Another week gone.

I have to admit, not sure what to update at this point. Things seem to be business as usual. Sadly, no birthdays. Which means no cakes. :(

This Friday we are having a garage sale and a car wash. Every year in November the kids get to go overnight camping. The cost of the camp itself has been covered by a donation and now the kids are raising money to help pay for the food. We have many clothes and other things to sell donated by other missionaries and people at the church. Our chickens have been good to us so we have a lot of eggs to sell. And hopefully we will have a lot of cars to wash. We had originally planned for the sale to be last Saturday. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it so I said they could wash my car and I would make a donation. That was the beginning of last week. I have a feeling I will get hit up again on Friday. Well, at least it is for a good cause. I am going and I want to eat too! On Thursday the girls and I will make cookies to sell as well. I will be sure to put up some pictures next week.

We had 5 of our kids without school yesterday and today. They spent part of the mornings scrubbing moss and mold off our cement sidewalk. We have had a particularly wet rainy season so it grows quickly. I don't have pictures because I was helping out. Although now that I think of it, it would have been a good excuse to stop for a rest! I will admit, for the first time in my life I said that I was a girl and I didn't have muscles. That tells you how much I didn't like scraping cement with a metal brush. I don't think my reasoning had much validity as half of the boys working were 10 years old and under.

Then they got to play. Checkers is popular these days. Which is too bad. I can't play. And they are all so good at it, I don't want to learn while being beat by a 9 year old! So I just stick to the board game 'Sorry'. Although this is a game of luck, I have a much better chance at winning that game. It was one of my favorite games when I was a kid. Since it is "honesty day" I will tell you that I hate to lose at that game too! It is embarrassing when the kids realize it though so I try to keep my feelings well hidden!

Sorry, no pictures today. Take care and God bless.

Time flies!

I started out writing a post on Friday and it is now... Tuesday. Oops. Other things came up. Like watching kids jump on the trampoline. And cleaning out the games closet (and then fuss at anyone who doesn't put everything back EXACTLY how I left it). Or start a Tigger puzzle with the kids (and then find out it wasn't complete and have to bring out another one that is not nearly as cute). Even though it is not all roses, I am so thankful God called me to do such a fun work. I have said it before and am now going to say it again. I love pouring into these kids lives.

Here are just a couple of random shots of my cute kiddos.

Wilfer and his toque. Or tobaggon. Or warm hat. Depends on where you live.

Antoni. Cute!

Engler. I believe he had wanted to carry in the birthday cake and wasn't allowed to. Our kids aren't perfect. They pout too. I still think he is just the cutest thing ever.

Angel. Someone else got a hold of my camera and I guess this was his... I don't even know what to call this face! Except, cute.

Antoni and Edgar. Edgar was teaching Antoni how to "pound it" while we were waiting for cake. At least that is what my little brother calls it. This involves touching your fists together. I think they added a finger wiggle afterward.

Moi and Antoni. No words needed here.

Geovany. He has a very active imagination and can amuse himself pretty well. One day we made "tamales" out of dead grass wrapped in leaves. Then we sold them all. But I got to keep the biggest one.

Wesler, the "baby". He was throwing a big balloon in the air and just loving being a 3 year old!

Felipe and Jose. Being "cool"? Felipe has just turned 13 and he would probably be horrified at how cute I find him on a daily basis. Does anyone even remember BEING 13? I don't really.

Karla has one of the sweetest spirits. She is 11 years old and is so thoughtful and kind and loving. I pray these traits stick with her through her adult life.

I thought I would write about what we have been up to, or something else interesting or profound. Instead, you get some candid shots of our kids. I hope you enjoy.

Have a blessed week!

Outreach to Home for kids with AIDS

As I mentioned before, the first Saturday of every month some of our kids visit a home for seniors or a home for kids with AIDS. I didn't attend this time but Pat (our volunteer English teacher) took some pictures and sent them to me. She siad they quickly went through the intensive care ward and she didn't get any pictures there. Then they spent time with the older, more stable kids.

This time they decided to divide the boys and girls. Otto (speaking at the left) is a member of our church and he and his family are very involved with our kids.

Adrian taking a turn speaking to the kids.

Fernanda (in the yellow jacket on the right) is the niece of our main house parents. She took the time to speak to the girls and tell them more about God's love for all of us.

Of course there is always time for an energetic game of musical chairs!

Chepe (in the middle) made friends with this little boy and often had him on his lap or next to him.

This little boys name is Abner. After the Bible story he decided he wanted to check it out a little more closely.

After the girls Bible story they got to color. Lesly (standing on the left) and Karla (standing on the right) were a good help to the girls.

The picture says "I am the temple of GOD!" I would say Angelica did a pretty good job of coloring her picture.

The kids enjoy their monthly outing to reach out to others and share with them more of the love of God. They share snacks, fun, friendship and love; all in the name of God.

We hope you have a blessed week!

Friday of Fun!

We had a lot going on here last Friday. Some friends from the church had a visitor from Tennessee who had raised money to buy things for our kids. She came on Friday with a bag packed for each child with their name on. Inside were a new pair of jeans, a shirt, and a new toothbrush.

Mindy also brought some communal toys for the house. She is a kindergarten teacher so she knew it would be best to show the toys to the kids in a group instead of having them all just rush to the toys.

After she left, it was time to celebrate Antoni's 7th birthday. He picked a banana cake this time and it was good!

And then it was FINALLY the littlest boys turn to go to Tia Naomi's house. We have had a countdown going for a while. The last half an hour of waiting seemed to be the hardest for them! We stopped on the way home to pick up some fried chicken. The lady there was very nice and gave them a package for free. These masks and a very annoying sounding toy came with it. Very annoying. I figure she gave them away because no sane parent would buy something like that for their own children. Anyway, they thankfully broke them within the first half hour so we were good.

They sure looked cute in their masks! (Antoni, Noe, Wilfer)

I think they thought they won the lottery for dinner. Fried chicken, Kraft Dinner, bread and pop. They enjoyed every bite while watching a movie. And don't forget the popcorn! That came a little later but they were denied refills on pop. Again, it wasn't me who would have to change sheets in the morning!

On the weeked a group of our kids also went to visit a Home for kids with AIDS. If I can find pictures of that I will post them. They take a treat and a juice for each of the 70 kids and spend time playing with them, reading with them, and sharing Jesus' love. It is good for our kids to go out and have a bigger understanding of the world and see things that other people are suffering with.

We hope you have a blessed week!

Birthday Week!

Last week we had an abundance of birthdays. Which means we had an abundance of cake as well!!!
First we started with Felipe's birthday on Tuesday. He turned 13 and was able to go to youth group for the first time the next night. He had been waiting for that for a long time!

Then we had Rodolfo's birthday on Wednesday. He is our main house parent. He turned 36 but I don't know that he was as excited as Felipe was!

On Friday we had 2 birthdays. Wesler turned 3. When I first showed him the cake that morning he was very excited but when he had a crowd he got a little shy and wouldn't give us a smile.

Yay! Money! :)

Susana, our cook, was the second birthday on Friday. To be honest, I didn't ask her age! ;)

On Saturday we celebrated Pat's birthday. "Tia Patty" is here every Saturday giving English lessons and loving on our kids. She is well loved around here. And the more we love someone, the bigger the flame we give them on the cake. :)
And on Sunday we had Chici's birthday.
The kids each made a handmade card for Chici and put on a dance routine for her.

And of course, there was cake!!

It was a fun week of celebrating the lives of people who are important to us. It doesn't hurt that we had so many cakes. Each person gets to pick their own flavour and we had a wide variety this week. I don't think the kids got tired of them at all!

We are able to give thanks to God for one more year in their lives. We are also thankful they are here with us. Because we are a small home, we are a very close group and know each other well.

We pray that your week is going well. God bless and feliz cumpleanos!