Updates

We have a couple things we wanted to update from previous posts etc.

First, the little baby that we took care of for a little while (we called him "Little Ben") was taken to the hospital last week. We arrived at the Home on Thursday and they told us that they had taken him to the hospital in Quiche. Later we found out that they had put him on IV fluids and thought he had pneumonia. He was still in the hospital last night when we went to San Andres for church. Oralia took him and has stayed with him the entire time. This means that Lita and Zoila didn't get their normal days off and Oralia has been away from her family and the Home since Thursday. We are praying that they will be able to return soon and we pray for rest for everyone involved.

Here is a picture of "Little Ben" (they actually call him Enrique at the Home).



Second, we have set up a new blog at www.guatnewsletters.blogspot.com. (See our link "Monthly Newsletters to the left) We are required to write monthly newsletters for our church. We send them via e-mail to our church and then they are sent out to our distribution e-mail list. We realized that many of you may not be on the list so we wanted to make them available for everyone to read. We are trying to write something different than what we post in the blog.

Third, this relates to our newsletters. In our October newsletter we wrote about a little boy that the people at the Home found on the side of the road. We have an update about him that we wanted to share. If you haven't read the newsletter, you may want to read it before you continue. . . We had written that Oralia and Sebastian did not know his name at first. We found out later that they thought it was Heliolopez (I am not sure of the spelling!) A week ago Sunday they found out that it is actually Elias. On Sundays, some of the parents of the kids at the Home come to visit. Well, Elias' father showed up. Elias ran away from him crying. I asked Oralia about it and she said that his father drinks and Elias must be afraid of him. Oralia went and took his hand and led him over to the father. Soon after, the mother showed up with snacks. This seemed to make him happier as he quit crying. The whole situation is very sad. The parents seem to be ok with leaving him at the Home and Oralia and Sebastian think it is better for him if he is there as well. He is very happy there and smiles often.

Here is a picture of Elias with Leslie.