August 16th

The team invited our family to dinner last night along with a lot of other people who are involved in GRACE ministries. They not only invited us to eat with them, but they were very gracious in serving us. Juan Manuel’s family was invited also, and they thoroughly enjoyed it!

Juan Manuel is trying really hard to learn English. This morning he was asking me to critique him on his pronunciation of “Thank you very much!” Ashley Holladay I will have him speaking southern English in no time! Dad please send him an English/Spanish dictionary!

This week Lizzi started kindergarten! Guatemala’s school year is from January to October so I am having to homeschool her for kindergarten. (I would post pictures of her first day of school, but so far she has stayed in her pajamas–I know people will judge me!) The education of my girls has been one area that I have stressed about for the past year. I do not plan on solely homeschooling my girls, but it is necessary for this time. Lizzi is extremely excited about homeschool. I have no idea why! She has been begging me to start school for weeks, but I have procrastinated because she is high maintenance and a walking question mark.

Last summer my girls went to a local “waterpark”. It cost us only a few dollars to enter! There were two pools with slides, some exotic animals in cages, and a store that sold ice cream. My girls were the only ones in bathing suits and the other people were staring and taking pictures of them. The girls had to either walk down the slide or I had to splash water on the slide so they could scoot down it. We only went twice and I threw a temper tantrum telling God about all of the luxuries my girls were going to miss by being raised in Guatemala. (Note: My girls are very spoiled and have not been neglected by any means!) A few weeks ago we were talking about why we love Guatemala and listing all of the great things about this country. Actually, we were trying to convince Sydney that she does want to live in Guatemala and flying back to Alabama is not an option. Lizzi’s immediate response was, “Guatemala is way better because they have the waterpark that sells ice cream! Alabama does not have one like it!” She is right–Alabama does not have a waterpark like it!

I have to laugh as the things I have stressed about are the things Lizzi loves the most! Homeschooling and a third-world country waterpark! What more could a girl want?