So who are these kids anyway?

Since the question got asked (it is a good question since I talk about Mariela a lot but never really say who she is) I thought I would take a second for all my devoted readers who don't have a clue who Mariela and her brother are.

I spent the summer of 2003 living in Honduras with a host family (and my good friend Amber) doing mission work. Downstairs in a small room in their garage lived their daugher, her husband and their two children, Mariela and Arnoldo. I don't have a picture on my computer for 2003 because I hadn't gone digital yet, this is the best I can do...around Fall 2004.

Clearly, I fell in love fast and the feeling was pretty much mutual. Mariela was only three that first summer and I doubt she remembers much about me living in her grandmother's house, but we spent lots of days together just hanging out, especially after I got sick and was banned from leaving the house!

And so, I keep going back year after year. And I help make sure she has some of the things that she will need so that her future will be a little better than it might be otherwise. Mariela is one of the people in my life that helps me remember that lots of people in the world do not have the opportunity to make a better life for themselves without help from someone else. She is a real, living breathing human being that I believe God brought into my path so that we might mutually bless each other's lives and hopefully many other lives down the road.

Fall 2005

Spring 2007 -- As you can see, she is a character!

Spring 2008 with her brother