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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!!

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!