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.

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!

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 :)

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...

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 :)

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 :)

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!