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See all the pictures here.

See all of the pictures here.

To say it’s difficult to get the boys of Eliza Martinez organized is an understatement.
There’s constant fighting and competition which is understandable.
When you’re an orphan, nothing in an orphanage is yours. Everything’s communal.

So to see these boys come together and not only work and play together but to cheer on their own is, literally, nothing short of a miracle.

And you’re about to see it.
But more importantly, you’re about to hear it.
It’s the most beautiful sound.

The little boy on Wendy’s lap is Alex. Alex has cerebral palsy. His lower legs are so underdeveloped he walks around on his toes, teetering with every step. He also has to wear a diaper and doesn’t speak.

We brought two piñatas with us to Eliza Martinez. After the boys destroyed Luigi we brought out Spider-Man.
The staff lined up the special needs boys to let each of them get a swing at Spider-Man.

Alex is sitting on Wendy’s lap when one of the staffers comes over and grabs Alex.
It’s his turn to take a swing.

Based on past experience, I’d have expected the other boys to let Alex take a single swing then push him out of the way.
But that’s not what happened at all.

Instead, they chanted his name as he (tried to) pummel Spider-Man into submission.
I imagine a host of angels were cheering Alex on, too.

It’s hard to tell just what goes where or how big things are when looking at pictures from our Guatemala trips.

Therefore, I’ve put together a 360° panorama of Eliza Martinez (it’s actually closer to 400° as there is some overlap at the left and right edges of the image) from the view of the courtyard, where we seem to spend most of our time with the boys (when we’re outside).

Clicking on the image below should open the panorama in a new window. You may have to click it again to get it to show full size.

Internet is spotty where we’re staying so who knows how infrequent our updates will be.

After a 13-hour travel day (up at 2am, leave home at 3am, get to Indianapolis airport at 4am, leave Indy at 6am, arrive in Atlanta at 7am, board for Guatemala at 9:30am only to find our plane had a leak, disembark, board a new plan and leave at noon, arrive at 3:30pm (2:30pm local time), we had some time to grab lunch then, on the way back to the baby’s home (where we’re staying, the baby’s have vacated to various locations and to foster care) we stopped to visit with Dani.

Dani seemed to be fitting in very well at his new home. When we arrived he was chatting and playing with the other kids. We entertained the boys with fart sounds and the old “quarter behind the ear” trick.

Rachael ended up showing a video that was on her camera of Juan Pablo to Dani who started talking to the camera as if it were Juan Pablo, telling him how much he missed him.