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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.