Celebrate good times….Come'on?

We have had a lot to celebrate this past month!

I'll start the story by saying we have quite a few birthdays in February down at the Haciendas (5 Hacienda kids to be exact). This can be time consuming (less for me and more so for Jauna who bakes all the cakes!) but it is also an exciting time.

Also, two Tuesdays ago while we were getting ready to celebrate Maria Sevillano's 13th birthday, we found out she and another one of our girls, Maria Beatriz, had expressed the desire to be baptized. This was exciting, but not so surprising. They have been thinking and deliberating baptism for some time now. So before eating cake we all went out to the water basen and rejoiced as both Marias were baptized. We celebrated their birthday days (physical and spiritual) by playing games and enjoying each others company. Then the next Sunday our sweet and silly Jenny was baptized.

Maria

Maria Beatriz

Jenny

The wash basin were we baptized the girls.

It has been a really exciting and joyous time to see our young kids growing in their walk with God. These young ones have been through some hard times, but we have confidence that it will only make their lives more of a living testimony to the amazing power and love of our God.

This last week we also had a scary moment. Last Thursday we came home to news that our oldest Hacienda kid (who isn't so much a kid because he is 20), Cristian, went to the hospital because of seizures. We had a difficult time at the hospital in Cayambe because they didn't have the right kind of equipment to give him any sort of scans or test. To make matters worse, they did not have a driver for their ambulance to take Cristian to Quito. So Justin, Jauna and Carlos drove to one of the hospital and Quito so he could get the right tests. He got an EEG and we are now waiting for results. In the meantime, he has gotten much better and has returned to normal activities. We are still watching closely over him and making sure his stress levels are low. We would ask that you continue to pray for him, his health and the fact that he is his senior year at school and making some big plans for his future.

Yesterday we celebrated Maria Beatriz's quinceañera. Jake and I have never been to one before and I don't think we realized how much it is like a wedding. We had a good time celebrating this lovely girl's birthday with our whole extended family out here.

Maria Beatriz looks so beautiful and grown up!

Jake "walked her down the aisle" to be presented to her dad.

House Dad Xavier put on her "big girl" heels as a symbol of growing up.

I think she made a very big and important wish on her candles because it 

took her awhile to blow them out!

We played lots of games, including the Limbo! As you can tell, Cristian is feeling MUCH better!

We have also (FINALLY) started our Spanish classes. Jake and I cut out early three times a week (M,TH,F) from school so we can drive to Otavalo (30 minutes away) for three hours of classes. I feel like we have learned quite a bit in the past 2 weeks of classes. Although, Jake will tell you what he has learned is that he doesn't know a lot.

Busy busy!