La Piscina! (THE POOL!)

I never took the time to explain the best day at Casa Bernabe so far. Friday the amazing Crossroads Community Church (aka "The Indiana Team") who was here for our first two weeks paid for all of Casa Bernabe to venture to a water park!
All of the sunscreened kids in their cute but awkwardly fitted swimsuits piled into three buses with huge smiles. They had been waiting all year for the day at la piscina. I sat with three of my kids on the school bus on the way there and we got to see more of the naturaleza of Guatemala. The mountains we drove through were a worshipful start to the day. I had some sweet moments with Magali and Rosa who sang Spanish worship songs with me while we listened to them on my ipod. The moment was only sort of ruined when Rosa, who was on my lap, threw up. Don't worry- I grabbed a plastic bag quicker than flash and we caught most of it. My gag reflexes are relaxing these days.
We got to the pool and Casa Lamar went to a closed in area with a 2 ft pool that had two slides. I've never seen the kids so excited as in that water. Splashing, giggling, sticking their faces in the water, and spitting the water like a fountain out of their mouths onto my head continued for 3 hours as I played with them in the hot, fun, but not so sterile water.
After a while, the older 4 year old girls and I all started playing hair salon. It was a true sacrifice for me to let them gently stroke my hair and pour water over it again and again pretending to wash it. I was so relaxed every time they would finish I would exclaim that "Oh my hair is dirty again!"
Swimming was an amazing chance to get one on one time with my kids. I got to go around and swim with one at a time because the others were more than preoccupied with their friends and the water.
I also learned to appreciate the fact that when I was younger my mother would tell me to reapply sunscreen. It's been awhile since I had so much fun in the pool that I forgot to ever put more sunscreen on. Unfortunately, it was under the Guatemalan sun that I made this mistake. We had to spend some good time later that night doctoring our sunburned shoulders and faces with aloe and ice.
In the afternoon we relocated to the little kiddie water park with the mushroom waterfall, dragon spitting slide, and giant octopus. Pretty cool. The boys from the Indiana team did a good joy chasing kids around, and Andrea and I took advantage of the ice cream and coffee in the snack shack.
The way home was eventful. Within 3 minutes all three of my little bus buddies were sound asleep. Rosa was hugging my left arm, Melvin was asleep in my lap, and Ofelia was hugging my right arm. And pretty soon the whole bus became quiet and the mountainous scenery reappeared. It is hard to explain how I felt. I've never been a parent, but I can imagine now why parents love doing fun things with their kids. It's more fun and exciting to see them lit up and have the time of their life. And its the most satisfying thing to see them pass out at the end of the day knowing their memories are a little sweeter.
Once again the moment rapidly changed when I felt something wet and warm running down my leg. I looked at Mackenzie who was sitting across the isle- "Melvin is peeing on me!!!" This little precious Melvin who was in my lap is in the process of being potty trained, and I don't think he went before he left. This was one of those moments where if you don't laugh, you'll cry. So now I'm laughing, trying to unwrap Ofelia from my right arm to use baby wipes to clean up my now peed on leg, all the while the little angel in my lap is still sound asleep. The liquid is limited at this point to my knees, so although someone else offered to take him from me, I declined the offer because what the heck- it already happened to me, why should he dirty up someone else.
But then it happened again.
And then again.
Three times total Melvin peed on me. And there was no where to go and nothing proactive to do about the situation. I tried cleaning myself up, but Melvin was still asleep and their was not point in waking him up because he's a screamer. My gag reflexes were not as relaxed at this point. In fact, that was definitely the most disgusting and long hour ride I've ever had. I was chanting in my head "whoever welcomes a child in my name welcomes me" over and over again for 45 minutes.
And then a rainbow appeared in the sky. And although that did not make me any less disgusted, I was granted the reminder that God loves me and that he gave me parents who let me pee on them once upon a time. And Melvin did not have a mom to show him that patient love, he had me. So I was the blessed to do what only a parent would do for an hour, even though I knew he would wake up screaming and never thank me or even know.
After we got back I passed him off right away and ran to the shower completely grossed out but not forgetting the amazing day at la piscina with my kids.


Sorry to my boyfriend for continually using the word you despise in this blog. There was just no replacement in this situation.:D love you.
Thanks mom and dad for letting me pee on you twenty years ago. I appreciate it. Really.