House Update...

Even as I wrote that title, I realized that I am missing a photo of our newly painted kitchen and dining area [splendidly accomplished by our friends from Hungary]! So... these are a few updates, but not all... :)

The above photo is what our living room area now looks like... after getting my desk and bookshelf out of my room! It is seriously such a huge desk... and now my room feels incredibly large; but I like having the desk in the living room with the kiddos... and they informed me that they liked it a lot, too!

My room... pre-tile, pre-paint, pre-holes filled, pre-choking red dust, pre-sleeping on the couch for a week... ;)

[it's a super-comfortable couch, though!]

The crack in the bedroom wall; the team from Gridley (who helped with most of the renovations in my room) cleaned it out (where they found a dead lizard crushed and stuck in the cement... sort of gross), and then Joel re-plastered over it [I hope that's the right terminology! :)].

The black-widow-stopping candle in the wall [please refer to earlier blog post if you're confused]...

... filled in with foam!

The bathroom... pre-tile, pre-paint.

And... operation in progress. :)

A couple of the men thought the tiles might not stick to the cement, so they ground it up first... which caused A LOT of red dust... ;)

Check out the red paint/dust in these guys' hair... ay, no.

And... tiling!

[the hope is that the ants won't be able to come up through this as easily!]

After tiling, the team started priming and then painting. Two years ago I had chosen a color to paint my room, but then never used it for various reasons. I honestly couldn't remember exactly what the color was... and when we opened the base coat can, I thought I might have to vomit.

Seriously.

The above photo shows the hideous pink color that it was, and Ginny Wulf modeling it -- I think she "liked" it as much as I did! ;)

Relation -- through some strange and incomprehensible [for me] genealogical channels! Actually, I really enjoyed these ladies: (l-r) Lucy, Norma, and Ginny.

Norma had a little bit of a "love war" going on with the female single staff. It all started by a simple little crossing out of the heart she hung on the wall... and it was on. :)

I'm pretty sure Norma delighted in the pink color of the room...

... and helped decorate by taping all these little hearts up.

How sweet.

Are you sick to your stomach, too??? ;)

The finished product... sort of. :)

Jon & Amy are here visiting right now, and are staying in my room, so we made my twin into a king-size... ;)

Another view...

The other direction...

And... the new bathroom!

I am so thankful for all the work that was done... the Gridley team, Joel, Gale & Sonia, Jenna, and even my kidlets! :)

Please pray for our kids and staff right now; that God would be glorified through all that we do, and that He would teach us to rely upon His strength, embracing His light instead of Satan's darkness. Pray that He would reveal Himself to us and use us how He desires to work in the lives of these kids. Thank you!

The Birthday Girl...

... turned 5 on February 10th!

Here she is (above) with her [of course] Dora birthday cake and the other angel food cakes we took down to the dining hall for the birthday meal.

It's hard to believe that she got here at 14 months, malnourished, not walking, and still such an infant... and now she's an active, content (usually :), blooming young girl...

Praise the Lord! He is good!

Juan-tan has the same birthday, and so they have celebrated together the last few years; I really wanted to find this "perfect man" doll that Joan got me a few years ago to put on Juan-tan's cake. You squeezed it and it said things like, "Honey, I'll turn in here and ask for directions." and "You take the remote, tonight... I just love being with you no matter what we watch." etc.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find it... so I used a monkey. :)

I love this photo of Candi... the expression on her face is adorable!

It makes me think of that shy wonder that [I believe] every girl/woman feels when she is loved and cherished (or maybe when she wants to be a princess!)... I pray that she learns to feel that from her heavenly Father!

And... the smooch!

Right after the face-plant, of course. :)

Turns out that angel food cake is maybe the best option for not getting lots of frosting squished up your nostrils... ;)

Candi and her gifts... please take note of the LARGE PLASTIC MRS. POTTS!

(which I thought was infinitely better than the rest of the toy section, which only had tea sets with already fake-filled teacups... come on! I mean... if you have a tea set, you have to be able to spill it all over the floor and all over yourself. That's a must. :)

And just for an example of tea-time...

I promised Candi that we would have a tea-time date the morning after her birthday... so we did!

Hot chocolate, apple cider, and Milk Duds instead of tea and crumpets... whatever works, right? ;)

(No, I didn't send her to school with hair like this... that was the result of some after-school wrestling and tickling on the couch... :)

Action shot... :)

Candi then decided it would be really great to put the Milk Dud's IN the hot chocolate... so I let her finish off that experiment... ;)

And... what can I say?

She might one day learn to drink tea properly... probably not from me! ;)

We have a new girl on campus named Anahy who is twelve years old. She is being cared for by Jodi, so please keep both of them in your prayers. We also have several visitors and some more coming here at the end of February... please pray for edifying times of communion with family and friends! Thank you!

Picnic on the Montecito

The other evening, Jodi and I planned to take the kids up to this small mountain (large hill?) about ten minutes from the orphanage. We've gone there several times for sunrise services, sunsets, etc. and it seemed like a good night to do it!

This was Jodi's reaction upon arrival:

Tarzan-ing it, yodeling like a wild woman, and beating her chest like King Kong.

I'm just thankful I got a picture of it... ;)

We had an unexpected pleasure at the top since apparently the electrical tower had been replaced and then just left to become the coolest, rust-covered, orange, mammoth-of-a-jungle gym ever for a few CVE kidlets... :)

We took "dinner" to the montecito as well... Mexican hot dogs!

I think the kids and I might start a search for the perfect hot dog in Magdalena... these were good, but not the best I've ever had.

Yes... that statement from a former vegetarian.

Oh, how the mighty are fallen. ;)

Estefania seems to be adjusting well and she was going after this hot dog like nobody's business...!

I am so thankful, once again, that she is here... please continue to pray for she and Jodi [her caretaker].

Marcos... also thoroughly enjoying his hot dog!

Eduardo... cramming in a mouthful!

I think [as you can see in this photo] the bread is what REALLY makes the hot dog; I will never be satisfied with store-packaged hot dog buns again... :)

We are fortunate to have donations from the Midwest Food Bank and so I am totally grateful for everything that gets sent down. That is totally prefacing my next statement which is: sometimes the packaged food, juice, etc. is just a little out of date... and leaves an interesting looking residue in the bottom of the bottles... :)

Hence... Aaron's expression.

He was not impressed. ;)

On the other hand... they still taste good when you shake them up a bit!

Aren't the colors beautiful in the above photo? :)

I may not be a Sky Squaw like you, Tif, but I enjoy the sunsets and sunrises here, too!

And... who was the mom who forgot to make her kids wear jackets???

That would be me. Oops.

And turns out we live in a desert and it gets COLD at night. Brrrr.

So... I ended up shivering while Candi snuggled up in my sweater... oh to be young and coddled again! ;)

Please pray for continued wisdom; it's amazing how we [as in I] can become so lax with some very basic obedience issues... forgetting that bad habits of disobedience learned while children can totally affect our obedience to the Father later on in life. Please pray that God gives me patience and wisdom to instruct these kids in righteousness for HIS name's sake.

Snapshots of the Vida...

So I had some different photos on my camera that I wanted to share, but they didn't all flow into individual posts... entonces, a few brief updates in one!

[I seem to have done this a lot these past few months... :)]

The above photo was during a photo shoot for our "wall photos" in the house. I have been super-behind in getting the new ones ordered, but... thankfully... that should be easier now that I actually took the pictures! ;)

I don't know why this is upside-down; sorry.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we had some cold weather... I stuck my trusty "The First State Bank 'Your Hometown Bank' Kiowa, Kansas" clock/calculator/temperature guage outside on the sill and it read 17 degrees; that's cold for Magdalena, Mexico!

And this... was Diego's get-up for school: two pairs of pants, long-sleeve shirt under the school uniform shirt under two jackets, a ski cap (sort of... more of a beanie-type thing) and a scarf tied ninja-style around his mouth. :)

More cold weather: Candi standing inside the ice ring that formed where we had the outside faucet running so the pipe wouldn't freeze and burst!

Wrestling with the Hungarian... was really fun to watch!

The night before Samuel continued on his trip he came to our living room and played/wrestled with the boys... dressed as ninja clowns, of course!

Diego and Aaron with their prisoner...

... probably jailed for wearing such a ridiculous outfit. :)

I am so grateful that Samuel took the time to do this... the boys loved it, and it will stick in their minds for a long time!

Yet another picture that is sideways... oops.

So... this is the BLACK WIDOW spider that was in. my. room.

Did you read that correctly? Let me write it again...

So... this is the HUGE, NASTY, SLIGHTLY-DISTURBING BLACK WIDOW SPIDER that was IN. MY. ROOM.

Yuck. Seriously... how dare she??? :)

I found this after Joel had caulked the holes in my room [which is falling off the rest of the house... seriously] and I imagine the poor, little, nasty, poisonous thing was just looking for someplace warmer. Well... she will now be looking elsewhere or be rotting. After snapping the photo, I quickly sprayed Lysol (I had no bug killer, okay?)... lots of Lysol... into the hole, then dug around with scissors trying to slice her to pieces, and then I shoved a candle in the hole so she couldn't come back out.

Safety first, right?!? :)

Please pray for the work team that will be here from Gridely, IL and for God's guidance in legal matters concerning the kids' birth certificates. Thank you!

The Fantastically Fierce [Bamboo] Forest

Yesterday was an official day off from school (Constitution Day weekend, I think) here in Mexico and so the kids and I just had a pretty relaxing time! As with most "free time" periods we headed back to the "sticks" -- bamboo sticks that is, which constitute our "forest!" :)

This was on the way out... Candi couldn't [naturally] leave her bear behind, and Marcos couldn't [naturally] help her carry it in a normal fashion... ;)

Aaron & Diego immediately started "building" and wanted to know if I cared that they moved a "bed" to their new tree house. I told them I didn't mind only to hear and see them come back panting and sweating from the exertion... they really moved an actual bed (not just a figurative one like I thought!) to their new home. Ay, no!

Above, Aaron carrying the new "walls" of their house...

... and Diego helping!

These two work together and play together really well; as long as they aren't fighting like brothers! ;)

Candi sometimes gets left behind with the "anciana" [that would be me, just for clarification... it means "ancient woman" :)] when her brothers are off gallivanting and conquering bamboo sticks; however, she is learning to be more and more adventurous!

For instance, she climbed up on this rotten tree stump and was amusing herself by climbing up and down, up and down, up and... ouch! She snagged her foot, slipped sideways, fell off, scratched her leg and knee and hand, and... terror of all terrors... got her [already] dirty pink capris even dirtier... ;)

Don't let me deceive you... she is NOT a girl who stays out of the dirt; on the contrary, it's rare for her (okay... us) to be "super clean" in general... [grin].

I let Candi have the camera and she decided to "pose me"... this was what she wanted!

What can I say?

She obviously wants to show my best side... ;)

A self-portrait by the young photographer...

Bat-boy/Robin Hood!

Marcos is demonstrating what all the boys have been fascinated with lately... bows and arrows! And I have to admit that it's been fun to watch all of them finding different sticks, bamboo, etc. that will work for the best bow and arrow ever, man. :)

Aaron & Diego in front of their new home!
[I was informed that the next picnic/hangout time should be held in this place!]

*Please notice the "stone-lined" path leading up to their front door! Cute, very cute.*

And this... is why Candi will be a tomboy!

She's got to keep up with those brothers, ya know? ;)

Diego perched on his new lookout place...

...which every house requires, of course!

It was a nice day... and I'm grateful for times like these; they help us with our "shared experiences" and story-telling! ;)

It's warmed up again and we're back to school! Please continue to pray for the kids, teachers, and mentors as we continue balancing education with spiritual, physical, and mental needs of our children. Thanks!