Rock N Road

Every year hundreds of Americans visit us here in Honduras. Most come with a group of like minded Christians to serve the poor that Mission Lazarus serves in Honduras. We always insist that groups return to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, the night before their departure. Many groups don’t like this added expense of a hotel in the capital city but we always insist, claiming that if there happens to be some civil unrest like a strike or a land slide over the road you’ll miss your flight. Although we have had a group or two pull some stunts to get out of traveling back the night before, for the most part everyone has been understanding of our policy. The only time we don’t enforce that policy is when we have visits from one or two folks on their own, not with a group. We figure that if they were to miss a flight it would not be too hard to get tickets changed for a couple travelers however it would be highly unlikely that we’d be able to change tickets for a group of 15 or more folks. Cameron Hartsell from Abilene, Texas learned about the risk of not making it to the airport the hard way. Cameron was here for a quick trip over the weekend and was scheduled to be back at work tomorrow morning. But as you can see from the pictures, a large boulder laying in the road blocked traffic on the Pan American highway in both directions. Needless to say Cameron had no other option than to return to Choluteca and change his ticket for tomorrow. Reports say that the boulder will be removed by this evening.

My Sunshine. Sol

Do you know my little girl Sol? If not, you ought to! Well, if you are not aware of our situation, we have been trying to adopt her since she was 2 months old. That’s when she came to bless out lives. Well, it’s been a long road. Sol is now 5 ½. It’s been a true test of our faith that God could make this happen. Adoptions in Honduras are not easy and International Adoptions are even harder. In July of this year Ally and I had to undergo 2 days of interviews and testing at the Honduras Child Protective Services office in the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa (IHNFA). Though the questions were very odd, it seemed to go well. All that was lacking was a visit to our home by the government psychologist and social worker from the capital. Last Thursday we sent someone to pick them up and bring them to our house (the government does not have the budget to provide transportation) we also had to provide lunch. Anyhow at our house the psychologist went into Sol’s room and shut the door and began to ask questions. It crossed both mine and ally’s minds to perhaps coach Sol on things she should say but that would have been a train wreck with a 5 year old, so we turned it over to God. After about an hour the two ladies left and that was that. Today I got a call from our lawyer who is handling the adoption and she gave me an update from the government officials from last week. She said, “They loved your house, they loved Sol, Sol is great, they could not ask for a better home, and Sol could not be in a better place!” Praise God! We think that the end is near. The case should go to a committee at the first of November for the adoption to be approved by Child Protective Services and then it’s off to the judge to finalize everything. If you have been praying for us, Thanks a lot! If not, we ask you to please join us in praying for the finalization of this adoption. Thanks. Jarrod & Ally.

Aleyda Zepeda

We appreciate everyones prayers for Aleyda. If anyone would like to contact her or send her cards remember she is at the Northside Forsyth hospital in Atlanta, GA. She had surgery last Wednesday, here is our latest update from the US:

Aleyda’s surgery lasted 8 hours. Before surgery Aleyda had an 80 degree curvature in her spine, that has now been reduced to around 10 degrees.
After the surgery, Aleyda had a chest tube on her right side to allow fluid to drain but fluid also built up in her left lung. Normally, the patient would be encouraged to cough a lot and this would be enough to clear it out but because she is so sore from the surgery, she just wasn't able to cough much at all. It was too painful. They drained some of the fluid through a bronchostomy and a thorocentesis but she was still having trouble breathing. They decided to put her on a respirator for about two days to allow them to more easily remove the fluid and to give her time to rest and recover. Last night, thanks to the respirator, her stats had gone way up and she was doing much better. Hopefully, they will be able to take her off the
respirator tomorrow. As much as they didn't want to have to do that, she is on more sedatives now because of the tube and seems to be resting much more
peacefully. The doctors and nurses at Northside Forsyth have been amazing. She is getting excellent care and everyone has been extremely nice and caring.