Moving Forward...

Construction continues to move forward. Our beautiful vinyl flooring will be installed on Monday. The lamps are going in, most of the windows and doors are installed. Last week, while I waited for the propane company to arrive to discuss our needs, I took a long walk beyond the walls of the children's village. I never take for granted the beauty of Guatemala. I took some photos to share with you and hope you will enjoy them. We are very close to moving. The carpenter has measured all of our closets and will begin building and installing them in the next few weeks. This is a very exciting time for all of us.



View of the children's home from the back end of our land.


Our new doors, installed and stained.


Inside the cupula


Another cupula view



Another view of the children's home.


View from the "main" road.





Colorful wildflowers on our land.







Neighboring asparagus farm.






The children's home peaking through the trees.



The road to the children's home.


Kids playing soccer in Parramos






One of our more colorful neighbors





Downtown Parramos

Construction Update

We are nearing an end to the Semillas de Amor Children's Village construction project. We have lots and lots of small and not so small details to finish and then we move in. Today we had a company in Guatemala City come and do some extensive testing on our well water to make sure it is safe for the children. We will have results in a week. The windows are going in and look beautiful. We have left the protective tape on the windows until all the construction is done. The corridor floor is wonderful and very festive with the little hand painted tiles. Early this week we hired a tractor to level, as much as possible, the land and clean it up. It is so exciting and I know the children are going to love having so much room to run around. After we move in we will start working on the "Wall of Gratitude" and will be contacting our donors to make sure we have the correct information for your tile. Enjoy the photos!!!




Photo of the children's home from the end of our nearly cleared land.


More clean and clear land. This will all be planted in grass until we build additional buildings.





Chemists getting samples of our well water.


Our new windows!





Custom baby bath tubs.









Laying the smooth concrete for our vinyl tiles.





New corridor floor


The tiles are all hand painted in Guatemala.

Abandoned Baby Doing Well

A short update on the newborn puppy we found under the shipping container. Baby Sirius is doing very well. He is eating puppy food, interacting with our other dogs and is very spoiled or as we say "well appreciated". I've never raised a newborn, orphaned puppy before and have certainly learned a lot. It took lots of people to keep this little guy alive. As you can see by the photos he has really grown and is adorable.



Baby Sirius at almost 7 weeks


Sirius and big brother Bodhi



Sirius and his Beanie Baby litter mate

Taking lots of Deep Breaths..........

As we get closer to the move all the "little" things seem to be growing by leaps and bounds and anxiety levels get higher. We are about two weeks away until we have the building finished and the windows and doors in. The next step will be the floors and we are finished. We are waiting a few months to paint because because everything is still damp from all the rain and we don't want to seal in the humidity. We still have lots and lots to do with landscaping but our new home is beautiful.

Thank you to Carlos Dalton, from EuroPerifiles, for his generous discount for our gorgeous windows.



Our new gorgeous windows, protected with tape.















The Dinner Bell is getting hung up!








Our new iron lamps, handmade in Guatemala

Feliz Dia del Nino

Monday we celebrated Children's Day with a visit to Finca La Azotea and La Ronda horse farm. We descended, about 50 of us, on the farm around 10AM. We had children from 2-13 years riding horses and playing games. I hope you enjoy our photos, we had a great time! And, of course, later dined on Pollo Campero.




Masks the kids made for Dia del Nino