It’s Wednesday and I’m still struggling to regain my equilibrium after a 10-day service trip to Guatemala headed by adoptive mom Leceta Chisholm Guibault, affiliated with Orphan Resources International in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. Among other activities, we volunteered at an orphanage and neurological clinic, painted the exterior of a large building, hosted a Fun Run, and delivered food (lots of it–100 pound bags of beans and rice; sacks full of maseca to hand-make tortillas; more sugar than I would have imagined; and fortified powder to constitute a special protein-enhanced milk).
I met other women as in love with Guatemala as I am, and dozens of children I will never forget.
Over the next few weeks, I hope to make sense of it all. In the meantime, here are photos from our first days, beginning with my children’s send-off in California that included suitcases bulging with donations (thank-you, friends!), to sorting clothes into categories with fellow volunteer and adoptive mom Mary Bain Sebastian (above), to stops in Panajachel and Santa Cruz, on Lake Atitlan.
Trusting a picture can indeed say a thousand words. ~
ShareThisTags: adoptive parents, Guatemalan adoption, international adoption, Jessica O'Dwyer, Mary Bain Sebastian Photography, Orphan Resources International, Service Trips to Guatemala with Leceta
Gorgeous photos! I’m hoping that as you decompress, you will share more about your trip. It sounds like an amazing journey!
Can there be a country more picturesque than Guatemala? Everywhere one looks, something else that is striking and beautiful. I appreciate your interest in the journey, Heather. Thank you!
I’m still taking it all in…thanks for blogging about our trip! Thanks for the chance to get to know you! Thanks for your insightful perspective on so many issues! My trip to Semillas de Amor was bittersweet. I loved being there and seeing the older children I have loved for years but my concern for the home is overwhelming! We missed you in Antigua but we MUST make plans to meet again in the beautiful country of our children’s birth! Keep in touch my friend!
I, too, continue to take it all in, Mary. An ongoing process, maybe? I understand your concern for the children and home at Semillas; bittersweet to a degree I can only imagine. Please let’s meet again in beautiful Guatemala– many times! May our wonderful shared trip mark only a beginning. So happy we’ve met, finally!!!