It’s weird, we’re home.  After almost 24 hours of traveling we pulled into our driveway around 10:30 last night.  My day is including lots of laundry and cleaning that I didn’t do before we left (like vacuuming before the dogs come home).  My stomach is all jumbled and isn’t sure what to do…  One of the weirdest things yesterday on our drive home was seeing the green rolling hills of pennsylvania.  I’ve been so used to the brown dirt/sand/rock foothills of the Andes in Peru.  Also we saw blue sky for the first time since leaving the U.S.  The final days of our trip were packed.  

Friday we traveled to a really nice resort so that those who sponsor children through Compassion could meet them.  It was a really neat day seeing relationships grow between the children and their sponsors.  It made me realize how great a thing Compassion does and how it really does help families that need it.

Saturday we spent the morning with the children at Hogar’s saying good bye.  Then we took a group of them up to a hospital in Lima.  Earlier in the week some of the Texas crew did TB tests for the children and workers at Hogar de Ninos and Hannah’s Home.  So those that resulted in a positive were taken to the hospital Saturday for a chest x-ray to show if the TB is active or not.  Many of those whose results were positive were a lot of the adults, but as of Saturday night half of the groups x-rays came back with inactive TB.  I’m curious to find out how the rest of the group did.  We had lunch Saturday at a mall in Lima and then went to the Incan Market.  Dinner was at Tony Roma’s and then it was off to the airport and lots of goodbyes.  Our plane took off about 10 of midnight Saturday night.  We landed in Houston around 6:30am and took off for D.C. at 9am.  We landed around 1pm in D.C. and got on the road to York.  Karl and I were able to go in to the hospital to see Landon before we headed home last night.  It’s been long but we’re home.  Finally.

Karl, me, Emily & Aden

My nephew was born last night, August 14th at 8:18pm!  He is 7 pounds, 14 ounces.

Mr. Landon Loser

My back hurts.  But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel… actually I’ve hit the light.  We’re done digging ditches!  Oh, and we’re done filling them!  Yesterday (Monday) I started my day digging a ditch for the main drinking water pipe from the pump to Hannah’s Hope (the orphanage).  Today (Tuesday) I filled in the ditch, now containing the pipe plus another ditch that I thankfully did not dig that contained the rest of the water line and then also a pipe with the electrical wire in it.  My back hurts!  

We’ve also done VBS yesterday and today.  I’ve felt so blessed being able to share with these children.  I shared with some of the folks last night about how I typically don’t attract the kids when we do VBS.  I don’t know if it’s my fear of not knowing how to communicate… maybe they smell it.. or see it…  I don’t know. But the children have been amazing.  Yesterday I had two little girls that held my hands the entire time! Their pictures are down below, one was Allison and well the other one I can’t really remember her name… I think it started with a D.  VBS went pretty well both days… we were in the same area both times, so we really got to connect with the children.  The crafts have been crazy… I’ve found that I don’t communicate too well with a large crew of non-English speaking children.  Yesterday we made crosses out of pipe cleaners and later hearts and curly-qs.  Today we made puppets… that was difficult… but hey we made it.  

Foods been amazing, weather is still chilly, and tomorrow it sounds like things will get switched up a bit.  Til then…

my friends at vbs

so we’re here… we’ve spent almost a full day here in Peru.  Last night we pulled in to the Ola Grande Hostal about 2am.  Our flights were great and not nearly as painfully boring as I thought it would be.  The inflight movies on our personal little touch screens at everyone’s seats helped with that.  I watched Made of Honor and Kung Fu Panda, both enjoyable… followed up by some 30 Rock and CSI: Las Vegas.  Karl and I played a couple of games of battleship (yes the screens linked up with other people on the flight so you could play games together) and an extremely long game of checkers with Aden.  We landed in Lima about 9:30 and got through customs and all that stuff pretty easily.  Then the wait began…  we waited for the rest of our group from Texas and didn’t get out of the airport til 12:30… that’s a long wait!  I then slept the entire hour and a half drive from Lima to the hostal.  I was incredibly tired…

So today has been great, we had a breakfast of an egg & broccoli omelete, bread & jam, apple juice & coffee.  Delicious.  Then we went to a church that ChildReach works with and tries to link families up with here.  Then we headed to a wonderful lunch with the orphans and directors at Hogar de Ninos.  They live right down the street from where Hannah’s Hope & Home are.  After lunch we toured the works in progress of Hannah’s Hope & Home.  Hannah’s Home, which is for pregnant teenage girls, is pretty much complete and they’re hoping that in a month or two they can start bringing the girls to stay.  Hannah’s Hope, the orphanage that our friend Dave is building, is coming along.  It sounds like we’ll be doing a lot of work on these places.    We’re back at the hostal now… waiting for dinner and then the rest of the night we have off to rest.

It’s chilly here… it’s been low 60’s plus a breeze off the ocean.  But we have some good blankets on the bed to keep warm… OH and warm shower.  Well at least it was this morning.  Fingers are crossed for the rest of the week!  10 mins til dinner, so until tomorrow!

Ciao!  (haha ok that’s the Italian way of spelling it… not really sure the Spanish version!)

My favorite photo of the day:

this was right beside the restaurant we had lunch at

Well tomorrow we head out on trip to Peru.  I’ve waited 4 years for this.  The plan is to make our way down to my parents where we’ll have an early dinner and meet up with Emily and Aden.  Then the four of us will head on to Aden’s sister’s for the night which is just an hour from the airport.  Saturday morning at the crack of 7am we’ll start the journey to the airport.  Our plane is to take off at 11am from DC traveling to Newark, NJ and then to Lima, Peru.  We should get in pretty late to Lima.  We’re hoping we’ll be able to update down there!  Til then…