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19 days ago I boarded a plane with my oldest daughter Anne. Just the two of us--headed for Guatemala and the Village of Hope for a mother/daughter mission trip. Anne and I had been planning for this trip for over a year. We had saved all of the money from the things we sold before we left Bermuda and our church here in Michigan gave us $1500--so all of our expenses were covered.
Our family and Margaret's Hope Chest had been supporting the Village of Hope for the past two years both financially and through quilt donations.
I had no fear or anxiety about getting on that plane and heading to a country known for poverty and crime. That in itself was an unexplainable miracle. I actually SLEPT on the flight which is another miracle seeing as the last time I fell asleep on a plane was back in 2009 on the way home from Greece.
Anyway, we arrived in Guatemala, met our host Todd and our roomies Kayla and Koryn from Columbus, Ohio (perfect strangers) and drove up, up, up 7000 feet to the Village of Hope. We were the first ones to arrive so we settled into our room and then met and played with the kids. The rest of the group did not arrive until after we went to bed that night.
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One of the things that I have always loved about Anne is that she jumps right into a new situation with no fear. Within 30 minutes of arriving she was playing tag and soccer.
This the room we shared with Kayla and Koryn. I would say the curtain 'doors' on the bathroom and shower took a little getting used to but after Anne spend the 3rd night vomiting and going #2 for a few hours, we all felt a little more comfortable about it (she ate something her body did not like--but just as a precaution, we will be staying away from tamales in Mexico).
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These two sweeties have been living in the room next to ours for the past year with their mom. I will tell you more about them in a separate post. They helped us finish off the chips the first night!
'The purpose of Village of Hope is to provide family, faith and a future to special needs children and vulnerable mothers in a family style setting. Each family living unit consists of house parents and about 8 children or mothers living in a home together on the Village of Hope property. Our hope is to create a family unit as God intended- a family to provide life- long support as well as teach the children to have life values.' Visit
Village of Hope's new website for TONS of info on what they do.
Many of the children we met and served over the week are HIV+. No other orphanage in Guatemala will take kids who are HIV+. One of the most valuable lessons for both Anne and I over the week was to see that HIV really means nothing in the big picture of things. It gave us faces to attach to diagnosis--not strung out drug addicts, but healthy, happy children full of life and promise.
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Over the week at the Village of Hope, our team of 10 moms and 10 daughters taught Bible lessons, planted new flowers and plants, taught crocheting to most of the moms and girls, organized the clothes closet, played games, shared crafts, painted nails, brought tons and tons of donations to share, and tried to share life as best as we could with everyone there.
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We also left the Village of Hope a few times to serve outside their walls. One night we went on the streets to hand homeless men and women a cup of soup and pray with them. That felt quite uncomfortable to most of us--men who were high on glue, men who had feces running down their legs, mentally handicapped women who had clearly been abused for many, many years on the streets of Guatemala.
For lunch one day we took a short walk to have a traditional Guatemalan meal at a traditional Guatemalan home.
One afternoon we walked to a nearby neighborhood and played games with all of the kids who lived in the surrounding metal and cardboard homes.
We also drove to another small neighborhood to hand out food bags to families that Village of Hope is working with.
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We also did some touristy things towards the end of the week. We went to a coffee plantation, had a couple of lunches out at restaurants and did some shopping.
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Overall, Anne and I had an amazing time in Guatemala. I know that God was using that time to nurture something deep within Anne's heart. I feel privileged to have been able to share that with her. It was a trip of a lifetime on many levels and I am so thankful to our great God for allowing us to go. Many other thoughts on the trip are still rolling around in my mind--they may or may not come out onto the page.
So do I still call it a dream or is it reality?
Pearl says 'Dou Dou' when we point to her picture but honestly, she has no idea what is coming. It will be a big adjustment that we are already praying about. 
