The First Visit

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

There was one more important document to get: our passports. We had a time just getting those! With forgetting the checkbook, missing office hours, and even watching a lady pass out in the Post Office, the simple act of applying for the passports was itself a major production. Anyway, we finally got them.

We were very eager to get our passports, because then we could go visit our children in Guatemala. Through talking with our agency, we determined that the earliest time available would be the weekend before Thanksgiving, and that we could stay for 3 or 4 days.

We told our agency that we would be going to visit, and they asked us to pick up several things for Christmas gifts for the people in Guatemala that worked with the agency. We gladly ran around town picking up the requested gifts.

About this time David's parents made contact with friends who connected them with missionaries in Guatemala City, the Bailes. David's parents planned to meet us there, we could all do some sightseeing in addition to visiting the children, and we could help (perhaps) with the Bailes' ministry. The orphanage would even allow us to take the children with us to the hotel for the days we were there!

David heard about a web site called priceline.com, which offered us the chance to save on our plane tickets by making an offer for a given itinerary. If an airline liked our offer, we had the tickets at the price we set. Surprisingly enough, his offer was accepted by Delta, and we had our tickets!

The only problem was, well, there were lots of problems. First, he asked for the wrong dates - a week early and a day short. Second, he only got two tickets. Third, and potentially most disastrous, Cristina (the director of the orphanage) would be in the US during the time period. Fourth, what made this all so bad, the tickets were non-refundable, non-transferable, and completely unchangeable.

How in the world would this get this fixed? We knew God would use this mistake for good, but had no idea how. First, we called David's parents, and they agreed God would demonstrate His goodness and work it out. They tried to get tickets for the same time, but nothing was available! They couldn't come with us.

At the same time, we contacted our agency, and got reassurance that the timing would not keep us from visiting our children, it just meant that we wouldn't be able to meet Cristina. That took care of the major concern that the timing would ruin the entire visit.

So we have tickets, we're ready to go, we have all the presents, and we can visit our children. Now, what are we going to do while we're there? Where are we going to stay? We carried on an email conversation with the Bailes, and found that they had some friends with a room we could use. But then that didn't work out, and they offered their own home for us to stay in while we were there.

We are very thankful for such a generous offer, and readily welcomed the opportunity to stay in a home with a bilingual family. We were ready to go.

Thursday We left our pets in the care of our neighbors, which gave us opportunity to finally personally meet them, and drove off to the airport. A few minutes down the road we were discussing how to work the airport parking situation, we decided to take up the offer of a friend to drop us off. We made a quick u-turn to go back to their house, and saw her right there! We pulled up beside her and asked if her offer was still good. We met back at her house, and she brought us to the airport.

We uneventfully arrive in Guatemala City, with no problems in customs with the boxes of gifts. Plenty of porters and taxi drivers eagerly offered their services, which we didn't need. Scott Bailes picked us up, and we experienced the thrill of Guatemalan traffic as we went straight to Cristina's house to drop off the gifts. Then we went to the Bailes home, and met the rest of the family, mom Christi, and daughters Kayla, Karli, Katie, and baby Kari.

Friday We went to La Esperanza (the orphanage) the next morning to pick up the children. The workers were expecting us, and welcomed us inside. The home was clean, bright, and filled with little kids. The best moment of the entire trip was when they called for our children.

Carmen came running up to Krista, with a smile from ear to ear, and gave her a big hug. She didn't say anything, just smiled and looked with her big dark eyes. Then she gave David a welcoming hug. Antonio was uncomfortable, because he didn't feel he was presentable. So he went and changed, and then came back as pleased and happy as Carmen. Somebody came in with Felix, and he contentedly sat on David's lap with Carmen. A family! Here we all were, all together, and happy. Antonio and Carmen knew we were Mom and Dad, and called us Mamá and Papá right from the beginning. We all felt comfortable and at ease very quickly - all our nervousness disappeared.

We brought them back to the Bailes' home, and had lunch. They all ate really well! Felix especially liked the black bean tostadas,  Antonio put down two whole ham sandwiches. The biggest hit during the entire stay was the swingset. David spent most of the two days pushing kids on the swings - and got a good sunburn doing that! The weather was beautiful, in the 70s during the day and cool 60s at night. Guatemala City is almost 5000 ft above sea level, so is not at all tropical.

All the kids went to bed fairly well, considering it was a big event for all of them, and a slumber party at that! Around 6, Carmen got her footed pajamas on because she was cold. The Bailes' girls quickly followed suit, and even Antonio had his own! The girls took a while to calm down, and Antonio wanted to have Felix sleep with him on the top bunk. We tried to explain that Felix was to small to sleep up on the top. Antonio still tried to sneak him up a couple times. He settled for two 3-foot stuffed animals instead. After several warnings and talks, they all finally slipped off into never-never land. Felix didn't want to go to sleep, until we finally put him in the crib. He felt the sides, stopped crying, and went to sleep! We should have tried that a lot earlier! We stayed up late with Scott and Christi playing games and enjoying good fellowship.

Saturday Six-thirty came really quickly, the kids bouncing out of bed and getting right to the business of playing. David started the bath for the boys, and next thing he knew the girls were coming in and getting in instead. Everybody loved the water, and the nice big tile tub fit all four girls easily. Antonio and Felix got their turn afterward.

At lunch time we had a birthday party for everybody, with cupcakes and chicken. Everybody got some clothes and a ball and bubbles, and everybody enjoyed the food. We've never seen chicken bones so clean as when Antonio and Carmen were done with them! We also gave our three children a photo album each with pictures of us, our home, the pets, and our family. We gave Antonio and Carmen each a Spanish-English New Testament, but neither of them read yet. They were proud of their gifts, but nobody was selfish or argued over things.

A friend of ours had let us bring some shaping balloons, which Krista made into some animals, the swingset squeaked all day with incessant use, and we made up some other games as we went along. Scott made up a bowling game with kicking the ball, instead of rolling it. This game generated the only conflict of the stay. David had taken a couple turns, but was off with Felix. Antonio took his turn, and Carmen was ready to go, but Antonio told her he was going to take Papá's turn since he wasn't there, and wrestled the ball away from Carmen. She got all upset at that, and Scott and Krista tried to work things out. She didn't stop, so Krista brought her to the bedroom and left her there to calm down. That didn't work at all, Carmen started screaming bloody murder! Krista prayed for guidance, went back in and talked with her and went through the pictures again, mostly in English of course with a couple Spanish words. She explained as well as she could that we loved her and were going to take her to her home, her room, and her things. Carmen calmed down and got back in a good mood quickly.

Before we brought them back to the orphanage, we got everybody together for a family picture. We told them we were going, so Carmen didn't want to take the picture because she knew we were going back afterward! So, we got back to La Esperanza around 9:00, and all was dark. We knocked, and got let in, and were greeted by several workers and a few children. Antonio filled everybody in with the highlights of the visit, and pulled all the gifts out for everybody to admire. We smiled and nodded at the ladies, not knowing how to talk to them, and gave the children time to say hello. Then we took our leave, and explained through Scott that we'd be back. Krista felt like crying, but held together for the children's sake.

Sunday We left early Sunday morning, and arrived in Atlanta on time. The plane from Guatemala City to Atlanta had drop-down screens for the movie, but while the movie wasn't on had neat maps and information about the flight, showing speed, temperature, ETA, and real-time maps of our current location. Our flight to Raleigh was overbooked, and we volunteered to take a later flight. We each got $400 of Delta flight dollars for doing so! We arrived in Raleigh in the evening, and some friends picked us up and brought us home.

God's work evident

We had a lot of unknowns, concerns, and mistakes to deal with on this trip, and God answered them all! Here's a summary of how He worked:

Special thanks to:

• Mom and Dad LaRocque - for their willingness to come with us, and especially for finding the Bailes.
• Our church family - for tons of encouraging words and prayer support.
• Kathy Martin - for lending us balloons and a pump
• Our immediate family - for giving a patient ear and interested heart to our concerns before going, and praying for us.
• The Bailes family - for their generous hospitality, Christ-like service to us during our stay, and excellent communication skills with the children.
• Georgia Leonard - for providing us with all the information we needed to know for making the trip as smooth as possible.
• Our neighbors Lynn & Bill Joyner and Christie & Adam Yarborough - for watching our pets.
• The Robersons - for bringing us to and picking us up from the airport.

November 1999