Our Faithful God...

I am having a really hard time even knowing how to write the things that happened today down.
Today when I went into work, my team that I work with had decorated my desk for my birthday and left me a card. The card had $10 and then also some tooth brushes...all for us to take to Guatemala! I was so touched. Next, another lady at work came up and gave us a check for $40...Next, another person from work gave me an envelope with very encouraging words and a check for $20 for the trip! At this point, I was in tears already off and on all day. Then Shawn and I got two emails at different points of the day asking us to meet with two different people.
Shawn's team that he works with had been saving for us and donated $600 for our trip! I was crying so much when I went back to my desk, I could hardly work at all. To think that at that point, we would only need to do one more fundraiser and we would be done and that this small group of people would do such a huge thing for this trip.
About 25 minutes after that happened, another person from work called me and asked me to meet her in the hallway on my break. She said that she wouldn't normally do this but God had been putting it on her heart to give Shawn and I money for our trip and the money she was waiting for (tax return) just came in today (my birthday;-)and she gave us $500 for our trip!
Last Saturday we only had $65 for our trip saved and today...not even a week later...we have the trip paid for! God is so faithful when you follow what He calls you to do. Shawn and I are seriously so blown away it has been hard to stop crying or think of anything else for so many reason, because it takes the stress away from doing all of the fundraisers, because we have had so much confirmation that this trip is God's will, because so many people have such amazing hearts and they all get to be a part of this trip with us! Thank you so much to everyone who gave or prayed for us and this trip! We are so excited to see what things God has planned!
Now, any other donations we get from other people or what we raise from our yard sale will get to be used for us to bring things like socks, school supplies, our sponsored children and their families, and also whatever may come up while we are there. Praise God!

God is so good...

I am amazed all the time at how many blessing get poured out on our family when we don't even deserve it. After our Bingo...and the money donated by Shawn's aunts...we went to the bank after work Monday to deposit the money so we could buy our tickets for the trip. We had to decide if we should by them yet or not since we don't have all of the money to pay for the rest of the trip but we decided that we knew God would provide it and we would go ahead and get the tickets. We joked at the bank that we needed to pray that the tickets went down $100 to save money...when we got home and got on to look at tickets prices (which have not been under $630 for at least 6 months) the tickets were down $200! We saved $400 on our plane tickets which will now cover our hotel! I was so excited, shocked, happy, and very thankful to God! We stepped out in faith to buy the tickets and God provided us with a good deal to help us pay for other parts of the trip.

It was also great because it felt like such a huge confirmation to us both that we are doing God's will and we are supposed to be on this trip.

Well first of all, thank you so much to those who came and supported our Bingo fundraiser! Shawn and I felt very discouraged at the beginning of the evening because only three of our friends came but my wonderful mom invited some friends as well and some of them came too. We ended up only having 13 people come to play Bingo which was very disappointing...at first!Part of the way through the night, I looked over and a very good friend of mine Andrea came walking through which was a complete surprise to me! She didn't come to play Bingo but she drove about 30 minutes to stop in, donate, and just encourage me...thank you Andrea.It is so hard sometimes to figure out if the things that are happening or not happening are because of God or due to letting Satan in but as soon as Shawn and I start to think that maybe God doesn't want us on this trip, something happens to remind us that this is what we are being called to do and that we need to stay focused on God and not what we think or what we want. God can do great things with very little. With the 13 people that showed up to our Bingo...we raised $485! Now if you consider that it only cost $10 per person to play, God really used the people who came in a big way!Thank you again to everyone that came and prayed for this night!

Our letter to Family and Friends

Dear Family & Friends~

Shawn and I have some exciting news that we wanted to share with you and ask for your prayers!
We will be traveling to Guatemala this year to share the love of Christ with the children there. We will be leaving September 25th and returning home on October 2nd. Here are some of the things we will be doing while we are there…
~ We will get to meet our two sponsored children in Guatemala and their families and see the work World Vision has done.
~ We will get to visit a Teen Girls Home and a Teen Boys home in the city. Many of the teens there are kids that I have known for a few years from the orphanage and are now in a better place.
~ We will also be looking for two siblings who have been taken out of the orphanage by their abusive mother and try to get them placed in a home. On my trip last summer, I was able to find the boy Wilber, but the mother would not tell us where his sister Reyna was. Reyna was very badly abused in many ways by her mother and we are praying that we can help her out of the situation she is in.
~ There are two orphanages in a town called Xela that we will visit as well. One of them is called Hogar Temporal (Temporary Home) the place that I adopted my son Diego out of and the other one is called a S.O.S home where children have to be on a waiting list to get in there because the care is so much better.
The reason why Shawn and I both feel so strongly about going to see these kids is because they have nobody else. Can you image for those of you who have your own children, them never being hugged or showed affection? When Diego came home, he told me that the caretakers that he was raised by, never once hugged him. Or imagine your children being sick or scared, hungry, sad, alone, and them not having anyone to comfort them or just show them love? Most of the kids that we will be visiting have been abused in some way or another and have never been shown love. That breaks my heart. When God took me there for the first time in 2004 and even the second, I had no idea what good I was for them or what I had to offer. Then I realized that God is love and if all I can give these kids is unconditional love year after year, then that is what God called me to do.
Shawn has the same heart to help those in need and to give hope to the hopeless and that is why we are going. To serve them, love them, help them, and tell them about our wonderful God. That is what they need most is to know there is hope in Jesus Christ and that they are very much loved by Him.
This letter is to ask for your help in any way that you can. We need to raise $3000 for the trip and are doing fundraisers throughout the entire summer. We have a carwash scheduled almost every weekend so if you are interested in helping out just let us know. If you feel led to give financially at all, everything is a huge help and very appreciated no matter the amount. And most of all, prayer! Please pray for us while we are planning the trip that we are following God at all times and pray for our safety on the trip as well and for God to use us to help the kids in Guatemala.

Fundraising for our Trip

All summer so far, Shawn and I with the help of others, have been doing car washes to raise money for this years trip to Guatemala...but they have not went too well. So...our next fundraiser is going to be a BINGO night where we will also have items to raffle off and a bake sale as well! I did this to raise money to help pay for adopting my son and it went very well and was alot of fun! The BINGO night will be August 15th at 6pm. We have less than two months to go and we still have not even got our tickets but for some reason, we both feel that God will provide the money just in time and we're not too stressed about it. Two of Shawn's Aunts and his Grandma are also trying to help out and will be having a huge yard sale to help raise funds the same weekend so we are praying that we will be able to get our tickets in another week or so!!