Orphanage Emmanuel in Guaimaca, Honduras: Our Last Day at Emmanuel

It rained all night last night and although it was a steady rain (and I don't really remember waking up much if at all through the night), I woke up this morning feeling like I really hadn't slept. I've avoided coffee since the team has left and for the most part it's been okay. Perhaps this morning was a combination of the rain and getting a serious lack of sleep the night before.

When we headed to the Toddler House, I took just about all of my clothes there, the shirts should fit almost all of the girls...but I wanted to leave pants and capris for Zelenes since she's so much taller than the others. I did let her know that if the 2 pairs of jeans I had brought down were too long on her, she should pass them on to Krista (who's a long-term volunteer in the Baby House). Krista had let me know that she only had 1 pair of jeans down here, and she's even taller than me!

LoriAnn and her Latina Laurel (Saidy)

We did our normal morning chores: cutting veggies (haven't had pataste for 2 weeks, so sorry I couldn't get a photo for all of you back home), serving breakfast, washing dishes and taking the kiddos over to the pavilion. While we were in the pavilion it rained a bit, so that cancelled our plans to either go to the park or out on a walk. After serving lunch, doing dishes and getting the kiddos settled down for their naps, Alina and I headed back to our room to pack up some more. We headed out to get a few more handprints on my Team T-Shirt (I'll most likely take a picture of it tomorrow when it's complete) and then headed to the school. I gave Karen (elementary remedial Spanish teacher I've been working with) a Team T-Shirt and then felt prompted to ask her if she had an MP3. She said, "No." I asked if she would like to have one and she shook her head 'yes'...so I took mine out of my purse (along with the charging cord) and gave it to her, letting her know that there were 85 Christian songs already loaded on it. I found out later that evening from Vero Castro that Karen was VERY excited to have received the MP3. She told me that a few weeks ago, the two of them had had a conversation about what they "wanted" and the only thing Karen said she wished to have was something to listen to music that praised God. Vero Castro told her not to ask anybody for one, and that most likely if God wanted her to have one, He would provide in His time. Vero Castro told me that she believes God put me there at that time for her and thanked me so much! :-)

Ant Hills...I zoomed in only because I didn't want to get too close and get eaten alive.

Alina and I stopped at the store to get some chicken tostadas and ice cream before heading to the Toddler House for the last time in 2014. They were delicious...$4 for the entire meal! At the Toddler House, we played and served supper, washed the dishes and got the kids showered. I took a few pictures before saying my final goodbyes.

A bush of flowers that I've never seen before...perhaps Jim and Jeanne know what this is?

Church was cancelled this evening, so Alina and I headed back to our room once again to pack up. We saw Invisible on the way, so I had a small bag of clothes for her. I gave her a hug and we said our Goodbyes. Back in our room, the time couldn't come quickly enough for us to do our first-ever Skype chat with Bob and the kids back home. Noah had requested to see part of the orphanage "Live" before we left, so Bob put Skype on my laptop. I prayed that it would work. Right before we began, Doris walked in to our room which was AWESOME because she could see our smaller kids "Live" as well! I gave Noah a small tour of the orphanage by showing him our room and then taking the laptop outside where we're staying to show him the church, the clinic, the Medium Girls House, the apartment we had stayed in last year, and just an overall panoramic view from where we are. Bob explained to Noah that what he was seeing was just a SMALL portion of Emmanuel and that there was so much more! Then Bob gave Doris a "Live" tour of our house.

When we finished with our Skype session (I was truly thankful that it worked and there was enough space on the modem to do it), Alina and I headed with Doris back to the Big Girls yard. It was after 6pm and she needed to get back in her house for the evening. I looked around for Michell to say Goodbye to her, but they said she had taken off for a little bit (to which I replied, "I hope she didn't head for our room because we're here."), so I headed back to Doris' house to chat with her a bit longer. Sofia came out and gave me a hug and began crying (it gets more and more difficult to leave every year), so I held her for about 15-20 minutes as she cried. While I was holding her, Michell came back to the yard and I found out she had been waiting up at our room all that time! Her friend, Suyapa, told me that Michell left a note underneath my door. I gave a hug to Michell and she too started crying. I held her for a bit and then walked her back to her house, where Alina gave her a hug. The two girls cried for about 10 minutes in each others arms before Michell went into her house. Alina, who had been telling me for the past few days that she was ready to head back to the States, now cried and complained all the way to Wade's house (he was having dinner for all staff and volunteers) that she was ABSOLUTELY NOT READY to go home!

Wade and Lourdes' supper was awesome. We had some huge hotdogs (which he made on his big grill) and soda. There was more food, but because of how we were feeling about leaving at the moment, we couldn't eat much more than the hot dog. We said our goodbyes to Vero Castro, David and Lydia, and Wade before walking back to our room with Laurie and her family. When we approached their house, we said goodbye to them and then headed up to our room to gather Alina's clothes and the remaining food we had to give to Zue who is in charge of the Medium Girls. Zue and I have not had the chance to chat this trip, so I will look forward to next year, but she is such a dear friend who has a heart for these kids! She called around to find out when the bus would leave Guaimaca, and I got to talk to Juliet (via Zue's phone) and say goodbye as well. We chatted a bit before saying Good Night, and I promised to go up to her house in the morning to say goodbye to her one last time and to her girls. At that point, Alina and I decided to call it a night. Alina fell asleep almost immediately, but it took me a bit before I fell asleep.

I have truly cherished my time here at Emmanuel and will only have one more post tomorrow with our morning goodbyes and the travel home.