Today started a little earlier than yesterday, but thanks to a one-hour time difference from home, it’s not too hard to get up early here. Breakfast was scheduled to start at 7 a.m., so I got to the kitchen by 6 a.m. to start pulling things together. Since the lighter breakfasts of fruit, yogurt, cocoa, and granola seem to be a hit, I’m sticking with that idea. I served coffeecake yesterday and biscuits today…so I might do pancakes or something interesting like that tomorrow. I don’t know yet. ☺
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Thanks to the time change, I woke up nice and early this morning. After a quick shower I headed to the kitchen to see what sort of breakfast I could rustle up. What fun to have a little kitchen to play with! I sliced the coffeecake and discovered it was burned on the bottom, so I carefully sliced off the bottom of each piece and arranged the remaining good parts on a plate. Note to self: cook a bit higher in the oven next time.
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After sleeping for a bit, I awoke to discover the sky was not as black as before, and I realized it was almost sunrise. It was exciting to realize we were almost to Guatemala.

Our plane landed around 7:15 a.m. in Guatemala City. The scenery certainly was different than what I was used to seeing. There were mountains and tropical plants and just a whole different look to everything.
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Friday morning brought a feeling of excitement to our family. Amelia was just bubbling about how fun it was going to be to have a sleepover at Uncle Roy and Aunt Mary’s house. Luke was downright giddy. Isaac was wonderfully cheerful and helpful. Laura was the most hesitant of all the children, saying that she wished we didn’t have to go or that she could go with us.

We jumped into action working to get our final to-do list all done. I did a final check of the children’s suitcases, Michael got our tech stuff all set, and finally our bags were packed. Michael had a challenging job to get all four bags evenly packed and the right weights.
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We have arrived at the Eagle’s nest. After a long flight, and an adventerous ride up and down the mountain we have arrived and are settling in. Right now the internet connection is working here so updates should be posted daily.

Michael (for Christie)

Tomorrow is the big day.  I can’t believe the time is so close.

Fortunately, we’re very close to being ready.

More good news is that it looks like we’ll have plenty of room and plenty of weight to spare with all the stuff I want to take.

The children seem to be handling the idea of being away from us.  Laura is the most uneasy about it.  And Judah has no clue what’s coming.  But everyone else seems to understand and be ok.

Tonight we did our final shopping trip at Walmart.  In addition to the odds and ends on our list, we got several large bags of small wrapped candy.  We are planning to keep candies in our pockets to hand out to kids we meet.  One of our team members suggested carrying candy when we go to the markets so that we have something to hand to the street kids who are begging.   And the kids at the orphanage will enjoy raiding our pockets, no doubt.

We are really excited about this opportunity.  We are humbled by the folks who donated so generously to the expenses of our trip.  We received not only the amount required by the church group, but some additional monies to go towards our personal expenses.  We gave half of that extra money to Roy & Mary to help defray the cost of having our children with them for the week.  Then I used the other half of the money to buy kitchen tools and food supplies to take along.  We’ll donate the kitchen things to the orphanage, and the food will be for the group to share.

We are also humbled by the generosity of Roy and Mary to take our children for the eight days that we’ll be gone.  Their household population is going to explode tomorrow! But Michael and I are comforted in knowing that Roy and Mary will treat our children with the same love and consideration that they treat their own children.  I can’t wait to hear about their adventures while we were gone.

But despite all the excitement, tonight I am tired.  It’s been a long day, and I’m ready to crash.  Tomorrow I know I’ll wake up with the energy I need to complete the final list of things to do.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.  The specific prayer request I have for tomorrow is that we will survive the night of traveling without too many side effects.   I don’t do well when I am sleep-deprived, and I am still feeling a little nauseous late at night. But it’s a price I’m willing to pay for this adventure.

We leave for Guatemala in two days.  Friday night at 8 pm we’re supposed to be at the church to meet up with our group.  Then we’ll drive to Chicago to catch a red-eye flight to Guatemala City.

I’ve been making lists, checking lists, crossing things off lists, carrying my list with me everywhere… and I’m almost ready to go.  We packed the kids’ suitcases on Monday and packed the bags in the van where they wait to be delivered Friday afternoon.

Food has been purchased, gifts have been purchased, suitcases have been measured, and my mind keeps racing with all the little details that I want to remember.

I think I’m ready for this.  I don’t feel the same apprehension that I felt weeks ago.  Now I just need to get the last few things in order, and we’ll be on our way.

As you think of us, please pray.  Not only would we appreciate prayer for safety and all that good stuff, but if you would pray that we would really hear God’s voice while we’re away from our regular lives, that would be wonderful.  Some say that when you get away, God is able to get your attention in ways He couldn’t before.  We’re looking forward to that experience.

As I sit here on my porch, with the dusk settling around, I’m filled with thoughts of the next day, week, and month coming.

Tomorrow is supposed to be fairly hot, and we don’t have air conditioners set up yet, so I’m wondering if we should retreat from the heat or just endure it. It won’t be unbearable, and it’s always an effort to go somewhere else. Sometimes it’s easier to just stay home even though it’s hot and sticky.

This next week will be filled will preparation for our trip to Guatemala. I need to get everything ready for the children to spend the week with Roy & Mary, and I need to make sure I have everything ready for Michael and me to take along. I’m nervous about it all, but I think it’s doable. I have a long list to follow, so that’s a comfort.

The next month is going to bring some interesting changes for us. Once we get back from Guatemala on the 21st of July, we will start working hard to pack up our belongings and get our house ready to either rent or sell. We have decided it’s time to act, whether we know what every step will be or not. We have room now in Todd’s garage to store things, and we have a place to go while we work on our house and try to get it looking just perfect. Roy and Mary have offered that we can stay in their house while they are in Taiwan for the next school year, so we can actually do projects such as painting and patching and cleaning and have them stay done without fighting the daily life here at home.

Today I’ve been telling the children about our decision to try again to move. The last time we tried was before Judah was born, so I guess that was about three years ago. Since then, all of us have grown even more attached to our home, and even though we dream of living in the country, it’s hard to think of leaving home to do it. We moved to this house when Laura was three months old, which was eleven and a half years ago. All of our children have been babies here. They’ve all learned to walk here. They’ve all been potty-trained here. It’s home.

But it’s time to move on. We are packed in like sardines and would love to have more room to spread out. We dream of big gardens, hikes by the creek, distant neighbors, and even getting a farm dog.

I’m not sure how it’s all going to happen. Sometimes I think of God’s command to Abraham to go to a far country without knowing much more than that. Other times I think about the early settlers and pioneers who left everything to set up a new home in a distant land. We don’t plan to move to a “distant land”, but we know we’ll have to make sacrifices and go without things as we make this transition.

Even though we don’t know our exact future, God does, so we will step out in faith and trust that each step will be made clear to us.

This was the last day of our family reunion, and we sure packed it full!

Around 10 a.m. folks gathered here on our street to help both our family and Todd move all of our stuff out of the house that Todd is hoping to rent or sell soon. We had moved things into there thinking Todd was going to live there and sell the place where he’s been living up to now. But plans have changed, so we’re moving back out again. Thanks to the work on Monday making Todd’s garage a suitable storage unit for our family, we could now move things into that garage space. What fun to see a little library take shape in one corner. Maybe I can put some scrap carpet there so it’s even more homey.

The job was soon done, and we all hurried to get ready for our special lunch feast put on by the Bennett Family. We gathered at the Walsh house at 12:30 p.m. and the party began. The food was quite delicious, with the highlight being grilled chicken that was so tender! We also had salad, green beans, potatoes, and bread. Laura made a jello-watermelon dessert yesterday, so we brought that to share.

Once we had all eaten our fill, it was time for games. Natalie made the announcements and gave directions. Our favorite thing she said was, “Participation in the games is not optional. Everyone gets to play!” We took our cue and filed outside for further instructions. The games were fun and lively, including a ball-throwing contest, a balloon-popping game, a scavenger hunt, and ending with a water-balloon free-for-all. When it was all done, Natalie gave out prizes and everyone went away happy.

Around 4 p.m. folks headed to their respective lodgings, thinking mainly of taking naps and getting ready for late-night fireworks.

Michael and I both wanted to crash for a nap, so Michael hired Isaac to babysit Judah. Isaac did a good job, and we were able to get a nice nap while the kids watched a movie.

We had some quiet time as a family after naptime was over. It was nice to just sit on the porch and enjoy watching the birds.

Finally it was time for the younger three kiddos to head to bed, and the older three got ready to go see the fireworks. Michael had no desire to fight crowds to see the fireworks display, and I was happy to go, so that was an easy decision to make.

Todd offered to let the children and me ride with him instead of driving separately. When we got to the park, Mary had a line of children waiting to have their faces painted. She did such a good job! Natalie was handing out glowsticks and glow necklaces. The cousins had fun playing. All I did was sit and watch all the excitement.

All in all, it was a nice evening, but I’m glad to get home.

I haven’t been taking very many photos at all during this reunion, but Mary and Naomi have been filling in for me. You might enjoy seeing their photos on my gallery. I’ll keep adding photos as we get them.

All of our guests leave tomorrow morning. How strange it will be to have a normal day tomorrow!

Today was another full day of our family reunion.   Here at our house we had a quiet morning.  That allowed some kids to do some chores, while Laura and I hurried to the doctor’s office for my routine OB appointment.  What a thrill to hear the baby’s heartbeat and be assured that the little one is alive and well.  I’m about 16 weeks along now, so I’m hoping I’ll feel the movements soon.

After I got home, Michael took the two older boys and headed to Roy & Mary’s house to help with some projects around there.  I stayed home with the other children.  My main projects were two-fold:  I needed to help Amelia with her piano practice, and I needed to make my list of the ingredients needed to make pizza for supper.

Shortly after 11:30 a.m. I hurried the kids to the van and we took off to run some errands.  Three stops later we headed for the Bennett house (known as the Walsh house usually) for lunch.  Everyone gathered there and we enjoyed a taco buffet.  After lunch I took my brood home for quiet time.  They protested to no avail.  I was determined to have rested children before our combined pizza party tonight.

Miguel and Judah took long naps, and I was able to fit a nap in too before I needed to get started making pizza dough.

Once I got started in the kitchen, time flew by.  Laura did a watermelon/jello project while I worked on pizza dough, and she had a great time being creative.  The end result was fruit and jello in the shell of the watermelon.  I can’t wait to see how yummy it is tomorrow!

By 5 pm we were headed to Roy and Mary’s where I worked to compile the pizzas.  By 6 pm pizza was baking and family was gathering.  Since we had only one oven, people had to be patient for the variety of pizza they wanted most, but fortunately there was salad and veggies to keep everyone occupied until their favorite pizza was cooked.

After supper there were games and ping-pong tournaments, and finally around 8:30 we started loading up to head home.

We are looking forward to a special July 4th celebration tomorrow with a meal provided by the Bennett family.

This reunion update has been brought to you by reporter C. Lyons.  Have a good night.