I'm here!!!

So I made it here! Without a hitch I might add :) I had absolutely no trouble getting through the airport here, and found my ride Luis without a problem: he conveniently had a sign that said "Emeli Rexrode" hahaha. So after running a few other errands in Guatemala City, we drove to Casa Bernabe, which is only about a half-hour outside the city, depending on traffic of course! It's really neat set-up: they have a main building and then houses where all the kids live depending on their ages/ genders with a set of house parents and helpers. I would be considered a helper, and I am currently living in Casa Samuel with boys and girls ages 5-9. There's about 18 of them that live in the house, and they are a beautiful crazy handful. My house mom's name is Veronica, and she is super super welcoming and kind. She also only speaks Spanish, so I'm definitely going to be working hard on my language skillls! Normally we eat all our meals together in the house, but today was a national holiday: El Dia de Los Ninos, so the kitchen made a special breakfast and lunch for everyone to eat together in the big meeting room where we normally have church. My kids normally nap for a couple of hours in the afternoon which is how I have managed to squeeze in this blog post today! I promise to upload the pictures I've taken so far as soon as possible. In the meantime, here are my major prayer requests:

1. Language dominance: my Spanish is pretty good, but they talk really fast! So please pray that I would get this down as quickly as possible so I can really understand what I'm supposed to being doing haha
2. Building relationships with my kids. Many of these kids come from really bad situations or have lived here at the orphanage their whole lives, and I have an incredible opportunity to be blessing to them, so please pray that I will figure out how best to do that.
3. Getting used to a new schedule: early to bed, early to rise is pretty much the system here. As those of you who have lived with me know, I am usually on the opposite end of the spectrum! But here I will probably be getting up around 4:30/5 and going to bed around 8:30/9 hahaha.
4. Finding time to spend with Jesus everyday. He is my light and my strength, especially so now that I'm here.

Right now, this whole experience is still pretty surreal; I spent so much time planning and thinking about this before it happened, so to actually be here living something I've dreamed about for so long is mind-blowing. I'm scared and excited, but as I was reading in the book of John today, God reminded me that He is the vine and we are the branches. If we abide in Him we will bear much fruit. So I will abide in Him. Because frankly, I don't have a choice to do otherwise. And I kind of like it this way. Soli Deo Gloria.