Happy Resurrection Day!

In typical easter fashion, one of our kids was sick. This year it was Abi. After church we hunted for eggs in our house with an egg hidden for each child in each room. Jonathan was able to join us in the celebration.

Team Haddox vs the volcano...

We finally climbed Volcan Pacaya as a family. Two other families wanted to climb Pacaya so we decided to do it together.
The climb is too long and steep for kids so we got horses for them and we trekked up. The kids had a blast on the horses. Once we reached the picnic area at the top we stopped and had some dinner before climbing the sea of lava rock to see lava.

The walk over the lava rocks was difficult but we made it to a great lookout right at the base and on the side of the lava flows. Eric proceeded to climb up in between the flows with two other dads. We all were able to watch the lava grow bright as it got darker and then roast hot dogs over the lava.

The walk back to the car wasn't much fun in the dark but we made it safe and everyone had a great time!

See the kids writing about the trip here
and see the pics here

the girls 5...1/2 birthday

I always look for an extra opportunity to celebrate people especially the kiddos. So enter the half birthday!. The girls were able to celebrate their half birthday first at the Zoo with the "storytime" group that Heather leads and then the next day at the waterpark.

The zoo was packed with schoolkids on field trip but there was still plenty of room to see all the animals. We had the typical zoo fun looking at the elephants and such, and then we did the "only in Guatemala" things like hold the howler monkey's hand and pet an Ocelot (small leapord thing) through the cages.

The next day was the true celebration. At the waterpark, which also has some animals, we found a new addition...an elephant wandering in the parking area. We walked over to it and pet its trunk. We were able to enjoy the pools and slides, ride horses, hold hands with the spider monkeys and let the baby racoons try to remove my rings. All unsupervised in true "only in Guate" fashion.

The girls had their friends over to share their "half" birthday cake (a round cake cut in half). All around a fun day!

See more photos

March fun

I don't have time for a full post but here are just a couple highlights of family moments in March. go here to see all the pictures of march. Don't forget to check out the new layout of collections on our photo site (flickr.com)

The kids love to ride around the block on the motorcycle with me

Abi and BokBok the chicken

Anzo on a bouncy waterslide

Daddy and the boys have dirt wars

Zoe on the trampoline

1st service in Tabacal...

I have turned over the ministry to the Mayan people of Tabacal to Carlos Fernandez, a guatemalan american missionary who attends our church. He is now the pastor of missions for our church in San Lucas. The church that was initially constructed by Sierra Bible Church in Reno, NV has now almost been completed and we held the first service in the "completed" building. Carlos brought a team down from the states and we had a lunch in the church for the children, gave food out to the families, and some toys and clothes out to the children. It was a good time of service. Carlos will continue the work there with a children's program for nutrition and spiritual education. We are looking together at options for more permanent houseing in a Habitat for Humanity style setup.

During the event Heather and the kids all come for the celebration and the kids were able to help with the distribution of the food. Heather read Bible stories to the children of Tabacal and helped organize the distribution of food and gifts. We prayed for the people all together and told of the hope found in the gospel.

With the fields for crops in place (even though some crops are failing due to weather), the water system in place and working wonderfully, and the church built, the majority of my job there is complete and it is time for me to hand the ministry over to a guatemalan that can minister to them on a deeper spiritual level and one that will be there for years to come. We thank God for the Fernandez family and their commitment to furthering God's kingdom in Tabacal. We will still be involved there to some level but more and more as volunteers.
To see the rest of the pictures of this event click here (or search for Tabacal Feb 2007 in our Flickr account)

Eli turns 7...

Eli had a superhero party for his 7th birthday. For the first time he had a sleep-over party. We brought out 4 mattresses into the living room to make a huge bed and then did a superhero pillow fight. several of the boys exclaimed the next day that it was the best birthday party they had ever been to. The morning of birthdays I make them extra special pancakes for them and this year was my fanciest yet. I made "superman" pancakes. The Spiderman piñata was a "hit". Look at the pics below.

A new Haddox...

Anzo is finally ours! On Dec 27 the decision was made by the Guatemalan courts to call us Anzo's parents. A decree was sent out to the place where he was born to create a new birth certificate with our names on it. We hope to have that document in the next week and then its off to the embassy again to get him immigrated and naturalized. The process is not complete but he IS adoptED. We announced this to Anzo to which he smiled and ran off. He doesn't know what difference a piece of paper makes. We went to Pizza Hut to celebrate.

I love celebrations especially when they celebrate a person. We all need to be celebrated and know we are important. We also need to be humble in celebrating others and showing they are important. To this end I have been searching for new ways to celebrate the kids. Our answer...'Half-Birthdays'! It also just so happens that Anzo's Half-Birthday is Dec 24 but that is a tough day to celebrate so it will move around but because his adoption date is Dec 27 (so close) we can celebrate them together!

Hopefully soon, we can start planning a long overdue trip to Disneyland. He has been anxiously waiting to visit the states. I feel that, albeit subconsiously, he sees us as being from the states and him from Guatemala. A visit to the states will confirm the permanence of things, as to say, We all are now from the states and when we leave we will all leave together.