together at the end of the day! I want to keep everyone updated with news and pictures, though, and will shoot for blogging weekly. The good news is that Emily has a great blog! The address is http://www.armstrongfamilyadventure.blogspot.com/ So, if you get tired of waiting to hear from me, check out her site! :-) Please know that I greatly appreciate all of your prayers and comments! Lee Anne

1st Mother's Day

Wow, I was wondering if this day would ever come come! Had a nice but bittersweet Mother's Day as several moms here got together for brunch and a day of swimming and being on the playground with the kids. The downside was that Pat, his parents, and Emily's husband, Jimmy, all left this morning. Emily and I were both so badly wanting to fly home with them! We're ready to come home!!

Had a great week with Ann and Glade being here. Erick took to them right away and had so much fun. Yesterday we took a tour of the city that explained about many of the ruins and churches in Antigua. Most of the ruins here are left as they are from earthquake damage over the years. Our tour ended in a jade factory (jade is the national stone of Guatemala). Yesterday was Mother's Day in Guatemala so Ann and I were each treated to a piece of jade jewelry by our best-husbands-ever. :-)

I'm still working on getting pictures downloaded and organized. Will post some later in the week.