Back to Work

Matt and John arrived in Quiche about 9pm last night with the new 4Runner and a hatchback full of goodies. All of Isaac's Christmas presents, a TV to replace the one Jake broke while we were gone, some donated firefighter gear from the City of Battle Creek, Michigan (which will be presented to the local fire department next week), some motorcycle and airplane parts for the Fickers, and some assorted other things that needed to come down - all made the trip.

In case you're ever thinking about driving from Michigan to Guatemala, be warned ahead of time that it's a very long trip. The driving isn't so bad - the highways in Mexico are surprisingly well maintained and marked - but the border crossings are a little tough. Our vehicle title was taken away from us at the Texas/Mexico border and, against our wishes, given to "some guy" who promptly drove away with it. We eventually chased him down and found out where he would be taking it - he refused to give it to us - and simply drove three days through Mexico praying that God would put it on this guy's heart to bring it to us. After waiting 24 very stressful hours at the Guatemala/Mexico border, he showed up with our title. We could tell stories for the next 50 pages, but we'll spare you... If you're going to do the trip, call us. We learned a few things.

Meanwhile, Heidi and Isaac were here in Guatemala working with the cleft palate kids. Of the planned 13, 12 showed up and came to Antigua for their surgeries. Read some of Heidi's posts in the past few days for more details.

Anyway, today, we are doing some business here in town, getting John's flight back to the US arranged, and unpacking. Heidi is at her clinic in Chichi and is not playing "single mom" for the first time in a week. Not sure when we'll see her again!

Okay, some pics. The first one is of the group in Antigua. The second is the bus Matt Capehart generously loaned us for the trip. The next one is one of our new cleft lip patients, awaiting her surgery. Fourth is one of last year's patients with a repaired lip, awaiting her palate surgery. And last is the 4Runner, all cleaned up and sitting in front of the house.