Reasons to love this land

(AKA snapshots from the past two plus weeks when I neglected this blog)
1 Weekends away are scenic, thrilling, and cheep! Last weekend we stayed at an amazing lodge in the middle of a lake surrounded by volcanoes, which was not easy to get to but totally worth it. (it was raining when we arrived, and the dock was sort of underwater... Cressia was the only one to fall:D)
2 Zip lines go from the side of one volcano to another
3 Tuk-tuks! (google them and then picture 4 of us inside)
4 The amazing house moms love Twilight even here... not only did we make a night of it, but they sell ice cream at their theaters!
5 The mornings are beautiful enough to get up for (ok so I didn't have a choice)
6 Little girls still like to sing all the time- like this morning when I was doing their hair for school and we all started singing worship songs
7 Embarrassing moments will be left behind
Let's pause here for some explanation. In Guatemala, the culture is more formal than casual US and people don't really go out anywhere without getting ready... well since we started going to the house at 6 am, I didn't want to shower beforehand, so I would go with Andrea in the mornings in my PJs, glasses, no make-up, the usual morning grunge. Funny, after we got to the house one morning we were asked to take the kids to school. Our kids are too little to just drop off, so we have to stay with them in the mornings until devotionals start. So the rest of the kids at school are dropped off and the playground is full of tons of uniformed children, their dressed up teachers, and two white gringos in their glasses and PJs running around trying to keep 5 year olds controlled. Then devo's start and we are supposed to get the kids into lines- I had no idea what was happening, all I knew was that one of my kids was climbing up the flagpole behind one of the teachers (thankfully he is my friend) who was giving devotions. He would not get down so I crawled up, yes, in front of all the kids to get him down. Then we start praying and I am trying to keep my head down and be incognito, but that doesn't work because Ive got one of my boys in a headlock and all these kids are smiling. Oh, and I am wearing socks with my flip flops. So finally a teacher comes over and replaces me and I sneak out. Andrea is in the back, not intentionally leaving me but looking for one of the kids who we swore we lost. Laughing and completely embarrassed we left as fast as we could... and as we are walking back to the house there is one of our little boys, walking on the trail in the forest alone. Why? Still a good question. He wasn't mischievous looking, he just had the dear in the headlights look going on. I had to then walk him hand in hand all the way back through the crowd of people staring at my PJs and bring him into his classroom and explain to his teachers in Spanish that he was in the woods and I didn't know why. Then I left. Recap- gringo Lauren climbs in front of school of dressed up Guatemalans in her PJs and looses a kid in the woods. All the while wearing socks with flip flops:D

Back to the list of reasons to love this land
8 Good friends are still to be had in like minded people who love the Lord, even though communication is sometimes rough
9 FRUIT! praise God for all the fruit consumption on our get away
10 these kids, although we constantly discipline them and make them despise us, get really excited to see us every morning.
11 I get to play outside in the now beautiful weather with the kids.

Praise God for this place. Keep us all in your prayers as we only have 2 weeks left here and we all need to start detaching... which pretty much is the opposite of what we want to do. But God has been good to us. Pray for the kids too that they can accept our leaving and know that it is not their fault we have to leave.