The guys conquer Mt. Pacaya

Here we are waiting for the guide to pick us up at 5:45 AM.




We made it to an overlook where we could see all the molten rock. All three boys rode their own horse. I was questioning my decision not to rent one during our 2,500 ft elevation climb in 1 hour. I think I need to start running in the dunes back at home.
We had an incredible guide. Above our guide is helping Spencer over molten rock. The guide had his wife and two of his nine children help us out. It was an added blessing today to watch this family interact, they loved each other, god and their country. He was so proud of his Mt. Pacaya.



Notice the lava behind the us. It was extremely hot, but incredible to be within 15 feet of a real lava flow. Another amazing aspect of Gods creation. This molten rock is only 4 days old. Dylan and Antanio would put their walking sticks into crevices and they would start on fire. The bottoms of my shoes melted a little.
The way down was a relief for me but harder on the boys. They constantly had to lean back in their saddles. However, Spencer thought it a challenge and would ride with both his hands in the air. The guide got a huge kick out of that.

The boys wanted to take me to the Monoloco for supper. I am not sure if they were trying to give me a hint - Monoloco means crazy monkey.

Walking back from supper Stacy took this picture of one of the volcanoes we can see from Antigua.

A late night swim after we picked up the condo and washed the dishes.

As of right now we are planning on the 2nd DNA test being taken tomorrow. However, we have heard nothing from the orphanage about what time to be in Guatemala City. We contacted our social worker in Portland and she told us that the orphanage would contact us. It makes it very difficult to hire a driver when we do not know when. God is still working on our patience and I we pray we will continue to be transformed more and more into his likeness as we continue on this journey.

Thanks for being apart of our journey.

Ryan

He is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took a video, however, I could not get it to upload, after trying several times, so this picture will have to suffice! They were SO SURPRISED!!! Jayden and Spencer were outside and all of a sudden I heard them saying something, and heard Ryans voice! I was waiting for a van to come down the road, but instead he walked up! The boys were saying "How did you get here?" Then Ryan told them he walked!! They were so confused! It was so great to see the looks on their faces! Dylan saw someone walk past the window, and he thought that it looked like daddy, so he walked outside, and was dumbfounded! It was a great day!!
Anaya in the dress we bought in Panajachel!
We went out to eat at a cute little place, Jayden and Spencer ordered RABBIT for dinner!! They were so excited! The rest of us had "normal" food! And once again, it was so good!
It started raining again tonight! We were going to get a tuk tuk, but Ryan wanted to stop by the tour operator, and book a guide for a hike up the volcano Pacaya! So we walked in the rain, Anaya was holding her little hand out, and looking at us like, "What are we doing, what is this stuff?" It wasn't too bad, so we went to the bakery for pan de banano(banana bread)! Then Ryan booked his tour!! He and the 3 older boys leave tomorrow at 6 a.m. and it will be a whole day adventure! They were told there are horses there, if they want to ride up! Of course, they do, but we will see what the day brings! This IS an active volcano, so please join me in praying for their safety! I know it will be okay, people do it all the time, but, they are MY babies!!! I actually think it sounds like fun, and one of those once in a lifetime experiences, but~ I am not going with the 2 little ones, so we will have to live vicariously through them!
This is NOT the volcano they are climbing, this is volcano Agua, and it usually doesn't show up in my photo's, but it did tonight, so I am posting it! The volcano they are climbing is smaller than this one! I believe there are 37 volcanoes in Guatemala (which is roughly the size of Ohio!) Oh how I wish everyone could come and see this beautiful land!
We got word today that we were submitted to the US Embassy on Monday, and we have Anaya's 2nd DNA scheduled for Thursday. I wish it were sooner, but at least we can see a light at the end of the tunnel! They say that it takes roughly 10 days for the DNA to go to the lab in the U.S. and back to the Embassy, then, within a few days, the Embassy will issue our PINK slip ~which has the date of the visa appointment on it~ they have been scheduling about a week out, so we still have a few weeks, however the end is near!!! We are truly enjoying ourselves, and when I look into Anaya's big brown eyes, I do know we did the right thing! I just hate to see the boys get sad! But they are doing well, and we are going to enjoy the rest of our time here in Guatemala!

Wow 3 weeks already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anaya, giving grama a shower! She is such a little sprinkler, I don't know how to explain what she does, but she does it a lot! She sure is a silly little girl!(with silly hair today too!)

Silly, and happy!
One more picture of all of the kids hanging with grampa and grama, before they have to leave!!
Wow, is it ever hard to have to say good bye! We all were crying when grampa and grama had to leave! I was able to pull myself together, partly because Ryan is coming, and partly because I had prayed for the strength! I knew the boys would be upset, especially since they have no idea that Ryan is coming, usually when someone leaves, someone else is on their heels coming in!

They are starting to get homesick, and I feel so bad! I know that they are having a good time, and for the majority of the time, they are great, but we mentioned camping this morning, and that we weren't going over Memorial day weekend, and Dylan was very upset! Then that makes me sad, did we do the right thing? is this too much for them? I think that once we have the DNA done, and can start to see the end in sight, they will be better, but the unknown is hard!

Dylan misses home, and friends(he is going to camp in June with his friend, and can't wait!) Jayden misses his animals, although there are a plethora of dogs right here in our condo complex! I found one in the house the other day!! There are no screens on the doors, just bars, and this skinny dog can fit right in, if the wooden door is open! Spencer, he just misses Daddy! They all do, so this will be a great week~until Saturday!! That will not be fun! Especially since we are trying to get a ticket home for Easton! He has been fine, it would just be a little easier to get out and about! But, boy would I miss him! He is so funny! He likes to give me a play by play of what "Naya" is doing! It actually can be quite helpful! "Look Naya do mom...." and usually she IS getting into something she shouldn't!

Well, after grampa and grama left, we had a rather uneventful day, a little school, picking up, swimming (for the boys) and then it rained for a while! The lights blinked on and off a few times, and that was it! We did get to talk via Skype to a few members of Ryans extended family, who were having a get together! That was fun ~ Thanks guys for including us, it was great to see you all again!
Easton and Anaya watching it rain!
Well, tomorrow will be fun, and I am hoping to hear good news of our progress, I will keep you posted! Thanks for praying!

Day 20.............................

Grama giving Anaya her tubby!! Boy am I going to miss my Mom and Dad!! They have been SO helpful! The kids are going to miss them too, they are so much fun to have around! I am so glad they had the opportunity to spend this time here with us, and getting to know Anaya!

Yes, Anaya has red on, I must confess, I got the outfit from my sister in law (Thanks Lisa!) I didn't have anything in red, but saw the hat in Panajachel, and remembered that Lisa had a red outfit in the stash she gave me, so I got it!( she didn't leave it on very good, we're working on that, in the picture it is on backwards, but you get the point!)By the way, the outfit is a 0-3 mos. and it still fits her! I will have to get some more things in red, she looks great in it!
That is Dylan flying through the air! He wanted an action shot, and I got it! My Dad has been going swimming with them, (Thanks Dad!!) they are loving it!
This is Jayden being thrown in to the water by grampa!! They needed a man to roughhouse with them! I don't like swimming, but I can wrestle, just not on all the tile!! I miss carpet, and Target!! We had to go to 2 stores today, and I still didn't find everything on my list!
I love the restaurants here though! The possibilities are endless! This place has real guatemalan food! I didn't like the meat, but the sauce was AWESOME! Good thing I split it with my Dad, he ate the meat, I ate the black beans and rice, and it was so good! The kids ate their food, and loved it too!! The marimba band was great! The kids said this was their favorite place!!
Here is a little clip that Dylan caught, before the batteries went dead!

We have had so much fun, hopefully this week will bring lots of movement! I am so excited to get the show on the road! Ryan is coming in on Tues!!! Yea!!!(But we haven't told the boys, Ryan wanted to surprise them!) That will help alleviate the pain of my parents leaving, and hopefully we can get all of the appointments in before Sat. when he leaves! Then, we will hunker down and finish the school work, and stay busy around the condo for a while. Thanks for your prayers, hopefully I will have word of movement this week, and we can stalk the DNA together as it goes from one place to the next! I am so looking forward to having an end in sight, a few more weeks??? and we can go home??? I will surely miss this place, and I am thinking this could be the new Florida! Except, we usually drive there~I do NOT want to do that!! So maybe not, but Antigua will ALWAYS hold a very special place in our hearts! I am thinking a destination wedding to Antigua is a great idea for Anaya! I know it will be here before I know it, for now we will enjoy the present!

Our day in Panajachel...............................

Here we are WAITING for our ride to come and bring us to Panajachel! Of course they were LATE!! But only by about 20 min. although, they told us to be ready 15 min. early!!

On our way, no car seats, or seat belts! Good thing I didn't know what kind of ride lie ahead of us, I probably would have demanded them!!

We drove through some very beautiful parts of Guatemala. Also, VERY hilly, SCARY steep and DANGEROUS roads! Not to mention the fact that they drive like maniac's here, seriously, we were in harms way SEVERAL times! Once, our driver had to slam on the brakes, to miss a truck that was headed straight for us(and with no seat belts!) We went through several small towns, and what looked like a very narrow one way street, would suddenly have a chicken bus coming right at us, we literally saw one guy bust his mirror off, they get so close to each other! Then the roads have these hairpin turns, with NO guard rails, I could look straight down the mountain! We were winding all the way up and down mountains, at a HIGH RATE OF SPEED, and praying we wouldn't meet anyone on the TOTALLY BLIND CORNERS! It was AMAZING!! The boys were hitting their heads on the windows and we were sliding into each other on the seats. I almost dropped Anaya 2 times, because I was holding on for dear life, and only had her with one hand, not good! But, she was sound asleep, and when she was awake, she was loving it! She is a wild child, the crazier the better! This ride was definitely not for the faint of heart, or anyone who gets carsick on a normal road!!
Poor Spencer(who never gets car sick) tossed his cookies, on the way there out the window!! On the way back, we had a bag ready, however he had fallen asleep, and when he sat up and chucked, I just wasn't ready!! Normally, I have Ryan clean up the mess, because it makes me sick, but I stepped up to the plate and did just fine, cleaning, and reassuring everyone it was ~going to okay, no big deal~ meanwhile, trying hard ward off the feeling myself! But, he was a real trouper, and no one else got sick, so we can't complain, the kids were so good! It was a little over 2 hours one way, so it was a lot of riding, but they did awesome! The pictures can't show how steep these hills are, and they farm on the sides of them, it is so amazing. These people work so hard, and have the most beautiful farm fields, all done by hand!
The main thing we noticed right away when we got out at Panajachel, is their street vendors are RELENTLESS!! Unlike the ladies here in Antigua, they do NOT give up! They follow you forever! These girls sat and talked for about 30 min. until my dad finally bought a few things from them!



We sat and had a little picnic lunch here by the lake, and there were several dogs that came by and begged for food! We saw SO many stray dogs today! We even saw a dead one being dragged from the middle of the road in front of us!
Unfortunately, it was very hazy today, and this was the best we could see of the volcanoes surrounding the lake! We chose not to go on a boat tour of the lake, because we weren't sure that Spencer's stomach could take it!
The boys were having fun throwing rocks into the water. There were several people who just walked into the water, clothes and all! One lady took a bar of soap and washed her hair!
We will have to come back someday, as we didn't get the best views, but we did have a great day, and feel blessed to have seen a little more of Anaya's homeland!

Day 19.................................

GOOD MORNING!! It is a vacation ritual to climb in bed with grampa and grama!! What a bed full!
Easton ~ helping to make pancakes! It's quite a task, since we do not have a griddle, we can only do 2 at a time!
Shopping time!! The volcano is in the background, although you can't see it!!


This is the video I took of all 8 of us in the tuk tuk yesterday!

Today we took another walk, went to Dona Luisa bakery restaurant, and ate an awesome lunch, and bought cinnamon rolls, and bakery bread for tomorrow! We also went and booked a shuttle to Lake Attitlan! We leave tomorrow at 8:00 AM! We will return at 6:30 PM! We can't wait to go and see, what some have called "The most beautiful lake in the world!" We will have lot's of pictures to show tomorrow! We didn't take many today. We had another beautiful day, no rain!!

We still have no idea what is going on with the paperwork, but are assuming they are working on it, and will leave it in God's hands. Ultimately, HE IS IN CONTROL, and HE WILL BRING US HOME!! So for now we are going to enjoy our weekend!! We hope you do too!!!

Day 18..................................

My little Antigua soccer team!! I did the tourist thing, and bought the boys these jerseys, they looked so cute, however it drew even more attention to us than normal. Everyone kept saying ~ Antigua!! I think they thought I was starting my own team! Yesterday some Argentinian guy told me to get a new hobby~ or a T.V. or something!! That's okay, he was pretty funny himself! He was selling t-shirts to pay for his trip around Central and South America!

The boys love the pigeons at La Merced church!
This is Anaya trying to comfort herself after I did her hair! She hates it, cries every time, I am so gentle, she just doesn't want to sit still that long! So she cries a bit, then realizes I am still going to do it, and then reverts to the thumb sucking, finger taping on lip thing! It is so sweet, now, however I fear this will be a VERY hard habit to break!! I am trying to give her a pacifier instead, but she's not falling for it! I have never had a thumb sucker, I always preferred a "pipe" as we call it, that way we can get rid of it at some point! Can't do that with a thumb!!!
This is a picture of all of us (minus Dylan, the photographer, and Anaya who is hidden) in the tuk tuk! We had another fun filled ride again tonight!
You can't tell from the picture, but the power went out again, and just as I was going to take one without the flash, they came back on! We got the candles all lit, and the picture taken, and they were back on again. The same thing happened when Ryan was here, we got all the candles lit, and they came back on! The kids thought it was fun though, they got to play with the flashlights!
We had another beautiful day, no rain, although the boys swear they saw some on the rooftops of the nearby buildings, as we were eating at Cafe Sky~OUTSIDE!! But we never got wet! I thought we were going to get wet too, however we did not! Weird!

Funny story~ When Steph was here, she picked up something to read it, and said, "I can't read that, it's all in Spanish!" When in reality, it was in fact in English! We laughed so hard!! Then, my Dad comes here, and turns the T.V. on and says, "I can't understand that, it's all in Spanish!" When in reality, it too was in fact, in English!! Come on, too funy!!

Anyway, we still have heard nothing on the passport, or when they plan to submit us to the US Embassy, so as soon as I know anything, I will keep everyone posted on any progress we make!

Thanks for praying for us, the boys are starting to get a bit homesick, we are working on a plan to get Ryan back here for a few days. I know we ALL need to be together again soon! Please pray they will pick up the pace, in the words of our high chair, "Let is go home" Yes, that is what it says?!? We have not yet figured it out, but just to show you, I am putting a picture of it on here! Hasta luego!!