Los Pisingos and Lasagna

(NOTE: Posting this on Wednesday, as the Internet went down for awhile last night)

Normally I post about 3 things. I guess I'm not sure where it came from; I've never preached before, and it wasn't intentional. I guess normal days just normally contained 3 main points, but not today. Only 2 points today; hope that's OK for you people looking for 3 points. Perhaps the biggest reason we only have 2 points today, is that this morning was, well... uneventful. These are the mornings that you know are coming, but don't necessarily look forward to them because when you're here you like to be on the go. It makes time go more quickly, and keeps spirits up.

Will has been talking about going home to see Grammy, Papa, and Mimi. He's looking forward to it, and would probably go right now if he could. He may have taken it to an extreme here, though:

And then when Ally saw him doing it, she wanted me to take a picture of her as well:

Mid-afternoon, we were picked up by Jonny and Isabel for our tour of LP. We were a bit early for our appointment there, so we went past a place of significance to Will and Max:

This is the hospital where they were both born (Ally was born in a small town just outside of Bogota called Chia), and this was the first time we had seen it. It was pretty cool to see the actual place where both of our sons were born, and I'm thankful we had a chance to see it.

We were still a little early, so Jonny took us down some of the side streets so that we could see more closely how some of the more poor people live (we're in a part of town that is what I would consider more "upscale"). We rounded a corner, and this is what we saw:

The picture isn't the greatest, but what you're looking at are homes built on the mountainside (hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them). Isabel said these people are called "invaders"; people who come into Bogota and use the city's water, food supplies, etc. She said the government can't do much to remove them, so they continue to build and grow. It's pretty amazing to see, and all they essentially are is just shacks. I've got to believe that at some point some of them will collapse/fall apart. It was interesting to see how so many of Bogota's people live.

At our appointed time, we arrived at LP. It has such a special meaning to so many people, not just in Grand Rapids or Michigan, or even the U.S. There are many families from all over the world that have been blessed by this place. And once again we had the opportunity to go there to see where our 3 children were for the first months of their lives. I have more pictures, but am only going to share one. There are a few things we like to keep for our children privately. Here is one of some cuties sleeping in their "cribs":

Andres (who helps the director of the orphanage, Carlos) gave us our tour, and on it he mentioned that there are approximately 115 children currentlyat LP. They are adopted at all ages, and we saw ages from newborn up to probably 7 or 8. But they have more children that were in school at the time, so the ages are even older.

I think one of the saddest things for us to see were families in an area together, waiting to talk to a psycholigist to see if their own children were right for adoption. Oftentimes the birthparents aren't able to afford a mouth to feed (or another mouth to feed), so the parents have to make the ultimate sacrifice: giving their children up for adoption. Without these special people, there would be many more empty homes; homes without children. Through their sacrifices, we are blessed. On a special holiday weekend, I would like to thank the many parents who have sacrificed so that others of us can have children of our own. Thank you.

Today after we returned to Hotel Paris, I noted a peculiar smell in the air. Thing is, I was surprised to smell it. See, yesterday I asked Juanita if we could have lasagna on Friday, because I am leaving Saturday, I HAD to have her lasagna before I left. She said she thought she could make it happen that night, but would have to check with Katya (the owner of HP). So when we came down for dinner tonight, I snuck into the kitchen (for those of you who have stayed at HP, I went downstairs the back way, directly into the kitchen). Juanita was surprised to see me and essentially threw me out of there, because she was trying to surprise me with lasagna tonight instead of Friday. That's one of the things I love about this place- they truly care about the people, and the people who work here are incredibly kind. So, I stuffed myself full of lasagna once more here at Hotel Paris. I'd come here again in a heartbeat!

Again, what a blessing this journey has been. Having the chance to go to LP today, and just the heartfelt kindness throughout Hotel Paris, we feel so blesses. It's hard to imagine life without Ally, Will, and Max, and these are 2 large pieces of the puzzle that made our dreams come true. The smiles, the personalities, and the love of our children; neither my life nor Becky's would be complete without them, and day after day after day, I amazed at how God's plan is perfect- in every way. Thank you Lord, for blessing us with our amazing children.

Scott, Becky, Ally, Will, and Max