Every time I fly into Guatemala City, I am mezmerized by the green and orange lights.  The city looks different from the sky than any other city I´ve flown into.  When I see those lights, it´s like my heart sighs with the goodness of returning to this county and these people.  We were concerned about locating our driver and car when we arrived, but as I scanned the crowd outside the airport, I saw Roberto, who had helped us on our first mission trip over 2 years ago.  Then I saw Amed, Chiqui, Sergio and 4 new friends from Dallas.  There were hugs and kisses all around, as well as an impromptu prayer for John and Emily on the sidewalk.  What a welcome to Guatemala!

If that wasn´t enough, there were little girls and boys running to me with hugs and kisses today.  Rachael brought some photos that she had taken on the August trip to give to the children.  Christel showed me the photo of the 2 of us, smiling all the while.  She´s the one in the tiara, by the way.  It is good to be remembered by the children, and to be able to draw on my own memory to remind them of our last visit and the games we played together. 

Tomorrow we are going to visit at Eliza Martinez to talk to the boys about our vision to spend more time with them and develop deeper connections with them.  We want to wrap our time with them around the knowledge and understanding that we had a great time with them when we saw them last, we´ve been remembering our time together since then, and we´re back to see them again because they are important to us.  We can give the kids more stuff, but it´s the relational connections that build memories, and that´s also the way we show them the love and affection of God.

We ask for your prayers as we flesh out what that process looks like, as we look to building deeper relationships with the boys in the orphanages here in Guatemala City.  We are also praying for John and Emily as they have a meeting in the morning with a high official in the U.S. Embassy who has the authority to push their adoption through quickly.  Please join us in our prayers.