mi vida

2011-10-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

i took ruben, pilar, sergio and emiliano to school on monday! it was amazing. AMAZING!

first, some background. i got an email from jan telling me about how this school had been discovered. it was maybe 20 minutes from gabriel house, right next to the university between maneadero (where gabriel house is) and downtown ensenada. angelica and pancho, the supervisors of gabriel house, had brought the kids (including nene) to a meeting with the school's administrative staff and some teachers to see if it would be a good fit for them. it was, and they planned to start the kids the following week.

ed and jill knox got to gabriel house at the same time i moved to san diego. they're staying at gabriel house for a year and bring some incredible gifts that will be a huge blessing.

i got to gabriel house on sunday night. the boys were still at church so i spent some time with the other kids, rocking and singing them to sleep. it was so great! i rarely did that when i was living there because most of the time i was asleep before the kids were!

i got up to the big house the next morning around 7 and sergio, ruben, and pilar were sitting on the big armchair looking so stinkin' adorable. they had matching uniforms, backpacks, little snacks for "lonche" and were so excited they could hardly sit still.

ed came and we loaded them up in his car...i think this was one of the few times these guys have been in a small car. the only thing that stopped me from putting the child lock on was ruben's face as he realized that he was the one making the window go up and down over and over and over again. it was hilarious!

i could NOT believe when we pulled up to the school. it's literally right next door to the main university campus in ensenada which a lot of my friends (including eliseo) go to, across the street from the hospital (where i spent a lot of time last year...).

we walked through the gate and saw tons of kids with all different kinds of disabilities (but mostly Down's Syndrome) playing before school started. parents were there, talking with each other and the teachers as they dropped their kids off.

he was SOOO sick of me taking pictures. i couldn't help it - i was really excited! he was too....it just doesn't show here :)

since it was monday, the students have a flag ceremony where they salute the flag and sing the national anthem (one of the longest...ever). there was a whole class of students signing the song. in sign language! spanish sign language! it was beautiful. all i could think of was alex, jose, and tonio and how awesome it would be to watch them do that...

the students were standing with their classes and went through this whole routine with the p.e. teacher after the flag ceremony. sergio and ruben got SO excited when the music came on and started dancing (with perfect rhythm, might i add). pilar was kind of over it, but it had been at least 20 minutes of the flag ceremony and listening to the director speak. i was impressed that she lasted as long as she did.
the director was talking about how the secretary of education (i couldn't figure out if it was for ensenada, all of baja, or all of mexico. i think just ensenada) was coming at the end of the week to see how the school was doing and how she had promised to help them fix up their playground and bathrooms.

after the morning stuff, the social worker (yes, this school had a social worker!) showed pilar and ruben to their classroom and then sergio to his. pilar and sergio's teacher thought it would be best if ed and i stayed out of the classroom so that he could observe them independently, and i knew sergio would be fine so he went alone to his class. i think i got a taste of what it will be like to take my own kids to school for the first time...i wasn't ready to let them go yet! i knew this was an incredible opportunity and of course i wanted them to be in schoolm but i wanted just a couple more minutes with them. i wanted to tell them to behave well, and respect their teachers, and make a good first impression, and not to worry if it seemed hard because theyw oudl have lots of chances to do well, and that i was so proud of them and knew they would do great in school....

the school psychologist (i know...it keeps getting better. they have a school pysch!) and i talked for a little while about ruben and pilar and what school was like when i was with them, some of their habits and characteristics etc.

ed had to go back to the car for something, so after i spied on the kids and saw they were doing awesome, i stood between their classrooms and just started crying. i mean...i was in the middle of one huge answer to prayer. and all of the little things where one led to another and eventually ended up to 5 of our kids attending public school was just a little overwhelming.

once the kids were settled in their classrooms and i got over myself, i went into the office to see if i could get some more info about the school since i wasn't at the initial meeting. the secretary was there (there were two secretaries!) and we talked for awhile. i asked her if it was a private school and she said no no! we're a public school, funded by the government. from what i understand, it sounds kind of like a charter school. she said the government gives the school a certain amount of money and the parents come up with the same amount so that together they have twice as much. she was very clear in explaining that the parents don't pay for the school, but rather they give the money so the government can match it. not sure what the difference is but it may have been lost in translation. the amoutn per child is about 350 pesos which comes out to less than $26! she told me the school has been running for over 40 years and has been in the building it's in now for 28. i asked if the teachers came from the university next door and she said oh no! no no, these are specialists. SPECIALISTS! meaning they have advanced degrees in specific disabilities. classes are about 8 to 10 students depending on the disability, and lot of classrooms have aides. there's a school for kids ages 0 to 6 across the street that emiliano goes to, and then there's a school a bit farther away for kids ages 15 to 22 that teaches them life skills. LIFE SKILLS!!! like car mechanic stuff, cooking, carpentry, etc. all three of these are government funded public schools. i was blown away. and began scheming...

school is usually from 8 - 12 but for the first week they'll go from 8 - 10 to ease into it slowly. goodness knows they need the time outside of gabriel house and around peers but it's a lot all at once, and we don't want them to have any negative connotations with school if we can help it.

when i went to pick up ruben and pilar, i asked the teacher how it went. he said "good." and i said no really, how did it go? and then he smiled and said do you really want to know? and i was like yes! he said ruben and pilar fought a lot and didn't really listen. i told him how i was their teacher for a year and they've had lots of people come for different amounts of time...and with each teacher progress is made, but once that person leaves, the kids regress little by little. it's sad and frustrating but unfortunately it's how it is. i told him how they live with about 30 other kids who have disabilities that are more severe than theirs, and that sometimes it's all our staff can do to feed and change diapers of the kids who can't do it for themselves. because of that, ruben and pilar are left to their own devices a lot of the time, which results in them fighting to get what they want and having the run of the house. personally, i think they're very well behaved considering all of that, but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement. it's also hard because both of them can make sounds and communicate, but it's in their own language that i wish so desperately i could understand! they think they're saying something that everyone else should understand and then get frustrated when people don't respond the way they expect them to, based on what they "said." i told the teacher they need patience and persistence and they'll be just fine. he agreed and seemed to know what i was talking about...but that situation could definitely use prayer! we're trying to get them in different classrooms, which i think will help a lot.

all of the rooms look great (and a lot like what you would find here!). every student's name is on the board with his or her classroom job, there are calendars to practice the date, fall decorations are up, student projects are hung around the room, and on and on. so exciting.

sergio's classroom...

in the afternoon we took emiliano to school, but the teacher said it was time for us to not stay. ed had been staying for the full two hours and watching, but he's ready to be on his own. she said eventually he'll be there for the full 4 hours, which is awesome.

overall, incredible. huge answer to prayer and an emotional day and a half! please continue to pray for the kids as they settle in to school, that the transportation situation is figured out, and how to make this an opportunity for other kids at gabriel house as well.

more to come soon :)

2011-03-10T21:47:00.000-08:00

at the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of the year, there are a lot of things i could be. this time, though, i choose to be thankful.

for her laugh as we sing her favorite song for the thousandth time.

for having the chance to trust adults again.

for a passionate and caring teacher.

for new rooms.

for brand new wheelchairs and a happy boy.

for women with beautiful hearts.

for willing helpers.

for brothers that get along.

for luz and estella, who met us at church after working a 12 hour shift with the kids.

for such good role models for my boys.

for heart stealers, even if it makes it impossible to say bye.

for retirees who still have lots of love to give.

for progress that's been made.

and for the chance i've had and still have to be part of it!

2011-03-09T23:07:00.000-08:00

wooo hooo today was crazy busy! i took pily, ruben, and josue for a walk in the morning, where we stopped at the store for some juice and then went to visit the friendly neighborhood horse. everyone has one around here. i had visions of pily's fingers getting bitten off as she fed it some leaves, so that didn't last very long.

later josue and i went to calimax to buy some dessert! the kids love me, i promise, even though i give them bananas for dessert.

alex, jose, and tonio came to the apartment afterschool. they saw the dirty dishes piled up in the sink (oops) and begged, like literally - hands clasped together, pleading with me - to wash them. i was like well, i mean, i'm not really sure....okay! anything that makes them happy! and if it makes me happy too, well, that's just perfect.

i had dinner with dan and ivey tonight - love them! they have great hearts and are so passionate about what they do at the ranch. after that i met up with rocio and briana! this is the happiest baby i have EVER seen. she was all smiles and laughs and is crawling! at 8 months! rocio is such a good mom and is doing really well. she's still in beauty school - her mom takes care of briana in the morning while she's at school. it was soooo good to see them.

2011-03-08T21:54:00.000-08:00

a new addition was being put on to the kitchen while i was still here, and one of the two rooms was finished by the time i left. now the second room is finished, which means the old baby room is now empty. this equals a play room, no wheelchairs allowed! i brought pily in with a couple of other kids...she was standing in front of me, so i asked her to smile as i took a picture. she immediately drops to all fours, sticks her leg up in the air, and looks at me expectantly, waiting for the picture to be taken. i was laughing so hard i could barely take the picture!

we spent at least 2 hours on the trampoline today...so good for these kids and their abundant energy.

tonio is has such a beautiful heart and loves, loves, loves to hold babies.

we played outside all afternoon...it was beautiful! we've been having lots of fun. i brought most of the kids from the big house outside this afternoon since i kind of felt like i was neglecting them....the talkers and walkers tend to dominate my attention. eek.
it makes me really sad, though, for some of these kids who need a consistency that just isn't here right now. there are so many good things happening, there really are. school, for one, and a teacher who cares about her students is nothing short of a miracle in this country, where kids with disabilities don't get to go to school. but some of the kids, especially josue, really need someone to be here all the time. people have made significant progress with josue to the point where he's been able to control his behavior and responds well to adults. every time his mom takes him home for the weekend, though, it's like we take 3 steps back. he comes back and is a nightmare. he seeks attention in the worst ways, doesn't listen to anyone, is so up and down with his emotions at the drop of a hat, and is just miserable. it's so hard for him and it comes out in such an ugly way. it breaks my heart to think about what happens when he's home and what a struggle that would be for anyone to jump between lives, let alone an 8 year old with major disabilities who is basically non verbal but doesn't get that no one understands him.
i just want to fix it. i know i can't and i know there are more effective things i can do...but he needs help. pray for him.

2011-03-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

always a good sign - empty wheelchairs and a happy marcos. i hosted the social event of the year - floor time with hilary - up at the big house this morning. hehe. my spanish is coming back quickly but not instantly, and humor is hardest for me to translate. you'll have to deal with it coming out in the blog, you english speakers :)

then i brought kiddos down to my apartment to spoil their dinner and make a mess. i had to get a picture of alex with his face COVERED in chocolate. from hot chocolate, mind you. love this kid.

skyping with adele/my parents! they loved that.

who knew how happy someone could be with lemonade in a coffee mug.

saddest part of the day...i went to rocio's to see her and the baby. i turn the corner by her house and it's destroyed. all that's left are four walls. broken windows, piles of wood in the front yard, and absolutely nothing inside. the wrough iron fence was even gone. i was really, really scared for a minute, but then i asked her neighbor if he knew where she was. he said something about an earthquake and them living 'over there.' super helpful, so that was great. i talked to her dad though and she and i are going to try to get together tomorrow. i seriously don't know what i did before a cell phone. neither of us have one and it is a paaaaain.
some good came out of it when i stopped at my favorite tamale stand on the way home...tuinki wasn't there but i did have a strawberry tamale for the first time. very interesting. i'll stick to my green chicken and corn i think.

i don't know how i did this for a year. i'm pooped. can't even keep my eyes open.

2011-03-06T21:52:00.000-08:00

well...i'm back! it's kind of surreal. actually a lot. everything has changed, but at the same time nothing has changed, if that makes sense. saw krista last night (yay!) and made it to church in ensenada this morning. it was so awesome walking in and seeing everyone...friends, parents of friends, people that are like family...josue, cande's son, was there for the first time since this summer, and his son is 5 months old! when josue's hair was long, these two were identical.

a bunch of people went to cande's house for lunch. i guess you could call it a fish fry, since he fried fish, as you can see. he also sang a song about lifting his hands as he splashed oil on the fin which made it slowly go up to a 90 degree angle...
so good to see them!

walking up to gabriel house was weird...i was like sick to my stomach! it was probably just the anticipation, although i guess it could have been the fish hahaha. i came around the corner and teddy, marcos, josue, ruben, and pily started yelling my name, which is just about the best homecoming ever. the rest of the night was chaos as usual. new rooms are finished, there's a new boy, lots of new staff, new ideas, new progress that some of the kids have made...you get the idea.

my baby! i spent an entire year trying to get a picture with jamie where he's a - looking and the camera and b - smiling. i never came close, and then this is the first picture i take! i walked up to him and he goes 'ama!' - his way of saying mama. love him.

nene helped feed jamie at dinner. obviously it was a group effort with roles to be played by all :)

i'm exhausted and overwhelmed. off to bed for a full day tomorrow!

2010-06-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

this is it. ten months of blogging and here we are, at the end! i felt like i needed to post one more time to wrap things up, and to say thank you for being a part of this.

what a year. at times really hard, at times (most of the time) so much fun. i had the best job ever - i got to love on 35 kids who were desperate for constant, unconditional love and attention. as i was pouring into them, they made me feel awesome!

God changed me in ways i never thought possible, and that i'm still realizing. he taught me the importance of time with him every day...reading my bible, writing in a journal, and finding an incredible devotional. he taught me that there are reasons to be thankful in every situation, it's just that once in a while it takes me a little longer to find it. he taught me the importance of trusting him. not just trusting, but along with that, worrying less because he has got it under control. he taught me to calm down with my type-a-high-strung-control-freak personality and be more laid back and content with the way things are. he taught me the beauty of being accepted and immersed in a third world country, and that i have a lot to learn from his people.

the kids taught me a lot, too. alex and tonio taught me how to pray without words. teddy taught me how to laugh. marcos and jose taught me patience and helped me learn what it means to love unconditionally. nene taught me how to communicate in different ways. ruben and pilar taught me to appreciate hugs and kisses, and give them more freely. josue taught me the importance of an uninterrupted conversation. sergio taught me how to have fun. ely, chely, and sonia taught me how much you can say with a smile, and to be thankful. jaime taught me what it's like to love someone.

and you, all of you reading, wherever you are...you taught me to keep going. you taught me that there will always be a safety net of people loving, praying for, and encouraging me. i knew you were there, and for that i am so grateful.

i'll be back. but until then, i leave you with this:

love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. love never fails. - 1 corinthians 13:7

2010-06-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

well...i left. it's not like i didn't think i would. but still, it's weird.

hanna and the boys made me the most awesome stuff...a sign that they put on the fence that says we love you hilary, and then a book of cards that 1st grade and preschool made, where each kid has their own page. it's adorable. and then sidney got the fingerprints of every kid and made this thing...there's a picture of it below. it was really sweet. it was so good to be able to say that i'll see them in 2 months...that made such a difference. alex and tonio were crying before i left and that was hard. i hope, but i also know, that they're going to be okay. they need lots of prayers whenever there are big changes in their lives, and this is one of them.

i'll post again later this week to wrap things up :/

on a happier note...i'm at krista's house in san diego! it's red tide tonight, which means there has been a rapid increase in the population of algae in the water, or something like that. what happens is when it's dark out, the waves look fluorescent as they break. literally like there's a light show happening on the ocean floor. it's incredible, and doesn't happen that often! they're packing up - krista and her two sisters - to go on a two week mission trip to haiti tomorrow. it's a bummer they're leaving so soon but i'm really excited for them...and also to hang out on the beach for a few days!

2010-06-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

we had lots of fun playing outside today! it was a nice warm day so all the kids hung out outside until lunch time. in the summer, everyone's outside all morning, but it really hasn't been warm enough yet this spring to bring them out. crazy!

here's a cute video of josue and his bike.

they had a little surprise goodbye party today! it was really sweet.

jose helping feed, as usual. he gets so much joy out of helping...i've learned a lot from him.

hanna has been going up to the boys' room at night to read a chapter from charlotte's web to them and pray. it's so awesome, and i'm so happy she's doing it. it's such a sweet, family type thing to do, and i know the boys don't get a lot of that. i went with her today to give the boys their present...i printed out an 8x10 picture of all of us in front of the bus with becky's welcome back sign in the background and put it in this big frame that someone gave me. it adds some nice color to their room! it was great to spend family time with them. hanna and i read to them for a little bit and then we talked about what happened today that we were thankful for, and then everyone prayed...such a sweet way to spend time together. i am so, so, grateful that hanna is here. she loves the kids here so much and they know that. it definitely is making it a little bit easier to leave.

2010-06-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

some videos:

jumping!

nene

2010-06-01T22:41:00.000-07:00

darrell's back! and we have the perfect chair for him...thank you Lord! a friend of mine donated a bike and this chair a few months ago after his 3 year old son died of cancer. i have felt kind of bad that we haven't been able to use the wheelchair (the kids love the bike)...but all in good time. yay!

i think i accidentally got nene hooked on chapstick. she discovered it awhile ago and asks to use it, and usually i'll let her...now it's the first thing she looks for in my pocket whenever she walks up to me. oops.

this morning we had story time! kids were out of their seats and in bean bag chairs, on the floor, i put ely in the armchair, and we read for an hour. it was AWESOME. what's better than someone reading to you? not much, i can tell you that.

and little miss nene did wonderful, and no one was forcing her to read with us! she listened intently, asking to see the pictures on each page, for a book and a half. and then she looked through a book ON HER OWN while i read with ely. oh man. monumental. love her, and i love watching the change as she grows up!

i said bye to pastor cande, angelica, eliseo, caleb, and rocio today. gahh. the good thing is i'll see them in less than 2 months! it was not fun though, that's for sure.

2010-05-31T21:13:00.000-07:00

today was fun!

i got up early to help out with breakfast, and then spent the morning helping where i could, since i'm done with school. i did laundry, changed clothes and diapers, swept and mopped, washed dishes, helped make lunch, made a carrot cake for the kids, played, sang, and then helped feed lunch. it was so nice to be in the big house with those kids. around 10 eughenia came over to report that marcos had thrown his shoes off because he was angry, refused to work, got mad that there was no snack, and kept yelling for chuy to leave and me to come back. it broke my heart, because as nice as it is to feel wanted...i'm not teaching anymore! they still have a month of school, and even though i know it will be a change that will take some getting used to, they have to get used to it!
i prayed for smooth changes and peace as i washed the 45th bowl that morning, and then brought over a snack to see how things were going. all the kids were working and had been working, no one was yelling or crying, and things were under control! it was like God was telling me, 'hilary, this is so much bigger than you. you have no idea what i can do.'
i was so relieved and happy to see that when i walked in, i can't even tell you. they did well! everything's going to be okay, because i am not the one in control here!

2010-05-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

last day at church! kind of sad...but i'll be back with a team at the end of july and we'll be working at roca de salvacion for a week. pastor cande walked up to me this morning and said, 'bad news, all the airports are closed. you won't be able to go home.' then he suggested i walk or take a vw bus instead. so helpful hahaha

eliseo asked me if i had any requests for songs during worship...so i told him 3 songs i wanted to sing and we sang them all! it was great!

bryan, the drummer's son (and only 3 year old who can say my name perfectly) and eliseo.

i went to see lucy in the hospital on my way back to gabriel house after church. she looks...the same. and sounds the same, and is breathing the same as she was 24 hours ago. i guess i'm just anxious for her to come home. she has pneumonia, though, and from what i've heard that really just takes rest and meds to get better. i told her she needs to come back before i leave! and she blinked, which i'm going to take as a yes :)

2010-05-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

adele's here! just for the weekend, but it's great to have her. she went with me to visit lucy in the hospital this morning...she looked so lonely :( there was another baby in the room who made her look HUGE, though. he was a preemie like i've never seen before...could almost fit in my hand without any trouble. probably half the size of lucy. it's crazy that babies that small can still live. it's a miracle, really! i look at lucy sometimes and just can't believe that we are made of all the same bones and muscles and organs. everything about her is so tiny! she's looking better though...slowly getting to be a healthy color and seeming to breathe a little bit easier.

i promised the boys in february that we would get pizza someday...seeing how i'm leaving on thursday i realized i'd better make that happen soon! with adele, hanna, and sidney all here to help i knew this was the perfect time. i was going to take them to the pizza place, but then was thinking about just bringing pizza back to gabriel house because it's so hard for them to get to the bathroom when they're out. but then it's just not as fun to stay here, even if we are eating pizza...and hanna suggested we go to the mission site where she worked a couple summers ago. it was less than 10 minutes away, and no one was there but it had a kitchen and bathrooms, which was perfect. so i didn't tell the boys where we were going or what we were doing; i just told estella so that she would know not to make dinner for them. marcos comes up to me when i get back from the hospital and the first thing he says is, 'are you taking me somewhere?!' i was like what do you mean? and he goes, 'estella told me that you're taking us somewhere and that we're not eating dinner here.' and i said oh, yep! marcos - 'well where are you taking us? what are we doing?' me - 'don't know! you'll just have to wait and see!' marcos - 'hilaryyyyy!' hahahaha it was great.

i think sergio and jose ate 5 pieces of pizza each. granted, it's domino's style, not big new york pieces. but still! we had bananas for dessert, and the best part was they got excited about that! afterwards, we played and played and played. it was an awesome place to be...almost completely kid proof. everything was gated, so they could just run around and we didn't need to worry that they would fall or anything. it was soooo fun! here's a video...

2010-05-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

such a great day of school today....
but first a story. alex fell last night as he was going to the bathroom and unfortunately hit the back of his head on his wheelchair and sliced it open. he had to get stitches and will need to take it easy for a few days. he went to the doctor this morning to get a tetanus shot, so he didn't come to school with the rest of the kids. as i was talking to alex, teddy and marcos headed over to the classroom. i ended up talking to him for awhile, and so teddy and marcos were in the classroom alone for a good 5 minutes. maggie was in the office in the same building as our classroom, so it's not like they were completely alone, but there wasn't anyone in the same room with them. i brought tonio and jose over and was slightly nervous, because when teddy and marcos are together, they seem to come up with ideas that aren't my favorite. well they were super excited about something and marcos was jumping down and teddy was wiggling from side to side (his excited dance) while they told me to close my eyes. i kept them half open because i was expecting to see the neighbor's chickens in the room or something like that, and when i opened my eyes, i realized they had set up the classroom - they did the calendar, moved the tables and chairs to where they belonged, and put the schedule up. i was SO PROUD OF THEM. and they were so excited! it was a great teacher moment.

then in preschool, sergio was coloring and holds up his picture, and the marker he was using, and told me what color it was. i was kind of surprised, because he's usually pretty stubborn and it can be hard to work one on one with him...he likes to do his own thing. he'll last for a couple minutes, working on colors, and then nicely asks me to leave him alone so he can keep coloring. well today he told me the colors he was using for like half an hour. i was shocked. he got every color right! it was like he was saving all this up for a big performance on the last day of school or something! i was so happy.

on a not so happy note, lucy went to the doctor today for a checkup and they admitted her :(
they took xrays and she has pneumonia and tons of phlegm in her lungs. it's good that she's there, i guess, but i'm sure they don't have as many people to love on her there as they do here. i'm going to go visit her tomorrow and make sure they're treating her well :)

2010-05-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

after school, the kids were playing on the trampoline like always, and i brought some other kids outside to watch. then marcos asked ely if she wanted to get on, and i was like, yes! let's do this! so first we put jaime on, since he's a little more mobile. he laughed hysterically the whole time. it was awesome...marcos's little jumps didn't send jaime more than a couple inches in the air so it was perfect. then we put thelma on, and as long as she could hold on to the side she was loving it. then hanna got ely on there too, and the five of us bounced around for awhile. it was so fun!

i took the best nap today...i think it's the first one i've taken since i got here, and it was amazing. taking care of the baby and teaching full time has wiped me out! this is good practice for the future though hahaha

just got back from taking the boys to church. it was so long tonight, and there was no kid's class like there usually is. the boys did so well though...i was really proud of them. i don't think they could have behaved themselves so well a couple months ago...they're growing up and getting so big :)

2010-05-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

hanna and sidney are here!
so exciting, but strange to think that as i'll be gone in a week they're just getting here. great things are going to happen this summer with them here!

i'm typing this one handed as i rock little lucy to sleep...i'm helping angelica with some of the night feedings. it's a big sacrifice on my part - getting to feed and rock to sleep a three month old baby...ha!

i went to the farmer's market thing this afternoon that happens in maneadero every wednesday, looking for clothes that will fit lucy. let me tell you, it was quite the experience. baby clothes are in abundance, but preemie/newborn clothes, not so much. it was a lot of fun though...i got to talk to a lot of people while i explained what and why i was looking for. i told them why she didn't need 3 month clothes, even though she's 3 months, and then i talked about gabriel house...most people had lots of questions and it was a good opportunity to talk more about gabriel house. i tried to buy the clothes off a doll but the man wanted me to buy the doll too, and it was like $3. i got lots of onesies and a couple pairs of pants for 5 pesos apiece...like 40 cents. sweet!

2010-05-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

she's here! her name is ana lucia, but i think we're going to call her lucy. she's 3 months old and weighs 4 pounds. she doesn't have cerebral palsy like we thought...she has some respiratory issues but renie is convinced she's going to be perfectly fine. she said she's seen thousands of babies in her 20 years here and this baby doesn't have cerebral palsy - she has breathing issues that will most likely work themselves out as she grows. she was born premature, obviously, and both her parents are drug addicts. but now she's here with us!

that's my hand...and i have really small hands. she seriously looks like a doll.

falling out of her 3-6 month old clothes...

as if leaving in a week wasn't going to be hard enough.

2010-05-24T19:50:00.001-07:00

dan and ivey, missionaries at rancho el refugio on the other side of town, stopped by today to see our school and hear about the conafe program. they're starting a school on the ranch next year for kids who can't afford public school and wanted to see what our classes looked like. it was fun to see them and talk about schooling for kids who don't have the chance to go to public school, like kids with disabilities or very little money.

after preschool, we played outside and on the trampoline until dinner. it was so fun...i think the kids are bored a lot of the time, which causes some of them to be lazy/sedentary and others to use their energy to cause problems. most of them have lived here for the majority of their lives, in the same general area with the same toys day in and day out. anything new is exciting to them (just like kids everywhere!) and so it was just great to see everyone playing together, without fighting, and really enjoying themselves. when kids get to be kids, everyone's happy :)

2010-05-23T19:26:00.000-07:00

i woke up saturday morning to hear a ruckus up at the big house...the shift that was working is short 3 people so i brought josue and teddy down to my house to try to help the ladies. we made chocolate chip pancakes and juice and played outside...they also helped me clean up the house, do dishes, and hang up laundry :)

later that day, the cake group came. they are awesome...every month, without fail, they come to play with the kids and bring a cake to celebrate the birthdays that month. victor even knows who they are - they get out of their car and victor starts clapping and chanting, 'cake, cake, cake!' well this time they brought more than cake...they brought a trampoline! we used to have one but it was old and worn out so we got rid of it when it became unsafe. this is brand new and the kids had so much fun setting it up. it will be great to use up some of that endless energy that they have!

church was good today...after the service we ate and then everyone starting working around the church, cleaning it up and getting ready to start work on the new building. for lunch they got the fryer out and i heard the word fish, so i figured we were having fish tacos. oh no. how wrong i was. i walk in the kitchen a few minutes later and see a huge bowl of fish. like fresh from the ocean, i'm pretty sure. i saw a tail still flopping around. the guy who was frying them picked up a fish, the whole thing, and dropped it in the oil. he fried it for a couple minutes, put it on a plate, and someone took it. apparently you dig out the edible parts of the fish, put it in a tortilla, and add whatever you want - rice, tomato, onion, salsa, etc. fish tacos, yes. slightly horrifying to see the eyes staring back at you as you pick around its bones and insides, also yes.

2010-05-20T21:38:00.001-07:00

i skyped with my cousin's ap spanish class in tennessee this morning...all in spanish! that was pretty fun. they had no idea what life was like for people with disabilities down here...they were shocked to hear that kids in wheelchairs aren't welcome in the public schools. it was great to be able to share some more info with them and hear their spanish!

school was good...one more day of full time teaching. so crazy.

i took the boys to church tonight and josue fell asleep in my arms...i love when kids fall asleep in my arms :)
tonio was so mad because he wanted to go to the kid's class but didn't get to...he was throwing a fit in front of the entire church. he eventually calmed down and then got really into the sermon. it was awesome. he was signing back to me all the bible stories the pastor was telling, and some of the stories he was preaching about...it was pretty neat.
before we started the drive home, angelica asked sergio to pray like we always do before we drive anywhere. he can be really hard to understand sometimes, and most of us pick up a couple words out of every sentence he says. anyways, he prayed, and joshua, angelica's son, repeated back what he was saying, word for word. he did it perfectly, too...i understood everything sergio said. after, joshua was like, 'wow, i don't know how i did that but i understood every word he said.' angelica told him it was the holy spirit and everyone was just amazed. it was really cool!
we had a lot of fun on the car ride home, too. they were selling sandwiches and rice milk after the service to raise money for the church, and angelica bought a sandwich and milk for each kid. before we were out of the driveway sergio had downed his milk and was singing at the top of his lungs, bouncing along in his seat. he's so funny when he gets riled up...

2010-05-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

i LOVE this picture. josue looks adorable, and then if you look at ruben, he's in the process of throwing/kicking sand and making the funniest face. what a rascal...

no baby today :/
i kind of figured she wasn't going to come, so i tried not to get my hopes up. lots of times we hear a new kid is coming and it's days or even weeks before they actually get here. i hope she comes soon!

today was fun after school...becky and i hung out with the kids and they were all just messing around...we were all together and everyone was having fun. no fights, no injuries, no one was mad or upset...it felt like a big family spending an afternoon together. that was before pilar and marcos smacked heads, ivonne wet through her diaper, sergio got mad at teddy for sitting too close to him, and lidia started crying because of all the noise. hahahaha! just a day in the life.

then we all went to the kitchen for dinner, where we had fish tacos. how can it be a bad day when it's fish tacos for dinner? yum :)

2010-05-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

we finally had a sunny day! it's been 3 solid days of clouds, clouds, clouds. it was sooo nice. the kids were happier, i was in a better mood, and everyone walked (or wheeled) with just a little more spring in their steps.

sergio has two toys that he is never, ever without...one is woody from toy story, and blanco, his horse. blanco has seen better days...he lost his saddle a couple weeks ago and his stuffing has been poking out ever since. pilar got her hands on him and ripped out all his stuffing a couple days ago, and sergio was devastated. renie saw, took blanco to her house, and came back a few hours later with him. it was AMAZING. she restuffed him, reattached the saddle with a new blanket on top of it, added eyes and a tail (they had worn off and fell off). he was so happy.

joanna stopped by today with her baby, who turned a month old today. i got to hold him for awhile...he is precious! so stinkin cute.

2010-05-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

what a day.

brief summary:
- another woman quit
- ripping up the calendar
- last day of ventana
- new girl
- i have a lot to learn from tonio and jose
- i'm going to be a mom in 2 days!

so. another woman walked out this morning, which has been the trend recently. becky covered for her instead of helping out with school, and our maintenance men covered shifts as well so that all the kids were being cared for. (they're perfectly capable and have done it before...but it still catches me off guard to see don lupe, the guy who built the boys' new house, feeding the babies...) it's so sad though, because this woman was awesome with the kids. just awesome. she loved them so much and it was really hard for her to leave, but it's also really hard to work here. i guess everything combined with the unsteady pay was too much.

at school this morning we were talking about the date, like we always do, and i asked the kids how many days until hanna and sidney come, and then how many until i leave. i want them to be prepared for both things...it's going to be different when i'm not here everyday and i want them to understand that and not have it come as a shock. anyways...jose said, 'no, no don't leave.' and teddy said, 'why do you have to leave? where are you going?' (we go through this EVERYDAY. sometimes i think they do it just to waste time haha) we talked about it for a minute and then marcos said, 'hey, if i take your name off of the calendar and rip it up, then you won't be able to leave!' everyone seemed to think it was a good idea. i explained that i already had a plane ticket and that i would see them in august...and then we read amelia bedelia together for some good laughs.
today was the last day that ventana, a group that has been coming almost every monday since i got here, came to visit. the students that have interned with them for a year arrived in august, like me, and are leaving in 3 weeks, like me. it's been fun to get to know them, and they love love love to be with the kids. they were so sad to leave today...but that means good things have happened, so we can rejoice in that.

we have a new girl! her name is kimberly michelle, and she's from tijuana. she reminds me a lot of betzy. she has cerebral palsy and other than smiling or crying, isn't very responsive. her arms and legs are horrible looking. they're naturally like you see in the picture...they can't be stretched any farther than a few inches. she's so skinny and we think she had lice, which is why she hardly has any hair. she's 8...kimberly with angelica, meeting ely

imagine having your arms and legs like that and not being able to move them...

tonio and jose almost made me cry today. they had been waiting and waiting to meet kimberly, so when i brought her out they ran up to her to say hi. let me just paint this picture for you - the water has been off all day, so we couldn't bathe her. she smelled horrible...just because her teeth hadn't been brushed in who knows how long, but it was a strong and pungent smell. i was talking to jose and i looked down and tonio was giving her a kiss on the cheek. he shook her bird claw hand without a second guess and jose patted her legs, trying to help her put them the right way. they were so gentle with her, and had so much love to give her. instantly! we went to go feed her, and tonio told me i should pray before she ate. i asked him to, and he laid a hand right on her chest and signed a prayer with her. she has a jogging stroller because her body won't fit in a wheelchair, and jose was trying to fix the cover because part of it was hanging loose...they are such sweet boys. i wish you could have seen their faces when they were with her.

angelica walked out of the office before kimberly got here and said, 'hilary, you're going to be a mom!' i figured she was talking about kimberly coming and i was like, yeah, sweet, can't wait to meet her! and she goes, 'i know, she'll be here on wednesday, and she's 3 months old! start thinking of names!' WHAT. there's a baby coming from mexicali on wednesday who still doesn't have a name. at dinner angelica was telling everyone that i'm going to be a mom...tonio and alex were so excited and kept signing pregnant and mom. i had to explain the situation a couple times hahaha. the last baby that was here was teddy's brother and he left in the beginning of september. we have no baby clothes so guess what i'm going to do tomorrow...! she might even get to stay down here with me...there are no beds in the baby room. i can hardly contain myself.
and i'm not thinking about the fact that i'll be here for less than 3 weeks.

2010-05-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

some beanbag chairs were donated, and look at these cuties i found lounging around!

i learned how to make tortillas and sopes today! i've been wanting someone to teach me for a long time, so i went to juanita's house...she lives just down the street and used to work at gabriel house. now she's ted and renie's housekeeper. she's a sweet older woman and an awesome cook. her legs have been hurting her a lot lately, to the point where it takes her minutes to get up or sit down. she was telling me how she prays once a day, when she gets up in the morning. awhile ago she had a dream where she was at a doctor's office. she didn't see his face, but he handed her a prescription for the pain in her legs. in her dream she read it, and it said pray three times a day. since then, she's prayed three times a day, and jumped out of her chair to show me how her legs don't hurt her anymore. nice!

i'm off to the beach with some people from church to teach them how to make s'mores. they've never heard of them here...unbelievable!

2010-05-12T21:03:00.001-07:00

on the off chance that you're having a bad day, let this beautiful face cheer you up :)

not much to report on today...
i'm starting to plan my transition out of school, which is kind of weird. i don't want to be here, teaching full time and then boom! gone. i think chuy and i will do like a half and half thing for a week, where he'll teach about half the time and i'll teach the other half, and then my last monday through wednesday i'll spend with the kids in the big house (who i feel like i haven't seen AT ALL lately!).
we made earrings during arts and crafts today...alex, tonio, and jose have a seriously good sense of style. marcos got bored in about 2 seconds and wanted to play with the tools, and teddy couldn't decide on what beads to use. quite a circus, but lots of fun nonetheless.

2010-05-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

this morning was great. the kids worked so hard and we got so much done. i was super proud of them. preschool is going really well with becky, too. she's awesome with the kids and they love her.
just got back from eliseo's...we went to this coffee place that's inside an old mansion and watched videos of groups that used to come work at roca de salvacion. they were hilarious...and now i'm tired and off to bed!

2010-05-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

today was cool...becky will be the aide once i leave and chuy will be the main teacher again, so she starting today she'll be shadowing/observing/picking up as much as she can to be able to make a smooth transition when i leave. she worked in a day care for awhile so she's great with the preschoolers, which is an area i've always felt like i could use help in. it's great to have her there too because she has the kids' best interests in mind and truly wants to help them, which is always a good thing.

i skyped with two college friends tonight that i haven't talked to in forever. they both are engaged - rachele's getting married in june, and katie in october. i am so so so excited for them! and the weddings are going to be so great with everyone there. gahh!!

2010-05-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

the car people came! it was crazy. the whole cul de sac was full of old cars, and some of them were crazy. they bounced up and down, went up on 3 wheels...fun stuff. they were some pretty rough looking guys, and it was interesting to watch them as our kids came out. it was a beautiful picture after awhile though...everyone hanging out together, talking about cars!

teddy making the car go up and down...

we took marcos, ruben, pilar, nene, josue, and victor to the circus tonight. kind of glad to be done with that haha. they all loved it, minus a couple minutes at the beginning of every show. the people there were so nice and hospitable...tonight they just waved us in and let us do our thing, front and center. i'm happy we got to take so many kids, though...i feel like every kid should get to go to the circus at least once in their life.

miss nene! she would go from being scared and burying her face in my shoulder to making me clap with her and yelling 'BRAVO!' at the top of her lungs. it's never a dull moment with this girl!

2010-05-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

we went to the circus tonight! alex, tonio, teddy, sergio, jaime, becky, and ted and renie's daughters were there. it was fun. becky and i tried to warn them that the music was really loud, and there were some scary parts. teddy and tonio got really serious and started asking questions like, but it's still safe, right? i'm still going. are you still going? i'm going. i'm not scared.
well the music started and tonio made a mad dash for the exit...alex jumped a foot out of his chair and teddy got this terrified look on his face. sergio just laughed hysterically, and jaime didn't understand what was going on. after a couple minutes outside tonio was fine and came back in. teddy loved it and laughed hysterically the whole time. alex and tonio weren't quite sure what to make of it, but by the end they decided they had a great time. a success!

take number 25 of the night...he never actually looks at the camera. but I LOVE THIS CHILD. sometimes it's hard for me to play with him because i have to realize that one day, very soon, i won't be able to walk out of my apartment and see his little fingers reach for the window as i walk by...or hear him say mama when he sees me...or watch him roll as fast as he can to get to me when i come into the room...ahhh.

amazed at something.

so excited!

front row seats!

tomorrow after church the classic car guy is (FINALLY) coming! then we're taking nene, pilar, josue, ruben, marcos, and jose to the circus. it will be another fun day!

2010-05-06T19:11:00.001-07:00

a group from reality church that came awhile ago painted this sign...i don't think i've posted it yet. it's so springy!

today was the first day of school since friday...it was a little rough for marcos, but the rest of the kids did pretty well.
it looks like becky will be continuing with school once i leave, which will be awesome. she's going to start shadowing me on monday...i'm excited that someone who wants to help the kids will be around when i leave.
today for snack we had pretzels, which people don't eat here. i haven't seen them in any store, ever. the kids were asking what they were, and i explained that they don't have a spanish name because no one really eats them, so i just called them crackers. marcos looks at them for awhile, and very profoundly says, they're hearts. of salt. salt hearts. hahaha he cracks me up!

2010-05-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

i just got really sad to leave this place.

i worked on lesson plans and did random things around the apartment all day. literally...i got up and got to work, stopping to eat and bake banana bread hahaa. i didn't see any of the kids all day, and after dinner i went down the street to buy newspapers for something we're doing in class tomorrow.
on my way back, i was walking down to my house when pilar yells my name and runs toward me, her arms wide open. i gave her a hug and then she ran back to keep playing. and then i passed the boys' room where jaime sleeps right next to the window. i said hi to him and he reached his hand out to touch mine through the window screen and started laughing. well of course i had to go in and play with him for a little bit, so i did, but it was so hard to not cry. daaang. i didn't think i would be like this. hopefully the month i have left will help me get more and more used to the idea...

2010-05-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

eliseo and i went back to el mirador tonight...but this time with cameras. so pretty. this is level with the ocean, and then later we drove up...

...to see the city from above!

later at night. i had mole for the first time tonight at with eliseo's family...it's a sauce that goes over chicken that's sweet and spicy at the same time. not bad; it had a nice kick!

2010-05-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

guess where we went tonight...THE CIRCUS! first time the sisters had ever been...it was so awesome.

we were the first ones in and got to watch them set up. they put us in the very front row! the guy in charge came by while we were waiting and goes, 'where are the rest of the kids?' i explained how they didn't fit in the van, but that we'd be back later in the week with more. he was so nice and hospitable...he said anytime, whenever, just come, and bring everyone!

ely laughed the whole time. no joke. here's a video. it was awesome...i think i watched her more than the circus!

he's from the dr!

2010-05-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

so you may remember waaaay back in october becky and i went to church with lerma, a woman who works at gabriel house. today we went back to the same place, but this time with roca de salvacion for a kid's day celebration (i'm telling you...this day is a big deal here. crazy that it doesn't even exist in the states!). cande and his family and a couple other families camped out the night before, and the rest of us got there this morning. abram decided he wanted to ride his bike, so whenever he wasn't holding on to the back of the truck the rest of us were in, he was jumping across rivers and careening down rocky hills while we watched and gave him helpful tips (that way! watch out for the rock! water up ahead! i think he went faster just to get away from the peanut gallery hahaha)

there was a tire swing...what was i supposed to do? look at it?

a bunch of us climbed up this mountain! eliseo and i are in the middle, and higher up is rosario, ana, jonathan, and josue. sandals were not the best choice. but such a beautiful view up top!

worship in the park/valley/clearing...whatever you want to call it! it was great to be with people from church in a place other than, well, church. lots of good conversation, friends, and sun makes for an awesome, joy filled day. woo hoo!

2010-05-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

so saturday we took the kids to a party at church (the one we go to on thursday nights). it was for kid's day, so there was a bouncy castle, a pinata, food, and lots of people. the church is also an alcohol/drug rehab center (for people who are already clean, so i guess it's kind of a halfway house?) the guys are wonderful and help so much with the kids we bring. they also have some animals...pigs, chickens, and ducks, and nene and i spent most of the day with the pigs. at first she wasn't sure if she liked them - in this picture she's saying no, no! but then they grew on eacho ther and she was enthralled by the way it was eating...

love.this.face.

well, it's a party, so obviously oscar the grouch and the doctor that stands outside of all the pharmacies in mexico are going to come...

ruben found a babysitter! he loved her, she took such good care of him (and he LISTENED to her)...a match made in heaven.

2010-05-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

waiting for becky! i pulled a fast one on the kids...all this time they have been told that becky was coming back on saturday (today). well she wanted to surprise them and come to gabriel house a day earlier, friday, which also happened to be kid's day. it worked out perfectly, because we had nothing planned and the kids were bummed. they were like, it's kids day! how can we not have a party! and i was like, i'm really sorry, guys, but there's just not a lot of money. i'm sure we'll figure something out. so i said i wouldn't be around friday night or saturday morning because i had a friend in ensenada who needed help, so we needed to set up for becky during school on friday morning. they went along with it, because they're great...and then i told them to celebrate kid's day, we could read a story outside at the end of our school day. (what a treat, right? ha. they weren't exactly thrilled.) as we were reading, who pulls up but...becky! they were stunned. the first thing marcos says to me is 'why did you make us put her name in the calendar on may 1st?! she's here a day early!' i said, 'i tricked you...she wanted to surprise everyone!' it was so fun.

some cute videos of becky getting here, and jose seeing her.

reunited with her marcos, wearing the new clothes and shoes she bought him (shorts: size 5T. falling off of him. he's 7 and a half...)

so instead of having a cake to welcome becky back, i decided fruit salad was a better choice. (the kids love me, really. no but seriously, this past weekend two groups came and each brought huge cakes. more cake = unnecessary! even if it was kid's day...)
i put a little bit of whipped cream on top, and thelma looks at her bowl, scoops the entire spoonful of whipped cream up, and devours it, leaving only a tiny bit on her face. i was laughing so hard...so sad i didn't get that on video hahahaha

we went for a walk, and pilar got tired :)

2010-04-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

jose, very proud of some work he did in math. marcos just wanted to be in the picture hahaha

marcos decided he wanted to take an angry picture...i decided to take an i-just-ate-something-very-sour picture.

at church tonight - teddy reading along with the pastor.

praying after the sermon. note marcos playing with the car...although this was after he prayed and was prayed for. he's 7! very short attention span...and he did great. we brought josue along this time, too, and he loved it. every time the preacher said amen, josue yelled amen! and clapped and hugged whoever was nearest to him. so adorable.

2010-04-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

getting ready to welcome becky home!

teddy being teddy :)
i told him today that he can go to kids camp, at rancho el refugio in july, and his eyes got huge and he started asking me a ton of questions. the thing that he was most excited about is that he isn't going to sleep in his bed for 2 whole nights! he asked me to make him a calendar so that he can know how far away camp is.

nene, on the other hand, asks me every few minutes: kakey? (becky) i tell her becky will be here in a couple days! and then, always, ana? (hanna) me: one month. nene: oh.
so funny - today nene and i were reading i spy together. we looked for a bunch of things on one page and then she kind of goes off to do something else, and i said wait, nene, there are still more pages! and she looks at me, at the book, turns the page, and goes, WOW! which is hilarious because we read 2 or 3 books every single day. maybe a big book confused her. i don't know...but priceless either way.

there are some new videos i've put up lately...if you go to youtube and search "hilaryholbrook" (in quotes, no spaces) it will bring up all the videos i've posted.

2010-04-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

marcos and jose playing being before school starts...

nene and ruben LOVING the big books that i brought back from mexicali...an esl program in the states had shut down and the books were donated to mexico outreach, or they ended up at the mexicali camp somehow. we were packing up at the end of the week and i saw this PILE of spanish books, and some big books too. i was like ron, where are those going and can i please have some! he let me take a whole box! chica chica boom boom, tiki tiki tembo, i spy, and tons of great books. the kids were excited to see some new ones :)

eliseo was/is having some major girl problems so i went to his house this afternoon...there's this place he always tells me about but i've never been to. it's called el mirador - it's like a lookout point. oh. my. goodness. i saw ensenada like i've never seen it before. first we were level with the ocean and walked along this beautiful path, right next to the water, while the sun was setting. there wasn't a sandy beach, just big rocks, and so when big waves came up we got wet - the pathway was that close to the water.
then we went up to the lookout point, way way way up this one mountain. there's this stone ledge that you sit on and you can see the ENTIRE city. since it was dusk and then later completely dark, we could see all the lights and everything. there was a full moon and it was reflected into the water, we could hear the seals barking or whatever they do, and we seriously were looking out over the entire city. of course we both forgot out cameras, so we're going back in a couple weeks to take pictures of everything. i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e. i wish i had known about this place sooner! everyone needs to go.

2010-04-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

today was a good day!
i woke up this morning just not feeling it and was trying to get over that. i kept telling myself that i could just slog through the day or i could make the most of it. then i found out the boys broke the cd player that we use ALL DAY at school...i love to have music playing in the background and i was like, dang, this is just going to be one of those stinkin' mondays.
but it turned out to be a pretty good day! the kids worked well and we did a LOT. they knew they were working hard and well and were proud of themselves (and rightly so!)
josue is with his mom for a few days, so preschool was much more calm and i was able to work one on one with all the kids (again...rare).

i just got back from dinner with dan and ivey, a couple who live at rancho el refugio and are working on a school that's being built at the ranch. it was great to spend time with them - they're such a sweet, solid, Godly couple. it was nice to speak english with people in person and not on skype, too!

2010-04-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

rocio's nephews went to a birthday party on saturday, and rocio invited me to go with them. it was so fun! i love being a part of life down here. not the cruise ship, tourist area where everyone speaks english part of life. the part where people look at me wierdly because i'm so white, and then look at me even wierder when i answer the questions, in spanish, that they ask rocio because they don't think i understand or speak spanish. never a dull moment! this was a legit party, though. the kid turned 5, and there were TWO pinatas. apparently 5 is a pretty big deal :)

eric, rocio's 3 year old nephew. adorable...

pinatas could be an olympic sport here. not kidding. these kids know what's up.

church today! i taught sunday school to the young adults. it was interesting. but i brought cookies and made everyone stare at them until i was done teaching, and to please pay attention in the meantime. it worked.

2010-04-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

tonio hanging out, getting ready to clean the bus. the boys LOVE to be around anything that has to do with cars, so they spend a lot of time wiping down the bus. every since i got back from mexicali, i have been the main teacher and chuy has been my aide. up in this point, chuy technically was the lead and i was his aide. i did a lot behind the scenes to help him, but he still had the final say. that has changed, and one thing i did when i took over was start our school day with a prayer. after a couple days, the boys wanted to pray too, so teddy and marcos prayed. yesterday, tonio wanted to, so he did. we usually pray before lunch, too, and when one of the brothers prayers my eyes are usually closed...i know they're praying silently, seeing as how they can't speak. they'll smack the table or get our attention somehow to say amen. well yesterday, i was watching tonio, and he was signing. it was beautiful. he was thanking God for the rain, even though it meant we couldn't go to church, and asking that God would not let it rain next thursday so that we could go to church. he signed about everyone, and school, and the whole time had such a big smile on his face. it was so cool.

pilar helping, as usual. she LOVES to be the momma bear.

i know this shouldn't be a rare sight - preschool, with everyone in their seats - but it is. i was so happy to see it.

nene doing my hair. painfully funny.

2010-04-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

no internet last night - it was super windy and i think it knocked something out of place...

yesterday in class we got into a pretty solid discussion among an 11 year old who signs (tonio) and a 7 year old who can't sit still for more than 5 minutes, so instead doesn't use a chair and sporadically does laps around the room when he needs to (marcos). we were looking at a picture of a playground, with kids doing all different kinds of things. some of those things showed respect, and others didn't. we were talking about each situation and if it showed respect or not, and there was one picture of a girl on the ground with a banged up knee, and someone standing over her. tonio and i thought the boy had pushed the girl on the ground, but marcos said because of what the girl's face looked like and how the boy hand his hand out, he was helping her up after she fell. i watched tonio think about it for a little bit while marcos kept explaining why he thought it was showing respect, and then tonio nods enthusiastically and points to the boy's hand that was helping the girl up. it was so cool to watch them go through that! normal students having a typical classroom discussion :)

we sing a song that says 'si señor' in the chorus, and either that or someone else has been teaching the preschoolers to say, 'si señor' when someone asks them to do something...it's kind of funny when i ask them to start cleaning up and nene and josue salute me and say 'si señor!'

2010-04-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

working hard during art...

lots of rain today, so the kids had indoor recess...we've never had that before! class always got canceled when it rained because, well, our classroom was outside.

everyone's getting very excited for becky to come back...we put her name in the calendar on the day she's coming back. the boys, who never forget anything, tell me first thing in the morning how many days until she gets back.

i also made the mistake of telling nene and josue that hanna's coming back for the summer...well, not necessarily that it was a mistake, but now nene looks at me a couple times a day and goes, 'hanna?!' and then i have to explain that she won't be here for another month. nene understands yesterday, today, and tomorrow, but the idea of a month isn't easy for her to grasp. it's going to be a long month for that girl :)

at the end of preschool we always go for a walk around the neighborhood, and today we had a little bit of time when we got back so we played outside. it was so fun. now that all the kids who lived down below are upstairs and we are short staffed, they don't get to be outside that much. nene jumps up on a table, lays on her stomach, and goes, 'massage! massage!' i started karate chopping her back and she was laughing so hard it took me a second to realize she was trying to say pipi...i stopped quickly...
josue ran laps around the yard for a solid half hour, pushing a car in front of him...i brought jaime out and nene pulled him in the wagon, which jaime thought was just the funniest thing ever...sergio pushed ruben on the swing until his feet touched the sky...
there's something about playing outside after it rains that is just awesome.

2010-04-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

i went to eliseo's for dinner last night and got back and fell into bed...too tired to do anything! i think i still need to catch up on sleep from all those late nights in mexicali...
his family always ask me to make cookies, which i love to do. but to caleb, eliseo's younger brother, i'm convinced i'm nothing more to him than a plate of cookies. i told him that on sunday - caleb, what am i to you?! - and he goes, oh but you're my favorite sister who sometimes happens to bake cookies! hahaha.
so i was making cookies to bring over yesterday and i checked on the first batch about 5 minutes in, and they looked strangely unbaked. i discovered that my propane ran out. in the middle of batch #1! unbelievable.

yesterday in class, marcos apparently discovered his muscles. i caught him flexing and had to take a video...

2010-04-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

i love these kids. ruben, who i got an email about when i was in mexicali about his bad behavior, has been so affectionate lately. just runs up to me and gives me a huge hug and then sticks his cheek out, waiting for a kiss. i'm so happy to see him like this.

the kids who lived down below - nene, marcos, josue, ruben, and pilar - are spending their first night in the big house. the women spent all day moving their stuff and the guys were ripping beds apart, making bunk beds, and other manly things that alex and jose couldn't tear their eyes away from...

we'll see how it goes! there have been so many changes lately - moving houses, people coming and going, groups visiting - that it has messed some of the kids up. hopefully with time, love, and consistency things will settle down, but in the meantime, send some love our way!

2010-04-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

saturday some people from carpenteria, california, spent the day with us at gabriel house. brittni and darryl came with the mexican medical group a couple weeks ago, and brittni's brother cody came this time, too. it was so fun! great to hang out with people my age :)
we spent a lot of time with the boys making jewelry to sell. they love doing crafty things like that, so it was great.
later that night, i went to eliseo's graduation. he's been taking voice lessons for 2 years and had his recital. he did so well! he and his brother, caleb, lead worship at roca de salvacion. their dad is pastor cande.

it was great to be back at church today and see everyone!

on the left is bryan, the son of the abrahm, the drummer at roca de salvacion. he may quite possibly be the only 3 year old in ensenada who can say my name hahaha. he's adorable and has been my shadow since i started coming to roca de salvacion. i love it! he already plays the drums. and he's incredible. here's a video of him playing along while his dad warms up...

2010-04-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

this is the classroom! i realized today just how awesome it is to have a room. i feel like i'm student teaching all over again. i think the kids do better too...there's a lot more order and sense to the day.

josue had a much better day today. here he is in class...

i found out the circus is back in town! i went to talk to the boss but he wasn't around...we are so going. it's just a matter of when and how much it will cost. the way they advertise here is by bringing the circus to you...literally. trucks drive around, blaring an ad for the circus while pulling circus animals behind them...zebras, horses, camels, tigers, monkeys, and more. it's crazy but the kids absolutely love it.

jose and i in our matching tshirts...his is from patrick boyd! he was so excited to wear it and when he saw i had mine on too he could hardly contain himself. the simplest things bring such a big smile to his face :)

2010-04-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

nothing like diving in headfirst...we're in our new classroom, finally! the boys were in the process of moving when my mom was here, and i haven't been here for school since then. the classroom is no longer outside (my farmer's tan will definitely suffer), but inside the boys' old house. it's nice to have an actual room that isn't affected by wind, rain, or small animals!

i'm glad i'm back for the boys. they don't have someone who is with them like i am - almost all day, working intensely with them to bring out their best. i don't say that to brag, at all, but it makes a difference for them. as their teacher, it's my job to figure out how to help them learn and grow, and they thrive on that (as most kids do). as their friend, i get to love on them in all different ways...at any given time i'm a mom, sister, aunt, cousin, counselor, therapist, punching bag, or tissue :)

josue, the 8 year old who wears a helmet, had a horrible day today and it sounds like that's how he's been lately. he's been so angry. throwing chairs, kicking and hitting kids and adults, slamming doors, and being really disobedient. i'm so sad for him. when the kids hit lows i realize just how tough their lives can be sometimes. i sat with him today in a bear hug as he tried to hit and kick me, and after awhile he just gave up and got limp in my arms. it was good, eventually, but i hope we can help him so that he doesn't need to be like this anymore. pray for him, please!

2010-04-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

i'm back! dang...if you ever want to feel so much more love than you deserve, just walk up to gabriel house after being gone for a couple weeks. teddy started screaming my name as soon as he saw me and the rest of the boys raced to the gate to meet me. the first thing marcos says to me - 'hilary! hilary! i behaved very well!' it was awesome.

you know, it's funny. i was excited to get back, but until i stepped foot across the border, i didn't realize just how much i love mexico. i crossed and the smells changed, the sounds changed, and i felt different. i felt like i was home.

i'm glad to be back. it sounds like the boys are having some trouble adjusting to their new living situation, among other things, and some behavior that we don't want to see is happening. having physical disabilities and not being able to speak can lead to some frustrated teenagers. please keep them in your prayers!

2010-04-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

my beautiful mom with lidia at gabriel house :)

oh my. i'm so far behind it's overwhelming. still not back in ensenada so not a lot of pictures to post, but it was an incredible two weeks working with azusa pacific university and their mexico outreach program in ensenada and mexicali.

the camp that i was working at is located 40 miles outside of the epicenter...needless to say we felt the earthquake. i was playing scrabble inside an rv on sunday afternoon when it started shaking. someone i was with goes, 'aw someone's just messing with us and shaking the trailer.' then we looked up at each other, looked outside, and ran for the door. cars were rocking back and forth, alarms were going off, kids were crying, lampposts were swaying back and forth, and the earth was literally rolling around. it was so weird. at first it was a trembling feeling, but then it was like waves were moving through the ground. some people i was with got nauseous, and we heard that the initial earthquake lasted for almost 2 minutes. it was insane. the craziest part, though, was the aftershocks that happened all week. there were hundreds. some of them were just a couple seconds of the ground quivering, and it was hard to tell if it was an earthquake or not. other times we had to decide if it would be over soon or if we needed to evacuate the building we were in.

we went into town the next day and saw lots of damage...mostly broken store windows and some roofs that had caved in or fallen down. there was a lot of water damage from water being pushed up through the ground, but only 2 deaths.

we worked at the zoo the next day, helping clean up, and the damage there was pretty crazy. there was a new walkway that had recently been commissioned by the president's wife, and it was absolutely destroyed. just split right in half. we heard that a tiger and a hippo got out while there were 15,000 people at the zoo as the earthquake was happening. they caught them and no harm was done, but even the day after as we were walking around cleaning up there were birds everywhere who had gotten out of the aviary exhibit and were just hanging out all over the zoo grounds. it was kind of funny to see random peacocks walking around the playground...

this is at the zoo...this used to be a beautiful path meandering along the water, but half of it has fallen into the lake...and that's concrete, not dirt.

i miss my gabriel house kids so much. sonia was in the hospital but is doing a lot better and is back at gh. regular updates, i promise, once i'm back there on wednesday!

2010-04-02T14:38:00.001-07:00

it was so great to have my mom here! the kids loved her and we had such a good time.
i'm headed to mexicali to help out with the mexico outreach camp there and will be back next weekend. lots of updates and pictures when i get back!

2010-03-28T20:08:00.001-07:00

i spent friday and saturday at the ranch, helping set up and getting ready for the american teams to come on saturday afternoon. it was so fun to see the teams come...this is the 3rd year in a row i've been here for the spring trip and so it's like seeing old friends again! i recognized so many faces. it was such a great time.

i came back to gabriel house early this (sunday) morning to help the group from mexican medical bring the girls (chely, ely, sonja, thelma, and betzy) to church. i left the ranch at 6ish and as i was driving into maneadero, listening to a cd lourdes made me, the sun was rising over the mountains. the song is called beautiful, and it's about how life is beautiful with God...you can listen to it here.
it just one of those moments, you know?

and then bringing the girls to church was incredible. they hardly ever get out, so just the fact that they were outside of gabriel house was sweet, and then to be in church with everyone plus lourdes, andrew, michael, rocio, and even more people was awesome. i asked eliseo to play nina de tus ojos, a worship song the girls love. he did and they all sang along...it was precious! here's ely dancing to a different song. she did that the whole time!

after church we went downtown and got smoothies for the girls and hung out in the shade in a famous park by the flag. it was so great to be out with them, and we had so many people helping that it wasn't hard at all. i think every girl fell asleep on the ride home, and when we got back they all wanted to be in their beds. we wore them out! but in a good way :)

great news...the boys have moved! the mexmed group that came this weekend finished those last annoying details and they are sleeping in their new house! they're very excited. so are we!

2010-03-25T21:34:00.001-07:00

this afternoon, as i was getting ready to start classes, we teddy goes, 'a worm!' it was a caterpillar, and it turned out to be a great science lesson! we made a little home for it, learned that it will turn into a butterfly, that even though it looks like a porcupine it doesn't hurt...it was a lot of fun.

look how good the boys looked for church!

at church tonight, the pastor told everyone to greet the people around them. alex and jose took this literally and whizzed around the entire church, shaking the hands of every person in the congregation. it was funny but also really sweet...

headed to the ranch until sunday.

2010-03-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

i LOVE spring break! we had two more groups here today, and they were awesome. one of the guys is a professional videographer who co-owns a film company, and he's making a video for us! kind of like a who we are what we do type of thing. i got interviewed and had to talk into his massive camera while it blinked at me. it was weird. he'll put it on youtube when it's ready. woo hoo!

2010-03-23T23:06:00.001-07:00

this afternoon, i went down below to pick up the kids for preschool. josue was still in his bed resting, and he jumped up and ran to the door when he saw me. he wears a helmet all the time except for when he's sleeping and showering, and so i said, 'oh josue, what do you need to put on before you get out of bed?' and he just looked at me and smiled, and then i hear this tiny little voice from across the room say 'casco' (helmet). it was nene, and she said it in the cutest way!

i went to pastor cande's house for dinner tonight and hung out with them for awhile...lots of fun! people are always coming and going, there's always food being made, something is always happening, and it certainly is never boring.

2010-03-22T23:02:00.000-07:00

a couple of eye doctors were supposed to come today to check all of our kids. the boys and i spent the morning racing around to clean up, get the room ready for the doctors and everything, and they didn't end up coming! we didn't find out until about 11, when they were supposed to come at 10. oh well. hopefully they'll be able to reschedule.

spring break season is awesome! we had another group here today...a lot of newbies. it was lots of fun to show them around and tell them about gabriel house and all the incredible things God has been and is doing. they're coming back tomorrow...hopefully the weather will be nice and we can play outside.

COUNTDOWN TO WONDERFUL PEOPLE BEING HERE: 4 and 7 days!

2010-03-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

alex and tonio got their glasses! they were dropped off on friday morning. alex has terrible eyesight and accidentally broke his last pair of glasses when he got mad a couple months ago. it was so sad; he takes care of them so well but something made him super upset and he lost it. just for a second, but that's all it took to break them. anyways, the ones he has now (as amy says, quite possibly made by lego) are not going to break anytime soon. he put them on and his eyes got huge...i was like what can you see? and he spreads his arm out to say 'everything!' then he said he would be able to read his bible now.

today was SO INCREDIBLY SUPER AWESOME AND FUN. the boys upstairs - alex, teddy, tonio, jose, sergio - marcos, victor, joshua (angelica's son), marlin (lerma's daughter), lerma and i went downtown. i knew that i wasn't going to take anyone to church with me this sunday (time for a break!) but i wanted to do something today. it turns out today was lerma's birthday, so it was great! we headed down by the huge flag and watched the boats in the harbor for a little bit, and then headed down the path along the water to see the seals that lay out in the harbor. we walked by this guy who gives boat tours and i automatically said no, because i say no to everything that costs money except food (haha) but then i asked him how much and it was 15 pesos ($1) per kid. lerma was like, come hilary, let's do it. i did some quick math and was like oh snap! absolutely! so these guys loaded everyone - even 200 something pound victor - onto the boat and off we went. it was a legit boat tour! they took us around the harbor and faaaar out into the ocean. we saw more seals, pelicans, lots and lots of boats, a construction yard, and seals sleeping on buoys. the kids LOVED it. alex was the only one that was scared and made me sit next to him the whole time. luckily no one got sick :) teddy kept saying 'i'm having so much fun!' and victor would just burst into hysterical laughter every so often.
after the boat tour we spent a little more time walking along the path by the water, and then went to las brisas for tacos. between all of us, we ate 35 tacos. gahh! the ride home was super fun, too. we were making up these stories about the cars around us and everyone was just laughing so hard. it was an awesome day. i can't believe that this is how i get to spend my time!

here are all the pictures and videos i've taken this month, including lots more from today. or just go here and look at the 'marzo' album.

2010-03-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

angelica knocked on my door at 7 this morning...the woman who works with the boys didn't come to work, and she asked if i could cover for her. well sure! i quick got dressed and everything headed up to the big house where everyone was eating breakfast...there's really not that much of a difference if i cover a shift or am just doing school, except i have to clean, do laundry, and hang around until 7. anyways, we had a lot of fun.

ventana came for the last time today...here's some of the group. i can't believe i forgot to write this yesterday, but jose got his bike back! angel had been repairing it and has had it since december. it didn't really matter because it was rainy season and there was mud everywhere, but still. every day, without fail, when he goes inside to shower, he asks me to keep an eye out for angel. every day for months he did this! so it's nice to be off duty hahaha

i told the boys that i couldn't go for a walk with them because i needed to sweep and mop their house, put away the clean clothes, and wash the dishes from snack time. tonio told me he would sweep and mop, alex wanted to fold and put away the clothes, and jose did the dishes. i was like, wow, guys...we still won't be able to go for a walk; are you sure you want to help me? they insisted. it was awesome. they have such beautiful hearts.

all of the boys - jose, tonio, sergio, alex, and teddy - plus marcos came to church tonight. it was great. we're going early next week so we can see some baby pigs that were just born!

2010-03-17T20:17:00.001-07:00

it's official...i have a tshirt tan. i know that's superficial but this could turn ugly when i stand up in rachele's wedding in june...yikes.

anyways, ventana came again today. 8 drawers and 3 bunk bed ladders and the boys will be ready to move! they've been awesome. full of energy and always willing to play with the kids, even if they want to go for walk #5 of the morning. it's been great to have them.

i took sergio with me to the farmer's market this afternoon...every wednesday half of the city of maneadero turns into this huge market. tons of food including fresh fruit and veggies, toys, kitchen stuff, clothes, electronics...if it exists, there's a very good chance you'll find it here. he is in desperate need of shoes that fit his feet. he has super wide feet, which i think is characteristic of kids with down's syndrome. i bought him a pair a couple weeks ago that were labeled as wide, but they still didn't fit him. well. we walk into the market, and the first stand we went to had shoes that fit and were 2 bucks! it was awesome. they're not in great shape, but they were cheap and will do for now.

one week until lourdes, my brother, and michael are here, and a week and a half until my mom comes. WOO HOO!

2010-03-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

ventana came again and the kids had a lot of fun playing with them. they worked on the house some more...we are so close to moving the boys in. it's just those last random and slightly annoying finishing touches. some drawers need to be installed, a little bit of sanding and staining left...any day now. really.

marcos said the funniest thing today. he ran inside to go 'popo' and a couple minutes later came running back out. he marches up to me, taps my arm, and goes guess what. my bottom was closed and didn't want to open and the popo couldn't get out, so it's still in there.
i didn't even know what to say. i'm sorry? better luck next time? i turned to teddy for some moral support and he was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. it was so funny.

the time change has been awesome. it doesn't get dark until 7 now! the kids have a solid hour of play time outside after dinner, instead of heading straight inside because it's dark by 5:30. woo hoo!

2010-03-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

three different groups came today...it was great!
ventana, an outreach similar to mexico outreach, brought a spring break team to play with the kids and work on the boys' new house. they were a lot of fun and the kids were outside playing all morning. i think rainy season is finally over...it was legitimately hot today!
some old friends of the boys stopped by - a family with cute little kids. they stayed and hung out with the boys all afternoon. the boys really enjoyed talking with them.
some friends of ron (the grandpa who comes at least once a week, usually twice, to spend time with the kids in the big house) brought an amazing blessing by today. tons of food and diapers (we had NO smalls...), a fridge (praise God!), and in addition to food staples like rice and beans, they brought fruit. FRUIT! we get a lot of veggies donated, but i haven't seen a big fruit donation come through yet. bananas, apples, oranges...beautiful! the kids were so excited. who wouldn't be excited? fresh fruit!

i got to talk to john orozco this afternoon, the lead singer of emissary band (www.emissaryband.com). their music is on the radio in sacramento and he has a radio interview this week, so we talked a bit about what's going on here and how people can help. it was great to catch up with him and awesome that even more people will be hearing about gabriel house!

2010-03-14T21:04:00.001-07:00

what a weekend!
yesterday (saturday) was awesome. a group of more than 20 people from roca de salvacion got here at 8:30ish and got right to work. i handed them a list of things they could do, and 30 minutes later they were done with half the things on the list. they ended up filling in our rain water run off ditch, trimming the trees, washing every single window (inside and outside), building 3 sets of bunk beds, building the frames and installing the mirrors in the new house, staining and sanding the new closet, installing drawers in the closet, and playing with the kids. it was a beautiful day, so all the kids got to be outside for most of the day! oh and this was all before lunch...it was great.

the cake group that comes once a month and brings birthday cake was also with us on saturday. i haven't seen them in ages because i'm not usually here on saturdays, but they brought a girl with them, sydney, who will be here for a couple months this summer. it was great to meet her. there are going to be FIVE interns here at the same time for a couple weeks this summer...it's going to incredible!
saturday there was also a fundraiser in macroplaza (a big shopping center in between maneadero and ensenada) for us - gabriel house. it was this kind of like a huge anime convention which was...different...but awesome that they did it all to raise money and support gabriel house. there were several hundred people there, with constant performances of dancers, karaoke, and bands. we brought teddy, marcos, sergio, jose, alex, and tonio. it was insane but, like i said, really cool.

today i brought pilar, nene, marcos, josue, and ruben to roca de salvacion. it was not easy...very different from bringing the other boys. but it was still fun, and good for them to be out and about. we were able to thank the group for coming to work, and they prayed for me. that church is so awesome. they are so genuine in what they do, and are so wonderful in supporting me and being available for anything i need. they've already got all their own members, but they welcomed me with open arms and haven't let go. it's an incredible place to be, and an awesome congregation to be a part of. afterward, we went to las brisas for tacos. silly me...i figured the place would be close to empty, but there were so many gringos there they set up tables and chairs outside. luckily we found a place to sit...but it turns out the group was from canada and staying at rancho el refugio, kind of doing their own camp because their spring break didn't fall during one of the mexico outreach camps. anyways, i talked to them for a couple of minutes, introduced myself, nothing more. i was going to pay and their leader goes, 'no hilary, we've got it.' i was like, 'what? are you serious?!' and they were! it was awesome...such a blessing! it was a great way to end a busy and challenging day.

2010-03-11T21:22:00.000-08:00

teddy and martin reading to the kiddies!

sergio working hard

angelica brought alex and teddy to church with her tonight, and i came along. it's a rehab center that has a church, too, and the guys from the rehab come work at gabriel house a couple times a week. it was great because alex and teddy already knew a lot of the guys there. when we pulled up i realized this wasn't the first time i'd been there...i visited the site when i was on barnabas a few years ago. the pastor's hilarious and gave a great welcome to the boys. we'd like to start bringing a couple kids every week. you can never have too much church!

2010-03-10T19:46:00.000-08:00

marcos and nene surivived, although marcos believed the doctors were trying to kill him slowly and painfully and reacted as such. yikes. even through a closed door his shrieks were ear piercing. i just have to remember that some people have irrational, unexplainable fears of needles and i need to understand that. he was fine though; they just took a little blood and then he was on his way. nene did great...a little whimper but nothing too bad. afterwords we went to mcdonalds as a treat (thanks becky!). they were very excited and it made up for whatever they thought we were trying to do to them in the doctor's office.

pastor cande and his wife angelica came by gabriel house today to get a better idea of what they'll be doing on saturday when the group comes. it was fun for them to see everyone and talk to some of the people here. it turns out cande went to middle school with martin (a worker here)! they spent some time talking about old classmates...it was hilarious.

victor was HILARIOUS today. oh my goodness. some days he's super talkative and others he just sits and stares out the window, but today he just wouldn't stop talking! he was sitting so that he was right next to chely's head. he would look at chely, say something or make a face, and when she started cracking up he would laugh so hard. then they would calm down, breathe, and do the whole thing over again. then someone told victor to 'show me how hilary dances!' and he flapped his arms in front of his face (thank you, i'm flattered) and laughed hysterically. then they asked him how chely dances, and he nodded his head up and down as chely's tiny little arms shook up and down as she laughed so hard. he was meowing and barking when we asked him what cats and dogs did and would just burst into laughter when all of us were laughing so hard we couldn't rbreathe. it was awesome.

2010-03-09T22:48:00.000-08:00

marcos and nene have doctor's appointments tomorrow morning...they're getting blood drawn and they weren't allowed to eat after lunch today until their appointment is over tomorrow. yikes. were going to mcdonalds after the doctor!

2010-03-08T19:40:00.001-08:00

well let's see what has been happening here lately.
sunday i went to roca de salvacion...eliseo usually picks me up halfway between gabriel house and church. i texted him like an hour before the service, asking if he could pick me up. he never wrote back but i went to the place anyways and was waiting and waiting and finally was like okay they're not coming. i went to catch a bus to begin the adventure of figuring out how to get to roca de salvacion, and the first one that went by didn't stop! i was waving my arm like a crazy and everything. slightly annoyed but determined to get to church somehow, i kept waiting for a bus. 2 minutes later, caleb (eliseo's brother) pulls up. i was like, God you are just so funny sometimes.

i saw an ad for mcdonald's happy meals, but here it's called una cajita feliz - a happy little box. i think that is just the most hilarious thing.

sunday was day of the family (no one could believe that doesn't exist in the states - or does it? i've never heard of it...) and after church i went out to eat with pastor cande and his family. i was like guys, are you sure you want me here? it's day of the family! you should be with family! and caleb goes i thought you were my sister. what's going on here? cande and angelica were like please, don't even start. that whole family is just awesome.

sunday night i drove some of the ladies home - when it rains the buses stop running. i got to know las flores, their little town, very well...too well. whole roads covered in water that covered the wheels of the car as i was driving through it...trenches so deep we got motion sickness from being jostled around (and i was going SO slowly)...you get the idea. craziness. then i got up at 5:30 this morning to pick them up and do it all over again. it was rough, but then i think about the women who work here and do that every single time they come to work, whether they have a ride, or money for the bus, or not.

no classes today...it poured all weekend and everything's soaked and it's cold. i keep reminding myself that i would much rather have all this rain than snow. really.
i got to work with marcos for a long time which was great. he does so well when he works one on one - it's affirming for him and for me!

2010-03-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

awhile ago, martin told me about a standing invitation we have at the gymnasium in maneadero. every monday and friday, there's a group of senior citizens who meet at the gym for a couple hours. i'm not exactly sure what they do, but we thought that would be cool to bring the kids to hang out with them and also play in the huge gym. i wanted to bring all the boys and all the kids down below, but after the red van became too dangerous to drive (and there's no money to fix it, so it looks like all trips are on hold for at least the next couple weeks...) and the fact that they boys had been to my house yesterday for lunch, we decided it would be best to take the kids down below in the white van. nene, pilar, josue, ruben, and the two women who work with them, luz and marisol, and i loaded up into the white van and headed to the gym! the kids were so excited and kept saying everything they saw when they were in the car (store! truck! gas station! sun! tacos! people!) and they didn't even understand the best was yet to come hahaha

the senior citizens weren't at the gym but that turned out to be okay...we had free rein of the entire place. it was awesome.

we brought some exercise balls to kick around...it worked way better than regular size soccer balls because these kids don't have the best hand-eye coordination.

josue, ruben, luz, pilar, irene, marisol

then we went to a park nearby! the same one i've taken the boys to. josue and ruben were on this spinny thing the entire hour and a half we were at the park. eek.

nene loves swings...we have some where they live down below, but they don't go very high because there's a fence behind them. now if we could just teach her how to do it on her own...

here's a video... if you look on the right hand side where it says more from: hilary holbrook you'll see a bunch more.

2010-03-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

so chuy cancelled classes on thursday because it had rained the night before and supposedly it was supposed to keep raining all day long. i have been wanting to have the boys over for lunch for awhile, ever since renie suggested it.
josue (with the helmet) and i went to the store to get some sandwich stuff, and then we sat outside the bistecito and watched the cars go by. every truck that went by was like the first one he'd ever seen - MIRA! un camion! ooooooooh! (look! a truck!) it was so fun to watch him get so excited.
then the boys and marcos came over. we had ham and cheese sandwiches or pb and j...these kids eat their sandwiches piece by piece. it's so strange! first the bread, then the cheese, then the lettuce, then the ham, then the bread. yuck.
they spent some time cleaning up, which was awesome...tonio asked me if he could wash the dishes, and then alex and jose wanted to clean stuff too. it was great!

alex and jose were absolutely fascinated by the microwave.

everyone minus sergio...he was sitting at the table with woody.

i didn't put him up to this...i promise.

really...

2010-03-04T22:19:00.001-08:00

went to roca de salvacion for the thursday night service....just got back! it's late, i'm tired, and i'll catch up tomorrow. i had the boys over for lunch today and have some great pictures that i'll post :)

2010-03-02T20:25:00.000-08:00

as i'm writing this, i hear the occasional thud and clomping around of someone that could only be alex. he's upstairs, spending the night at angelica's (the supervisor) house. she has an 11 year old son, joshua, who is awesome. he loves hanging out with the boys, and they think he's just the coolest kid ever. he also has a psp, which takes it to the next level. alex has been talking about this all day, and he even gelled his hair. gelled hair = special event. church, the library, and joshua's house are some of the only things worthy of gelled hair. i'm so happy that they can do stuff like this.

we added all the march events to our calendar - lots of things are happening this month! the big brother group is coming, a group from roca de salvacion is coming to work, we're going to visit alex, jose, and tonio's sister in tecate, a group from azusa pacific is coming, jan from mex med, some of her friends, and my mom are coming, and lourdes and my brother are coming. whew! so exciting.

we had ceviche for dinner tonight. they hardly ever make it with just fish, instead, it's made with soy, tuna, veggies, lime juice, cilantro, and chile. you eat it on top of a tostada with a little mayonnaise and chile. YUM.

2010-03-01T19:58:00.000-08:00

jose, out of all the boys, is the one who loves to make up stories. and he NEVER forgets them. a while ago, a dog that lives around here ran down the steps toward my house. i was joking around and said how it was going to go in my apartment because i accidentally left my door open (not really) and alex and jose just thought that was the funniest thing ever...so i kept going. i said he was going to sleep in my bed, use my toothbrush, eat all my food, use my computer...and so on. so whenever we see that dog run by, jose just loses it, laughing so hard, and then we have to retell the story to anyone nearby, and anyone who may walk by in the next couple hours. today jose went inside to shower but left his backpack outside. he told me to keep an eye on it, in case the dog came by, and i was like, look jose, i'll do my best, but you never know. this dog is crazy. while he was inside, alex and i hid his backpack and knocked over my water, to make it look like the dog came by.

this is video is when he came back outside, and me telling him what happened.

look jose - the dog drank my water. he knocked it over. and he left with your backpack. i was too scared! i couldn't do anything. his huge teeth...he was going to bite me. he has your backpack. i'm really sorry, but i couldn't do anything. my water got knocked over, it was the dog's fault!

his laugh is priceless.

2010-02-28T19:14:00.000-08:00

another wonderful day! after 13 bathroom trips in 3 hours, a van that leaked on the inside, and rivers where there used to be roads, i can still say that :)
i took the boys and marcos to roca de salvacion, where candelario is the pastor. it was awesome. the worship is always great, and we sang a song that i had put on a cd i burned for the boys. they were so excited when they heard it and kept telling me that they have that song on one of their cds! (me - yes, i know, i made that cd for you. them - yeah, but we have this song in our house! me - awesome.)

alex stayed in the service but everyone else - teddy, jose, tonio, sergio, and marcos - went to the sunday school class, taught by abraham, the drummer and bryan's dad. it was great for them to be there, and they had a lot of fun!

there was a guest preacher this week, but i was in and out of the service checking on the kids in the class and taking them to the bathroom so i didn't hear that much of her message. we ended the service praying, and she brought all the boys up front and prayed for them one by one, just like she did with most of the congregation. lots of people came up to lay hands on the boys and pray for and with them. it was so cool to see the boys that had just been in their sunday school class laying hands on the gh boys and praying for them. the guest preacher spent a long time praying for healing for all of them - for them to be able to walk and talk. she talked about how God didn't create them to be like this, and that if we believe, if we truly believe, God will heal them.
i don't know how i feel about this. well, i guess i do. i don't think i really agree with her. and maybe it's just a matter of opinion, maybe i'm not biblically based in what i'm saying, but i believe that God created the boys to be exactly the way they are. he has a specific and unique purpose for each of us, and i think that the way they are is part of that purpose. and i'm not sure that i believe that if i believe more, the boys would stand up and walk in that very moment that my belief jumped to the next level. i feel like it lets the boys down every time this happens, because there's such a big build up to 'if you only believe enough, it will happen!' well then that just makes us feel like we're inadequate (which we are, but we will always be) and i wonder if it makes the boys doubt their God. like, if he really loved them, he would heal them. i wonder if they think that. i wonder if they know that their God doesn't love them any less because they're in wheelchairs and sign. i certainly hope they know this...and this week i'll make sure they do.
of course, i would love to see them walk and talk. but is the time for that to happen here on this earth, or are there even greater treasures waiting in heaven? they'll know someday :)

thoughts?

pastor cande invited us to stay for lunch, which was awesome! we got to hang out with everyone for awhile after the service, and then headed home. we were going to go to the flag to see the boats and seals, but had a family meeting in the car and decided it was better to wait until next week when we would have more time. it's funny - the very second i sat down in the van to drive home, i felt like i could fall asleep right then and there. i was so exhausted...but it was like instantanteous. crazy. off to bed!

some of the boys in their sunday school class. marcos = class clown. always.

marcos with bryan's pet turtle! (bryan is the 2 year old son of abraham and kristal. abraham teaches this sunday school class and plays drums in the worship band...)

dulce and sergio. best friends, as of today :)
he would NOT leave her side. i've never seen him like that with anyone! he kept wanting to play hide and seek and making her count with him.

pedro with teddy. the sweetest boy...tears streaming down his face as he laid hands on each of my 5 boys and prayed for them.

2010-02-25T19:48:00.000-08:00

a little change of plans today, since i walked up to the big house at 8:30, ready to load up the car to go to the library, and neither of the vans were in the driveway! the white one broke down (shocking) and martin was in the red one at a doctor's appointment.
we did some fun science experiments in the morning and then went to the library in the afternoon. they had to do a short book report before using the computers, which went over surprisingly well. after the library, we went to the same park we went to last week, and had a lot of fun playing in the sand.

i just found out that hanna, the intern who was here last summer and overlapped with me for about a week, is coming back for the summer! she is so amazing with the kids and just pours herself into every minute of her time here. it's so comforting (and such a blessing!) to know that even though i'm leaving, becky AND hanna will be here with the kids! God is so good.

2010-02-24T19:54:00.001-08:00

i walked up to the classroom today, all ready to work with alex and jose (we've been splitting the kids up lately), and chuy was nowhere to be seen. lerma, the woman who works with the boys, goes, 'chuy left.'
'what?!' (i thought he left, like took off and was gone forever...)
'yeah, he forgot he had his 3 day training this week.'
'ohhh. well.'
after some quick scrambling and planning on the fly, we had a great day! to this day i am still amazed at how simple things are so fun for these kids. i always use the sticker example - for awhile, a daily prize for good behavior was a sticker. every day the kids were SO excited to get their sticker, and if they didn't earn one, oh man. it was bad.
anyways, i quick made up some crossword puzzles with animal names and we had so much fun talking about different animals, spelling their names, and then doing the crossword puzzle. we also talked about the book report we'll be doing tomorrow at the library.

marisol and omar stopped by this afternoon! their parents are still doing some final paperwork and doctor's visits, so they came by one last time to say goodbye. they were SO HAPPY. not to see us...well, i mean, they were happy to see us, but it was so easy to see how happy they were with their parents. they're such a cute little family! their parents were telling me that marisol understands sooo much english and has been translating for omar. they have a book from their teacher in the states with pictures of all their classmates and have loved looking at that. such an exciting time for them! obviously its not going to be easy and perfect every minute, but they seem to be doing great.

2010-02-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

today was the honor guard competition at a nearby conafe school. there were 4 other schools there, each with a preschool and first grade class. everyone competed the same way...marching to commands and saluting the flag. the preschoolers were so adorable. i'll put some videos up later.

teddy, tonio, and marcos. omar and marisol had been practicing with us too, but they left last week with their parents!

teddy receiving our participation award!

almost everyone...

we got to take pilar, ruben, and josue with us too. it was so great! those kids live down below and hardly ever leave gabriel house...they really need a 1:1 ratio so it's not easy to take them places. both of the women down below came with us, and angelica's son joshua was with us too, so it worked out well.

i took teddy and jaime for a walk in the wagon this afternoon...it was so nice out. once again, it rained this weekend and everyone was stuck inside, so it was good to be outside.

ana, eliseo's cousin who goes to roca de salvacion, invited me over for dinner tonight. it was so fun to hang out with her! she's goes to the university and is studying psychology...bryan, her adorable 2 year old nephew, came over and we played cars for awhile...after dinner we met up with eliseo and hung out for awhile.

tomorrow we'll have normal classes, and then thursday we go to the library again! i'm going to try to get across the idea of a book report...we'll see how that goes :)

2010-02-22T22:53:00.000-08:00

no classes today - tomorrow is flag day.
the boys and i finished up a project that we started last week in school...we had collected all different kinds of leaves and flowers, and then spent that day categorizing them all different ways. we pressed them, and then today laid them between wax paper, ironed it down, made a construction paper border, and taped them to the windows. so pretty!

we practiced the flag thing that we're doing tomorrow; still not sure what it is, where it is, or how it's going to work, but great! an adventure lies ahead hahaha

eliseo and i figured out yesterday at lunch that we both love the tv show glee, and since neither of us had classes today i went to his house in the afternoon and we watched 4 episodes! i stayed for dinner, and we had shrimp and octopus soup. like legit octopus...purple, with tentacles and everything. it wasn't bad at all. just not what i'm used to!

2010-02-21T18:31:00.001-08:00

so friday, i was in the kitchen with the kids at lunch. jose looks at betzy (the newish girl who was really skinny but is doing great), examines her hands, and realizes she isn't wearing her hand braces. he calls over the woman who's taking care of her, and show her that betzy isn't wearing her braces. the woman goes, 'ah, thank you jose! i forgot!' and goes to get them and puts them on betzy.
you are the MAN, jose!

at roca de salvacion today, eliseo sat next to me, which meant he wasn't going to lead worship like he always does. i go, 'eliseo, you're not singing?' he says, 'no, i haven't behaved myself very well.' 'what??' i said. 'i'm kind of a rebel.' 'and this is your punishment,' i said. yep...
in the class, we were talking about times when we haven't been allowed to enter a certain place for whatever reason....age, clothing, whatever. angelica, cande's wife, asked if that had ever happened to me, and i go, 'no, not that i can think of.' 'really?' she asks. i said, 'i just have to smile and they let me in...' ooh let me tell you no one thought i was capable of something like that. they knew i was kidding...i made that clear...but oh boy it was hilarious!
pastor cande announced that the congregation is coming to gabriel house on march 13 to help with the new house. they're going to spend the day working in whatever way they can. that is so awesome! i'm excited.

after church a bunch of us went to a chinese buffet (let me tell you, the only food in ensenada is mexican or chinese. nothing more, nothing less. and there's chinese food on literally every corner. well, either a church or a chinese restaurant. it's crazy!) we were there for like 3 hours...eliseo was eating the whole time. not kidding. it was really fun...i hardly ever hang out with people my age like that. then went to watch josue (pastor cande's son, eliseo and caleb's brother) play soccer. i got back, hung out with the kids for a bit, and now need to go get ready for the week!

2010-02-18T19:35:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

at the library!

the librarian telling us a story...as librarians do...

alex and jose watching some guys play soccer...on a basketball court.

notice the wheelchairs, abandoned in the background. love it!

2010-02-17T20:06:00.000-08:00

well, today was emotional.

we spent the whole day waiting for omar and marisol's parents to come. after school we played outside for awhile, and eventually everyone stopped playing and we all just stared at the road, getting excited whenever a car was headed our way. i tried to get everyone to play with the kite, or soccer, or something...but no one was interested. omar started getting frustrated before dinner and was crying, and he just kept saying, 'i want to go with my parents, i want to go with my parents...'
at one point he was staring at the road, tears streaming down his face, and goes, 'no puede ser.' (it can't be.) i was like, oh sweetie, they're coming! i promise!

during dinner they just lost it...a whole day of waiting for something like this wiped them out. they were crying, and so i told them that they could come to my apartment and play for a little bit, while we waited for their parents. we ended up making cookies and popcorn. well, after 2 minutes they got bored so i made the cookies while they played, but whatever hahaha. it took their mind off of waiting for a little bit. they went back to their house to shower, and while they were getting ready their parents came! they were so excited. i can't even describe it. they flew up the hill to the big house and ran inside and jumped right into their arms. it was so wonderful...this is going to be so good for them.

i just feel really sad for marcos. he's the only one left down below who has hiv and nothing else, and he has never taken the leader role like marisol and omar did. marisol especially was a great helper; everyone called her mom. i hope that this will be a chance for marcos to step up and help take care of the other kids he lives with who have down's, epilepsy, and emotional issues. he's a great kid, but omar was his best friend. and now he's gone! pray for him, please. pray for comfort, peace, and understanding as his life is going to be very different.

2010-02-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

marisol

omar

this is why i love josue. he counted 1-2-3 so everyone would know when i was taking the picture...at least he got the memo! you know what, though, if all of them were looking at the camera and smiling it would be wierd and unnatural and i wouldn't like it!

two things about this weekend that i forgot to write:

my devos on sunday, the day the boys went to church and the park, started like this: give yourself fully to the adventure of today. ha! how fitting.

saturday morning i took the beastly van for a test drive and went to the ranch! dan and ivey had some wheelchairs for us, and another guy who was there gave me 5 garbage bags full of clothes. it was great to see dan and ivey, and the pole barn is coming along great. it's beautiful...simple, but you can tell thought was put into every detail, and it's got a lot of mexican influence in the colors and design. it's going to be a school for orphans someday! exciting stuff.

today we got some HUGE NEWS. marisol and omar, who have been in the adoption process for years (literally) are leaving TOMORROW. like, tomorrow! it's so exciting. they are going to be missed a lot, but everyone is just so happy for them. i can't wait to meet their parents!

here's a video of marisol and omar talking about leaving...

dinnertime craziness...

thelma, in perfect rhythm with the music, dancing AND eating at the same time!

2010-02-14T20:38:00.000-08:00

here are tons more pictures and videos from yesterday and today...

today was awesome. indescribable. unforgettable.

the boys were so excited when i came up to their house this morning...they were all in sweatpants so we did some quick 'ponte guapo' work. (i love the 'ponte' - it doesn't translate that well, but it basically means 'do this,' or 'become that,' depending on what you're saying. guapo is handsome, so essentially i was telling them to become handsome.)

anyways, we loaded up the car and prayed for safety while driving - that we would be surrounded by angels. we have this 11 year old, 3/4 ton van that is, well, let's just say it's nothing like the honda accord i'm used to driving.
we got to church with no problem - the same church that has been coming every other sunday afternoon for the past month. it was great for the boys to recognize their friends right away, and the guys were a huge help getting the boys up the flight of stairs...it was just awesome for them to be out and around people.
they're so lovable, even though they obviously have disabilities. people tend to be wary at first but after a few minutes they can tell the boys just want to interact with people. they did great through the singing (all so happy to finally see their friends paco, mimi, and noe play in the worship band) and paid attention through the sermon, asking me to help them find the bible verses that martha was preaching about.
other than the fact that jose, alex, and tonio had to go to the bathroom at the exact same time, it went really well!

then we loaded up and headed to a park - the one we used to eat at when we worked at 17 de abril - and had lunch. it was an absolutely gorgeous day...worthy of sunscreen! we were just all so happy to be outside, out of wheelchairs, in the sunshine...there was a playground at the park so we went and played for awhile...sergio, who is deathly afraid of dogs the size of teacups, ran to the tallest slide and flew down that thing, and was either doing that or making paco push him on the swing the entire time we were at the playground.
it wasn't wheelchair friendly (of course) but the boys had fun watching all the other kids play. i got them on the monkey bars, thinking that since they're so good in their wheelchairs they could do the monkey bars, but they were too nervous. we'll keep trying.
teddy went down the slide a couple of times and then we found this crazy (and slightly dangerous) twirly thing...you grab a metal bar and run in a circle and then pull up your feet up so you're swinging around and around...the boys thought it was hilarious because sergio and i would tumble to the ground every time we stopped swinging...
the playground wasn't good for wheelchairs, but surrounding and cutting through the park were beautiful, wide open sidewalks (it's funny how you see things differently and appreciate them more when you're with a certain population...)we walked and rolled around a couple times, made friends with a police office, bought all the water at a little snack shop in the middle of the store, and watched traffic (including a fire truck!) go by.
we loaded up to go home, and the first thing teddy says is, 'thanks for taking us to the park, hilary.' i was like you are SO WELCOME! and we are so doing this again. very soon.

2010-02-14T19:08:00.000-08:00

so its carnaval week in ensenada...it's huge. i had no idea...i've never been here in february. rocio and i went to the parade on saturday, and it was a couple hours long with a steady stream of motorcycles, classic cars, floats, dance companies (it's like how people in the states play town sports...this is their town sport. everyone and their brother belong to some dance school somewhere), and random clowns and semis pulling djs. the boulevard, the main road that the flag is on and that parallels the ocean, was PACKED. i have never in my life seen so many people downtown. they closed one side of the road and before the parade, the police came through on motorcycles to thin the crowd so that the classic cars could get by. they would drive up to people who were too far out in the road and turn their siren on until the people moved back. eek.

this is a kid from our old ministry site in the back, and jonathan (rocio's brother) is the monkey. he was such a HAM. oh my gosh. dancing all around, taking pictures with everyone...rocio and i ended up walking the last half of the parade with jonathan and that green bike thing...it was slightly embarrassing when people would go 'guera! baila!' and take pictures of me...i pretended i didnt understand and kept walking hahaha

when i say carnival, i mean carnival. they had all the good rides and everything...rocio and i went on a couple. it was so fun! even though she screamed for her mom at the top of her lungs the entire ride...

2010-02-12T20:16:00.000-08:00

just a glimpse at the preschool class: pilar sweeping dirt into piles of more dirt, nene carrying around her beloved sapos, and who knows what going on in the background...

today was a good day. all of our kids earned their recess (yes!) and during recess i left with angelica to get diapers with some money that was donated and in my bank account. the mexican border has changed recently and isn't allowing us to bring as many diapers or food staples that they used to...this makes it really hard to get donations down to gabriel house. it can be frustrating to know that there's food and diapers sitting in a warehouse in california but can't get to us all at once...

anyways, we made a very necessary stop for fish tacos at the best place in ensenada and bought 1600 pesos worth of diapers and wipes. woo hoo!

i had left some work for alex, tonio, and jose to do while i was gone. they are always so well behaved and love to be put to work...but i was still pleasantly surprised when i came back and they were so excited to show me that they did all the work i left for them!

after dinner, someone put music on and we had a dance party in the big house. it was awesome. sonja and ely were laughing so hard and all the kids down below and the boys were dancing too. SO FUN!

this is josue telling me ALL ABOUT his new shoes...he was very excited.

2010-02-12T07:16:00.000-08:00

ah! i totally forgot to write last night. you'd think by now i would remember hahaha

yesterday was thelma's birthday! she turned 12. i took her for a walk because it wasn't too cold...she hasn't been outside in ages. weeks, maybe months. imagine that being your life! anyways, i wasn't sure if she would think it was cold, or be scared, or whatever...but she did her happy dance the WHOLE time. it was awesome! her happy dance is very distinctive, because she usually doesn't move that much. when she's happy, she moves her head from side to side and claps, and tries to get the person she's with to clap too. it was so cute. i can't wait until its warm and the kids can be outside every day.

a couple weeks ago i noticed the kids down below and the boys had a lot of ripped clothes that wouldn't be too hard to fix...i don't really like seeing them running around in ripped clothes, knowing that in 5 minutes i could close up the holes...so i asked them to give me their ripped clothes. at first i had to beg for it, but now i have this huge pile of clothes on my kitchen table that need to be repaired! they love to watch me do it, even though it makes me nervous with the needles and pins. they have to give me at least a 2 foot bubble, even though i'm pretty sure i could teach jose and he would sew better than me :)

2010-02-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

no school today; chuy decided it was too cold.

meanwhile, while the sun was shining and the kids were hanging out outside, i worked with some of them, teaching them about their 5 senses and using popcorn to give them a hands on example of each sense.

ron, this sweet old man who comes at least once a week (everyone calls him abuelo), brought a bunch of his neighbors over today. they had a cargo van packed with donations as well as a suburban. it was awesome! i love when people come to gabriel house for the first time...it's so fun to see it through their eyes.

the librarian stopped by today...i was going to take the boys on friday, but she said it won't work this week. she felt so bad and promised that next friday we'll do it, instead. i was like, don't worry, i'll be here for a few more months! it's probably for the best, though...the cake group is coming saturday, and i'm (hopefully...) bringing the boys to church on sunday. it's going to be a full weekend anyways!

2010-02-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

read the post below first...

and then watch this video. i still laugh every time i watch it...nene is so dang cute!

marcos OUT. he tried to be so brave...but can you see the dried tears trailing down his face?

in recovery. never this calm, never this quiet :)

ready to go!

worship service after with the dentists! dr. cervantes, with the guitar, and his wife erica (next to him) are dentists in tecate with beautiful hearts...they come and give their time and skills twice a year to work with our difficult, sometimes ungrateful, and squirmy (but still absolutely wonderful!) children!

2010-02-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

so the dentists came today! i could explain everything, but the pictures do a better job.

buky, a missionary farther south in san quintin, and dave, the dental van boss man, teaching thelma how to pound it.

the dental unit!

inside - there's another chair in the back, which is where teddy didn't want to go because he knows the kids who go 'back there' come out sleeping and stay sleeping for a long time (because they got put under!)

marcos's teeth! they wanted to pull a lot more, but couldn't do too many at the same time. some people think he was given bottles of karo syrup before he came to us. we don't know what happened, but he came to us with nasty, rotted baby teeth. they didn't think he would even have his adult teeth! thankfully, he does. lots of problems still, though.

2010-02-08T21:06:00.001-08:00

marisol and i went for a bike ride today...well more like she rode her bike while i ran along side her. that girl has got it down! and let me tell you, riding a bike in mexico requires a lot more skill than in the states. none of the roads around us are paved, so she has managed to navigate her way through potholes, random speed bumps, mud puddles, mud rivers, and the occasional ditch.

we did manage to get some work done in school today, although i'm not quite sure how because everyone is SO excited and couldn't stop talking about the dentists coming tomorrow...

2010-02-07T18:18:00.001-08:00

well, i didn't take the boys to church today. i was all ready to go...packed the lunches...bought sunglasses for them...made cookies...
they knew that if it was raining and/or the red van wasn't back from the shop we wouldn't be able to go. luis pulled in with the van at 7:30 this morning, and the sun was shining, and i was psyched. i walked into breakfast and didn't see lerma, the woman who works with the boys. she didn't come to work today, and i can't take the kids alone because they're DIF (government) kids, and there needs to be 2 people with them at all times.

gahh. i was so bummed, i think more so than the boys! they're used to empty promises (even though this clearly was not that). i was frustrated because of all the things to go wrong, this was not one that i had thought about. but then i thought about how many more sundays there are until june, and how we'll try again next week.

i went to roca de salvacion which was awesome. pastor cande asked me to give an update on how things are going, and i was talking about how i wanted to bring some kids from gabriel house to their church for a service. instead of saying traer (bring) i said llevar (take). in english these words are more or less interchangeable, but in spanish not so much. basically i said i wanted to take 5 kids sitting in the congregation home with me. oops! pastor cande goes, traer, no? i was like oh, yes. that one. hahaha. he also told me he wants to bring people from the congregation to gabriel house some saturday to help with whatever we need - cleaning, building, etc. it will be great, especially because he's got some people who know how to lay tile and we still need to do that in the new house.

in the afternoon, a group from fuente de vida (martha's church) came to hang out with the boys. it was great. each kid was paired with one teenager and they spent the afternoon playing games, reading stories, blowing bubbles, and joking around. it was a lot of fun.

i'm feeling kind of bleh. a lack of drive, i guess. i don't know what's going on, but i know that i'm feeling kind of lonely and spiritually down, too. i really need your prayers.

2010-02-05T20:34:00.000-08:00

marisol learned how to ride a bike today! we had gym and then recess, so she spent a solid hour and a half getting the hang of it. we got 2 bikes for christmas - one with training wheels, and one without. she mastered the one with training wheels but with the unpaved streets and huge potholes it wasn't too easy to make the jump from training wheels to no training wheels. someone else was using the other bike, so she picked up the one without training wheels and i helped her get started. i would hold on to the back and run with her and try to let go when i thought she wouldn't fall....i had a flashback of my dad helping me learn how to ride a bike! and then when she started getting it on her own i was SO PROUD of her. she just never gave up and after an hour and a half pretty much had it down! it was very exciting and she was thrilled.
here's a video...

this is tonio and his story from a couple days ago. it was not easy for him but he did a great job!

jose and alex working together. jose spends a lot of time writing the same 6 or so letters with his stencil and doesn't usually want to do anything else. one of the men who works here has become his adopted 'dad,' and so i asked jose if he would rather write a note to luis asking him to buy a lollipop or something. he was SO excited and decided he wanted to ask him to buy a motorcycle too. this is what that note said: papa, please buy me a motorcycle and a lollipop. love, jose. alex helped him find the right letters; it was precious!

marcos skyped with becky (used to work here but is in costa rica at language school and will be back in may) tonight and he came to my house to talk to her! he was very distracted but was so cute talking to her.

2010-02-04T20:12:00.001-08:00

well, the cars are a no go, at least for this week. they're doing something in ensenada on sunday to help one of the guys whose son is in the hospital. he asked me to come back next week to plan a time for them to come, because they want to be able to bring the really nice cars from ensenada and a snack for the kids. he kept saying they want to do it the right way. so nice! i hope he follows through...the kids will LOVE it.

this afternoon i went to maricruz's house for a party. she works here and invited me a while ago...i totally forgot about until i asked someone this morning and found out it was today! she's a single mom with 5 kids and lives in a 2 room house with no electricity. we got there at about 5, and she goes oh no! everyone just left because it was getting dark and we don't have electricity! it was a little awkward at first but after her kids realized i spoke spanish they were hanging all over me. literally. one was playing with my hair, one was sitting on my lap, one was holding my hand, and the other two were sitting at the table telling me jokes. it was hilarious. they kept asking me to take them to the states until i explained how much snow we have in new york. it's so fun - i used to be able to only ask kids how their name, how old they were, and if they had brothers and sisters or not. now i get to tell jokes with them! except i need to learn more...i only know one.
what did one traffic light say to the other?
turn around; i'm going to change! hahahaha

2010-02-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

i spent the morning at the immigration office...yikes. i shouldn't have let me visa expire, but it's not like i did it on purpose. i'm convinced it was my spanish that saved me and made them be just a little bit nicer...
the immigration officer asked me how old i was, and when i told him 22, he goes, 'and how could you forget to check your visa's expiration date?' and i said, 'look buddy, i've got almost 40 kids. there are a lot of things in my head right now.' he laughed and then we became friends. kind of.

it was a fun afternoon...the preschool kids were so cute today. josue went with his mom to the doctor, and to have one less kid made suuuuch a difference. i LOVE josue but it was noticeably different without him.

yesterday i was at the boys' house after dinner and somehow we got to talking about how God is coming back someday soon. i think we were talking about the earthquake in haiti and i said 'God's coming back, you know.' and teddy goes, 'no. no he's not.' and i was like oh snap - sunday school here we come. we talked about how everyone needs to hear God's word before he will come back, but how that has almost happened. teddy asked in a really quiet voice if there would be soldiers, and then i got into explaining what will happen after He comes the first time, while keeping it pg. i ended up reading a story from revelation to them from a kid's bible we have here, and we started talking about heaven. i was telling them that whatever they dream of doing, they'll be able to do in heaven. or they'll do something even better that we can even understand right now. alex asked if he would be able to ride a bike, and i was like, 'yes! and you'll walk, and dance, and sing, and talk, and all of that!' and then we talked about how rosa, who died almost a year ago, is in heaven now, doing all of that stuff. it was great to be able to talk like that with them. they were so eager to hear it. i LOVE the kid bibles we have here...it makes the bible a lot more accessible for them.

on the micro yesterday i was sitting next to a man who had a 5 gallon bucket full of bloody, severed fish heads. they smelled delicious. really.

tomorrow i go to talk to the man with the classic cars to see if he can come on sunday. if he can, great. if he can't, i'm taking the boys to church with me! it's going to be awesome.

2010-02-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

we made some good gains with alex, jose, and tonio today. alex and tonio wrote their own stories! they're not able to write independently, so sounding out every word makes their stories that much better. i asked them to bring their stories to lunch and have at least 2 people read them and they were SO excited to share their stories. it was a lot of fun for them.

i went downtown to get my visa renewed this afternoon and after an hour long bus ride and 20 minute walk i found out they closed half an hour before i got there. grr! i'm going back first thing tomorrow morning so i can be here legally. eek!

2010-02-01T19:01:00.000-08:00

i walked into lunch today and saw this: thelma sitting at a table, by herself, FEEDING herself. you may not understand. this is just huge. she is perfectly capable of feeding herself, but she can make a mess and it's a lot faster if someone else feeds her. but it's waaaay better for her to feed herself, obviously, especially since she CAN! there are lots of things that are worth fighting for at gabriel house, things that you could drive yourself crazy fighting for. this is one of the things that i tried fighting for but gave up after awhile. i had started trying to be the one to feed thelma and i would help her feed herself. i don't know if the ladies saw this, or if they just decided to let her feed herself, but AWESOME. so happy.

i went to calimax today and brought sergio with me! it was so fun. he loved to be out but was scared of some things. think about the world through the eyes of someone who rarely leaves his own cul de sac. this is him on the bus. we bought stuff to make ice cream...

adele bought us an ice cream maker...that purple ball. we put ice and rock salt in one end, and milk, vanilla, and sugar in the other end. then we played with the ball for half an hour. it was deeeelicious. and they had to work for their treat!

here are some videos of the ice cream madness...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1nl_PYCP18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmsHO3VeBJA

i had a great talk with renie about some things, which was an answer to prayer. i also talked to a guy who owns a shop nearby about bringing his classic cars to gabriel house, which he might do on sunday! i'm going back on thursday to talk to him. aaaand i found the public library, which was closed today because of the holiday, but is surrounded by a great park with wide walkways (perfect for wheelchairs!) and well shaded. i finally got my driving insurance, and so we are going to have a fun couple of months going different places!

2010-01-31T19:01:00.000-08:00

whew! what a weekend. saturday morning, instead of the class that we usually have, we went to a woman's house to help with the kid's class. mimi, david, martha, davisito, and leti did a muppet show about noah's ark. it was funny, and the kids loved it...
then we went to a park (and by park i mean concrete slab) and played soccer for awhile with the kids from the class. it reminded me so much of vbs at our old ministry site!

i went to roca de salvacion this morning and it was awesome (as always). pastor cande talked a little bit about his trip to new york (where he saw my parents!) and how great that was for him and his wife. he mentioned how our church is more than 250 years old, and iw as thinking about that later...this september mexico is celebrating its 200th anniversary. a church that's 250 years old, then, is really old if you're in mexico!
in the young adult class, pastor cande's wife, angelica, was talking about when jesus entered the temple and became angry because people were using it as a marketplace. she was saying he was mad because it was a holy place, it was supposed to be...and then couldn't think of the word she wanted to say. i said 'santificado' and she just looked at me and goes, 'yeah!' they still don't believe that i can understand as much spanish as i do. it's so funny!
then we went to lunch downtown in this mexican place that was packed. that's always a good sign...the food was delicious. tostadas, enchiladas, flautas, posole, and hibiscus water...

then eliseo, the pastor's son, was going to drop rocio and i off at a park to hang out (there's always singing and dancing in parks on sunday afternoon) but ended up staying with us. we went downtown by the flag, where apparently every sunday there's a clown show at the harbor. eliseo is scared of clowns so he kept his distance, but rocio knew them somehow (she knows everyone) and when one of the clowns came by asking for money, he said hi to her and she introduced me. he asked where i was from, and when i said new york he got super excited and went to tell his clown friend. eliseo and i slowly started sneaking away because i knew he was going to do something embarassing...but he caught us. he goes, 'everyone, meet my friend from the homeland!' and he ran after me and gave me a big hug. it was funny.

while we were there i saw this kid that i ALWAYS see...he was in a kids camp skit several years ago and lived in washington for awhile so he speaks english. he's been to kids camp every year since then, and last year i saw him in april at a site iwas visiting with barnabas. then i saw him a couple months ago at a youth group in porvenir. crazy! he thinks i'm so weird because everytime i see him i get so excited and expect him to remember me...he's like 15 so i'm sure i embarrass the heck out of him hahahaha.

we went back to the park and watched a band...usually it's just older people singing traditional (and i mean traditional) mexican music, but today there was a band of younger guys singing a different type of music...easier to dance to! it was a huge band - drums, trumpets, euphoniums, singers, a tuba, and a clarinet. it was lots of fun.

no class tomorrow, because it's a national holiday. the signing of the constitution, i think. i'm going to talk to renie about taking the kids to a park this weekend. can't wait!

2010-01-29T16:52:00.000-08:00

omar making sure he gets every last bit of chile from his bag of chips...

i worked one on one again today...very exciting for the kids. it's fun to be able to give them specific praise when they are working with me as well as constructive criticism. every kid would learn better in a 1:1 setting, though, wouldn't they? :)

omar and teddy earned their trip to the store today after proving to me that they could correctly count money and buy things in our classroom store. i've taken them to the store tons of times but this time they knew it was for something special - something they earned. lots of fun.

marisol found a dog yesterday while we were walking that has become her new best friend and she talks about it all the time. she knows it misses her and wants her to live at gabriel house :)

2010-01-28T18:22:00.000-08:00

it was a great couple days in the states, but weird to be back to soon. i met up with krista, my college roommate, and hung out with her on tuesday. that was so fun! then yesterday i got a bunch of work done for school. i also had the opportunity to talk with jan at mexican medical for a long time, which was great. she gave me some great counsel and helped me to figure a lot of things out.

chuy was at his monthly conafe retreat today, so i worked with the kids for half an hour each all day long. it was great. i feel like i can get so much more done and they are so much happier when it's a 1:1 setting.

i walked with marcos and marisol today, and marcos was trying to convince me to buy him a dirtbike. he had seen some drive by and i tried to explain that they were a lot of money. he goes, 'like 100?' and i go no, a lot more. and he says, 'whoa, like 110?' and then he told me becky had a lot of money and would buy him one. hahaha! kids. hilarious.