My God Is The God Who Provides

Leaving is going to be hard. This is a huge understatement. I knew
from the first few days in June, while working with the babies, that October 1^st
was going to be a challenging. I HAVE to believe that God is the God who
provides. He will provide people to hold, feed, and love the beautiful babies who
I have fallen in love with these past four months. He will provide people to be
patient with Pedro, Eder, and Jared as they continue to enter their terrible
twos and throw fits on our walks. He will provide people to kiss Omar’s knees
because he is clumsy and falls at least three times a day. He will provide
someone to teach Chelsey how to walk, because she is SO close to walking! He
will provide someone to help David fall asleep, because he is incapable of
falling asleep on his own and needs someone to help him relax so he can sleep.
He will provide someone to hold Cindy’s hands so she can practice walking, take
her out of the Sala when she gets overwhelmed, and fix her bottles with special
milk because her stomach cannot handle real milk. He will provide someone to
hug Genesis every morning and fix her ponytail because her hair is SUCH a mess
when she wakes up! He will provide someone to keep Jose awake in the morning so
he is able to sleep in the afternoon. He will provide Fernando with someone who
can see past his charming smile to his mischievous eyes- someone who will attempt to
stay one step ahead of him and keep him out of trouble. He will provide someone
for Maria who will sing to her and rock her, because she LOVES being sung to
while being held.  

I heard a Mercy Me song for the first time a few weeks ago and
fell in love with the chorus. It is simple, but I really like it:

“You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're beautiful”

I honestly pray that there is always someone here at Emmanuel to remind the babies that they are TREAURED, SACRED, and HIS. I guess the only way I am going to be able to tuck the babies into bed tomorrow night and say goodbye is to believe 100% that my GOD is the GOD who PROVIDES.

Your Light Will Shine When All Else Fades

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

These verses have been two verses that I have found myself focusing on during the last couple weeks here at Orphanage Emmanuel. It amazes me that God has prepared good works for us all to do (whether it is ministering to children, helping the elderly, taking care of the sick, ect.) , and once He begins a good work in us we can be CONFIDENT that he will carry it out until it is completed!

This week has been very different from any other of my weeks here at Emmanuel. One of the teenagers had her baby last week, and since then I have been spending all my nights at the clinic helping her and her newborn, as well as helping give medication and take temperatures of the other children who are sick in the second room. After talking with the director, we both agreed that consistency would be best for the new mom, so that is why I have been working all the nights instead of rotating through the volunteers.  It has been good to get to know her better and meet new baby Jefferson! He is so adorable and honestly a great baby! He is already sleeping multiple hours at a time throughout the night and he is only eight days old! It is also great to see the amount of love and affection she constantly gives him! I am very proud of such a young mom taking on a huge responsibility and rising to the challenge! Working in the clinic this week I have seen everything from recovering from surgery, concussions, infections, and open wounds. It has been hard to get up every couple hours (or less) throughout the night multiple nights in a row, but once I get off in the morning after I hand out the medication I have been able to go back to the house and catch up on my sleep for a little bit!

New volunteers have gotten here!! I love when the house is full of people! We have had five Danish girls arrive, one American, and one Canadian all in the past week! Having the new volunteers is wonderful.  Shifts are being filled at the Sala and the Clinic a lot easier than they were a week ago.

The babies are as cute as ever! I have been missing them in the mornings, but I know I have to get some sleep if I want to be able to be any help once I get there! One of their new phrases that they have been saying lately is “nohay?” which is two words (no hay) that the blend into one when asking if there is any more of anything.  It’s cute J This past Sunday we got to celebrate David Isac’s first Birthday! We had a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and sang to him! Anna had dressed him in the cutest button down shirt, tie, and vest for his birthday! This morning one of the other volunteers saw David take his first steps! They are all growing up so quick!

The past few months- while painting, sewing, cleaning, and working on other various house projects (and during clinic shifts at night) - I have been watching Friends Seasons 1-6 that another volunteer loaned me. I had never watched the show before this summer but have had a lot of fun catching up on what I have been missing! When I get home I will be ready to find out how all the seasons end! Any one up for a Friends Marathon? J I honestly can’t believe I will be home in less than 10 days! My four months here have gone by really fast! When I get home I have faith that God will have good works prepared for me to do in Arizona J

We Will Choose To Be A Blessing For Life

Today is my 100^th day in Honduras J God has been so good. I continue to do mostly the same things here: medication for both the boys and girls, working with the babies, random jobs (such as painting and making curtains), and clinic shifts. The painting and curtains in the house are finally completed! The babies continue to grow so much!! The older ones are talking a lot more and they are beginning to understand more and more each day. Today I was folding laundry and one of the girls came up to me while I was folding her shirt and said “ropa” (cloths). I was proud of her for being able to #1 pick out which were her cloths and #2 knowing the word for cloths. This might not seem like a big deal, but trust me it is J I looked across the room today in time to see Maria just walking around all by herself! Normally it is clear that she is going from point A (crib) to point B (table, chair, me) but this time she was just walking. It was so cute! Some of the boys have hit the “terrible twos” a few months early, which has helped me better understand Proverbs 3:12 “The LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” I really do love these babies so much, but I know that because I love them they can’t go around hitting each other or biting or pushing without anyone teaching them better. It is challenging at times to know what is best to do, but I am sure everyone who has worked with two year olds feels that way at times.

Last week I spent a day in Tegucigalpa purchasing an extra month on my passport. We left Emmanuel at 6 AM and did not get back until 8 PM. Imagine the DMV sceario, but worse. Naively I thought we were making good time when we were an hour into the whole process and were only missing one signature. Five hours, two bags of chips, and two sodas later we were still missing that same signature. Lourdis, a girl who works at the orphanage, was with me and we decided it was best to walk to the Pharmacy and pick up the medication we were told to purchase while in Tegucigalpa and come back to get my passport. We spent a little over an hour getting medication, and thankfully once we got back my passport was ready to be picked up! After getting my passport we went to the bus station to get a bus back to Guaimaca. Riding the bus was an experience all of its own. At the station I noticed that every seat was going to be full but as we are driving to Guaimaca, we continue to stop and pick people up who are now standing in the isle of the bus between the already full seats. There was literally no extra room on this bus! Once we got to Guaimaca, Lourdis and I got off the bus and went to get a Taxi. Once we start asking around, someone tells us that Taxis stopped running an hour ago. I begin to get nervous. Even though it is only 7:30 PM in Honduras, which translates to about 2 AM in the States, it is late to be out in the town. I called one of the Staff here to ask what we should do, and he was there within five minutes to pick us up.  I was so thankful to be back at Emmanuel!

AMY AND JM GOT HERE!!! They came in last Wednesday and left Emmanuel this morning! It was so great getting to spend time with them! Wednesday night Marie and Larz (an awesome Danish couple here) invited us over to play games and hang out! It was a lot of fun. Thursday we walking into town and grocery shopped. Amy and Jm were a huge help with the babies and in the clinic! Amy also brought some of the cutest baby cloths ever that were bought for the babies here! They looked so adorable in the bright new cloths! While working in the clinic, I am sure Amy and JM caught up on watching the classic Disney VHS tapes while they were here. It was fun getting to cook and eat meals with them while they were here! We also played a lot of Rummikub and Banagrams in the evenings! It was so so great to see familiar faces from home J They also brought some awesome snacks that my family sent me! Trail Mix, Brownies, and Cliff Bars never tasted so good! I now know that if I want to appreciate a food, I just won’t eat it for three months! On another note I just finished reading one of the best action books I have ever read. It is called The Hunger Games and I highly recommend it! I could not put it down at times!

Throughout the past 100 days God has really reminded me how faithful He is! He has proven so many of his promises to be true! He has given me rest when I needed it (Matthew 6), made my life better because of His goodness (James 1:17), and held my hand the whole time I have been here in Honduras (Isaiah 41:13). God continues to bless me more than I ever could ask for.