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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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!

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!

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!