National Siblings’ Day is here! Depending on your own siblings (or children), that could mean a lot of different things: national play-in-the-backyard day, national break-up-a-fight day, national call-your-sister day, national-choose-your-own-adventure. At Horizon, family is our heartbeat. Their relationships with siblings are one of the biggest pieces shaping their family experience — something that’s true for all kids with siblings.

This is cause for celebration at our Micro Communities. especially as we pursue a family-focused environment for all children. Refining our sponsorship process, which you can read about here, has cleared Horizon’s path into the future — and the future is family. Children have plenty of siblings to share life with, both biological and heart-adopted: this is the best way to describe what happens when the children come to one of our communities. They become part of a family, and their parents “heart adopt them” — they’re there to care for them in every way a biological parent would, and they’re there for the long haul. To honor and celebrate this, three children at Casa de Esperanza share some of their highlights of having siblings:  

“My siblings who are grown and left the children’s home still come and visit at times. This year they visited for my birthday and I also recently got help from my older brother for a project in school about our family. A favorite memory of us together is when we visited a Korean church in Guatemala City with our houseparents at that time who were Korean. It was interesting to see up close such a different culture from our own.” – David,* 18. 

“I like to play hide-and-seek and dodgeball with my two little sisters here in the home. My favorite memory with them is when we went to a local pool called “Las Hamacas” (The Hammocks). – Matias,* 13. 

“I like to play dolls with my sisters. We also like to play outside with our pet rabbit.” – Martina,* 6 

We’re grateful for the relationships and bonds forming across kids in Casa de Esperanza and around the world!  

*Names changed for child security.