Gracias a Suyapa, Rony, y a toda la familia Flores

Suyapa and Rony Flores have now served the finca as house parents for three years. They were the parents in house five for two years, then took a break from the farm, and came back in August of 2010 to serve as house parents in house four, our boys ages 9-12.

When I arrived in October of 2010, I was set up to eat lunch with their house as I was getting to know the kids in just my second week on the farm. My first 10 days at the farm were very beautiful, but also trying. One major issue was that my name was really hard for a lot of Hondurans; everyone kept telling me I would have to adopt a Spanish name. I love my name, and was not ready to give it up. I will never forget walking into the house and seeing Suyapa with open arms as she greeted me by saying “Bienvenida Mary Kate.” I gave her the biggest hug, and felt at home in house four from that moment onward.

I continued to eat lunch in house four almost every other Tuesday for the rest of the year. I started having coffee with Suyapa and Maria (the house tia) on Friday afternoons while we baked bread in the ovens. I tutored some of the boys. I impressed Rony with my knowledge of soccer and FC Barcelona. I even insisted to my mom during her visit that the one thing we must do is eat lunch at house four. As Suyapa put it, I became the special friend of house four, and she, Maria and I formed the Friday afternoon coffee club. From my point of view, Suyapa became my Honduran mother, Maria my Honduran big sister, and I became blessed to have them all in my life.

As the year came to a close I moved to Ceiba, and Suyapa and Rony had to make the hard decision to leave the farm when their contract was up at the end of December to go and help care for their newborn grandson. They are both amazing, and their grandson is lucky to have such a wonderful set of grandparents. The finca is forever indebted to their great love and care which they so selflessly shared for three years, and all are grateful for the time they were allowed to share with them. May God bless their family, and grant them much joy in this next chapter of their lives.