ACT 1: Best Mission Trip Ever! by Richard
As we started planning this family trip, I (Richard) could see that Ximena was getting really excited. We all were! But at the same time, if you have ever watched any good family reunion movies on Netflix, they usually don’t always end the best. There is usually some major hiccup or at least one person who rains on the parade. So before we left, I spent some time talking with Ximena about the possibility that things wouldn’t be all “rainbows and roses.” Well, although I might be horrible at admitting that I was wrong, especially to Ximena, I have to admit that I was wrong. God truly answered our prayers and so many of your prayers, providing such a sweet and vulnerable time with each one of our babies and no hellish family reunion moments.
Well…this is the paragraph that will have a few of our minor hiccups, but God was present and helping in each one. Before our flight landed in Mexico, we already did have calls from the kids in the airport in Quito, sharing that the system had messed up on their last names and that they didn’t know if they were going to be able to leave. Our plane was seriously taking off as we were on the phone with them, but thankfully it was resolved without any issues or delays. As soon as we arrived in Mexico City (we arrived a few hours before the kids), we went to the rental car place to pick up the car. Since we were about to be a family of 9 again, we had to get the biggest car available. So the rental guy pulls up a nice, new, white Suburban. Ximena was excited (since it was big and nice) and I immediately thought, “Well…now we are going to look like Narco’s…let’s see how many times this is pulled over!”
In this area, I was right! Our 4 kids from Ecuador arrived, which still gives me chills remembering it, and we got all the luggage into the Suburban. We had driven about 10 minutes outside of the airport when we got pulled over! There were six police and they were hungry…well, money-hungry that is. There was tons of lies thrown back and forth about why we were being pulled over (honestly…I would have pulled myself over driving a car like that!) and various peso figures to be able to keep moving on. This was about 11PM at night and one of our kids was already complaining about explosive diarrhea, so we gave an early police Christmas gift, said Merry Christmas, and moved on. From then for the next week, many prayers were prayed for invisibility and thankfully God answered our prayers! A few hours later, we arrived at the orphanage in Queretaro and were able to sleep!
Ximena and I had discussed what this first week serving at the orphanage would look like and that we wanted it to be similar to a missions trip that we have led before. And it was really similar to a missions trip! Everyone on the team got sick…we think Inti brought some sort of crazy jungle flu, because we still have it. Ximena started off the day with a really annoying alarm (cue the Gummy Bears song!), although I think secretly they all loved it by the end. We did morning devotions and debriefing at night with highs and lows. Plus throw in helping out with a aquaponics project, cleaning, organizing, vegetable runs, painting, lots of sweeping/mopping, and dishes washed! But at the end of the week, I shared with Ximena that this was one of the top 2 missions trips that I have ever taken, only tied by a trip to Russia when I was 16 that led to me getting involved in orphanage ministry.
And here is why! The devotions were focused on identity: lies that we base our identity on (our past, what people say about us, our name, how we look, our sin, etc.) and what we can base our identity on for those who are in Christ (we are sons/daughters, we are saints, we are loved, we are valued, etc.). We had prayed for months leading up to this trip that each one of our kids would be vulnerable and share. God truly granted our request! From the first time that we started sharing, there were tears flowing and they were each sharing some deep stuff. On the last day that we focused on the lies, each person was able to delete one of the lies that they were holding onto for their identity, such as: I’m fat and ugly, I’m abandoned, I’m not intelligent, I’m unloved, I’m not a man, etc. That morning we all left the devotion with puffy eyes and light hearts, as each person was able to share openly and receive love and acceptance from their brothers and sisters.
During our time there, we were able to go and volunteer at another orphanage called Esperanza Para Ti. It was started by the house parents that we worked most with while we were in Queretaro, so it was amazing to see how they have been able to make their dreams a reality. They are focused more on giving the kids life skills by having all kinds of different animals (cows, horses, chickens, ducks, geese, trout, pigs, etc.) that the kids take care of and supplement the cost of food. They have also fully embraced the family-style model with all of the kids calling them Mom and Dad and everyone working together as a family. It really just feels like a really big family and it is such a beautiful thing! One of the things that Agustin (the director) was really proud of is the fact that they still have a water tank that was installed by a mission team from Oso Creek from Texas back in 2008! They moved it with them to the new property, as they have continued to wisely use their resources. Part of the money that our kids had worked for before the trip was used to provide dinner for all of the kids at Esperanza. It was actually taco quesadillas from one of the animals that they had slaughtered and they used the money to replenish the animals! Our kids were able to take things from both of the different orphanages and decide how they would like to do things if they ever started a children’s ministry. They did extremely well at not just taking the experience at face value, but truly thinking through best practices. Many of you probably don't remember, but Tadeo (on the far right in the picture) was a toddler when Ximena and I were in Mexico...now he's a teenager!
One of the main reasons that we had chosen this specific time was to be a blessing to the directors of Pan de Vida during the Christmas season. We know how hectic it can be at times, especially with so many kids, so we wanted to fill in those times where they just needed extra hands. On Christmas Eve (which in Latin America is truly Christmas and when they celebrate), all of the caregivers needed to get ready and practice for a Christmas drama that they were putting on. So our family was able to take care of all of the kids and get them ready for Christmas Even. Ximena and Mayumi had the biggest task, because all of the girls wanted to get their hair and makeup done for that night. So they spent hours doing make up and braiding hair, allowing the girls to look amazing. Then, we helped to serve tacos and pizza for the Christmas Eve meal to all of the kids and caregivers. In the end, we ended up missing the drama and presentation (while we got ready) and then were standing and serving during the meal, but it was so incredible to serve! It was especially sweet to see Santiago (who is usually are more selfish one) serving pizza the entire time and then deciding to sit down behind the table to eat a slice, because he didn’t want to take one of the kids chairs away.
While we were there, we were able to see a few of the kids that were at Pan de Vida when we served there back in 2006. Of course, they are all grown up now!!! Quite a few of them are serving at the orphanage, having gone off to Canada, India, and Costa Rica to learn more on how to minister to the kids and returned home to put what they learned into practice. It was beautiful to see and hear about the journeys that they have been on. One of the girls that we used to teach, Paquita, is all grown up and has a family of her own. Her daughter, Jimena, immediately hit it off with Leilani and they were inseparable the entire time that we were there. It really made Ximena and I feel old, because it kind of felt like we were grandparents!!!! The rest of our time in Queretaro was spent hanging out with Jeremy and Ana (the directors of Pan de Vida) at their house. It was so much fun to connect with them and for all of our kids to get to know them. We spent a lot of time eating (that was our favorite pastime) and sharing stories back and forth, as a lot of the other caregivers spend a lot of time at their house as well. We were also able to visit for a little bit with Paul and Denise Lambert, who were the first people to introduce Richard to Pan de Vida back in 2005! It was great to catch up with them (even in the middle of the rain!) and they seriously haven't aged!
ACT 2: Best Family Trip Ever! by Richard
The mission trip week was finished and we were heading from Queretaro to Mexico City in the beautiful, white, drug car! Oh so many more prayers were prayed on that drive back! I was able to drop everyone off and head to turn in the rental car. Wouldn’t you know that it took driving in circles 3 times and asking at least 5 people before we finally found where to turn it in?!? But what a relief it was to be able to use subways, trains, and Ubers for the rest of the week. We went to an AirBnB that we had rented for the next week, which was in the middle of downtown. Mayumi asked, “Seriously, you had to rent the apartment on the third floor?” And I said, “It’s just to help watch everyone’s figure after all the tacos!” We also thoroughly enjoyed the busyness of downtown (sarcasim)…Ximena really enjoyed the lady in front of the building that yelled “Chocolateeeeeeee….Chocolateeeeee” throughout the whole day. Haha! Honestly, we got used to it and it was such a central location to everything that was around us. It was a little small, as it was just 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, but honestly the closeness that it creates was beautiful.
The day after we arrived, we went to church about an hour from where we were staying. We had met Andrés and Dulce, who are the church-planters, when we had visited one of our supporting churches, Grace Bible Church, over the summer. We immediately hit it off and they invited us to come to their church in Mexico City with our family in December. So we did! The service itself was incredible and each person within the congregation made us feel so welcome. They even made cookies and gave them to each one of the kids! After the service, we headed to their home for lunch, along with Ana, another missionary from Texas, and it was such a beautiful time. Both Andrés and Dulce are so extremely wise and spoke truth over our kids, offering such amazing advice that we hadn’t even considered for some of them. Sometimes our kids are just a little too close for us to take that big step back and see everything. We were so blessed by our time with their family!
Since we had spent Christmas serving at the orphanage, we didn’t have the traditional “gift-giving Christmas.” All of the kids knew that we were sacrificing gifts to be able to spend time together as a family and serve. But we had a surprise up our sleeves! Ximena had worked (together with many of you!) to have a small present and special letter for each one of the kids. Santi and Lani worked as the elves and you should have seen the surprise on their faces. But even in that moment, it wasn’t about the gifts. Don’t get me wrong…they enjoyed the presents…but you should have seen them pick apart the letters that they received and even crying at finding out that so many people love and pray for them regularly. It was a really sweet time.
As we neared New Years, we had been given a special gift by a family to be able to “Go big or go home!” So we went big! The day before the 31st, we headed to Six Flags Mexico City and it was the first time for most of our kids to go on a rollercoaster. And boy…did we go on some rollercoasters! No one was able to whimp out on anything, so we did almost every ride in the park. Their faces, especially at the beginning, were priceless and they tried to talk us out of it, but in the end they absolutely loved it. On New Year’s day, we had booked a reservation at Fogo de Chao, which is a Brazilian steakhouse, and had our fancy family dinner for the trip. It was a buffet, which we had chosen thinking in the boys, and they definitely ate enough to make it worthwhile. They said that they felt like kings and queens for a day! We ended the night dancing in the apartment and then going to the Angel de la Independencia, which was super crowded and not as “spectacular” of a New Year’s celebration as we thought it was going to be, but was so much fun to hug each other at midnight and keep on dancing.
One of the coolest and most “Mexican” things that we were able to do was to go to
Xochimilco. While the name might be a little complicated, everything else was ready at your beck and call…literally! Xochimilco is basically the Riverwalk in San Antonio on steroids. You pay $20 to get in a boat on a channel of rivers. As you are being paddled around, there are hundreds of boats around you, selling drinks, snacks, flowers, meals, and even Mariachis! Well I guess they weren’t selling the Mariachis, but at least renting them. We were able to spend a few hours on the river, singing songs and eating some delicious food. At the very end, as we were heading back to the dock, we decided to have one last mariachi song, which is called Mexico Lindo y Querido (Dear, Nice Mexico). They definitely gave it their all with the lead singer almost blowing us away (literally!). It was such fun afternoon, especially seeing Gus join in, singing with all his might. We also were able to go to the pyramids at Teotihucan, which was where we were able to take a few family pictures as well. I had gone there about 16 years ago as a single guy, so it was so much more fun to go with the family!
The last few days, there were a few key “talks” that we wanted to have with our kids. Due to either immaturity on our part as parents or just having our kids at different times in their lives, we had never been able to talk with all of our kids about two things that we think are very important to view from a godly perspective: money and sex. So we started off by taking our kids through a mini-Financial Peace University class. I am really into Dave Ramsey, so it was fun to be able to talk about emergency funds, debt, and dreams. Since each one of the kids had worked to save up for a portion of the trip, they were able to see how much they were able to save when working towards a goal. At the same time, the kids had saved up to pay for a portion of their flights, so when some dear friends covered the flight cost with points, we were able to give that money back to them to start their emergency funds. You should have seen their faces! There were a lot of tears and we sat down with each of them to talk about their dreams and how we can walk alongside them to reach those dreams, but only if they do their part and work their butts off. On the last day, we had all of them come into our room and we talked about sex, which is sadly the other taboo subject in the Christian church. We shared our stories about sex from adolescence through marriage and then opened it up for questions. And they had qustions!!! It was so much fun to just be 100% transparent about a subject that is so incredibly beautiful, but is seen as a “bad thing” for many who grow up in the church.
And then we found ourselves hugging in a big, bear hug at the airport in Mexico City about to go to different terminals for our flights. We had to say goodbye to our babies and we didn’t want to. We just prayed and cried and hugged for a long time, but were comforted by the fact that we were able to spend such sweet moments together. They all started asking when the next family trip would be and we said, “Well…you’d better start saving!” And then we all headed back to our lives in different places across the globe…
P.S. These pictures are taken 15 years apart! Things have definitely changed!
ACT 3: A Christmas to Remember by Ximena
One of the sweetest moments for me (Ximena) was watching all these 7 kiddos with different skin colors, different facial features, and most of them very tall (They blame Richard for this!) becoming one big family and proudly answering questions from curious people with “Yes, these are my siblings.” Being able to watch them laugh so hard, cry their hearts out because of the pain that others humans have caused them, and most importantly recognize that God is the King of their lives because otherwise they wouldn’t be alive today.
One night, close to the end of our trip, when we briefly touch the idea of “packing,” nobody wanted to talk about it. We all knew that it was coming, but nobody was ready to face it. The silence was brutal and I just open my big ol’ mouth and said “Richie, I need you to buy me a big house! I know our kids are older, but they can all live with us. During the day, everyone will go to school or work or both, but at the end of the day, there will be warm food on the table for them and we can see each other.” All the kids were looking at me and Erick said, “I’ll happily live in that house!” Each one of our kids started saying at loud what would they be doing and what chores they will be in charge. If you know me, you can picture me in a puddle of tears at this moment. While Richard (picture him thinking numbers) answered, “Well, it definitely can’t be in the States because it’s too expensive.”
God’s calling on our lives right now is so clear and strong. I know Richard’s ministry is impacting so many kids around the world because of the desire of his heart to look after “the caregivers.” I love what I do at Orphanos, being able to be an advocate for our missionaries (because I am one of them) while helping on the finance part to reduce the tediousness of the job for them. If not, I would be on a plane heading somewhere trying to find that big house!
There are no words which I can use to try to explain to you how much I love those kids. I have so much respect for their moms, and what they have allowed to happen. Not only this trip, but years ago when they made those hard decisions to let their babies go and trust them into our care. I will never take that decision lightly because I can’t even start thinking of the idea of giving up Leilani and letting her go, knowing that she will have a better chance somewhere else. They are 3 very strong women to me! During this trip, I was able to create a chat where I kept the moms involved and informed where and how the kids are doing. It has been a beautiful picture because they have always been in everything. It’s the joy of my heart to let you know that Inti’s mom is a strong Christian woman now. God has used a Cuban pastor and his wife (names) to walk alongside her. It is beautiful watching her walking in the Lord. Nico’s mom is a faithful Christian as well. I would like to take this moment to ask to keep Mayumi and Erick’s mom in your prayers. She is a believer, but it has been almost a year of a really rough path in her life and this has greatly affected her kids too.
It took the Lord 3 years to answer this prayer: to allow us to be together as a family…all 9 of us! To be honest, there were times during those years where I thought this would never happen. I asked the Lord, “If you were the one who brought these kids into our home while we were in Mexico and Ecuador, don’t allow me to disappear from their lives. I don’t want to be the missionary who was only there for a season of their lives.”
He is good, He is faithful, He is a provider, He laughed with us (I am pretty sure of that!), and He is holding onto my kids while they are in pain. Serving Him as a family during the week of Christmas at the orphanage was one of the best choices, opportunities, and blessings I have ever had. Watching my kids and and seeing each one of their struggles, but choosing to love on the kids and the caregivers of the orphanages was a gift to my soul that nobody will take away from me.
It will be hard to go back to a traditional Christmas (commercial one) after this experience. I will forever be an ambassador to this idea: if you ever foster kids or have adopted or neither of those but you just want to expose your family to a more realistic idea of Christmas, then please take a trip, get out of your comfort zone, forget about material gifts and serve the One who rules the world. It is not about serving those less fortunate so that you can see how blessed you are back home. Rather, Christmas truly comes alive when you get out and love others. Even with the language barrier, doing hair and makeup for 10+ teenage girls teenage hair, moving furniture, cleaning storerooms, working on a greenhouse with venomous thorns, washing tones and tones of dishes with 5 other little giggling girls, mopping, painting, picking up donations on a cold, early morning in the main city market, and many other things, in addition you get to do it with your family??? Maaaaan! That’s just God saying Merry Christmas to YOU!
Yes…this will be definitely be a Christmas to remember.
Here are prayer requests from the kids:
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