Hola from Panajachel!

Sunday in Pana has been glorious! We hosted a Christmas Party at the Casa Hogar Feliz today (an orphanage) and it was just amazing. These children have suffered the most unimaginable abuse and no longer live with their families. They are children who will never know the love of a parent or the safety of a family to protect them... they will grow up as orppans yet they showed joy, spirit and love to all of us who came to bring them some Christmas in their lives for just a day. They smiled, they laughed, they marveled at receiving Christmas presents from people they have never met. Some of them received presents for the very first times in their lives! The joy on their faces will never be forgotten, for both Morgan and myself.

Catherine and Mary... the girls you sponsored, Cristina (not Reina Kristina) and Selyna are absolute sweethearts and I can´t wait to send you pictures! They were two who had never received gifts before in their life and have only recently come to the orphanage. The gifts were PERFECT and the director of the orphanage told me how amazing it was that their gifts fit them SO perfectly. I wish you could have been there to see them and love on them! We took all the kids to the shoe store this morning and each child got a brand new pair of shoes. They got them with a little wiggle room to spare and were so happy! The kids put on a musical show and dance for us at the hogar when we arrived. It was so totally amazing! They were all dressed in traditional Mayan clothing and had learned to tell us in English ¨my name is ___¨. I can´t tell you how amazing this day was.

A little girl named Tomasa looks so much like I imagine Sophie will look like in a few years with the same timid little personality. I sat staring at her for the longest time when she was not looking. Morgan thought so too.

We also worked back at Mayan Families today distributing tamale baskets and handing out shoes and clothing. The Guatemalan people we have met are most gracious and appreciative of every little thing they receive and thank us with kisses on each cheek and hugs. I worked all day beside a young 11 year old boy named Ismael. He is 11 years old and works full time to support his family... his single mother and 6 year old brother, Alan. He is such a hard worker and was so fun to be with all day. He is working hard to learn English and we practiced on each other all afternon. He looked through all the pictures on my camera and asked me about everything that was on there. He was most excited to see the snow in the pictures at Grant´s school from last weekend. We happened to see him walking home tonight on our way home from dinner with his family and took him into the pastry shop to buy them some pastries amd cookies. I had inexplicably picked up some boy clothing at a consignment shop before I left (an Old Navy fleece, some blue jeans, random shirts, etc.) and plan to give them to him and his brother when we see him tomorrow. There are some kids that just touch your heart and make an impression in your life... this boy is one of them. I am going to ask Sharon about sponsoring him for school if he is not already sponsored. He has such potential to be a remarkable young man with the right opportunity in his life. And, you all know how I feel about giving young men with potential the opportunity to be all they can be in life!

Morgan found a 4 week old puppy that had been abandoned on the side of the road and brought to Mayan Families this weekend... she is begging me to bring it home with us. I don´t think that will happen, but she sure had a wonderful time cuddling that little guy all afternoon and I think the puppy enjoyed the love and attention from her as well.

Tonight, we went out to dinner at El Bistro (the same place we went last year), it was awesome. We are disappointed that our hotel does not have internet, so we are at an internet cafe down the street tonight. Morgan is in heaven on facebook for the night, not sure I will be able to pull her out of here later. Tricia is busy blogging with pictures right behing me in the internet cafe (yes, we are such geeks), so be sure to check her blog as she just pushed send with pictures of our time at the shoe store this morning.

Tomorrow morning, we have the Christmas party at the preschool in the new San Jorge community center. We are really looking forward to it!!

I had not planned on this update being so long... but the day has been absolutely wonderful and I just don´t want to forget it. I will have to add pictures when I can use my laptop to download pictures.

Love you all!