The Funnest, Longest, Happiest Blog Post Ever (Honduras 2014, Part 6)

Unlike the majority of my posts, this one is going to be a lot of pictures, a lot of light-hearted fun, and not a lot of depth.  This day did have purpose, as you will read about.  More than anything, though, it had joy.  This joy transformed each of our hearts in ways that will stick with us forever.

On the ride to the water park, Estefani and Dayana entertained us with some adorable clapping games.  We talked about My Little Pony and jewelry and whatever else 7-year-old girls talk about.  Melania and I sat together and had great conversation.

We arrived at the water park and excitedly gave the girls the swimsuits we had brought for them. While shopping for the trip, we had carefully prayed and debated over clothing sizes for our girls.  By the grace of God, they were all perfect fits.  They always are.

The water park we went to was really just a few pools with 2 slides.  Our group members were the only people in the whole place that Wednesday afternoon.  We all got in the pool, and quickly realized that the two youngest girls could not swim.  Bella helped Estefani.  Melania's older sister, who had tagged along with us, volunteered to help Dayana. 

We went down the big slide, which was quite hilarious.  The slide goes half way, then flattens out.  You have to push yourself for a while.  Then, at the bottom, it picks up speed again to the point where you think you're going to fly off of the side.  It is a beautiful view through some trees.  We went down a few times, and then caught the younger girls as they came down.



At the top.  Aren't they precious?

The entirety of my heart

Then there were the swimming contests...



And the time we just sat like this and talked about our favorite bible stories...

It was a great afternoon of swimming, sliding, bonding, and joking around with our translators.  At one point, Melania took my hand and pulled me away from the group (again), to go walk with her on this sheltered dock that was nearby.



We had left our translator behind, so we were on our own for communication.  Somehow, though, we made it work.  Of all things, we talked about fish!  And we actually understood each other!  Our alone time only lasted a few minutes, but it is one of my favorite memories from the trip.

Everyone else eventually got out of the pool.  We told the girls to go and change, and that we had gifts for each of them.  We decided to take each child aside individually to give them their gifts.  I took Melania to sit under a shelter.  Bella took Estefani. 

In addition to clothes, jewelry, art supplies, and journals, I gave Melania some artificial flowers, which I told her were a symbol of our friendship.  I explained that when I visited one of my best friends who lives far from me, she gave me flowers as a gift, and they just made me feel special.  I wanted her to feel that too.



Meanwhile, at a nearby table, Bella was giving Estefani toys, clothes, plastic jewelry, a bible, devotional books, art supplies, and everything else under the sun...

Bubbles :)

Estefani's tutor, who had come along as a chaperone, was overwhelmed with gratefulness.  "She doesn't have a mother or a father," she began, "so it means so much for you to care for her."  Meanwhile, Estefani was mesmerized by a plastic ring with a heart on it, that could not have cost more than 10 cents.  "What a beautiful ring!", she said, "I am going to sleep with it tonight." 

And then there was Dayana :)

A few minutes later, I looked over and saw Dayana and Estefani all decked out in their new treasures.  I thought about Isaiah 61:3.  Beauty from ashes.  Estefani was sporting a beautiful dress, sparkly jewelry, pink sunglasses, and a flower in her hair.  Meanwhile, Dayana clung to love in the form of a doll and a frilly pink headband.



It was such a beautiful day, and it was now time to take the girls home.  Not for long, though.  They would return to the sponsorship center later for Melania's quinceanera party and our final goodbyes of the week.  None of us were ready.

Feels Like Home (Honduras 2014, Part 5)

Let's take a minute to be real again, shall we?  With each post I write about this trip, my heart breaks a little more.  I am longing for my kids.  Longing to be in the center of God's will, where I know exactly what He wants of me.  It's taken me a little longer to write this post than the others, because visiting Melania's home was probably my favorite part of the entire trip.  It's a memory I am holding onto, knowing that my words cannot accurately describe what a beautiful afternoon it was.

When you do an individual visit with your sponsor child, the organization will typically arrange a visit to their sponsorship center, a visit to their home, and then a fun activity for you to take them to.  In our case, this was a small water park.  As previously mentioned, Bella and I shared a fun day together with our kids.  We, along with the children's' families and project staff, headed to Melania's house first.  Our driver drove us part of the way, but her house was so far back in the woods that we had to get out and walk the rest of the way.  Melania quite literally lives "over the river and through the woods"....and up some hills, through some gates, and over some rock piles...

Bella and Estefani

Dayana crossing the stream

Up a hill

These pictures do not begin to do it justice.  The view was breathtaking.  And then, we made it... 

We put on our matching shirts :)



After all of the culture shock and out-of-place feelings that being in a developing country had brought me that week, being there with that family, with the beautiful scenery around us, felt like home.  The hills in her back yard were just larger versions of the ones in my own yard back home.  There was love and joy all around us.  Melania had the biggest smile I had ever seen as she showed me around.

Proof that God is good: Melania has a banana tree!
Click here to read about how bananas play a part in our story.

There is an enormous valley that dips off after those trees, where Melania's older brothers pick coffee beans

Between Melania's 20+ family members, and everyone we had brought with us, we had quite the crowd forming.  We all wandered around the property and talked while the family was preparing a meal in honor of our visit.  It was great to have this time with Melania in her own environment, and fellowship with everyone there.  It was like a big family reunion...



Bella and Estefani

Dayana's mother and sister

Estefani and I (photo bombed by our translator, Joel)

Some of Melania's brothers and nephews

At one point, Melania went off into the woods, and returned with some purple flowers for me.  Purple flowers are another personal reminder of God's promises in my life, which made the gift all the more beautiful.



Melania then took my hand and led me off to see her bedroom.  Honestly, there are so many times when the enemy gets to me and makes me question whether my sponsorship is really making a difference.  Walking into Melania's room, all of those questions were forever answered.  In the same way that this blog is filled with memoirs of God's work in our story, her room was equally as adorned with these things...

Her walls were covered in things I have sent to her, such as pictures and Valentine cards...

See that artwork to the right of her head?  Yeah, that's a picture she drew of me!



She also had a folder on her dresser, which held every letter I had ever sent her.  She took them out and began reciting some of the things I had written.  "You said this is your favorite song."  "This is the last letter you sent."  "This one came with a picture of you and Bella."  Folks, your kids cherish your letters!  They hang on your every word.  What a great opportunity to speak words of life!  Seeing Melania's room showed me what an impact sponsorship had made on her life.  From the pictures and letters, right down to the little tin container I brought last year that once held candy, and was too precious to her to throw away, even though it was now empty.

When we went back outside, Melania grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the rest of the group.  She did this quite a few times during our time together.  Last year, she had had me all to herself.  This year, my time was split between so many people.  And although she knew I was ultimately there for her, there were times when I would be talking to another team member, or playing with some children at the center, and Melania would sweetly grab my hand and pull me into another room to have me to herself.  Even though we could communicate very little, we would just sit together and hold hands.  We were content just being together. 

Thankfully, this time, our translator followed behind us.



We talked about God.  She told me that she had been learning to share her testimony.  She also told me she had read the book I gave her last year, which was a devotional that had love letters from God.  She told me she had memorized many of the verses, and then quoted several to me.  We talked until her mother came out and announced that lunch was ready.  They had killed their own chicken, and even walked several miles into town to purchase Pepsi (a very special treat), all on the occasion of our visit!  As we sat down and prayed over the food, Melania's mother spoke, "We know this is a humble meal, but it is from the heart."  And yes, it was one of the most beautiful meals I have ever eaten; there with my second family.



Just a few of the 30+ of us

At this point, I thought my heart was full.  Little did I know, it was only beginning.

Reunited (Honduras 2014, Part 4)

Almost all of my teammates had met their sponsored children.  I arrived back to the sponsorship center that morning with high hopes that my Melania would be there waiting.  As children arrived, I became so anxious to see her.  No amount of time I spend with Melania will ever seem like enough when I have to leave a few days later, so I hoped and prayed she would be there soon.

I was playing with some other children near the doorway when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a few people walk into the center.  This had happened so many times that morning that I honestly didn't even turn around to look this time.  That is, until I heard my friend Bella exclaim, "Megan!", and I turned around to see Melania coming through the door!  Then, this happened...



This was it.  This was the moment we had both been praying for for all this time.  I was reunited with my sister, my heart.  I was stunned by how grown up she was compared to last year.  She was just so beautiful. 

We sat and talked laughed at the fact that we had no way to understand each other, because there were no translators nearby.  We literally sat like this with our arms around each other, smiling and saying nothing, for a good twenty minutes.  Finally, I flagged down one of my teammates who was fluent in Spanish to help me so Melania and I could say a proper hello.

We talked about how much we had missed each other and how excited we were to be together again.  We talked about our families.  I informed her that Bella and Estefani would be coming along on our fun visit day (our team members were split into groups of two for the fun days; so the rest of the team went elsewhere for theirs), and that we would also be bringing Dayana.  Thankfully, she was excited about this plan.  She gave me some precious gifts, including some beautiful handmade jewelry, a jewelry box filled with candy, and some of her amazing artwork.  The one that touched my heart the most, was this drawing.  In the individual hearts, she wrote my name, her name, and the names of my siblings- Aden and Amy.  

From the first day we met, I have told Melania that we are sisters in Christ.  And from the first day we met, she has reminded me that I am now a part of her family.  When I saw this drawing, I knew that was exactly what she was trying to say.  I pointed to her, and then to myself, and said, "hermanas" (sisters).  "Si, hermanas!" she agreed.

I also gave her one of the gifts I had brought for her (and saved the rest for later on).  If you happen to remember, last year, I was so impressed when she told me that her favorite verse was Isaiah 1:17, about doing good and helping the fatherless. That verse had led me to go to Honduras to see her in the first place. Meanwhile, she was out there doing that for everyone else.  I have since written to her about what a selfless action it is to live out that verse.  So, on this visit, I decided that Melania's special gift would be a custom shirt that had Isaiah 1:17 on it in Spanish.  I also had one made for myself so we could match.  She was so happy when she saw them.

This was when I told her that later on, we would be having a quinceanera (15th birthday party, which is often a bigger deal than a wedding for girls in Honduras, and is the reason I came to visit her when I did) for her, and that I had brought her a gown and had the sponsorship center staff plan everything.  She had already been notified of this, but still her smile was huge when we talked about it.

I spent the morning teaching Melania to make paper beads, a hobby I'd recently taken up.  This can be used both for a means of income and for fun.  She was amazing at this and quickly became more skilled at it than me.  Many others at the center joined in too.

We made earrings for each other...



And for all the little girls who were huddled around watching...



After this, we had way too much fun playing with a jump rope...



And I watched her play soccer with some of her friends....

It was such a great morning, and our time together was only beginning.  Next, we were off to visit her house!