Lily's kids

Lily's kids

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Waterfalls, water and superwoman

Josue at the waterfalls
I have several half written blog posts that I keep starting and never finish. Sometimes it is so hard to express my life here and the joys and ups and downs of living with so many kids. It is definitely an adventure.

This week we took all the kids on a 1 hour walk up the dirt road away from the orphanage to three small beautiful waterfalls and we had a blast laughing and playing together. On the way up to the waterfalls, one of my little guys got tired so I lifted him up on my shoulders and carried him for a while with him clinging to me with his arms around my head sometimes covering my eyes with his tiny hands. We laughed! On the way down, I ended up carrying his twin brother sitting on top of my backpack filled with waterbottles. I wish I had a picture of him sitting there barely holding on and crying because he just wanted the road to end and to arrive back at home. We all arrived home happy, tired and dirty.

With lots of crazy kiddos at the waterfalls
The past 3 days there has been no water which is always an extra adventure. We have been collecting rain water for bathrooms, for washing dirty clothes and for washing dishes. Woke up at 2 am this morning to a thunderstorm and my first thought was “YAY! MORE WATER!!!” And I ran outside in the dark to fill up more buckets. Made me laugh this morning as I realized how bolivian my thinking was. 

Today I have the day off and it feels good to just curl up on my bed, plug my ipod into my ears and relax. Sometimes there is so much chaos and noise in living in a small house with 12 people plus having over 100 people around 24/7. I love the craziness of my life but I also don’t take for granted the time I have to slow down and rest because I definitely need it. I am not superwoman- even though it would be so much easier if I was. I wish I could fly and have superstrength. 

Amazing to see my weakness and cry out to God and see His faithfulness time and again. In Him I am strong. 

He gives me strength to do what I do. 

With the twins Javier and Juanes
I wish I could videotape our home one day and put it in fastfoward and watch us all move around like tiny ants. It would be hilarious. There is so much movement and noise and we definitely do LOUD really well. All the giggles and laughs are permanently recorded in my brain. At night I have memorized the sounds of my little guys and call tell who is waking up to go to the bathroom or who is whispering without even having to look. When there is a storm I know that Andres will come in wanting a hug and to pray. I know that if it’s really hot out Ismael will be curled up on the cool cement floor. I know that if I wake up super early, Ely will wake up with me and follow me around with whatever I do. 

These kids are precious. So blessed by God to be a part of their lives. 

This post is really jumbled. It’s like 4 posts smashed together and whatever else is trying to escape my head. Sorry for the craziness of my posts... :) Just trying to share little snapshots of the beauty of Bolivia and how crazy good God is. And also just how adorable these kids are. 

Much love from Bolivia and 10 munchkins and a GIANT frog that we caught (I’ll post pics later)

~Lily Fluharty



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