Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Happy Birthday to Lily!!!

Yesterday our little girl turned 2 years old. And we had a fantastic celebration. We could only wish that our family and friends back in Michigan could have enjoyed the day with us. We invited Dora and Ruben (and their family) to our ¨home¨ in Antigua and we had a beautiful day together. Some other friends came to the party too, as you can see in the pictures.

Here is a link to another large album of pictures. I am sorry there are so many pictures, but I don´t have time to edit it now and our internet access is not completely dependable. Enjoy the pictures.

And Yes that is HOT lava only a few feet away from Gabbie, Will and me on Volcan Pacaya.



http://picasaweb.google.com/ctiesma/Guatemala20083

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Tuk Tuks and the Hill of the Cross

Here is a link to another photo album. We walked up about 500 steps to the hill of the cross for a great view of Antigua. There are some pictures of Lily with a very special pink Butterfly. And some pictures of us all stuffed into a Tuk Tuk for a ride around town. We will post more details later.

Thanks for your prayers and for checking up on us.

Chad

http://picasaweb.google.com/ctiesma/Guatemala20082

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Lunch at the Castillo´s

What an amazing day!!! As I sit here to type this, I am still trying to wrap my mind around it all. Lily´s foster parents invited us to have lunch with them at their house. From beginning to end, it was wonderful. They were so warm and welcoming to us. It was wonderful to see Mamma Dora and Papa Ruben again. Their entire family came to visit with us. Dora served us a wonderful meal and treated us like we were kings and queens. She made some authentic Guatemalan dishes that were so yummy! She also made baked three different desserts, each was so good and so unlike anything that we have in the states. The third dessert was cheesecake and she put two candles in and everyone sang happy birthday to Lily!
We were so blessed by this day and we are so thankful that their family has so much love for Lily! As a mom, I have wondered what their home was like...where did my daugher spend the first 8 months of her life? It was just so great to be there. Our kids played all afternoon with their grandkids.....funny how the language barrier doesn´t seem to bother the kids! Jumping rope and sword fighting is the same no matter what language you speak! By the way, for those of you wondering, we did use an interpreter who did an awesome job helping us for the afternoon. Dora was able to share with me some details about Lily coming to her and about Lily´s birthmother...some things that I hadn´t known. These stories are priceless!
There were many tears...at one point our interpreter (neither family even knew her before today) was crying and struggling to make it through the intrepretations......it was just one of those days that I know I will never forget.
We will try to continue to update our blog while we are here. I will just add that this entire trip so far has been wonderful. We are so thankful to God for the opportunity to be here during this time. Our little casita in Antigua is muy bueno!! The weather is fantastico!!! The kids are having a blast!!! We continue to seek the Lord as we are finding reasons that HE laid it on our hearts to be here. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for us during our time here in Guatemala. Please continue to lift us up to HIM during our time here...it means more to us than you could possibly know!
Carrie


Here is a link to most of the pictures from our trip so far.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ctiesma/Guatemala2008

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Chad

Our Adventure begins!

We arrived safely in Guatemala on Wednesday morning and we have enjoyed fine weather and beautiful sights since then. We enjoyed our time at the Marriott and we each have some degree of sunburn to show for it. We really shouldn´t have trusted a sunscreen that we have never used before.

We are preparing to leave for lunch at Dora and Ruben´s house now so I well have to go.

I will post some pictures later tonight.

Thanks for checking in.

Chad and Carrie