The First Round of Tears

Thursday was both a good day and a difficult day.  We met with friends of ours in the morning at a children's museum in Tegucigalpa.  It is like a "Please Touch Museum".  The children had a chance to play and we did as well.  We also paid for an hour on their bicycle course, which was the first time Ashton and Alia were ever on a bike.  Ashton's goal is now to one day have a motorcycle.  After lunch, Carlos took us to a place he called home for three years up in the mountains.  There is a monument of a cross made from parts of a plane that crashed.  The children had the opportunity to play on an old tractor and on some swings made from old tires.  We returned to our hotel and tried to have a Skype call with Ariana and Alexa.  The connection was so bad that we were able to say hello and a few words before we lost the connection and could not get it back.  The four children of our family were able to talk for the first time, even if it was only to say hello.  Ashton and Alia were all smiles.  They were so excited to meet Ariana and Alexa.

The difficult part of the day was when we asked Carlos to begin to explain to the children what was going to happen on Saturday.  That we would be taking them back to their home and we would have to go to our home for a few months, but we will be back for them and we will take them home with us next time.  They told Carlos that they did not want to go back, they wanted to go with us.  This was tough to hear, and when I shared this with Alicia, we had our first round of tears. 

Each morning, when Alia wants to get up in the morning to go to the bathroom, Ashton wakes up with her and takes her to the bathroom, turns the light on and closes the door to give her privacy.  Each morning I have given him a big hug and told him I love him.  This morning, he climbed into bed with me, and using Google Translate we had our second discussion about packing our bags for tomorrow.  They do not want to take all of their things back to the home, because they are afraid that people will take them, so we told them we will some of their things and bring them back with us.  We think they understand, but these next two days are going to be incredibly difficult.  Please pray for the children to understand, and for all of us as we part for a few months.

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

 Alia practices the "Selfie"

 Walking in Mami's shoes

 Alia has the camera, again

 Playing at the Children's Museum

 Riding bikes at the children's museum

 The van ride after a full morning of play

 Pictures from the cross monument, and some play time on the trampoline at the restaurant where we ate dinner.