Money Saving Mom®

My Trip to Guatemala (Part 1):

I’m home from Guatemala and SO grateful for my time there! The country was beautiful; the people were kind, welcoming, and inspiring; and the whole experience was just so special! 

Thank you, thank you to all of you who prayed for me. I wasn’t feeling well when I arrived there but got such good sleep and woke up feeling much more myself! And, truly, God answered your prayers throughout the whole trip far above and beyond what I could even imagine! 

I don’t know what I expected but Guatemala wasn’t really anything like I expected. It is absolutely stunning scenery and just so breathtakingly beautiful. 

There’s also so much space and green! It’s much more peaceful and quiet than I anticipated (but maybe every country is quiet compared to India, which was my last international trip!). 

Our first full day there, our group split into three buses to go to three different homes. The young people did home projects for them while we moms got to visit with the families and just really look for ways for them to feel seen. 

Courtney and I got to spend a few hours with Maria and, oh my goodness, we were so impressed with her! She runs a business with her husband selling handwoven goods. She got her loom out and showed us and it was super impressive! 

They spend hours each day doing this weaving. People place custom orders and they take around 2 days a person to make one item and then it sells for around $8 USD. 

They have been running this business for their entire marriage — 25 years! They have four kids and two grandkids. 

This is the finished product. We were blown away at how perfect it was. They are so particular about attention to detail. Courtney and I just kept touching it and being like, “How?! This looks like a machine made it!” 

And then they asked if one of us wanted to try weaving. Courtney is very artistic and does a lot of crafting so she volunteered to try. 

Let’s just say it’s way harder than it looked! They made it look so simple and seamless, but it was SO many steps and you had to be so careful to do it perfectly or it would mess up the whole thing! 

You know what warmed my heart so much in Guatemala? Watching these high schoolers from our church caring for one another, having such passion for Jesus, encouraging one another, willingly volunteering to lead and pray and share their stories, and having such a blast together. 

One morning at breakfast, the group of girls I was with all challenged each other to delete social media off their phones for the rest of the trip, so they could be fully present here. I honestly didn’t see one student on their phone the entire trip! 

I wanted to tell each of their moms how crazy proud I am of them and how they’re each raising an amazing child!! 

After lunch, we headed out to spend time in the homes of local villagers. Courtney, Nikki, and I had seen a group of kids earlier that we really wanted to hang out with, so I brought play-doh and pipe cleaners and we had SO much fun with them! 

Nikki had the idea to play tic-tac-toe with them with pipe cleaners and that was a blast! 

The kids also wanted to show us their homes. In one of the homes was a sweet 15-year-old girl with disabilities. I had heard that it was common in Guatemalan culture for those with disabilities to be isolated and not really integrated with society.

This was so clear in this case as we spent time with her and then asked to take her outside to play with other kids. She said no that she doesn’t really socialize with people.

Guys, my heart absolutely broke to see that this family was doing the best they could but that there were almost zero resources for this sweet girl and that she felt she needed to stay inside.

At the same time, I’m so grateful to hear that there are some ministries that are working hard to change the stigma around disabilities in Guatemala and I feel God might be stirring something in my heart there.

I’m not sure what it is yet, but I think it hit me hard to think of David and how he wouldn’t survive without all the resources and support he has.

In addition, without the therapies and support from so many people who have cared for him on his journey, he would never be where he is. I want this same sort of support and care for ALL people with disabilities.

We ended the day with a special dedication of a house in honor of Chatham — a student who came on last year’s trip and died in a tragic accident shortly after he got back home.

His family raised money in his honor to build a house for a widow in Guatemala and to help pay for some of the students to be on this trip.

It was a somber but very meaningful time.

We began the day by getting to spend time with 18 moms who come from really challenging situations. Our prayer was that they could feel so seen and loved — and that they would have some fun, too! We definitely nailed the fun piece in the first 10 minutes! 

We played hot potato as an ice breaker game and they loved it! We passed a little stuffed toy around while the music was playing and when the music stopped, whoever had the stuffed toy introduced themselves and then sat down. The goal was to be the last person standing.

After the game, Kristin shared part of her story and then encouraged the women to remember the truth of who they are in Christ. Then she encouraged them to share a verse or Bible story and what God has taught them through it. We weren’t sure if the women would respond and engage or be shy.

Well, let me tell you: they were SO vulnerable. They shared deep hardships and struggles in their lives but also how God led them and was so faithful to them in it!

We then got to pray for the women individually and it was so beautiful — they all pray at the same time and it’s a chorus of women humbly crying out to Jesus. Hearing them pray so fervently made me wonder how often do we in the US realize how desperately we need God and cry out to Him from our places of desperation.

We spent the rest of day 2 at a special event for families involved in a local program supported by Orphan Outreach — they come alongside families and help pay for education and provide support so that kids finish high school (something that often doesn’t happen in Guatemala due to them needing to get jobs to support their families/themselves) and are more well-equipped to launch out into the world. (They teach the kids so many skills, tell them about Jesus, and offer therapy and other services for emotional and mental health.)

The kids in our church’s youth group put on this event and they had planned a lot of fun and a lot of intentional things to do with the families. We got to help serve and spend time with the moms. 

There were two highlights for me of this night:

1. Getting to cheer on the moms as they attempted to hula hoop (I tried it, too, and was downright terrible at it!). 

These women work SO hard to just survive and barely make ends meet, so to watch them laughing and playing was the best! 

2. Getting to spend time with this sweet teen girl who just graduated form high school. Her brother has Down syndrome and she’s his part-time caregiver. 

She was so excited to get to tell me about him and I loved getting to encourage her that what she’s investing in him matters so much! I asked her what she does for fun and she told me she doesn’t have time for fun — she gets up early to make tortillas then goes to work to help pay for their family’s expenses, and then comes home to cook and take care of her brother. 

But she said it with a smile and not one bit of a belief that she’s a victim or that life is hard. She just talked about how loving and sweet her brother is. He’s 7 and she said he can’t talk and they can’t afford any medical care for him, and he can’t go to school because people will make fun of him. But she’s just happy she can take care of him.

We had a special dinner with the families — tamales! They were delicious! 

We closed out the night back at the hotel with a special snack bar they’d created for us with traditional Guatemalan foods! 

Day 3 in Guatemala began with us visiting the homes of some of the teens who are involved in the program Orphan Outreach runs. We had met the moms the day before so they were SO excited to have us into their homes! I got permission to take and share their pictures. 

This sweet woman is Juana and she has the tenderest heart. I wish you could have heard their prayers as we prayed at the end.

The Guatemalans we met taught me so much about what it looks like to pray fervently. (Also, when they pray everyone prays at once out loud — which is incredible. And also, absolutely beautiful when it’s happening in multiple languages at once!) 

Their house is two rooms — the room you walk in, where they do all their cooking and cleaning, and the room that they sleep in. They were so excited about the beds provided by Orphan Outreach — they said that their daughters used to sleep on the floor. 

A lot of the homes are one to two rooms and are down mazes of alleys. Some have a place to do cooking and washing. Many that we visited don’t. They said there are usually communal places where they do their cooking and washing and communal bathrooms. Most places do not have running water and many do not have electricity. 

Next we visited Antonia and her family (her husband came at the very end so we didn’t get to visit with him much). They live in a one-room house and have two children. They have a lot of hard challenges but she had the kindest heart and is so talented. Look at some of the embroidery she does to sell (see above!)

Seriously! Is that embroidery not just absolutely stunning?? The women work SO hard just to survive — cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. and then almost all have a side job or a full-time job to make ends meet.

We had so much fun with Antonia (I’ll share more next week about what we did for the rest of the week so you can see!) — in addition to getting to spend a lot of time praying over her and encouraging her. I loved getting to watch her laugh and play, something these women almost never get to do! 

Sunday evening we went to a local church (they meet in the evenings) and we loved getting to worship with them! There was one song we called the Fuego song (because we didn’t know the actual name!) that lasted at least 15 minutes and we were clapping the whole time and had so much fun with it! 

The whole building was packed out and everyone sang from their whole hearts. It was beautiful to be a part of! 

Mason, one of our youth pastors, preached. And Jorge, who we loved getting to know on this trip, translated. I asked Jorge how he learned such great English (he speaks fantastic English) and he told me he never studied it but that he just exposed himself to it as a child and then when he was a teen, the Holy Spirit gave him the ability to speak the language. 

And now he serves God as a translator and as an English teacher. (Also, he told me that they named their daughter a name that is easy to say in every language because they are praying she will grow up to be a missionary!)

I didn’t know why I was supposed to go to Guatemala other than a sense that I was supposed to go — I wanted to experience David’s family’s country, but I didn’t know why else I was there.

And oh my goodness! Every single day there were situations where I got to minister to someone or someone richly blessed me or I had a divine encounter — and God showed me yet another reason why He had me there. 

I’m processing so much of what I experienced and am so grateful for your prayers. I can’t wait to share more about my time in Guatemala next week! 

This also happened when I was gone — Silas broke his hand during while attempting to bunt during his baseball tournament (he got hit by a 80mph pitch).

He will be in a cast/recovering for the next 6-8 weeks, so his summer ball season is over with. He has had a really great attitude about it all and I’m so proud of the character he is displaying in the midst of significant disappointment (note: his face in the photo above was him joking around!)

I arrived home from Guatemala on Thursday night and we’ve spent the last few days just enjoying time together as a family. Lots of laughter and talking and time together!

We left for a travel ball tournament in GA yesterday — Silas can’t play, but we are all here to cheer on his team! Follow along on my Instagram stories if you want to see what we’re up to this week!

Many of you know that I love following politics. However, the past few months, I’ve stepped back from following a lot of the sources I had been following because I noticed it was stealing my peace and causing me to feel upset.

Maybe you can relate?? If so, I found a news source that keeps you informed without causing you to feel all worked up and unsettled — which is such a gift. It’s called The Pour Over and it’s a weekday email that covers all the top news stories. I also love that they include Christ-centered perspective and encouragement woven throughout. And you can read their daily emails in five minutes or less and know what you need to know!

Best of all, it’s FREE! Go sign up here for The Pour Over to stay informed on current events without feeling stressed!

My Health Journey This Past Year:

This time last year I was afraid to walk into my first gym class. 

Now I run for fun.

I look back on this last year and can’t believe how that one step — signing up and walking into that class — catapulted me on a health journey I never envisioned. 

It started with getting over my fear of group workout classes. That was hard enough on its own. (I brought Kaitlynn with me because I didn’t want to go alone!)

Then I hired a dietitian through Nourish. She helped me confront something I’d been avoiding for years — underrating and chasing my worth from a number on the scale. She helped me find “food freedom” — where food supports my life, not controls it.

That led me to a functional medicine doctor who connected dots I didn’t even know needed connecting. Overtaxed adrenals. Living in constant fight mode. Using work and busyness to cope. 

So I made a radical decision. I cut way back on my workload. I didn’t set a single goal for 2026. 

And then, in a really unexpected turn of events, I signed up for a 10k. And fell in love with running.

The woman I see in the mirror a year later barely looks like the same person.

She’s stronger. 
She’s capable. 
She sleeps.
She eats breakfast.
She breathes.
She plays. 
She’s dreaming dreams unrelated to business.

She’s excited to have more energy and strength to show up for life.

And she’s just getting started! 

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Beauty Brands Liter Sale! Salon Liter Products as low as $17.98! (Redken, Kenra, TIGI, Paul Mitchell, CHI, and more)

For a limited time, Beauty Brands is once again hosting their popular Liter Sale and you can get up to 70% off brand-name salon favorites! Choose from over 400 items including CHI, TIGI, Biolage, Paul Mitchell, Redken, and more!

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In Case You Missed It — Links from Recent Weeks: 

• 7 of My Favorite Fiction Books — One of the changes I’m most excited about this year is that I’ve fallen back in love with reading fiction. This post has some of the best fiction books on my bookshelf that I highly recommend!
  
• My Favorite Non-Fiction Books — These are 14 of the best non-fiction books I have ever read. I hope you love them as much I do!
  
• 10 Genius Side Hustles for Teens — Most teens only hear about mowing lawns and babysitting…but there are so many other creative (and higher-paying!) ways for them to make money! This freebie suggests jobs that will help teens develop important skills and earn significant money this summer.
  
• Free Summer Bucket List for Kids — Looking for fun activities to do this summer with your kids? (And, all on a budget?!) Download our FREE Summer Bucket List with 100 ideas for frugal fun!
  
• Hire a Registered Dietician for Zero Out of Pocket + My Honest Review of Nourish — Are you wanting to make healthy changes in your diet but don’t know where to start? Struggling to hit your health goals or feeling overwhelmed by trying to stay on track? I was there too — and my experience with Nourish has been truly life-changing. Check out this post for my full review and my best tips for getting the most out of your dietician appointments.