A Picture Story of May 2019

We were blessed to get to travel to Florida for the month of May. We spent lots of precious moments with family, played at the beach, enjoyed many dinners/lunches/coffees with friends that love us so well, played at the beach some more, celebrated with our daughter, Lacy, and her fiance, Jordan, at their wedding shower, spent a fun week getting to know Jordan's mom, enjoyed wedding dress shopping, had the privilege to baptize Molly, Kaylee, and Bella, enjoyed beautiful Florida sunsets, watched our nephew walk across the stage as he graduated high school, and spent many more wonderful moments with our family and friends! We shared from our hearts about the work we do here in Guatemala. We told stories of sweet moments and sad moments in hopes that a bit of our passion and love for the orphans of Guatemala would touch hearts in Florida! And so as we settle back into our life here, we thank you, family and friends, for sharing your houses, your time, your prayers, your church pews, and your love with us! We arrived back in Guatemala feeling loved, rested, and a little tanner!! We love you all!! Enjoy some photos from our trip!

There's our plane!

Noah and Willy
 Willy loved his first trip to a Florida beach!

Sibling love - sand style!

So many fun things to find at the beach.

Visiting with the Nortons. Aunt Christine's animals were very fun to see.

Everyone got to ride Max.

We got to meet Daniel, our niece Zoe's new baby.

All 3 girls desired to be baptized while we were in Florida. It was a special time for us all.
Here is Kaylee Jane coming up! 

Molly Grace

Arabella Joy
(I love how her feet are sticking up in this photo!)

So proud of all three of you and we love you so much!!
 May God continue to lead your life each and every day!

Such a great day celebrating Lacy and Jordan.
We love you both so much and are excited for all God has in store for you!

Beautiful cookies!

Of course, we had to play some games at the shower.
 Beautiful toilet paper wedding dresses modeled by Grammy and Matt!

So glad we could celebrate with family and friends!

Family!!!

Lacy and Jordan

We enjoyed our week with Jordan and his mom. 
Such a blessing to spend time with you guys! See you in England!!

Alia and Willy enjoying the park!

God's beautiful masterpiece! Brings such peace to my soul!!

Warm summer evenings are perfect for strolling on the Riverwalk and swinging!

Carl and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary!!!

Joel -  Class of 2019
Congratulations!

It takes a village ...

Pastor M praying for this sweet, single mama of 3. 2 of her girls are her own, one is her niece that she is raising like her own after her sister died when the baby was only one.

It is always a privilege to visit the village with Pastor M and his wife. Last week we were able to visit and pray for 2 families. Both families were single moms that fight hard for their kids. On the day we visited, all the kids were home from school. When asked why, they responded that it was a field trip day which required money – money that they did not have to send their kids on the field trip.  So the children stayed home. But that also meant that the moms stayed home from work because they had no one to look after the children. So they lost a day’s pay. We are working with Pastor Milton and his brother to stop this cycle. Milton’s brother is currently building a school that should open in January 2020. It will be an approved school with the ministry of education. It will offer a Christian education, an after-school program, as well as, feed the children a healthy meal. Please join us in praying for the school as it goes through the approval process with the government and for many children to be sponsored to be able to attend. For some it will be the first time that they have ever gone to school. If you would like to sponsor a child, please give through CTEN at the link below. Include school sponsorship in the note section to indicate your desire to support a child's education. Thank you!

www.cten.org/carlnorton/

The outside sink is where dishes and clothes are washed.

Helping her mama with the dishes.

After seeing so many children in the orphanages with no family to take them in when the mother cannot care for them, it was a blessing to see how this mama rose to the occasion to care for her niece, even though, finances are very tight.

This is a very poor area in this village. You can see where the lady is at the door to her property. The silver door at the far right of photo is the dump for the entire area.

Praying that this dear family will come to know the hope that is found in Jesus. They are standing in their house with concrete floor and block walls that they were blessed with.

This is their house before. Dirt floor and sheet metal walls. They now use this as their kitchen and dining area.