Juillard Journal

Wow! What a Year!!

• January
  • Traveled with our pastor Darren and mission director, David to Guatemala.
  • We met with several people including Scott & Carrie Kingston who would later become good friends.
  • We looked at many houses to see what was available.  
  • We also started home-schooling with the boys!
• February
  • We dove head first into fund-raising, meeting with several friends/families a week to ask them to partner with us on this new adventure God was unraveling.
• March
  • Elijah turned 9 and we celebrated by having some friends over for a birthday party.
• April
  • Zachary turned 12 and we had another celebration with a bunch of other boys.
• May
  • After traveling to South Carolina, Ohio, and Indiana, we were finally ready to say "See you later" rather than goodbye to our friends and family.
  • We boarded a plane with 8 suitcases on the 27th and headed for our new "home" in Guatemala.
• June
  • Less than a week after arriving in Guatemala, the first mission trip from our church came and we were able to help build four houses and hosted the team for an evening of games and fun.
• July
  • Our pastor and his daughter came for a visit and spoiled our boys.
  • We visited El Amor De Patricia orphanage for the first time.
  • We started Spanish classes.
• August
  • Continued Spanish classes.
  • Went to a rural area east of Zacappa to plant lime, macadamia, and tangerine trees with some friends and met some more amazing people of Guatemala.
  • We were invited to go along with another group to the east side of Guatemala City where we gave out food, water filters, and Bibles.
  • We also went to the orphanage on a bi-weekly basis and helped build them a swing set.
• September
  • Spanish language studies continued.
  • The boys started attending school at our local home school co-op.
  • Sam Briz joined the Conduit team in Guatemala.
  • Our Missions Pastor came with us on a visit to Xela where we passed out food to families who crush rocks for a living.
  • We also celebrated Guatemala's Independence day with lots of fireworks, torch runs, and whistles.
• October
  • We continued to study the Spanish language
  • We met a very energetic group of young adults from the Adventures In Missions team. They were a blessing for all of us!
  • Amanda began teaching a women's Bible study.
  • Rob began a Bible study with the Adventures in Missions' team.
• November
  • We traveled to Mexico to renew our passports.
  • We committed to volunteer at El Amor De Patricia 2 days a week.
  • Amanda started an English class while Rob started a VBS program with the kids at El Amor De Patricia.
  • Our mission's director and his family visited to celebrate Rob's birthday and Thanksgiving which was celebrated at the restaurant Pollo Campero (similar to Chick-fil-A).
• December
  • Rob's parents and sister came for a visit and between the market shopping, orphanage visits, earthquakes, and erupting volcanoes, it was a TRUE Guatemalan experience.
  • We also were able to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the orphanage with the 27 kiddos. We had tamales, ponche, and decorated cookies.
  • The fireworks on Christmas Eve were AMAZING and should be put on your calendar as something to do in the future!! 
  • Our boys commented that this was one of the best Christmases ever, besides the fact that we missed family like crazy!!