more pictures in the post below...


sergio and marcos on the slide


l-r: arturo's mom, arturo, lidia, lidia's mom, me, ruben


ruben, josue, and pilar waiting patiently to go for a walk


marcos and i on the bus on the way to buy fruit!


today was crazy. just unbelievable.
so i took teddy, tonio, jose, alex, marcos, and sergio to the library first thing in the morning. it was fun! the librarian was really nice, showed us some great books and told us a story, and explained to us how the library works. then we played on the computers for awhile. they have the kids version of an encyclopedia on each computer, and we watched some crazy animal videos. the kids loved it. kangaroos jumping, whales leaping in and out of the water, tigers catching their dinner, snakes eating eggs...cool stuff like that.

then we went to a park nearby to eat our snack. it used to be a nasty junky park but they just finished redoing it, and it's beautiful. the playground area isn't paved, but made of sand, which is perfect for the boys in wheelchairs. jose got out of his wheelchair and was halfway up a slide before i realized what he was doing! makes me nervous to be a parent...

the whole park had a gentle slope in towards a gazebo in the center, which was awesome for the boys in chairs. they had so much fun rolling down the sidewalks, hands free. here's teddy and tonio demonstrating their mad skills...


so we get back to gabriel house in time for lunch. i see that there's a group of nationals playing with the kids - not that weird because groups are here a lot. i went in the kitchen to help feed lunch, and the group walks in and i see this girl that i recognize. all of a sudden it clicked, and i realized it was lidia. LIDIA. let me explain this to you.

lidia is the reason that i am at gabriel house today. 4 years ago, our new york group was working in her neighborhood, doing vbs. she was turning 12, and we wanted to throw her a party. she said, no, i don't really want a party. can you come to this place with me instead? we were like, well, sure, it's your birthday. whatever you want.
so she brought us to gabriel house to help feed lunch to the kids. ever since then, we've been back every spring and summer for 4 years, and now i'm here for a year. i've always wanted to find her to tell her what happened because of that birthday wish, but i haven't seen her since that summer. and then, today, she walks into the kitchen! i go, LIDIA! do you remember me? and she's like, hilary! hi! oh my gosh. i could have cried.
lidia's 16 now, going to high school, and wants to study medicine when she goes to college. instead of a birthday party, she asked for a computer for her 16th birthday (look at all the good things that come out of not having birthday parties!) i talked to her mom for a long time, and she said lidia's doing great...studying hard, staying out of trouble, helping out at home...she told me that when lidia and her boyfriend (arturo) go out, she (the mom) always goes with them. the 2 of them are never out alone. ha! way to go, mom. keep those kids out of trouble.

so anyways, i finally got to tell lidia my story! they also want to help me take the kids out...somewhere where we need one person for each kid, like to the movies or something. woo hoo! God is so unbelievably good. and he just keeps showing up!