Day 1 -

We are here. We are tired. We are thankful. Day one has been long and fabulous, starting with our 3:45AM meet time at the Norfolk airport to ending with our first porch time of the week at 9:30pm (11:30 home time). After easy safe travel we landed in Managua, loaded up the bus with all of our luggage and went straight to the Nicaragua ORPHANetwork office. We unloaded 17 bags of donations at the office for the ONet staff to distribute (they were so thankful), and then went on our way to Hogar de Fe (one of the children homes/orphanages). We will be at Hogar de Fe two days with the mission of painting murals on the walls and playing with all the beautiful children. I was 100% impressed with our team when we arrived at Hogar de Fe, they were tired, hungry, but couldn’t wait to engage. After lunch we split into two teams: the painting team and the play with children team. The painters drew and painted beautiful inspiring murals on the walls and the kid entertainers went hard. There was running, jump roping, rides on shoulders, basketball, soccer, drawing, sidewalk chalking, paper airplanes, dancing, and so much play to be had. It was a blast to sit back and watch the team engage in so many fun ways with the kids. Tomorrow we will finish the mural project and say good bye to Hogar de Fe kids (alraedy hard after just two days with them) and begin the next leg of our trip, serving in Nueva Vida (the community established after Hurricane Mitch in 1997). Well the final 4 of our team from the late Delta flight just arrived so we are officially all here and ready to continue our week! So I’m going to sign off and head to bed! Good night all and thank you for your prayers and for reading about the week! Adios – Natalie.