Christmas Celebrations 2014

The holidays can be both a happy joyous time and a time of pain for many.  We enjoy spending time with our boys, giving gifts and celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is however a time in which we always miss our extended families a little more.  But we are grateful for the adopted family we have here with other missionaries and our all Guatemalan friends!  We always try to be very intentional with the boys about staying focused on Christ.  This year was a little more challenging as we moved in late November and we were very busy getting settled into the new facility.  We are also still trying to find new holiday traditions with the boys here in Guatemala.  We had several celebrations with our staff here, friends on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Christmas Eve at midnight brings lots of excitement with many fireworks.  Here are some pictures of our celebrations:

 Our Love Guatemala Staff Christmas Party!

 Of course some fun games involved!

Our Christmas Eve part with friends.

I got some sweet snuggles from Kendy our friends, The Steeds, little girl that they just adopted!

Our family, Christmas morning Celebration.

Our Christmas Day celebration with friends:

 White elephant gift exchange.

 Jennifer's turn for snuggles.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone!  I hope you took some time to celebrate and reflect with family and friends!

October Birthdays...

October was a super busy month for us.  But also a month in which we celebrate a couple of birthdays.  I can't believe our baby, Caleb turned 5!  Jacob also turned 9!  Where have the years gone?  Here are a few pictures from our October birthdays:

I am ashamed that we don't have more pictures than these from their birthdays!  We are slacking...

We have a tradition of taking the boys to Antigua a nearby city and visiting their favorite restaurant and the market and buying them a few gifts for their birthdays.  It is a fun tradition.  I can't believe our kids are growing up so fast.  We are grateful to God for our boys.  They are gifts from God and sometimes they need some gifts ;-)

"Children are a gift from the Lord;

    they are a reward from him." Psalm 127:3

2014 Love Guatemala Graduation

We had a great celebration last week.  It was so encouraging and fun to see these 22 graduates who had worked so hard over the last 2-3 years complete this big accomplishment.  Each of them for their final project had to do a large painting, piece of furniture or cake.  All of them turned out very well.  Each of them as you can see in the pics below dressed up and looked so sharp.  We are so proud of each of them and know that God has great things in store for their lives.  We look forward to hearing how God uses them.  We had a team from our church here as well to help with the graduation and a few other here to help and celebrate with us as well.  We had a great time celebrating.  The greatest part for me was seeing how God has changed each of their lives over the last few years.  Enjoy some pictures below.

 The preparation took a long time from the decorations to the projects each student did and the dramas that the students put on there were hundreds of hours of preparation.  A huge shout out and thanks to Thelma (Art School Teacher and Carlos wife) who did a ton of work for the graduation!  And unfortunately she got sick the day of graduation and couldn't really enjoy all her work!

 This was the venue for our graduation. The municipal building in the center of Magdalena.

 We spent all of the day of graduation cleaning, decorating and setting up tables and chairs in preparation for the graduation.

 Some of the projects from the students.  They all turned out incredible!

 Carlos and Thelma.  What can I say? They are awesome!

Here are Carlos and Thelma with the small team that came down from Indy Metro Church.

 The students put on a few dramas that were excellent and presented great truths to all there!

 Cooking School!

 Art School!

Carpentry School!

 The Cooking School ladies wanted a few minutes to show some appreciation to the staff.

Carpentry School boys.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible!  It was a great night and a great year!  We are so excited about all God has in store for us next year as well.  Thanks for your prayers and support!