This is how much Andres loves his cake

Happy Thanksgiving!

Myrtille with her three interns.

Emily, Cristina and I spent Thanksgiving at Myrtille's house. Myrtille has a friend who does manicures and pedicures so she invited her over to treat us, because she thought we might be homesick today. It was so thoughtful, and it was very fun to get my first manicure!

Three couples from church and Tolo's mom came over for THE DINNER and it was delicious even though it was different (of course) than what I'm used to. The guests didn't even arrive until 8:30, so it was obviously a Mexican style Thanksgiving. Almost everyone spoke English and they were almost all elders in the church and overall very intelligent people. How many elders at Trinity speak fluent Spanish? Um, none that I know of! Please tell me if there are more than three...and their wives too

My friends Yadira and Marco

Sad to go

Mac's dad eventually got to Casa Hogar on Thursday even though the teacher protesters had blocked almost the whole Costera. There were no big problems, and he was a breath of fresh air to all of us. He spent almost a whole week with us and he took us out to eat twice and led us in several really good prayer times and Bible studies. Mac and his dad left on Wednesday morning at 4AM, so the night before, we made smoothies and had a good time of prayer before we said goodbye.

Having to see someone say goodbye to all the kids, made me realize how hard its going to be for me to say goodbye.

The protesters are gone now, and they left right in time for us to be able to go to church on Sunday.

Olympics, New Intern and the Fair

New Horizon is the Christian school where the elementary kids from Casa Hogar attend. One Friday morning, they had a Olympics event at the park where the school was divided into 5 teams (blue, green, yellow, orange, purple) and they competed with soccer, darts, relay races and other games. I wore a green shirt to cheer for the green team, but of course I cheered for all the Casa Hogar kids. I know if I had a special thing like that when I was little, my parents would be there to cheer me on, but their parents obviously weren't there. I was glad to be their mom for one day and I was also put in charge of a little game that the teams did between their events, which was very fun for me because I got to be involved! It was fun when the team mixed with Casa Hogar kids and school kids came to play the game, and the kids I knew were excited to see me, and because they were excited to see me, the other kids were excited too. I got hugs from kids I didn't know, and sometimes I was just stared at, and one little guy asked "Are you from the United States???"
They got medels at the end, and the kids were so encredibly proud of themselves and wore their medels all day long.
To say the least, I had a lot of fun.

Right after the olympics, I went with Myrtille to the airport to pick up the new intern, Cristina. I was glad to show her around, and be there to comfort her when she was feeling the exact same things that I felt when I arrived here. I could relate a lot, and I think she was comforted by knowing that I felt the same way she did, but now I am so inlove with this place. She will be here til May, and I am sure that God will use her in her time here.

One of the first nights that Cristina was here, we took about 12 kids to a fair in Papagayo Park. It was just like the State Fair in Asheville except a lot smaller. It was so much fun, and we (the inters split the money...thats what we always do when we take the kids out) spent about 50 dollars and the kids only got to ride 2 rides (some only 1). So it was a very expensive night but very fun.

This is of some of us right before a scary ride! Everyone was sure we were going to die, so we all told eachother how much we loved eachother.

Airplanes

MEET CUARTO 13

Dona Isabel with some of the boys

Lizandro

Cuarto (means "room") 13 is the room where the little boys live. There are 9 boys, Andres is the youngest at 5 and Misael is the oldest who's about to turn 9, and as you can imagine, I spend quite a lot of time in their room. They are crazy and so cute, and you can't help but love and play with them. Dona Isabel is Cuarto 13's mom. She takes care of them and I absolutely adore her...and so do the boys! They call her "Ma," and I love it.


One day, we showed them how to do the "airplane," where I lay on my back on the floor and lift them up on my feet so they can fly like an airplane (or Superman). I was sad that they had never done that before, so of course I let all 9 of them fly for at least 5 times each! It is very tiring, but all the laughs are completely worth it. They had never done the thing where they hold your hands, crawl up your legs and flip over either, so I taught them how to do that too. Dad would always do that and the airplane with me when I was little, and it made me sad that they don't have dads to play like that with them.

Flexibility

While I´ve been here, Ive learned a lot about being flexible. The plans are constantly changing. For example, we leave for church at different times every Sunday (and if its raining, we can´t even go to church because the big bus doesn´t have windshield wipers) and TV shows don´t even come on at the same time each day. This week I´ve had to be extremely flexible, because all the public school teachers are protesting on the main street, so we havent been able to go to work, or anywhere for that matter. Yesturday, we went as far as we could on the bus, and at the barricade, we got off and walked the rest of the way. When we were literally at the front door of the church, Myrtille called on our cell phone and said they were about to close all the streets and if we didn´t leave right then, we wouldn´t be able to get home.

Mac´s dad is flying in today, but the protesters are right around that area and we don´t know when or if he´ll get here!

Weak and Out of Controle

This morning at 4:45, I was woken up my an earthquake. It was just a little trimmer, and I looked at the clock and was glad that I had a lot more time to sleep. I´ve felt small earthquakes before and this one was no different. I was almost back asleep when another one hit and this time there were three big bangs where everything was shacken more violantely. I waited til it was over and then ran to Emily`s room and she wanted me to get in her bed with her because she was scared too! So we were almost asleep again and another big one happened, this time with only two big bangs. After that there were a few small trimmers, and I realized how weak and out of controle I am! Its such a wierd feeling to know that the ground is moving under you and you have absalutely no controle of it...only God does. We don´t even know when there will be another earthquake, or even how violant it will be. How much weaker could we be? I´m glad that my faith is in the One who IS in controle!

Another wierd thing that I saw yesterday...I saw a man jogging on the mainstreet of downtown with a horse on a leash! When I told my friends about it, we made jokes about how he had said "Honey, I`m taking the horse for a jog. I´ll be back before dinner."

Welcome to Mexico!

They need your prayers

Emily went to work this week, but I didn't because Myrtille only wants one of us to come, and we will switch off every other week. The one that doesn't go to work, will stay at Casa Hogar and help with whatever Hermano Alejandro needs, which is what I did this week. I cleaned from top to bottom the room that the new intern will stay in (who's coming on November 15), and helped the women cook in the kitchen for all the kids. I cracked and scrambled at least 300 eggs, and then was put to the task of cutting up squid....yes, squid. Don't ask me why that was on the menu. I didn't make any faces, or comments to offend the chiefs, and I tried not to think about what I was touching, and yes, I cut up about 20 whole squids. Eye balls and everything.

The food situation was better this week because money was given and they were able to get more food.

I can't believe its already November! There are a lot of birthdays this month, and I've already made about 3 batches of cookies and this coming week, there have been about 3 more requests for brownies or cookies for their birthdays. So I have a feeling that I'll be in the kitchen a lot this week!

The birthday parties that we give them are a hit. I wish everyone could see the faces of the little kids when we give them a big plate of cake and ice cream and a glass of coke.

Please pray for the children as they face tough decisions each day and for me to be a huge encouragement to them when they come home from school.

Thank you for all of your prayers!