Picture Post!!!

Picture post!!! Just because they are waaaaayyyyyy too cute!

Peniel (3)… precious and sweet. I don't have words for the love I have for this little one. Blessed every night as she asks me to pray for her heart and as we sing "Jesus loves me" together. 

Eriks (8) and Ariel (14)… Love these two goofballs. This whole week they've been in pursuit of a random cat… I love finding them crawling out of the really tall grass, grinning ear to ear telling me that they ALMOST touched the cat! Oh these  boys!

A couple of my kiddos… July, Javier, Mari Ros, Juanes and Peniel… Tia Time before bed… how many kids can fit in my bed???

Sabina (7 months) and Grace Abigail (5 months)… these two little ones are as precious as can be. It has been a joy having Sabina in my home and both little girlies are growing so quickly!

Josue (11)… LOVE getting my hug from him EVERY single day. 

Ezequiel (15) and Antonio (15)… the older boys here ALWAYS make my day. They are goofy, hilarious and super sweet. aaaaaand you can't forget how cool they are! ;)

Kids, kids and more kids… never a dull moment here! 

Lolina (5)… SUPER EXCITING NEWS!!! Lolina is walking on her own. This is an amazing miracle and such a blessing. This little one arrived with severe special needs. God has done miracle after miracle with beautiful Lolina as she slowly responded to the love and care here. She is now eating on her own and just started to walk! Praise God!!!

Blessings and love from the beautiful mountains of Bolivia!!! God is amazing and I love seeing Him work in the lives here at Casa de Esperanza. Praise His holy name!!!

Much love,

~Lily Fluharty

Falling in Love

I have a confession… I've fallen in love.

Last night, I sat chatting at night with Tia Nely who is one of the Tias working here and one of my dear friends. I have worked alongside her and learned so much from her in the past two and a half years. I was so blessed when almost almost two years ago she decided to name her daughter after me.
We sat chatting and remembering my first three months in Bolivia.
No Spanish and yet we were able to connect and encourage each other.
I am so amazed looking back at everything God has done and taught me here at Casa de Esperanza

He has blessed me in amazing ways.

I've fallen in love.

I arrived here a young 18 year old fresh out of high school knowing about 10 words of Spanish.
Now I'm (still young) 21 and responsible for 8 precious babies and think more in Spanish than English.

I've fallen in love with a country.
I've fallen in love with 70+ kids.
I've fallen in love with a language.

The other morning we woke up to rain and a lightning storm over on the next mountain top. A half hour later my little guys started calling out to me, "TIA LILY!!! A RAINBOW!!!"  To my left the sky was pink and beautiful, in front of me the rain was drifting away and there was a double rainbow and to my right, a lightning storm and dark clouds. I couldn't get over the beauty of it. As the storm circled away from us I just stared and exhaled at God's beauty.

I've fallen in love with beauty.
I've fallen in love with mountains.

Last night I was tired. More like exhausted. I had spent the morning at the hospital (a very dirty hospital) with two of my littlest so they could get their shots and checkups. The afternoon I had spent with a hoe, getting blisters as we finish our small garden. It went from one plant to a half circle that has JESUS TE AMA (Jesus loves you) written in grass. Beautiful but hard work and blisters. One of my little guys got scared at night from dogs barking so he pulled his mattress into my room and slept on my floor. It had been a long day.

I've fallen in love with working.
I've fallen in love with serving.

There's moments where I've got nothing more to give. There's moments where I can't stop laughing. My life here is insane. But here's what God has been showing me.
HIS love is INSANE.

I've fallen in love with God's love.

In the past two weeks I've been falling in love. I've been falling more and more in love with my Savior. I need His love for me. I've been reading more and more of Psalms and rejoicing in His nearness and love. I see such a dependency on Him.
Without Jesus I have nothing. Without Jesus I am nothing.

I've fallen in love with God's goodness.
I've fallen in love with His grace.

In the good days filled with laughter, I want to be fully dependent on God and give Him thanks.
In the hard days that are tiring and frustrating, I want to be fully dependent on God and give Him thanks.

I've fallen in love with JOY.

I need Him. And like He promises AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN.
He will NEVER leave us.

Fills me with JOY.

God has done crazy things in these past 2 1/2 years. He's done crazy things in the past 2 weeks.

I've fallen in love with craziness.

Give your life, every piece and part and hope and dream back to Him. It's His already. My prayer is continually asking God to use me up for HIM. I don't want my plans. They fail. I want His prefect plan for me.

God bless from Bolivia!
The land of beautiful sunrises, goofy kids, the best coca-cola, forever dirty feet from dirt and dusty roads, beautiful blue butterflies, bracelets, smiles and love.

~Lily Fluharty

Love spill over

Two AMAZING quotes that I have been reading and re-reading. God has been doing some crazy things lately in my heart! I need His help daily to love Him but the only response I can give back is everything that I am. I am weak and feeble... but that’s where the beauty comes in. God doesn’t need me to be anything greater because HE is great. He uses the weak and lowly to show just how strong and majestic He is!!! He makes everything glorious because of His unending glory! How beautiful. Literally makes me sink to my knees in praise because His love for us is so great. 

“Be persuaded, timid soul, that He has loved you too much to cease loving you.” -Archbishoph Fenelon

“Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I canot speak! For I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee shou shalt speak.” Jeremiah 1:6-7

“What he has in himself must not be mentioned, but lost in the consideration that he was chosen to speak for God. God knows how young you are, and how slender your knowledge and experience; God will magnify Himself in  your feebleness.” C.H. Spurgeon

My prayer each day is this, “All I want to do is love you first and let that love spill into those around me.”

In my own strength… I can't. In God's love, nothing is impossible.

Blessings and hugs from Bolivia!

Strong and Courageous

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD  your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

The beauty here in Bolivia is amazing. The love that these kids have and that I have for them fills me up each day and puts a smile on my face. God blesses me time and time again with His goodness and faithfulness and makes my soul sing. I love where He has brought me and this home He has placed me in. 

But it isn’t always so easy. So many times I write about the beautiful moments. The moments holding sleeping children, or times where the older kids open up their hearts or all the hugs and kisses I receive daily. I don’t always write about the tough days.

Like when 5 of the 8 little ones in my house decide to all start screaming and fighting at the same time and there are 8 voices screaming, “TIA LILY!”. Or when one of the older girls gets mad at me and decides to not talk to me for three days but makes sure I know she’s not talking by following me around and talking SUPER nicely to everyone around me. These kids are tough. Sure they love each other and that’s what I write about because that’s what I see. But there are hard moments. Last month we had a fist fight with two of the older boys and it was intense. Afterwards no-one was hurt and both were able to calm down but it reminded me of the hurt that these kids have inside. A hurt that only Jesus can heal. 

Sometimes it’s hard being so far away in a different country. There are times I just am craving American food or just would like to be left alone for 20 minutes or be able to fly back to the States quick to see my family. It is a weird feeling when loneliness sets in while living with 100 people. But missing family isn’t a bad thing because it’s when I realize how blessed I am by them. 

I am blessed by these struggles because I know that God is using them to mold my heart. These struggles hurt. The tears come but God uses them to wash away old hurts and frustrations. These trials are bittersweet. In the midst of them there is pain and I have to continue to cry out to God for strength. But as the trials pass, I see the sweetness of His love for me as He reminds me to be strong and courageous because He is with me. I have a long way to go. I have a lot to learn. But I know the God will never leave me no matter where I go.

“Come, my soul, pluck up courage, and put down they feet in the blood-marked footprints which thy Lord has left thee.” -C.H. Spurgeon

Mu

Bees

I would love to tape one day of my life here and put it in fastforward and watch it back because I would look like a bee with 8 little bees surrounding me (plus 60 more) buzzing all around. 

Here’s a few random moments...

“I won’t sleep! I will pee in my pajamas and NEVER take off my wet underwear.” - one of my 5 year olds who didn’t want to go to sleep

We have been working on, and improving, the boys flushing the toilet after they go to the bathroom. I told Juanes that he needed to flush the toilet after he went... his response... “I’m only goin gto flush halfway because Ismael went first.” oooooh... the things these kids say!

This weekend we saw a helicopter... everyone freaked out and RAN to go watch... yup... even me! On Saturday morning, my 3 little girls heard the helicopter and ran outside to watch. “Tia Lily!!!! Your papa is coming!!!!!!!” It made me laugh. In my house we talk about planes quite a bit. “Tia Lily, where do you live? Tia Lily, where is your family? Tia Lily, where are Jessa and Ellie and Maddy and Patrick?” How do you explain it to a bunch of toddlers. “I live FAAAAAR away... (that’s when I point over mountain peaks probably in the wrong direction but they don’t know that) You have to take a couple airplane to get to my house.” So that is why when my little girls saw the airplane they thought my papa was on his way... I wish! 

Lots of hugs from Bolivia! Thank your or all your prayers and comments and encouragement! Seriously blessed by each and every comment. Love love love!!! 

In Christ,

Lily Fluharty

Update :)

 Just wanted to post a quick update! Last week there were several changes in my house as my "screamer" switched to a house with more of the older kids to help her out and so they can be an example to her. She's doing great and loves it! My house is a little more calm as well… :)

Sabina

With her gone, 6 month old Sabina moved in! I officially have a baby in the house. I'm honestly a little nervous to have such a tiny one but I know God will give me wisdom and I'm excited to learn.

Last week there were two parades here in Caranavi so I'll try to get some pictures up of the kids in their uniforms and the little kids in their typical Bolivian outfits. Some of the little girls were Cholitas! So cute! 

Love what God has been doing lately. So amazed at His love for me. These kids are so precious and make me smile as they learn and grow. I cannot believe how big they are getting! We also welcomed a new 1 year old boy this weekend to our family here at Casa de Esperanza. Please be praying for Ariel that he would transition well. Ariel comes from a very sad situation and praying that here he will be able to connect and feel safe and secure.

It's a cute sandwich hug!

Many blessings and hugs from Casa de Esperanza up here on the mountains of Caranavi, Bolivia!

In Christ Jesus,

Lily Fluharty

It was a better post…

I had a better blog post. I was writing it and then I just stopped because my brain is tired and so I will just ramble on a little bit about the beautiful craziness called "Living with 69 kids".

My girlies!

I love living her at Casa de Esperanza. The two best words to describe it would be "crazy" and "beautiful". Yup. In that order too. Crazy definitely goes first.

God has a crazy, beautiful love for us. HE is sooooo good and His plan is always a million times better then ANYTHING we could ever imagine. I love watching His plans unfold for me as I slowly learn to trust Him and to let go of my life and lay it at His feet. "USE ME UP!" Is my continual prayer.

Late night Tia time!

There's something beautiful about waking up each and every morning, bright and early, to work. To work hard. Every night I fall into bed exhausted but my heart is overflowing. Even in the hardest, most stressful moments these kids can make me laugh. They are a JOY to love and care for. 

Isn't it amazing that God delights in us obeying Him? In the big and the small He watches over us in Love. Continue to trust Him and hand Jesus everything. Hand Him your joys, sorrows, hopes, fears, desires and dreams because God's plans will shatter your own expectations.

Thank you all for your support and love! Each and every message and comment is such a huge encouragement to me. God is so amazing!

Blessings and love from Bolivia and all the kiddos at Casa de Esperanza,

Lily Fluharty