Home for Christams

We are safe back in the states and are enjoying visiting with family and church friends. I have had a little difficulty adjusting to the finer foods of the American cuisine, some medication should help this. Neva is visiting her parents this weekend and I am home with our favorite dog Sandy. I will have time to meet with members of our church family.

It snowed this afternoon for several hours with only a trace of accumulation, wow it was beautiful ( sorry I did not have the camera). I'm sitting in Panera Bread a wifi hot spot and they are playing Christmas caroles

My Christmas list is much shorter this year and is only 2 pages single spaced for those of you who are following our blog and want to buy us a little something. Just kidding, you know after a while when we are slightly older our wants and needs list become very minimal. Frequently the only thing we want and really need is quality time with God, family and friends.

PS. We will not be celebrating with firecrackers or hosting a precession as our Guatemala friends will be this Christmas season.

Catching up on the week. Glenn helped with the ABC celebration, while I went to clinic to help Lisa and Josephina on Monday. We had 32 patients and everyone worked together so that we could join the group in the afternoon.

Edison and his mother came to clinic as they prepare for a second operation to have his cleft palate repaired. He is a little guy that Sheri has written a lot about on her blog. She continues to work with the mothers of these babies to help them through the pre-operative preparation required before surgery.

At the ABC celebration, a little girl from La Palma came up to me and clearly wanted to be friends. At first she just wanted to sit by me, but within a few minutes she had curled up in my lap. I asked her if she was sleepy and she said, yes. She had probably played hard and had very big day.

Tuesday we all met at Clinica Caris and worked to clean up the clinic, inventory pharmaceuticals and prepare pill packs for upcoming clinics. Kemmel had planned a special lunch of pizza and cheese cake (from the Cheesecake Factory no less!) Needless to say, we all enjoyed ourselves very much.

Today was a day off for Sheri, Glenn, and I as we all still needed to pack for our trips home. Lisa covered clinic. Tomorrow we will reciprocate and go to Chuchipaca.

Marilyn Grows

Dr. Lisa, Sheri, and I were very happy today to see Marilyn and her mother return to clinic at Mactzul I. Marilyn was initially seen during the November Medical Mobile Trip as a 3 month old premie who weighed 6 lbs. Today, one month later, she weighed in at 9 pounds! Her mother was relieved to know that she is growing. Baby seemed quite content and this picture is worth a thousand words.....their doctor is happy, too! We thank God for answering prayers for this little one.

ABC Clinic in Mactzul V

Clinic today was for children who are in the ABC Program in the Mactzul V area near Chichi. Glenn was measuring the height of this little sweet girl...she finally smiled for the camera. I think at first she may have been a little sceptical of this tall, gringo guy. The second photo is one of many that we took of the darling children that came to the clinic with their mothers and fathers. All in all, there were a total of 64 children seen today. If you don't know about the ABC program, check out the details on HTI's website. For only $30 a month you can support a child and help a family in one of the churches of Christ in Guatemala.

To Lake Atitlan via Xela

Yesterday, we updated our blog with a picture of beautiful Lake Atitlan. We headed there for the first time a week or so ago driving along the Inter-American highway from Chichi. The scenery is beautiful, so we drove and talked and drove some more and realized we hadn't seen a sign for the lake. Suddenly, we saw the city of Xela (two hours from Chichi......been there and recognized it)! After a turn around and more than an hour later, we arrived in Panajachel. Now Glenn wants a GPS for Christmas or a good back seat driver! Anyway, we enjoyed eating fresh fish at a restaurant overlooking the lake and checking out the town before we returned home.