He smiles!

The precious boy was born to smile (don't his eyes just glow!)

Thank you all for your prayers, the Lord is bringing health and joy to this little boy as we speak, and thank you Cheryl for loving him and taking this beautiful picture!

Also an update. . . he is not 2 years old as his mom led us to believe. . . the dentist says he is between 7-8 years old. 

O Holy Night

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;

It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Merry Christmas on this eve of our Saviors' birth!

HOME

In the midst of trying to catch up on posting, I have pushed back the exciting news that I'm home! I flew into Chicago Monday night where I was met by my beautiful mom and sister. It's been an awesome couple of days so far, and I'm looking forward to spending the next few weeks relaxing, and catching up with the fam before heading back down south :)

The Little Man

As I introduced to you in the last post, we have a new member of our family in El Crucero, Nicaragua. We brought little Griffin back on the plane with us from Waspam last week. He is 2 years old and about 16 lbs. He is frail and weak but he can hold himself sitting up, and just the other day he began crying liquid tears! (as opposed to just making the noise but being too malnutritioned to have any tears to cry)


He is staying in La Mascota (the public children's hospital in Managua) where as of yet, they are telling us he is fine medically apart from the severe malnutrition. Meaning it doesn't appear as though he has any other diseases or sicknesses to worry about.

The biggest issue we deal with in keeping him there in the hospital is the conditions and relationships with the staff that have to be dealt with. I had to wait a while for my frustration and anger that comes from it all to subdue so that I could write a blog that was not in all BOLD CAPS screaming my complaints about the medical system.

The public hospital is not ideal (among other reasons, here are some I pointed out before :)

But here's the kicker. The baby is sick. He needs fluids from the IV, he needed special tests to make sure he doesn't have any other diseases, and these are things that are only available in the hospital. There is the possibility that hospital staff is prejudice against us because we are white bringing in a Nicaraguan baby. There is a chance that we are treated differently because they think it's our fault this little boy is so severely malnutritioned, but it's also possible that the staff and doctors are simply overworked. And they treat all people like objects simply because they deal with people who come in day in and day out for things that may or may not need hospitalization. They are taking care of patients who pay nothing for their care and may or may not take care of themselves with that thought in mind. I'm not saying they have an excuse to treat their patients as they do, but I am saying that I, myself, have to come into the hospital with a mentality different that I want to. I want to come in ready to fight and argue (not to say that sometimes that isn't necessary to get the treatment, and help you need) just because I am anticipating the issues that I will have, and I can't do that.

One of the women who works in our home is named Elda, she took a shift after me staying the next night with Griffin. When I picked her up I was anticipating her venting about her emotional roller coaster ride, but that isn't at all what she did. The first thing she told me, "Wow Lauren, those poor moms in there with their kids. They are just so exhausted and their poor little ones just not feeling well. But you know it gave me the best chance to witness to them. I told them all about how we go through trials and tribulations, but that God is always with us, and will always help us through. I told them about how Jesus was there as a support system, and that they just had to lean on him, and trust him with all their burdens." There was my slap in the face. I had been in the same room, with most of the same women, dealing with the same hospital staff, but she had chosen a different approach. She saw this as an opportunity to share the Gospel, to share Jesus, and to be a light to the other people, as opposed to get frustrated and annoyed with things and personalities she couldn't change.

So look at how it all twisted around. I started out this blog with the intention of holding back my venting to a controlable level; sharing with the world the state of the public health care system, and now here I am learning a lesson myself about how to take advantage of even the least ideal situations. I am not saying that I no longer have issues with La Mascota, I'm just saying that regardless of the situation, I have to remember who I am, and remember to give respect even to those who I don't feel like deserve it.

So regardless, keep Griffin in your prayers and thoughts as well as the wonderful ladies who have been spending time with him in the hospital.

The other side of the country

On the other side of Nicaragua you will find the Rio Coco. You will find gorgeous land full of straight trees that reach up to the heavens, you will find the town of Waspam, and you will find a hundred other small communities that make their lives off the resources of the land. That is where you find the Miskito people. A people who have grown very near an dear to my heart. Almost all the children in our home are from this region of the country, and this last week I got to visit for the 3rd time.

We flew in on the little 12 seater airplane, landing on a gravel runway and being met by a single roomed cement airport with no security checkpoints. We had a number of objectives to fulfill on this trip. Mary, Rachel, and I were going to be helping Charity's dad on the construction site, and in a few days Charity and Leo would be arriving with 7 of the kids from our home. Family members had been called to come in and visit our kids, and we were also needing to work on getting birth certificates written up for 6 of them.

The ministry has begun working on a project in Kisalaya, one of the villages near the main town of Waspam. Construction has begun on a building that will soon be the new children's home for the kids we have living over there as well as a space for visitors and volunteers to stay when they are in that area helping. The building is already 10 high, and although I don't have a picture of it, the roof beams have all been put in! Mary was very useful in helping supervise and be a part of the construction, while Rachel and I found ourselves to be much more of service by translating her and Brother Davids directions.

Rachel, Mary, and I were able to spend a couple days there before all the kids came and we enjoyed playing 'princesses' in our elegant mosquito nets :)

I loved seeing our kids who live in El Crucero interact with the kids we have in the childrens home there in Waspam. I was very proud of their 'mingling' skills. Here a number of the kids are huddled over Leo as he was showing them all the fun pictures and things you can do on an ipad.

It was great getting to visit with the 11 kids over there that I see so infrequently. Leaving last Friday was of course very difficult and there were a couple tears shed not only by me, but some of the dear girls who live there too. Being in that area is always a very emotional experience. This trip was compounded emotionally by meeting Griffin too.

When Jhoselin's family came to visit her, her mom also brought Jhoselin's little brother simple because he was a baby. She didn't consider the fact he needed any medical attention at all, but when we saw him, we were just stunned by his physical shape.

He is 2 years old but he looks more like a baby skeleton with skin. His bones stuck out at every joint, and when he cried no tears would come, just noise.

I will write more about Griffin later. We brought him back with us on the airplane Friday and he has been in the public children's hospital in Manauga since then. We know God does miracles, so that is what we pray for now; complete healing of his little body and also a smile.

Graduation Day

This year we had 3 kids graduating! Cecilia and Debonney graduated from 6th grade (a really big deal down here in Nicaragua), and Luviana graduated from pre-school!

The whole stage, (you can't tell but I'm up there, 3rd from the right)

Cecilia with her diploma

 Debonney with her diploma

Yorbany received an award for having the best grades in her class!

Switch schools and we get to see Luviana graduate!

The other preschoolers (Grace and Samari) came along for the celebration.

And I got to walk Luviana up to get her diploma :)

Christmas Dinner

Christmas dinner is a meal that is meant to be spent with family. A time when you remember Christ's birth, and rejoice in it together with your loved ones.

SO what happens when your loved ones live in two distinctly different regions of the world, and its physically impossible to spend Christmas with both??? You just do it twice!

Tonight we had a Christmas dinner with some of our dear friends here in Nicaragua. In the next week or so we will all be traveling to our own corners of the earth and will be unable to spend this special time together, so why not make up a Christmas on Dec. 7!

Andrea, Angie, Emily, and the Ward family brought us an amazingly delicious meal. Topped off with cookie decorating, jello eating, Christmas carol singing, gift giving, and overall straight up loving. God gives us such blessings throughout our life, and one of those such blessing is friends who become family. Who knew that in moving to Nicaragua I could find people that I love as much as my blood family and who love me back just the same. 

Volcan Mombacho

So what is the first thing I want to do on a day away from the kids??? I guarantee you that as of 7:30 am this morning, it was not climbing in the car and setting off to hike around the Volcano Mombacho. But fortunately with great friends, great weather, and a good set of tennis shoes, we had a blast! We drove up a majority of the way, and then were able to hike circling around the crater of the volcano. 


We started off a little chilly and happy we had brought jackets with us, but we quickly warmed up and were constantly awestruck by God's creations. 

Then we went through the 'tunnel' to get another look of inside the volcano.

I may have been a little over zealous in taking pictures, but it was all so beautiful I couldn't get enough, and even though I am trying, you cannot experience its full beauty through the pictures either!

The famous coffee of Nicaragua that is grown along the sides of the volcano.

One of the many places you could see the sulfur of the volcano coming up from the crater

The crew!

So despite the hesitant beginnings, it was absolutely worth it (we even want to go back and hike the long trail- 4 hours as opposed to 1.5 hours!) and I would recommend it to anyone in their site seeing adventures of Nicaragua!

Los Arcos

Friday a group of us took a trip to Los Arcos (near León) to visit this tiny remote village where we are looking to start a feeding center. We were met by over a hundred people worshiping and praising the Lord. (We got there a little late mostly due to the fact that we are in Nicaragua, but also we got lost) We were all amazed by how clean the area and the church were, people who despite being poor, took great pride in keeping their community neat. Here is everyone in the church:

And getting lined up for food:

Shirley helped serve food.

Along with Mary and Maria

After eating, the kids fell in love with Kyle, and his interactive telling of David and Goliath

We also brought clothes for the people of the community. They were so grateful and amazed at the blessing they were receiving. It was so great to be the vessel through which the gifts of so many people could reach their final home. I have also never seen such an organized and patient group of people. We have given away clothes to people who have nearly mauled each other to reach the pile, (or you can think about the way people go crazy over Black Friday specials to get things they don't even need, and here these people are showing the love and respect they had for each other as they waited for their chance to look, and even pulled out things to give to others.

Who said soccer fields couldn't have trees strewn throughout them.

And the sunset and skyline were beautiful on our drive back.