Some emergency needs to share with you:
- Many of you know we have two additions to our family. Mayra and Wendy was abandoned by their mother and have been living with us for five months now. They do visit their mother on occasion (almost every Sunday afternoon for about 3 hours), but she does not want them to live with her. We have been solely responsible for them during this time, and plan to continue as if they are our own. With this being said, we have been trying to get passports and Visa's for the two of them so they can come home with us for a visit. We have no one to leave them with for a month. Plus, we don't want them to feel any more of the abandonment feeling. Wendy has her passport, but we are still waiting on the birth certificate for Mayra to get her passport. We have not proceeded with getting the Visa for Wendy because it would not be right without her sister. Kim and I are having to make a hard decision this year; which is us both coming home at separate times. I will come home first with Brayden and Brianna. I will stay for 2-3 weeks only. When I return, Kim will come home and stay for 3-4 weeks. Brayden and Brianna will be in the States the entire time one of us are there. We feel we have to do it this way because of one of us needing to be with Mayra and Wendy at all times. What we need from you on this is 'Prayer'. This will be difficult on us all. We will still proceed the best we can in getting the passports and Visa's for the girls.
- Airfare is very expensive right now. The cheapest tickets are around $800 each for the 4 of us. Carlos Estrada is also working on his Visa and may be able to come for a visit during the month of November as well. This would be yet another $800. I can not afford to pay for us all to come home for the visit this year. I am asking for anyone that feels led to help us out in this situation to contact me and let me know. November is coming soon and plane tickets are continuing to rise. If we do not get any help in this; I will send Kim, Brayden, and Brianna only. I can't deprive them from seeing family.
- This year's school year is coming to an end in October. The new school year will begin in January. Kim and I are wanting to pull Mayra and Wendy out of the local public school and enroll them in the same private school as Brayden and Brianna. We are wanting to do this for several reasons: the public school system in Guatemala is not a very good or high education, they would be receiving the highest of education in our area, it is a bilingual private school (Spanish and English), they would have the same schedule and off days as Brayden and Brianna, it would cut down on travel back and forth, Brayden and Mayra would be in the same class and be able to help each other with homework and projects, etc. It would cost us around $250 per month the have them in this school with our kids. My parents help us out with our children so they receive this high education and English classes. We need to know if there is anyone that knows Mayra and Wendy and would like to help us in this situation. If not, we will have to enroll them in the same school as before. Oh, and we are pulling them out of the sponsorship program for next year. That is important for you to know as well. It's not that we don't need the help with them, it's because of how others view them being in a sponsorship program and living full-time with us.
