Pizza Party!!! (our last night)

It is so sad and so unbelievable that tonight is our last night. Although we have had very packed days, it still doesn't seem like we should be going home. Tonight we got to have a pizza party with all the kids. We had a dance party, glow sticks, hawaiian leis, pizza, la fresca, and a chance to love on these kids....such a blast!! Watching them do the chicken dance and some crazy Latin dancing was so much fun. These kids have been calling us their mamas and giving us tons of besas (kisses). We know it is not much, but we hope that these special kids were able to feel the love of Jesus through us this week. Thank you again for all of your prayers, support, and donations that made this trip so amazing.

One of my highlights from this trip was being able to just love on these kids. I had 7 or 8 little girls that are Kenzie and Kella's ages running around in their undies (when they were supposed to be getting in the bath)...I gave them all kisses before I left and they kept coming back giving me more. I seriously just felt like I was with my little sisters....but to think that these precious little kids don't have parents and siblings to call their own, breaks my heart.

We all wish we could take every one of them home with us, but we know we can't. What we can do is continue to pray for them, encourage people to sponsor them, and continue to come down here to love on them and hopefully get others to join us! (Check out their sponsorship opportunities @http://www.foreverchangedinternational.org/sponsorship). Being able to connect with these kids all week, but also being able to go out in the community where people are hurting even more has been such an eye opening week. God is working in Guatemala and it has been a blessing to be a part of it!

With lots of love....Kaley and the Guatemalan Girls

(already miss you Missy and Kristie!!)

The Dump

Imagine an enormous garbage dump with thousands of vultures swarming around....the smell is horrifying....the top of the dump is a cemetary reminding people of death everyday...and thousands of people being dependant of the dump for jobs of digging through garbage to find things to recycle and resell....they are actually in the dump using their own hands and feet right in the piles of garbage where the trucks are dumping off loads every minute....chemicals are being exposed of in the same exact place where moms are walking with their children to gather anything they can find to sell....this is their life. This is all they know.

We had the priviledge of meeting and donating things to a mission called Safe Passage, which is an organization that is trying to break the cycle by providing children of the dump with a safe place to be with education, love, and food while their parents are working in the dump. They also provide an adult literacy program and a woman's entrepreneurial program where they teach the women how to make jewelry with recycled things that are coming from the dump. This helps to keep some moms from having to devote their lives to working in the dump. One of the leaders of Safe Passage kept reinforcing the concept of how important dignity and self esteem is to every person and how we must all do our part in helping those that are less fortunate realize that every person matters. The people working in the dump are seen as Guatemala's "lowest" society, however they matter to God and they need to matter to us as well. (http://www.safepassage.org/)

Our team also was able to go into the slums of the dump and hand out food bags and small toys to the children that live there. As soon as we started handing out a few matchbox cars to a few little boys, we began to be swarmed by tons of kids and adults as well. They were looking for anything we had to give. As much as it was overwhelming to see this many people in such a need, it was also a blessing to be able to help these people in such a small way.

One family specifically stuck out to us because we actually were able to visit their "home." Seriously, this was the worst we had seen....as we peeked in, all you could see were piles upon piles of garbage brought from the dump. The adults were sorting through it, while the kids sat outside. We were drawn to these two precious kids and were able to give them stickers, silly bands, glow sticks, and new backpacks that people donated. They were beyond grateful. As we were pulling away in our van, we saw the two little kids running after us as happy as could be...such joy on their faces.

a peak inside their home...

seriously sooo thrilled with their new backpacks!!

hopping down the road following our van with the biggest grin :)

Good Morning Guata Babies!!

Well, to start off our last full day of Guatemala, we all got up and helped get the kiddos ready for the day. We brought lots of bows and headbands to do the girlies' hair. Then we joined in on the morning activities. It was so precious to see these kids sing their Bible songs, to hear the "special mamas" give the Bible story, and to see the kids fold their little hands to pray. It was Missy and Kristie's time to say goodbye. They left with very heavy hearts, but we know that God has put a new passion in their hearts for these kids, which is so amazing to see. We also got to give the different shifts of "special mamas" gift bags with some lotions, t-shirts, and nail polish. They are amazing and are such a blessing to these kids. They work so hard and are always doing the best they can to show the love of Christ.

the girls in all their bows!

Breakfast time

Praying her little heart out

(Grandma Gert~ you can't tell, but these two babies have their pink and blue onesies on!!)

Just a few of the special Mamas

Missy and her little boy

feeding all the babies....

Here's our team photo with our great leader Desi! We gave her a 147 million orphan shirt since we all want to spread the word about the need of the orphans!

(http://www.147millionorphans.com/)

A quick little visit to Eagle's Nest

We forgot to mention our quick little visit to Eagle's Nest that was on Tuesday on our way back from the Mayan village.  We asked our driver if we would be able to stop by quickly to be able to see the orphanage that some of our dear friends have been involved with through adoption and mission trips.  It was great to be able to see yet another orphanage and where those kids were being loved and where Jesus was talked about.  Our team was thankful for the sweet time we had there.

Molly, this one's for you!!

Andy....?

precious

we all wanted to steal them!!

Mamacitas!!

representing 147 million orphans!!

~XOXO your Guatemala Girls!!~

Heavy Hearts

Wow! How can I begin to put into words everything we saw and experienced today?! I think I can speak for the group by saying that our hearts are heavy.  This morning we drove to the state orphanage where currently 700 children live.  700!  Soon to be 1000 children.  Phew.  We probably saw a third of this facility today and of course only what they wanted us to see.  Our scheduled appointment was with the teen girls and then the teen moms, but first we got to visit the special needs kids and the babies.  It broke our hearts to see these children with 1 maybe 2 special mamas in this big room of little ones.  Where was the nurturing?  Some of the babies didn't even respond to our touches, just stoic expressions.  Heartbreaking.

the government run orphanage

loving on the babies that barely get picked up out of their cribs...

Still even writing this I am at a loss for how to explain this experience at the state orphanage.  *Insert Deep Breath Here*  Okay moving on...

 Like I stated earlier we had an appointment with the teen girls and teen moms.  From what we understand there are 300 teen girls at this facility.  Thirty-two teen girls ages 10-16 years old were pulled out for us to share time with.  We shared the gospel with them through salvation bracelets which we made, next the girls either did a craft or got their fingernails painted by us, what a joy to see how excited they were about this simple activity. Next we were able to bless these girls with a big "Powerpuff" cake and some soda pop ( a very rare treat for them).  Lastly, we prayed over these girls for God's presence, protection, and blessing over their precious lives.

craft time with the teens

painting their nails :)

Our next stop was to the teen moms.  These young (and I mean young, 12 was the youngest) girls are in the orphanage with their little ones because they were all victims of rejection in their own families.  Their stories are heartbreaking and ones we can't even talk about.  We handed out bags of goodies to each mom and their child.  Again we were honored to be able to pray blessings over them.

I am not sure we have even really begun to process all of this.  We don't even know what to do with this....these emotions and knowledge.  Now we need to pray that God reveals His will for us regarding this experience.

 On a lighter note, our day was brightened when we came back to Dorie's Promise and got the opportunity to take the kids to a beautiful neighborhood park.  What a joy it was to spend the afternoon with these precious ones.  Seriously I am tearing up now thinking about leaving them here.  Even though they are soooo loved and taken care of, most of them don't have Mommies and Daddies.   Lots of these kids come from horrific experiences or were abandoned and you can't help but ask yourself how anyone could ever hurt or reject these gifts from God!  Oh how we have fallen in love with these kids here in the last few days and our hearts are breaking thinking about leaving.  (If only we could bring them all home with us!)

off to "el parque" with 20 kiddos...

find someone to hold your hand!!

Kristie and her Brayan

"Help me, Mama!"

Loving on the babies that didn't get to go to the park...

Dinner time....there was even a little food fight!!

With much love,

  Kristie along with Missy