Merry Christmas!!!

Hello friends and family! We are excited to share with you some of the experiences we have had this year in relation to the local orphanage here in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. In particular, we wanted to report on the activities and material help/support we were able to provide this month thanks to the generous donations we received from many of you back home, as well as many friends and family members we have here in Guate. We would like to, first, introduce you to the group home and the work that it carries out for its residents. We would also like to briefly explain how our relationship with the orphanage has developed since moving down here in March of 2015.

Fundacion Salvacion is a Christian children’s home founded in 1999. The home provides temporary care for children and adolescents that are considered at-risk, orphaned, or abandoned. There are currently around 80 children residing at the home. The home provides for the basic needs of each child, and they strive to do this using a house-parent model, which allows each child to be placed in a smaller family structure within the larger context of the home. The home is run by a very small staff, as well as a group of dedicated volunteers who have committed to help on a long-term basis. These individuals are made up of local Guatemalans as well as a few people from the United States who have made this country their home. Story International, a charitable organization dedicated to serving vulnerable youth in Guatemala, began supporting the home in 2012. They founded a school just down the road from the home intended to provide a quality, bilingual education for the residents of Fundacion Salvacion (the kids’ ability to understand and speak English is quite impressive). They have several other programs and businesses that are meant to benefit the home directly. While this group home, in my opinion, is a great place where kids have their basic needs met, as well as receive genuine love from the people who work and volunteer there, this situation is not ideal. The home has recently begun working more closely with the local community, not only to solicit monetary and material donations, but to raise awareness of the responsibility that community members have of caring for these children. They are striving to educate people on the foster care and adoption programs that exist here in Guatemala. This is quite the challenge, seeing as there seems to be a cultural disinclination towards caring for children who are not yours biologically (you should hear some of the questions we get from people about Xavion and Layla).

Since moving to Guatemala in 2015, as a family we have always been interested in volunteering at Fundacion Salvacion and doing what we can to help the children there. Every now and then we would drop off bags of clothes that the kids have grown out of, and we would even volunteer at the home when we had the chance, spending time with the kids there or applying a fresh coat of paint to rooms throughout the home. Around the end of the year in 2015, we had the desire to do something special for the home for Christmas. With the help of local friends and family, we collected some donations. We dropped these items off at the home and carried out a small activity with the kids there. Family members and our church youth group helped us with this activity. In 2016, we thought to ask for help from people back home, and we were grateful that many people decided to help financially with the small project that was becoming a family tradition for us. With this help, we were able to buy many things that covered some of the needs of the home, including food supplies and new shoes for the majority of the residents. Including all of the material donations that we received that year from local families and individuals, we delivered a truck-load of supplies to the home. We also carried out a small activity for all of the kids at the home. Since we received so much help from people with our project, we were able to provide a special treat for the kids: pizza! 

This year was a very special year for us in regards to our relationship with Fundacion Salvacion. At the beginning of the year we continued to drop off donations and volunteer every now and then at the home. In May, I began my field practice at the home as part of the MSW program that I am completing. I was able to complete two semesters of field at Fundacion Salvacion, which just ended this month. Since I began working there, Brenda and the kids began going to the home more as well to simply spend time with the kids. Eventually, Brenda was asked by the agency director if she would be willing to volunteer of her time on a more formal basis as a group leader for the young women of the group home. She had noticed the positive relationships that the girls had formed with Brenda (as well as Maya!) and felt like she needed to make Brenda an official member of the team within Fundacion Salvacion. Brenda was happy to accept the challenge. Our relationship with the home has definitely evolved and deepened throughout 2017. Through this relationship, we have been able to really get to know the kids there. We have learned of their stories. We have realized that, despite their difficult situation, they are normal kids who want to have fun and enjoy life. They want to love and be loved. We have met many of the amazing people who are involved in the care of these kids and who keep the home up and running. We have learned the true needs of the home, and have realized how difficult it is to keep an institution like that going. Our children have made friends with many of the kids at the home, and we have become part of the family there. Our involvement with the home has provided us with many opportunities to provide service this year. Apart from the responsibilities we had (me as a social work intern, Brenda as a volunteer group leader), we have been able spend meaningful time with the kids, getting to know them, providing motivation and support, and helping them progress and overcome their personal challenges. We participated in the anniversary activities of the home, which included a 5k run in the rain (Xavion ran the whole thing!) We carried out several activities with the youth of our church for the benefit of the group home and the kids, including service activities and fun recreational activities for the children. We have also had the valuable opportunity to be advocates for the home, creating awareness of its needs and involving friends and family in donating and providing service to help the kids. It has been a blessing for us to be able to do this work. We have made many new friends, created many valuable memories, gained a deeper sense of gratitude for what we have, learned to love and serve, and received countless hugs from adorable children, among many other blessings.

  

This year we wanted to make our Christmas activity extra special for the kids, while also covering some of the overall needs that existed. We wanted to give a more individualized service to as many of the kids as possible, focusing on doing things that would truly allow them to have fun. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible. Again, we received a lot of help from family and friends back home, as well as from families and individuals here in Huehue.

During this time of year, there are a few groups and organizations that carry out activities for the kids at Fundacion Salvacion, but these activities are usually directed towards small children. The youth residing at the home are oftentimes overlooked or feel left out. We invited all of the young women (ages 12+) to our home for a small Christmas party. We hiked up into the hill behind our house. After returning to the house, we watched movies while we helped the girls make homemade pizzas for dinner. We then played the candy bar game (a family favorite) with them, which was a big hit! Brenda also had a small gift for each of these girls, seeing as she is their group leader. This activity was a lot of fun, and the girls were happy to get out of the group home for a while.

For the young men (ages 12+) we arrived at the home with the things that matter most to adolescent boys: video games and food! We had an awesome Mario Kart Wii tournament and ate Domino’s pizza. They really enjoyed themselves.

 

Apart from these two activities which were directed towards the youth, we were able to take all of the residents to the local movie theater. We contacted the theater beforehand and had them do a special showing of Coco (awesome movie!) just for Fundacion Salvacion. Popcorn and soda were included for everyone. This was an incredible activity, and part of the fun was helping to transport all 80 kids and staff members to and from the theater.

We received material donations from many people here locally, and with the financial help we received, we were able to buy many backpacks and formal shoes that kids needed for the coming school year. This will relieve the home of a significant monetary expenditure this coming new year. My brother, Matt, and I also donated spinners from our business to each of the children at the home. 

THANK YOU once again to all those who made these activities possible. Believe me when I say that you helped to meet real needs and, most importantly, made many children very happy. These kids are real and, despite their hardships and challenges, are full of love and enthusiasm. We love these kids and hope that they can be successful as they grow up and go into the world. They are still in need of much help. If you are able and willing, please visit Story International’s website (storyintl.org) where you can learn of ways that you can help Fundacion Salvacion and the kids that reside there. You can even choose to sponsor a specific child for a minimal monthly amount. Christmas is about celebrating the birth and life and of our Savior Jesus Christ. He has dedicated His entire existence to blessing all of us in immeasurable ways. I have learned that the best way to honor and love Him is to serve others, whether it be our closest family members, or people we have never met. This service oftentimes is very simple, but it can make a big difference. Thank you for doing that this Christmas season, and let’s continue to do it throughout the year ahead!

September 2017

Has it really been almost a year since my lost post? Well, there should be a lot to tell then! Unfortunately, I have forgotten everything haha.

We are all doing good enjoying Guatemala. We might only have 1 more year here so we need to take advantage of that. So here is a little bit of what is going on with us  :D

Maya: Oh my sweet little girl. Every day we look at each other with Mike and express how grateful we are that she is ours. She is such a sweet little girl. She loves to cuddle, give kisses, say hi and bye, she loves to eat and my goodness is she always smiling. On our trip to New York a bunch of people stopped to say hi to her and she loved the attention. We heard "she is so cute" a thousand times haha. At one point in the plane and on the train she just sat there and said hi to every single person that passed by us. On my hard days all I gotta do is look at her and my day automatically becomes better. We are so grateful for her. She can crawl so fast and is really trying to stand up by herself, she will be walking soon i think. She loves to pull my hair and sticks it in her mouth. The only bad thing is she puts everything in her mouth. Colton never did this. The other day i saw her picking something up and put it in her mouth. I ran to her and took it out of her mouth.... it was a SLUG!!! Gross, I still get grossed out every time I think about it. 

Colton: He is still a mamma's boy even though he is getting better at not being with me all the time. He is so fun though and says some pretty funny stuff. He has my parents laughing all the time with the things he comes up with. He loves to play cars, soccer and superheros. He is still having a hard time staying in his primary class. He goes to half class and then he gets out. He has really gotten into eating fruit now, it's nice to have our trees of berries because he just takes a cup and goes on his own to pick them out. He loves to play with water, he gets sick very often but when i see how much fun he is having i just cant tell him to stop haha.

Layla: Just yesterday we had the elders come over for dinner and they told us a funny story. They love Layla and the things she comes up with. Just a couple of weeks ago i guess she went up to one of the elders from the other ward and gave him a stapler. She told him she had gone to the Mesilla (town where the border is) and had gotten it for him. She told him to put it in his packet and no matter what to not let me see it haha. They said we knew what she had done was not right but her face was priceless and we had fun with that. She decided that she didn't like gymnastics any more and she only wanted to do skating. Both of them with Xavion can use the skates pretty good so we think this next year we will enroll them in something else until they decide what is it that they really like and stick with it.

Xavion: Well, he is turning 8 this month. I talked to the bishop today and he agreed into doing his baptism on the 30th. It's so nice to know he will be getting baptized, at the beginning of the year he was already inviting everybody to his baptism so he is pretty excited. We have been practicing a song that the 3 of them will be singing that day. It will be nice if my family can come and be with him on that day. He is having a hard time separating English from Spanish when it comes to writing and reading. We are still thinking if we will enroll them in school next year or just stick with homeschooling. Public school here is kind of a mess. Right now they haven't been going to school for over a week because the teachers are protesting and the way they do it is by closing all of the schools. Xavion started going down in his grades and he was even sent to the principal's office 2 times but after a talk with him things got a little bit better. So its kind of hard to decide to keep them at home because they enjoy school and enjoy their friends and we know they need their friend time. So we will see what we decide to do once that times gets closer.

Mike and I are surviving. Mike keeps doing his practice at the local orphanage and he loves it. He has gotten pretty close to some of these kids. Other than that we are just surviving with 4 little kids who keep us pretty busy. Now that we went to New York I didn't want to come back to Guatemala. I love my country but going back to the states and walking around TARGET was nice haha. My friends made sure we had a nice time and since we had such a short time to be there everything was just in a hurry. We did get to go to Kohl's, Ross, Target, Old navy, Red Robin, Wendy's!!! just walking into a organized store was nice haha. I think Mike is tired of hearing me saying "I just want to go back again" haha. I thought Colton was going to have a hard time while I was gone so i didn't want to go for too long but he was happy and didn't cry at all. When i came back my mom said how obedient and nice Colton was. She said she was amazed at how much he understands and how well he listens. Then she said "leave me your 2 boys any time but next time take Layla" haha. We loved New Jersey and Delaware. Everything was green and there were lots of trees and mountains everywhere. It was like being in Guatemala but in the US. After seeing so much beauty we don't know if we want to go back to Arizona where everything is dry haha. Well I hope it won't take me another year before I come back again. Till next time!