I don't deserve syrup!

Wow! So blessed by God's goodness and the love and kisses from my little ones. Gorgeous sunrises that bring tears to my eyes as I feel God's nearness, little ones wrapping their chubby arms around my neck surprising me from behind when I most need a hug, amazing times of worship and letting go of my fears and failures and resting in the completed work of Christ. I don't deserve it! So blessed by my life. So blessed by these children. So blessed by my Savior.

Finishing up the last few hours of my day off before I head back to my house and the kids tomorrow morning. Is it weird that I miss them on my day off? 

And my weekend got 1000 times better when someone brought me SYRUP from the states. Seriously!!! I almost started crying. Well... not really but I definitely miss some of the weirdest stuff. So I have made pancakes 6 times in the last 24 hours from scratch. Oh so good!

Here comes another crazy week! :) Headed to the pool with a bunch of the older girls tomorrow. Classes start next week for all the kids so were trying to enjoy the last week of vacations. 

Thank you for all your prayers and support!!! Thanks for reading this blog as well!!! I hope you fall in love a little more with my beautiful children as you read and see how good God is. His love never fails! 

Much love!!!

Lily Fluharty

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

Watching God's show

Yesterday I had the day off and I locked myself in my room to get some rest and downtime. Sometimes living with so many people can be overwhelming. I was ready to sleep and be alone and enjoy my night off. 

I couldn’t fall asleep last night and after midnight I dozed off to the sound of falling rain. Ten minutes later I heard one of my little guys crying because he was afraid of the lightning. He crawled into bed with me and I thought that was it and that he would be able to sleep. He lay stiff as a board staring out the window at the lightning flash and I knew I wouldn’t be falling asleep anytime soon. So we wrapped up together in my blanket and tiptoes outside with two pieces of chocolate chip break (my favorite Christmas food here) and we watched the lightning show. So amazingly beautiful. Come back inside and we snuggled back into my bed. I was dozing off when he goes, “Tia, is God here right now?” oh it made my heart sing. We then talked about God and how He is EVERYWHERE at once and how God wants to enter our hearts. My little guy giggled and pointed to his chest, “In here?” he asked me. We giggled and whispered for an hour before we both fell asleep after he promised me three times he wouldn’t wet the bed. 

It was a precious time with my sweet little guy. 

It made me laugh to realize that on my “day off” I ended up staying up with my sweetie pie till 3am. But I loved every minute of it. This morning he hugged me and smiled up at me. He didn’t say anything about last night. But He doesn’t have to. We will always have a special moment together, sitting out on the porch listening to the rain fall and watching lighting light up the neighboring mountains. Watching God’s show as we call it.  

Blessings,

Lily Fluharty

My little screamer

Today I had the day off. A much needed day off after an exhausting week. My little screamer has a tough couple of weeks with lots of tantrums and screaming and I was feeling so discouraged. “I can’t do it Jesus!” I ended up praying. “I don’t know how to help her. How to reach her. How to help her change.” I was trying to do it in my own strength. Heard someone talking about being frustrated with their little one today, “It’s not their fault, they are just babies.” 

It strangely encouraged me. My little screamer has been through SO much. So much that I will never know and that she will never be able to express. It’s not her fault. She has been hurt and abused and has seen and lived through so much more than she should have. My little screamer. So tiny and precious and I do love her so so much despite the screaming, the tantrums, the fighting back, the endless talks... and God’s love for her makes mine invisible in comparison. 

How beautiful! God has His hand on each of these precious lives. He knows their hurt and pain. His love is a sovereign love. What they have experienced is not their fault. And I pray each day that God would give me grace to react in love. It’s so easy to react in frustration or agitation. 

How does God respond to me?

With LOVE.

With Forgiveness.

I scream. I throw tantrums. I fight back. 

God tells me he loves me. He holds me. He is patient.

Tonight at bedtime she wasn’t listening well. I kissed her goodnight and told her I loved her. I encouraged her to obey. Tears filled the eyes of my little screamer who rarely cries. I kissed her one more time and she leaned down from her top bunk and kissed my cheek and went right to sleep. 

Writing this I have tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. I put more energy into my screamer than into any child in my home. About 40% of my time is spent with her. It isn’t easy. But my strength isn’t from me. God loves this little one and I am so grateful that the love I have for her is from God. 

My little screamer how I love you. Especially on the days when you are more giggles than screams.

Much love from Bolivia!

Lily and the rest of the munchkins

We do

They played hard. 9 crazy little ones jumping, playing and splashing in the pool. We had a blast! July, who before was scared to get in the water, now jumped into my arms over and over again with her adorable giggle that makes my heart soar every time I hear it. 

How precious are these little ones.

All the boys fell asleep at the table during dinner. One by one their heads dropped by empty plates. After dinner I carried them one by one to their beds and kissed their fuzzy little heads. 

I love these little guys so much.

There are really hard moments in raising so many little ones. So many times I come to the end of myself and find myself crying out to God for more patience with the screamer, for more wisdom with the stubborn one, for more grace to laugh when soup spills all over the floor, for more strength when I could just fall asleep standing up.

How faithful is my God. 

Peniel running to wrap her arms around my leg and smiling up at me, Ely yelling “Tia DIDY!!!” and her millions of hugs and kisses each day, Andres telling me how DELICIOUS breakfast is each morning, Javier wrapping his arms around my neck from behind in a gentle hug, Febe being a big helper, July’s giggle and her being my little shadow, rocking David in my arms as he whispers to me what scares him, Ismael giving me 10 kisses during lunch as he counts them out on his fingers, Juanes being his goofy self... makes all the craziness worth it. 

Sometimes there is screaming and fighting and tears and pouting. 

But more than that there are hugs and LAUGHTER and giggles and lots of learning and helping and growing and lots and lots of love.

There is a quote that I’ve seen floating around that makes me smile...

In this house...

we do REAL

we do mistakes

we do I’m sorry

we do fun

we do hugs

we do second chances

we do HAPPY 

we do forgiveness

we do REALLY LOUD

we do family

we do LOVE  

Love all the love here. So blessed by what God is doing and His faithfulness each new day.

Thank you for ALL your prayers and comments and for reading these jumbled up thoughts.

Much love and lots of hugs from Bolivia and all the kiddies,

Lily Fluharty

Little Adventures

Snapshots of my week...

This week I washed 15 towels and 8 huge wool blankets by hand (and feet) as we scrubbed and stomped all the dirt out of them. Wish I could have had a camera as I stomped on blankets while sucking on a mango.

This week has been wet and rainy and colder. This evening the sun finally came out and it got a bit warmer but was such a beautiful afternoon. Made me laugh to find out that the "cool weather" was actually 80 degrees and 66% humidity. Definitely don't miss Minnesota winters.

I walked out of the girl's room after putting Peniel down for bed and she called after me, "Tia Lily, beso" (kiss) and gave me such a sweet kiss on my cheek before she told me in English, "I love you so so much" or as she says it "Ilalu chochomoch".

One of the 16 year old boys brought me two tiny baby birds (super new) and convinced me to help him take care of them. It was a week of craziness of feeding them and this morning they died... I'm surprised they lived even a week. This morning we just stared at each other kind of not sure what to do before he goes, "so now what do we do?" before he chucked them into the tall grass... Bolivian bird funeral.

Oh the little adventures :)

Much love from Bolivia,
Lily

Learning

How have 5 months already flown by? I cannot believe how fast time flies and how fast these kiddos are growing up. Sometimes as I listen to Peniel talk in her sweet baby voice I remember when I first arrived almost two years ago how tiny she was. It’s been almost two years since I first saw these precious children and how my heart has grown with love for each of them. They are precious. 

Sometimes I forget though... like right now as I have three kiddos crying because they can’t go play because they didn’t obey... How often am I reminded of myself in these little ones. I don’t get what I want and I throw a fit... and I forget that I just need to trust in God’s plan for my life. He knows each moment of my life. A Switchfoot song goes, “Why do I worry? Why should I freak out? God knows what I need.” 

And really... all I need is HIM. 

I don’t need anything else. God will satisfy all the desires of my heart. How beautiful!

Writing this took about an hour as I had to go back and forth between cribs and bunk-beds to calm down criers and pray and give goodnight kisses to sad little ones who have a hard time learning sometimes. 

Sometimes it’s hard for me to learn too. But I know that God is faithful to teach me and that all the lessons I learn are for His glory and for my good.

Praise God! Every moment is wrapped up in His hands. 

Rest. Rejoice! We are HIS!

In Christ Jesus,

Lily Fluharty