Rub a dub dub

Bath time for Emanuel

He makes me smile!

New adventures

Life goes on and each day is a new adventure here.

Been working with the little ones in our house on obeying the first time and trying to help them become more independent which is important when there are 7 little ones ALWAYS needing help and not enough hands to help wipe noses, fill cups with water, button pants, help with homework and wash clothes. The list goes on… sometimes the chaos makes me laugh.

My cry is to lean on Christ and have Him fill me with His strength. When I try to do it on my own I fail. When I trust Him He wins!

Just got over two weeks of being sick and having stomach issues! Long story short… the hospital here in Caranavi is not so great… Feeling better now that I'm on the right antibiotic and after having an IV to help with dehydration and getting some vitamins back in me. Definitely an interesting experience :)

The two precious new babies, Sabina and Grace, are doing really well and are getting so big! We laugh at how much hair little Grace has.

Sending love and hugs from Bolivia!

~lily

Wonderful week

Me with my mama in BOLIVIA!

This week was wonderful.

I think I literally felt EVERY emotion this week.

Sabina is getting SOOO BIG!

What a joy it was to have the team from Sovereign Grace Church here at Casa de Esperanza and to have my mama here with me. I will have some more blog posts coming about the team and the time with my mama :)

Kisses from my Peniel

Felt SO encouraged by the team and so well cared for by the pastors. We are truly blessed at Sovereign Grace Church by the leadership displayed by our pastors.

The week went by so fast and as the team had to leave two days early because of a miner's strike I am now processing everything. It was really hard to see them go but I will treasure the memories, the encouraging words, the prayers and hugs, the candy and chocolate left behind ;) and all the love that the team gave to me and the tias and the children here.

Mama with her "sons" -she gave them all English names
Steve, Kevin, Bobby, Mike and Andy :)

Felt so cared for. Sometimes being alone in a different country you forget how awesome it is for someone to come up and hug you and tell you "I love you" in English.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone on the team and everyone who supported them! They were such a blessing here.

Amazed at God's never-ending love for us. Even when there are tears as the team left early… there was peace knowing that God was in control. Seriously in love with my Savior.

One other exciting bit of news… we welcomed a new little baby last week! Meet Grace Abigail who came at 2 days old and she is precious and already loved so much!

Meet Grace Abigail

Much love from Bolivia and Casa de Esperanza,
Lily Fluharty

Team coming!

Nothing quite so special as having one of my little ones falling asleep in my arms.
There is a sense of trust and love as their eyes get heavy and as they snuggle down deeper into me and relax and breathe deeply. It fills my heart with a strong love and sense of protection for these little ones.

I am so excited for this next week!

A team from my church from Minnesota and 2 other sister churches are on their way to Bolivia right now! They will be serving here at Casa de Esperanza and putting on a  new roof, working on the water system, painting, helping out with the kids and the houses and as many other things as they can do. I am so excited to have them here!

The part that I am SUPER excited for is that my mama is coming for the first time! So excited to see her and share my life here with her! It's been two years of my parents supporting and encouraging me to follow God's calling in my life. I know it's not easy for them to let me go and let me live so far away in a different country, speaking a different language and raising kids that they can't really even communicate with because of a language barrier. I have been so amazed to see their trust in God as they continue trusting Him and being so supportive and loving. I am so blessed! So excited to share my life here with my mama! :)

So blessed by you all! Thank you for all your love and prayers and support. So blessed!

Been amazed by God's love for me lately. It's been such an intense week of feeling God delighting and loving me in an intense way. Seriously so amazed that He delights in using little old me when He could do it all by Himself. Sometimes I picture Him smiling and laughing down at me as I live my life. It's like how I laugh and smile as my little Emanuel tries to walk clumsily. He's learning and trying and pressing forward and I hold unto his little hand so he doesn't fall. God does the same with us... He delights in us holding onto His strong hands and trusting Him so that we don't fall down.

So many blessings and much love from me and all the kiddies!
In Christ Jesus who blesses us beyond compare,

Lily Fluharty

Precious

Last night I was feeling overwhelmed...

Feeling so much love for the little one curled up next to me whispering, "mommy"

Feeling exhausted after a busy week

I was frustrated with myself for reacting in frustration

It was a couple of days with stubborn little kids

It was a week of lots of hugs from my oldest

I was feeling excited/impatient waiting for my MOM to get here in a week!!!!!

Lots of feelings all mixed up together... and I felt overwhelmed.

Wanted to curl up and sleep but I couldn't even sleep.

I opened up my Bible to Isaiah and prayed that God would show me His truth.

And He whispered this to me...

Because you are precious in My sight and honored, and because I love you, I will give men in return for you and peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east [where they are dispersed] and gather you from the west.

And it blew me away. 

In all my frustrations and insecurity and feeling inadequate- God whispered to me...

"Lily I love you. You are precious to me." 

It made me weep. 

It blows me away that He uses me. I fail so many times and fall short. He could and does love these children 10000 times better than I do. But He delights in using me in all my imperfection to share His love. He loves seeing me learn and grow and laugh. 

He delights in me. How amazing is His love and grace!!!

Much love and many blessings from Bolivia,

Lily Fluharty

Smells like onion

My hands still smell like onions.

Saturday night I stayed up until 1am cutting up onions with the older girl in my home.

It was her turn to stay in the kitchen and cook for everyone on Sunday and she had two buckets with onions, carrots and potatoes to peel and cut.

We laughed and played and cried onion tears. We laughed more when we couldn't even open our eyes because of the onion tears.

I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep.

But we kept cutting up onions, and cutting up carrots and I kept scraping away at the pot of rice which I had accidentally burnt. Whoops.

This past week was a week of...

All the houses getting sprayed for bugs which meant we had our eyes burning from the chemicals for two days. Monday night we pulled our mattresses outside to  "sleep". I finally fell asleep at 4:30 am with four little ones taking up my whole mattress with Peniel's foot in my face, Javier sleeping with my pillow, Ely sprawled out on half of my mattress and July snuggling my blanket. It made me smile.

Spontaneous water fights in my house with the other Tia (house mom) that I work with and the kids. The kitchen very quickly turned into a lake as we all got SOAKED and the little ones just started up at us. So much fun.

This weekend is Carnival which means lots of water balloons and getting ambushed by boys with buckets of water and more water balloons. I have the day off today and am catching up on rest.

One of my little guys looked up at the sky earlier this week and goes, "Tia Lily!!! Look, the sky is sooooo clean!!!" I looked up at the clear sky which had some wispy white clouds. "God is cleaning the sky with his clouds!!!" he explained to me. So sweet.

There are hard days and good days and days where the smell doesn't leave my hands.

The smell of onion reminds me of nights that I don't want to forget.

God is good. In the good moments and the hard ones.

He is faithful. When I'm tired or when I'm hyper.

God is love. He shows me every day.

He is strong. He knows my weaknesses and lifts me up.

God is mine. And I am His.

So blessed by my beautiful Savior.

Much love from Bolivia!!!

Lily Fluharty

Sabina

Sweet baby girl now has a name!

Sabina Danitza

She is gaining weight and so precious and her face is healing so nicely. Thank you all for your prayers for sweet Sabina.

Keep praying for this precious little one!!!!!!

Love from Bolivia,
Lily Fluharty