woo hoo! crazy rain today. all of the water that you see is covering a road. our road. the only road to get to the front door of the big house. at least is makes for a pretty reflection of the sky...

no classes again today, but i worked one on one with almost everyone in 1st grade and preschool. it was SO FUN. the kids are always eager for one on one attention, and everyone, especially marcos, worked very hard and did a great job. it was just the encouragement i needed.

the boys and marcos and i skyped with becky tonight. she's in costa rica, at a language school for missionaries. it was so fun. they loved talking to her!

here's a video of the view from my house, and josue eating dessert.
more rain tomorrow. eek.

so all weekend people have been talking about how it was going to rain today...and i mean rain. like the strongest, most forceful rain in years. well, we kind of spent all day waiting for said rain to come, and around dinnertime it started raining, but it wasn't anything worse than what we've already had. it's funny when it rains here, because ensenada practically stops moving. people don't go out, events are canceled, plans are changed, stores are closed...it makes me realized what a rainy day actually is. we'll see what happens tomorrow; it's supposed to rain all week.

it was nice to have some extra time to play with the kids, though, because we canceled afternoon classes thinking it would rain. i got to be in the big house with all of those kids, spend time with the ladies, and help with dinner.

angel, bryan's dad, is our resident 'respiratory expert.' that's his new nickname from renie. it will be so great to have him...he's going to work alongside the ladies, teaching them how to work with our kids even better and more effectively.

other than that, nothing much to report. hope all is well in the states.

oops! totally forgot to post on friday. i was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

i spent the weekend at church, working on the new room and hanging out with people i haven't seen in a month! new life, the church from california that comes every couple of weeks (!) to work on the room, was here again to paint. the room is looking great. i'll take a picture of it next week...when i got here it was 3 walls and nothing else, and now it's got a roof, another wall, windows, and is painted! it was good to be back at church and see everyone. kerly, david and adriana's 1 year old daughter is just as adorable as when i left, and now she knows the motions to some songs...it's so precious.

angel is here! he has a 9 year old son, bryan, who was born 3 months early and weighed 2 pounds. he has cognitive impairments, a seizure disorder, and cerebral palsy. his dad has been his only caretaker for these past 9 years...he uses a feeding tube, is almost always on a nebulizer, and has a trach tube. angel is a welder, and would bring bryan to job sites, use the electricity to keep his machine running, and work. he was working in the states and took classes to learn how to take care of bryan, but was there illegally and got sent back to mexico when immigration found out about him. he has a great spirit but seems tired...i hope we can help him rest a bit. the plan is to have him work and live here at gabriel house while he teaches the ladies how to take care of bryan. the plan is not for him to leave bryan, but rather to help us as we help him. he seems like a good guy... i hope this works out.

i just found out that two hope students died in a plane crash today. one was an exchange student from kenya who wanted to be a missionary pilot and the other was in my roommate's small group and was one of those girls who did EVERYTHING and did it perfectly. gahh. life is so fragile.
this is a good time for hillsong...
no weeping, no hurt or pain no suffering
You hold them now You hold them now
no darkness no sick or lame no hiding
You hold them now, You hold them now.

both 1st grade and preschool had a lot of fun today with hearing themselves talk...we used these things that look like retro phones to practice our sounds. the kids speak into them and their voices are directed right into their ears, so its fun to use but also serves a purpose because their voices are magnified. marcos, who has some trouble speaking, was able to spell a lot better when he said the words he wanted to write into the phone. he also loved to use it, which is awesome because he has the shortest attention span of anyone i've ever worked with. we practiced one syllable sounds in preschool. that was really exciting because all of our kids in preschool have the ability to talk, they just haven't quite mastered it yet. with looking at my mouth and hearing themselves with the phones, they were able to speak a lot clearer than i've ever heard before. granted, they were one syllable chunks, and it's the first day we've used them, but still...i'm going to celebrate this!

marisol brought her baby to work today...her name's andrea and she's two months old! YES.

i went for a long walk with joanna, luisa, and the kids down below before dinner. it was a gorgeous day and the kids had so much fun...we walked past some horses and down a few streets the kids had never been to before. i LOVE watching them see things for the first time, even if its just a dirt road or a store.

we were in the middle of science today when a man playing a trumpet and snare (at the same time!) and a woman playing a drum about two blocks away got the kids' attention. a woman had stopped by gabriel house to ask about something and marcos and omar asked her to tell the musicians to come to gabriel house. she did, and they slowly made their way to our classroom, the music getting louder as they got closer. the kids were enthralled. it was fun to watch them. they didn't understand, marcos especially, why they couldn't get a chance to play the trumpet. i still don't know how to say germs in spanish...



adele bought some sand timers for us - a huge one that goes for 5 minutes, and then 5 others that go for 3 or less. we used them for the first time today, and WOW. they're cool enough that the kids think they're toys (as much as i explain that no, they're things to help us, not toys) so they like to use them. it helped a lot for marcos, which i was really hoping for. i wish we'd been using them sooner!

i am just amazed and inspired by how much love these kids have. so many of them want to give hug after hug. day after day, they run up to me with arms open wide and huge smiles on their faces. and what did i do to deserve this? nothing.

beautiful.

here's a video of circle time at preschool...
ignore the singing...please. note that everyone forgot all of the words to this song except the last (and most important). :)


well, there's nothing like hitting the ground running! i jumped right back into school today, which has been going on for about a week. nothing major has changed, but the boys' house is so close to being done! the tile floors are down, and i think they're just finishing up the bathroom. cannot wait for that. the kids got some great christmas presents that they are still so excited about (it's been 2 weeks - that's a good sign!). the generosity that gabriel house saw during the christmas season was such a miracle. we finished the year in the black (gah!) and were able to give the ladies their christmas bonuses (a law here) and toys for their children, which was awesome. they work so hard for inconsistent and not a lot of pay, so anytime we can help them, we try to.
marisol, the poor girl, got her finger slammed in a door so badly that they took her fingernail off at the hospital and apparently it's split right down the middle. of course, she's the one who was in kindergarten last year and has had to play a lot of catch up with her classmates who are ahead of her. she had just been understanding the difference between chicken scratch and nice handwriting and was so proud of how beautiful she wrote...but ever since this accident she's had to write lefty. that girl is persistent, though, and never complains. renie told me yesterday that she and omar are 'so close' to being adopted. i'll miss them, but it will be so good for them!

there are a couple things i came up with over christmas break that i want to do this second half of my time here.
- take a field trip once a month, and do some pre-trip incorporation into class
- go for a walk with one or two kids each day to be able to spend more one on one time with everyone
- teach the kids money (they would rather have 5 pieces of money than 1, no matter what the value)

i went with angelica to pick up a puppy for our neighbor today...an adorable mutt that curled up in my hands...i just about took one home for myself too. we passed a park that would be perfect to take the kids to! there's a basketball court, a big grassy area, and lots of slides and swings. now we just need the manpower to get the kids there...

one last thing that i find very strange. before i left, things were pretty dead...no grass was growing, the ground was pretty dry...it looked like winter. now i'm back, and everything's alive! i have grass in front of my house; i had no idea it could grow there! so not only does it hit 70 most days, but flowers, trees, and grass are growing. LOVE IT.

i'm back! i successfully walked across the border with about 100 pounds of luggage and made it to gabriel house. it was awesome to hear the boys yelling my name while i was still a block away. i'm a little overwhelmed and way tired...it's hard to believe that i was in michigan this morning, so i'm going to unpack and head to bed. looking forward to blogging again!