Adjustments and Difficult Decisions

As I sit here at my keyboard my head is spinning as I look back over the last week. So much has happened and, to be honest, fatigue is infringing on my ability to think clearly. But I want to give you an update, so you will have to be patient if my words don’t make sense.

Last Wednesday evening we noticed that our little Esperanza was having some difficulty breathing. At first it sounded like a simple cold, but as the evening progressed we became increasingly concerned. Finally, at around 10:30 pm I called Dr. Augusto and he came to our home to examine her. He sent us straight to the hospital where she was admitted and placed on an IV and antibiotics as well as breathing treatments. By this point her appetite was gone and we saw her become increasingly weak throughout the day on Thursday.

By Thursday evening we had begun to say our goodbyes, believing she would die soon. I sent out a prayer request via Facebook and held her close with tears in my eyes. It was an emotional time for the entire family. But then, suddenly, she woke up and began to cry and smack her lips, demanding food. We fed her a bottle and she kept it down. Over the next 14 hours we saw her get stronger and more alert and her breathing cleared up. By the next morning at 10:00 am when the doctors came to do rounds they said that she had improved so much they were sending her home! We praise God that Esperanza is back in her home and doing well now, because there is no other explanation for her recovery apart from God’s intervention.

And, speaking of Esperanza, she finally has a real name! When she came to us, she had no birth certificate and had never been given a name. The nurses in the hospital called her Ruth, and we chose the second name of Esperanza, but nothing was official. All her documents and records simply said, “Daughter of…”

But, we have now received word that the courts have named her and given her a birth certificate. We are so grateful to the judge for allowing us to name her. So, she is now officially Ruth Esperanza!

Let’s fast-forward now to Monday when I found myself driving for three hours to the courts in Guatemala City to have a hearing regarding one of our other children, Alejandra. Monday morning traffic is always extra bad, so much of that time was spent in bumper-to-bumper traffic. We arrived a little early and waited to be called. After an hour-and-a-half we were called to the window and told that the judge did not come in that day because it was her birthday. We were then given another court date in October and sent on our way.

I would like to tell you that this is an unusual occurrence here, but it is not. Quite frankly there is a war here between the powerful and the powerless. The powerful feel little or no accountability to the people they rule, and the powerless have little or no recourse. So there is so much abuse within the system. The courts have our number and could have easily called in advance to reschedule, but they did not and will not in the future. So, this will likely not be the last wasted morning we have.

However, there is an up-side to these kinds of things. I have been praying that God would make me more patient for years, so he moved me to Guatemala. I have gained more patience in the last 2 3/4 years than I did in my previous 43 years of existence. I am to the point that when they told me that the judge wasn’t coming I actually laughed and shrugged my shoulders. What can you do? It’s Guatemala!

Meanwhile, as we were waiting for the hearing that would not happen, we received a call from PGN in Quiche. They had a little guy for our home and wanted to know if we could meet them in Chichicastenango to pick him up. We had met this boy, Christian, and his family the previous week when they had come down from Quiche to have testing. A young man, Brian McMann, who is a volunteer with the Peace Corp had been working with them. He had contacted our friends, Rolando and Lisa Monterroso, who had then contacted us.

Christian has a wonderful family who love him deeply. However, they live in a remote area of the country where there are little or no resources for children with special needs. And this little guy definitely needs resources to help him. He is almost four years old, is mostly blind and deaf and, we believe, has autism. He does not speak and cannot walk. He is prone to melt-downs and can often be self-abusive, biting and hitting himself.

His family was seeking help because they did not know how to help him. For a while they were taking him on a chicken bus for five hours one direction every week for physical therapy. But they finally decided that they were not seeing any benefits to the therapy and discontinued it. They were coming to us to ask if we could do anything to help.

After talking and praying together they asked us to take Christian into our home for a while in order to arrange for the proper  assessments, treatments and therapies. During the time that he is with us, his parents will travel down for a week every five weeks to be trained in his care and therapy. Our goal is to reunify the family after six to nine months. This would not have been possible last year, but due to a recent change in Guatemalan law we are allowed to make short-term arrangements with families in special circumstances.

With Christian’s addition to our home, life is full. Our days are filled with therapy, medicine, doctor appointments, changings, feedings, learning activities and more. In addition, due to Esperanza and Christian’s needs, our nights are pretty full as well. Esperanza has to be fed every two to three hours, and Christian is prone to waking up screaming. We are alternating nights right now with Wanda and me taking one night while Brittney, Carissa and Taryn take the next. We are in the process of arranging for some of our staff and volunteers to take a night each week as well to provide more relief and sleep to us.

In the midst of all of this, we received a call yesterday asking if we would accept two more children. One is a seven year old girl who is deaf and in a wheelchair (the courts could not further define her needs) and the other is a one year old boy with hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy.

When we received the call, both Wanda and I felt torn. We don’t want to turn them away, because we know that there are very few homes in Guatemala that are equipped to care for their needs. We fear for their future. At the same time, we are concerned about our household schedule and how it may be affecting our children, both the young ones who might feel neglected and the older ones who help share  the responsibility of caring for the children.

The other fear I face is a financial one. I don’t talk about our ministry’s financial needs much. We, instead, choose to take our needs to God and trust Him to provide by placing it on people’s hearts to give. (The only exception to this is our sponsorship program which enables US families to partner with Guatemala families through financial support and prayer.) My discussion of needs now should not be construed as fund-raising, but prayer-raising. When our home opened I knew that our monthly support was too low. Since the home opened, we have realized that the budget we set was also too low as we had underestimated the medical costs for each child. Esperanza’s hospital stay was $650.00. Her formula and medicine needs top $100 a month. Yenni and Rafael’s medicines are topping $75 each per month and their neurological appointments and testing will top $300 each. Now we need to have almost $300 of testing and assessments on Christian plus ongoing medication. Our regular monthly support is just too low. So, what do we do? Do we turn away these children or welcome them?

Before we even had a chance to ask our children what they think we received a text from our daughter, Brittney, telling us she supported saying yes to either or both of the children. She also spoke with the rest of our children and they all echoed her sentiment…they wanted us to accept the children. So our first concern of how our group home is affecting our family was put to rest resoundingly.

Wanda and I bowed our head to pray together. (We were in a parking lot in Guatemala City at the time.) As I prayed I said, “Lord, we don’t have the money for more children. We don’t even have the money for the children we have now.” But before I finished saying this, these words turned sour in my mouth.

In His still, soft voice I heard my heavenly Daddy say, “Daryl, when have you even had the money to do what I asked you to do?” And my answer was, “Never, Lord.” And He replied (with a smile in His voice), “So what’s the big deal now?”

Before Wanda and I married we committed ourselves to Jesus and promised Him that we would follow Him wherever He called us, regardless of money. As a result, we have, at times, taken significant pay cuts to follow His call. At other times, we have said “No” to opportunities that offered a significant raise. Each time God provided for us, often in miraculous ways.

When we moved to Guatemala we were underfunded and had to trust God to provide. He has, even as our ministry has grown beyond our greatest expectations. So why, after all of this time, was I allowing finances to play a role in this decision? By the time we had said “Amen” I knew that we needed to open our home to these two children and others that God would send.

As it turns out, the girl will not be joining us. A grandfather entered the picture and agreed to take her into his home. The little boy is still in the hospital, and we are awaiting the final decision from the judge regarding whether he will come to us or not.

Please pray for us. Please pray that we will clearly hear God’s voice and follow, not allowing fear to dictate our decisions. Please pray that God will place it on people’s hearts to give…nothing more and nothing less than He asks of them. And please pray that God will strengthen and protect our family in the midst of this wonderful and challenging ministry.

Thanks! Blessings from Guate!

Daryl