Mother's Day in Honduras

I've been adopted into the Umana-Martinez clan (Martinez is Alfredo's maternal side of the family)!
Both sides of Alfredo's family have enveloped me into a warm embrace. In a culture that is highly family oriented (collectivistic), I sense that I am no longer on the outside looking in, or even being observed by them as a foreigner.

• It's like, now, there's a place for me at the family table.
• It's like, now, they anticipate my participation in the family discussions.
  
• It's like, now, I belong.
  

A word about these family discussions. Alfredo's family is well-read and up-to-date on politics, world events, and theological trends. In fact, Rogelio, my brother-in-law calls the current Democratic Party's contest, the world's best reality show! When we gather, as we did for Mother's Day, we delight in the verbal sparring that goes one regarding everything from Obama, to Bush, to the war in Iraq to the recently published Evangelical Manifesto.
Although our political views differ, our mutual love for God's word and our "belonging" to the same family is what binds us together.

As you can see in the picture to the right, we gathered round the breakfast table to discuss scripture and then the Moms present opened our gifts.

At family gatherings in Honduras, for Valerie and Victor, everyone their age is a cousin and everyone older is an aunt or uncle. This solidifies their sense of belonging since they only get to see their Aunts and Uncles and cousins from the Anderson clan but once a year.


Matthew 19:29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.