GUATEMALA: Day 1

This morning at 5:30 a.m. our family left on our grand missions adventure to Guatemala!  We have run on adrenaline all day and are so thankful to be in our hotel rooms, in our pajamas and headed for bed soon!  I am also thankful to report that I had not panic attacks flying.  Evidently children are a strong distraction from emotional collapse (although we all know they are sometimes the cause of it, too!).  Our big talk with Graciela this morning was about how she needed to be holding a hand AT ALL TIMES. . . unless she was sitting down.  The consequence for not holding our hand would be the purchase of a child halter and leash.  We had been at the Greensboro airport for ten minutes, when she asked me if we could just go ahead and buy her a leash!!  Gladly, we did not need to and she is getting use to holding hands.  The other kids have been great and protective of her. 

The highlight of the day was meeting with our Compassion child, Kimberly!  Within an hour and a half of landing, we had rendevoused with our Compassion host, Lucia, who took us to the Metrobowl, where we met 19-year-old Kimberly and her chaperone, Griselda.  It was amazing to meet the person whose picture has been on our refrigerator for the last six years!  She was beautiful and gracious and we loved spending the afternoon eating and bowling with her.  She and Griselda both bowled for the first time in their lives!!  Thanks to the interpretation of Lucia, we were able to really engage.  At the end, we stood outside on the sidewalk and prayed for Kimberly.  She gave a very heartfelt "speech," thanking us for choosing her and telling us what a difference sponsorship has made in her life.  It was very poignant since she has aged out of the Compassion program and we will no longer be able to correspond with her as easily.  (We can e-mail her in English and she can e-mail us in Spanish, but there is the sticky problem of interpretation on both sides!)  We are so, so thankful for the time spent with Kimberly.

Tonight we went to a nearby Guatemalan restaurant which the kids really enjoyed.  The mark of a good hispanic restaurant is a woman making fresh tortillas and we were not disappointed!  Graciela kept wandering over to watch her and was thrilled when the woman invited her to make tortillas with her!!   What a sweet experience for her. . . and a great photo-op for us!

Tomorrow we are up early to visit our second Compassion child, Donai.  We will travel 87 miles and it will take us 3 hours!  Today we learned that he actually lives in the very town where Graciela was born!  We never knew!