Emerson's Birthday

Throughout the day missionaries would come into the office to pick up supplies or arrange for doctor visit, but no one got away without blowing up balloons.  There were so many bags of balloons at the end of the day we wondered how we would get them to Emerson's house.  After work we stuffed them into the truck and Mike drove the sisters to Xela Pan to buy a cake.  Crowded streets, truck full of balloons, packed parking lot......it was muy loco even for Guatemala!  When the sisters came out with the cake there was no way to get them into the truck easily without the balloons escaping, so a kindly man observing our plight held the cake while Sister Canfield wedged herself under the balloons and made a place to hold the huge box with the cake.  We had a houseful of company coming in an hour to make Honduran baleadas, so we dropped the sisters off at Emerson's and headed home to prepare.  The sisters prepared Emerson for the customary Latin birthday tradition.

For Christmas we are putting together a photo album for Emerson's mom of all the cute photos we have taken this year of the family, this birthday included.  Emerson enjoys posing for us and I know he will love seeing the photos later and remembering how the sisters fussed over his birthday.  It is a special treat here to have photos of your children as they grow up.

Sister Canfield is a nurse who is training as a mission enfermera with Sr. Batschi.  Their days are crammed full, but they are never too busy to be thoughtful of the families they have grown to love.

Emerson prepares for the face plant by pulling his hair back.  When I asked the sisters who pushed him into the cake they replied, "No one,,,he did it himself."

Pure Latin happiness!

Earlier this month the sisters created a Christmas tree for the family to teach them the importance of performing service as part of their Christmas tradition.  For every act of service or kindness, they could select an ornament to decorate their tree.  These little boys really enjoy the process of internalizing the teachings of Jesus Christ.