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.

Beginnng to look a lot like Christmas....?

Christmas here in Guatemala is different than in the states. There are few Christmas turkeys, LOTS of explosions, and most obviously, no snow. Yet despite all these differences I found myself enchanted once again by the air of Christmas (albeit smog-filled from the busses). Heather led the Children's Christmas presentations at church. All the guatemalan children were standing still, paying attention, and singing with all they had; three traits that all 4 of our children showed their "cultural differences" in. Ours were the stereotypical figgity children who wiggle, grab things, and sing their own tune. Yet with Heather strumming the guitar and the kids singing silent night in Spanish, it all still felt exactly right. At times when I was a kid I would get tingles feeling like I had entered a Norman Rockwell painting; and though I don't believe Norman ever traveled to Guatemala, I found myself in one of his paintings once more.

The kids also played as the "heavenly host" in our Christmas play at church. A group of angels with halos of bent coat hangers singing "Gloooooooria". Then they didn't want to come down, for fear or just enjoyment, but stayed up there singing over and over, "Glooooria" until Dorita finally went up there and lead the kids down by hand.


Our old friend Patricia was able to join us as well as some new friends, a couple from the states that were adopting and didn't know anyone in Guatemala. The season was beautiful as we were able to attend one of the most beautiful Christmas eve services I have ever seen and were able to see the Christmas eve fireworks. I wish we could have been home with family. I wish we could have spent it with Poppy, but one thing I learned this Christmas is that Christmas is more than about my experience of it, it is about sharing the extravagant love of God with those around us, whoever they may be.

Fiesta 3!

Heather ran the final pass of her "Fiesta" VBS in the coastal town of Chipilapa. It was scheduled to be a one day event with 150-250 kids until 600-800 of them showed up!! It was a tiring day in the heat. They were able to minister to the kids but the adults had become accustomed to people coming in and giving things to themso they were constantly asking for equipment, soccer balls, extra chips...Pleeeeeeease. Heather even saw the mothers taking the candy away from the children! There is a line in charity between help and enabling and we have found it is always a hard line to find.

VBS San Lucas

December 4-8th marked my third VBS (this year) with my church in San Lucas. Also titled “Fiesta”, myself along with a team of about 15 Guatemalans and missionaries spent the week doing crazy stunts and acting like 8 year olds in order to bring the love of Jesus to the children. The first day we had 95 kids and by Friday we had 200 kids. 62 kids made a first time decision to walk with Jesus and all 62 kids came back the following Sunday to experience church for the first time. One little girl asked me, “so we come back every Sunday at 10:30 a.m.? Most of the kids had never set foot in a church and we were blessed by the Sierra Bible team to be able to give out amazing hard cover bible story books about Jesus to all the kids who made a decision for Christ. For many of the children, this was the first book they had ever received.
-Heather

VBS Zapote

November 6-10th the kids and I spent the week in a little village called El Zapote where we ran a VBS for the kids in the village in conjunction with the local church. The VBS was called “Fiesta”, which is Spanish for “Party”. It was an amazing theme as many of the children in the village are accustomed to party meaning drinking and dancing, and hopefully now they have redefined the word “Party” to mean singing, games, hearing about Jesus, and being at church with your friends. 10 people partnered with us from Sierra Bible Church in Reno, Nevada to spend the week in song, games, crafts, and Bible stories. We had to drive on a dirt road through 4 rivers and up a very steep and rocky road before arriving at the church each morning to begin VBS. The first day we had 200 kids and we grew to 350 by Friday (try doing a piñatas for 350 kids). 87 kids made a first time decision to walk with Christ. It was an amazing time!
-Heather

Heather turns 32...

For Heather's 32nd birthday we had planned a trip to use someones timeshare up at Lake Atitlan. Unfortunately, my project trip to Ocosingo was rescheduled to overlap her birthday and I couldn't go with them but Courtney, a friend of Heather's was more than happy to take advantage of the chance to 'get away'. They enjoyed a beautiful setting and relaxed by the pool at the edge of the lake. The hotel is very nice and Zoe said, "I would like to stay here a thousand years!" Abi retorted, "If you did, you would be covered with dirt." The kids are learning about Egypt in school and how dust covers things over time.