Our new normal...

It's amazing how much peace and joy can be felt during a time that might seem miserable and difficult and in a place that most people would only want to visit.  Laura and I were talking this morning and we wish we could just transfer all the amazing lessons and feelings of peace and contentment we have experienced here.  This place feels like home; we are content here; we are more content here than we are with all the luxuries back at home.  Life here is simple and happy.  I mean, we haven't looked at a calendar yet and we are doing just fine!  I wish that everyone could live this way, or at least understand how wonderful it is to live this way.  We can already tell that going home and adjusting to our old lives is going to be quite the challenge.

Ok...so what has been going on since the surgery you might ask?  Well, the first night after staying over night in the hospital, we went and stayed at Ronald's house.  It was really great to be able to stay there and be taken care of in such a loving, hospitable way, but, of course, we were missing our boys...a lot.  So the next morning, we packed up all of the stuff we had collected since leaving Jovenes on Saturday and made our way back to our favorite place on the earth.  Since Laura was on crutches and had had surgery just 2 days before, we couldn't exactly move back into our room on the second floor in Casa Rosada, so Ronald and the house parents of Casa Verde got a room cleared out for us on the first floor of Casa Verde.  We have been very thankful for this the past few days.  It has made things very easy and convenient for us.  If Laura needs to go and lay down for a while, she can; if I want to get out and play with the boys I don't have to walk down the street anymore, but if I want to sit in the room with Laura so she doesn't get bored I can do that too.  It has also made it easier for us to get to know some of the older boys.  They have been much more difficult to get to know.  A lot of them had walls built up (and rightly so considering where they are and how they got here), but we have been able to tear down those walls and joke around with them and have a good time.  As nice as it has been to be living on the first floor with a bathroom inside our room, Laura and I are about ready to see how she does hobbling up the stairs to our original room...we miss our Casa Rosada boys!!

Since moving back to Jovenes, Laura and I have never felt better!  She is sleeping completely through the night now (last night she even set her alarm to wake up to take her pain meds...and didn't even wake up!).  She is getting a good amount of rest and playtime which is helping her spirits a lot.  The best part of this story that God is writing happened yesterday when we went to visit the doctor for her check-up.  We prayed and prayed the whole way to Tegucigalpa that there would be no infection and that everything was healing correctly.  When we finally got to see the doctor...surprise, on the 30th of this month, she gets the stitches out and gets the cast off and gets to start physical therapy.  Praise God!  It is amazing how much He has been with us the past few days.  Our lives will never be the same, that's for sure.  Laura's scars will forever be a reminder of the ultimate healer and that His presence is always with us.  The scars are only an outward sign of all the work He has done on the inside the past few days.  We feel so blessed to be a part of this wonderful story of healing and redemption.

Today is going to be a fun day.  The boys have a break in school this week so there have been games and activities every day.  Last night, they were all split up into seven different groups each with a color and a different fruit of the spirit as their team name.  Today they will compete in several different games and challenges and earn tickets all along the way.  I have already gotten some really fun pictures of the different groups and all the hard work they are already doing to ensure their victories.

Hannah and LauraBeth

P.S. We will put pictures from the actual tragic day soon (they are on Laura's camera and we keep forgetting to grab it.)