The Beauty of God's World

    This morning I headed with Jaden to breakfast, as usual, and he was less than thrilled with what was on the table...a full bowl of what looks like vanilla pudding, but is a mixture of flour, milk, caramel, sugar and water.  Out of the 4 variations of breakfast including arroz con leche, oatmeal, and corn flakes (with warm milk), it is this one that is his least favorite.  Oscar says they make it on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so I let him know he would only be eating this twice more before we leave.

   Kaylyn spent the morning working through 2 girls' hair in the Chosa with the toddlers, pulling out nits and in one girl's hair she actually found a live louse (singular for lice?).  Alina had been doing this probably at an early age with the toddlers, so it was good to see Kaylyn finally catch on.  The older girls tend to check each other and go through their hair, what they call "revisar"...but the toddlers are at the mercy of the older girls who care for them and whether they do it or not probably depends on how much they have or are scratching their heads rather than it being a consistent basis of checking.

Moises

Moises and Camila

   Prior to lunch, Graciela decided that we were going to take the toddlers on a walk since the older girls had finished cleaning the Toddler House early and with enough time to spare.  As we went through the trail behind the orphanage from the Toddler House to the Area Verde (play ground in front of the orphanage closest to the front gate), the view was absolutely amazing!  We are in the middle of many mountains, and set into a mountain itself.  You just see mountains for miles, which is very different from our EXTREMELY flat state of Wisconsin.  When we got to the Area Verde, Dilmer was playing in that area with all of the small boys and Micah.  Dilmer sat down by himself and just watched us come into the area and walk out of the area, waving the entire time.

Kaylyn (in red) with Clara and Zoey with Marbella and Nathan

   Jaden spent the day washing Chino's cat, helping replace a fence and removing a tree for its wood.  In the afternoon, Cristian and his friends came up to our room once again to fix the water faucet in the sink in the bathroom.  Each day it was running a little slower and today it was pretty much only a few drips, which makes it very difficult to wash your hands.  I remember years ago, Wade telling us that there are some small particles that get into the water tank and the pipes and eventually they will clog us faucets or shower heads and they need to be cleaned out so that the water can flow better, so I knew this was the case today.  Our shower head is running just fine though.

   After supper, we all read for our half hour and then Kaylyn headed out with my pull over rain jacket to Ellie's where her, Ellie and Zoey worked on making Noe's 3 more batches of muffin mix.  I think they were chocolate chip, but I never did get to see the flavor.  He will be so excited when he gets them in the morning!

Julissa Puts Me on a Diet

    This morning when Jaden and I went down for breakfast, I had completely forgotten it was Friday...so I completely forgot to wake Kaylyn up early.  On Fridays, there are devotions and some children recite the Bible verses they have been memorizing.  Today it was the small boys turn to recite Matthew 6, and Dilmer was part of that.  Not only did I forget to wake Kaylyn (who likes me to leave the door open most days when I leave so she can now look out to the mountains from her new spot in the room for her bed), I forgot to bring my phone to take pictures.  The group from Clearwater, FL was saying goodbye to those of Emmanuel.

Kaylyn's view when she wakes

   This morning in the Chosa, more toddlers than normal had "accidents" (wet their pants).  I think that they ran out of underwear too for the kiddos because of the laundry that was running and the short supply they had after dressing the kiddos.  I may have mentioned a while back that Lydia was saying they definitely miss having the monthly containers (semi-containers) coming from the States of donations.  It used to be so easy to get items down here to not only the children, but staff and volunteers as well.  I thought I heard that Dr. Don was one of the big reasons that containers made it down here on a monthly basis, but he passed away during the time in which Emmanuel was closed off to the United States during COVID...and since then, it seems 1-2 containers only get packed and come down for Christmas.  Now if somebody needs something from the United States, the best way to try to get it here is look for the next group that is coming down and ask if they would be willing to take it for you (if you ship it to that person).

Brithany with a doll

   It would be so nice if we could get back to the days of regular containers coming down.  I am not sure, but I believe some of the kids miss Moon Pies too!

Camila's tiny hand on mine

   Jaden said that he ran errands all day with Chino, changed the water at the horse barn so Ellie could wash the horses' faces, and then cut more grass with a machete.

Kaylyn fixing Brithany's hair

Camila, Micah, Zoey, Kaylyn, Brithany, Mateo, Sara, Nachita

   This evening when we went for supper, there were only 3 bowls.  Oscar (who usually works the kitchen) was off today, which means Julissa had to remember.  Well, she did not remember than Zoey had started sitting with us to eat lunch and supper this week.  I let Zoey take my supper bowl and then went to chat with Julissa (joking of course) about how she must be putting me on a diet because she missed my plate.  She takes all in stride and we joke often, so it was all in good fun.

Kaylyn's First Bee Sting

    This morning when I went to breakfast with Jaden, we noticed that Chino was not there.  Every other Thursday is his day off but time is passing by so quickly for us down here that we simply could not believe that it had been 2 weeks since his last day off.  Without Chino, this means Jaden has to check in with Alexander first and then most likely work with Andy.

   Eva asked me to take Mateo to the clinic to see LaShawn because he was having an asthma attack, so I headed there with the little guy and was there for a while in order to get his breathing under control and then brought back a bunch of medications for Eva to give to some of the other children in the Chosa.

   Jaden spent the day watering plants at the Greenhouse and the Horse Barn.  He groomed Joshua (a horse), swept the Horse Barn, fed the pigs, reswept the Horse Barn, let the horses out, and finally at the end of the day got to have a water balloon fight with the big boys.

   When Kaylyn and I headed back to the Toddler House around 3pm (when the Toddlers wake up from their naps), we were sitting on a step and all of a sudden she said "OUCH!!!"  really loud.  Then she showed me her arm.  She had a stinger sticking out of it.  Yep, she got stung by a bee and this was the first time ever in her life for her.  Because it would have taken me longer to get my glasses out to see it to pull it out, I asked one of the bigger girls nearby to pull the stinger out.  Apparently as soon as she was stung, the bee started making circles (preparing to die) but Brithany decided to stomp it to death immediately.  Tears started forming and falling from Kaylyn's eyes, so I told her to head back to the room, clean it with our alcohol disinfectant wipes, put some triple antibiotic on it and then a bandaid.  I let her know that it was going to be sore for a few days.

   So I got to walk the toddlers to the Comedor alone, well with the girls who are in charge of the Toddler House that weren't in school.  And then I headed back to our room to check on Kaylyn.  We didn't eat in the Comedor because today was the last evening that staff would have a dinner with the visiting team until the next team comes in September.  They served noodles made up in a Hamburger Helper fashion, a salad, fruit, banana bread (it was more like a cake), and toast.  We had a good time with the team from Clearwater, FL.  They will be heading back to the States tomorrow.

Special Note:  I found out today that I have been spelling Brithany's name wrong all this time (saw her records in the office), so from here on out, I will make sure to get it right.

The Question I Always Get from My American Acquaintances

    Because nothing out of the ordinary Wednesday (see last few week's posts) happened today, I am going to discuss a question I get quite a bit from those people I come across back in the United States, whether it be coworkers, people who attend the same church as me or other acquaintances that know about my time here.  And the question is, 

HOW CAN I COME DOWN HERE SO OFTEN AND NOT END UP ADOPTING A CHILD???

   So let me take you all the way back to my decision to come to Emmanuel over some other orphanages I had researched back in 2007 and early 2008.  I knew from the beginning that this decision to use my summers (at least for the time being) to spend in a Spanish-speaking country serving at an orphanage in whatever capacity I can was what God had planned for me.  Every trip I have made since 2008 (minus 2020 and 2021 due to COVID Honduras not accepting outsiders) has been a true blessing for me and each of the family members that have accompanied me.  I have learned so much while here from working in a medical clinic to working with toddlers to teaching math in Spanish and so much more, and each year this experience leaves me fulfilled to begin my school year back in the States in a right frame of mind.  

   When I first did my research in finding an orphanage, there were 5 orphanages in 3 different countries that had garnered my interest.  I purposefully researched the ability to adopt from each of those 3 countries, because I knew that international adoption was quite expensive for me as a teacher.  Of course I am going to get attached to the kids that I work with, however as I tell those who ask, if I were to adopt every child that my heart goes out to?...my husband would stop my trips to the orphanage because we would run out of funds to do so!  And I know God's purpose for me is to serve these children in where they are right now in life.

   Anyway, out of the 3 countries, Honduras had the most rigorous requirements to adopt at the time.  In the year I researched Honduras (2007?) there were only 6 children who were adopted into families from the United States.  Adoptions from this country to the United States are rare.  If you'd like to know more about the requirements, feel free to Google "adoption from Honduras" and check out any agency's listing on those requirements.

   What I am about to say next is solely my perception...one of the biggest hindrances in adopting from Honduras is the amount of time it takes to adopt a child.  Depending on the age of any special needs of the child, the time frame from referral is 1-6 years!  And simply put, the younger the child, the longer it will take.  For many Americans, we are so used to getting what we want as soon as we want it.  Many (not all) from my generation and those younger than me no longer use time to wait and research and exercise patience in what we would call BIG decisions.  We just jump right in.  Want a new pair of tennis shoes?  Go out and buy them now, or better yet go to Amazon and you don't even have to leave your house AND they will arrive tomorrow!  We don't like "inconveniences" (things that take time) that weren't even called inconveniences 20-30 years ago.  I could go on and on, but the moral of the story is, many Americans if they make the decision to adopt get frustrated at the aspect of how long it will take to adopt from here, especially if they are particularly interested in infants.

   Anyway, back to where I first started...yes, I love the children here.  Yes, I love being here.  Yes, I feel that God calls me back here year after year to serve.  But God's purpose for me has remained steady since the late 1990s...to serve in any capacity that I can, plain and simple.  It took me around 10 years to figure that initial purpose out.  Perhaps one day, His purpose for me will change.  And when that day comes, I hope I answer "yes" a lot more quickly than I did when He initially put what I am currently doing on my heart.  💗

And the Water Gets Turned Off!

    This morning at breakfast, Elvia announce that the water would be turned off this evening at about 8pm and would stay off until about 1:00 in the morning.  Cristian had to replace some parts in the big tank at the top of the hill, and it would take a few hours.  Since they didn't want to interfere with typical daytime water usage, this was their compromise.  But it meant that everyone would need to do what they had to with their running water (faucets, showers, toilets) prior to 8pm.

   On Tuesday's I teach both 9th and 10th grades beginning at 7am, so my morning until about 10am is pretty much spent in the school.  We were working on solving systems of equations using the elimination method in the 9th grade and graphing greatest integer functions (piecewise  or step functions) in the 10th grade.  When the students went to recess, I headed up to our room to drop off my school backpack, pick up my "every day" backpack and then headed to the Chosa.  About half way there, Kaylyn met me in the road and told me that she needed to use the bathroom.  It took her a LONG time to come back to the Chosa, but when she did, she told me that she was sick once again, yep she vomited.  So she was headed back to hydrate and rest up.  I am amazed that girl can get as sick as often as she does, yet she still enjoys coming down here!  I give her lots of credit for that.

   There were a couple of members from the team in the Chosa, and Eva (who is in charge of the toddlers during the day) was sweeping the Chosa and had plans to mop it.  So April (long term volunteer, mother of Zoey and Zaiden and Micah) asked Eva if we could take the kiddos to the park just outside the Chosa so that Eva could more easily clean up the floor in the Chosa.  So that is where we headed for about an hour until lunchtime.

Carlitos in the Playset of Play System

Sara

   Jaden spent the day caring for the horses and then helping the medium boys pick up the clumps of grass left behind by the lawn mowers.  The kids generally take care of this by hand as they walk around while the older teens in charge of them typically have rakes.  Because each person here at Emmanuel plays their part, the orphanage grounds always look immaculate.  There are definitely lessons here to be learned by those of us back home as parents as and children.

   This evening the team invited staff to dinner up at the Team House.  This Clearwater, FL team is the home church to LaDonna, mother of Danielle (who is the volunteer coordinator here), so there were MANY Emmanuel staff members that showed up to dine with the team.  April and my kids, as well as Oscar, sat together at a table to eat their boneless fried chicken, rice, spicy cold veggie salad, potato wedges, fruit salad mix of cantaloupe watermelon and pineapple, and a brownie.  It was a great opportunity to get a picture of all of them!

   We headed back to our room about 7pm so that I could shower before the water went out.  Cristian had been up at the Team House and he let me know that it would actually be cut off between 8:15 and 8:30 since he had to gather up his team of 3 other guys and get the tools and get up there.  After my shower, it was cool enough for me to cover up for the night with not only the standard sheet I use, but also the flannel blanket as well.

From front left clockwise: Jaden, Zaiden, Zoey, Kaylyn, Oscar

The Bonfire

    This morning after I walked Jaden down to breakfast (and then he stays to head out with Chino), I came back and Kaylyn and I rearranged the room.  It seems her face is a place of tasty enjoyment for a "healthy" population of mosquitos during the night.  She originally thought she would like her bed right under the window, but we flip-flopped the couches and her bed, so that she would be further back in the room, not by any windows.  She still likes the view though, as when the door is open she has a great view from her bed to the mountains.

   After rearranging furniture, I worked on finishing my lesson plan on absolute value graphs for the 10th graders this morning.  It went WAY better than graphing the rational functions that we had to do last week!  I am glad that they seemed a bit relieved on how easy the lesson was.  When our class was over, I walked back up to our room to drop off my school backpack and make sure that my regular daily backpack was ready to go for the morning, and then I headed to the Chosa.

   Kaylyn told me that a bunch of team members came in the early morning and spent time with the toddlers, but by the time I arrived there was only one team member remaining.  I did not catch her name, but she told me that she is a mom to 4 boys and both her and her husband are looking into international adoptions.  She is hoping to adopt from Honduras, but has read up on many different countries adoption policies as each one has different regulations.  It is rather difficult to adopt from Honduras, but it can be done.  This lady had colorful pipe cleaners when I arrived and she was making various craft items with the pipe cleaners for the toddlers.  Kaylyn and Zoey were also making things as well.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of them (wands with stars at the end, hearts on a stick, etc).

   After lunch as the toddlers were napping, I spent the afternoon working on the answer keys for the homework I assigned to the 10th graders as well as making lesson plans for BOTH the 9th grade and 10th grade classes I had to teach tomorrow.  They start waking the toddlers around 3pm to have a good transition time to get to the Comedor for supper by 4pm.  Kaylyn and I head there to help out with that process.

   Jaden spent the day helping Ellie wash the sick cat that's in the horse barn, caring for the horses, helped with the horse classes (he did this a lot last year), running errands with Chino and moving wood to help set up for a bonfire that Chino had invited us to at 6pm.  The bonfire was a good time.  Chino got marshmallows for the boys as well as gave them juice/koolaid and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Of course being boys, quite a few of them tried playing with the fire, trying to light their sticks that they roasted the marshmallows on and then chase each other.  They didn't get very far though, as numerous adults were around, including team members to help out as well.  You can see in the pictures below what 6pm and about 6:15pm look like in terms of light.  Kaylyn and I decided to head back to our room about 7pm, when it was completely dark.  I typically shower before bed, and we usually hit the hay around 8pm.  Jaden wasn't too far behind in getting back to the room.

Calling Home

    We headed to church this morning around 8:00am, and Ellie decided to sit with us.  She told us that she can killed 2 tarantulas that morning at the Girls Volunteer House, one was in the living room when she got up and the other was on the wall outside the house, "a little too close to the door to go in" is how she put it.  I have heard that tarantulas are fairly fragile, so simply trying to sweep them where you want then is probably going to kill them.  She mentioned she got the one out of the living room with a broom, but it was probably missing at least 4 legs by the time she swept it out of the house.  This morning's sermon at church was given by a man from the new group that came from Clearwater, Florida. Rollie translated for him as he spoke.  

   After church, since it is our day off on Sundays, we did a deep cleaning of our room once again, sweeping and mopping the floor and behind and underneath all of the furniture in both our room and the bathroom.  Then we headed to the kitchen to do the same.  The porch outside our hotel (of 3 individual rooms and a kitchen) also got done except in front of Room #3 where there is a swarm of small bees.  Their hive is somewhere inside the walls of that room and we can see the entrance (a small little tunnel) sticking out of the wall.  Perhaps if it is cold enough where they are not swarming, I will get close enough to take a picture of it.  This hive has been there since we were in the hotel back in 2019, so I am wondering how much of that inside wall is filled with hive (and possibly honey?).

   When we were done cleaning, it was pretty much time to go to lunch, so we headed to the Comedor and then asked permission to take Gibran, Cristofer and Jeremias to the Tienda afterward.  We did a videochat with Noah, so that he could chat with Gibran (his sponsored child) and just hung out.  I bought each of the boys their choice of a bag of chips, a package of cookies, and a beverage from the Tienda.  As we approached 3:00, Cristofer and Gibran told me that the big boys were in the gym, so we all headed over that way so that they could hang out there for the remaining hour before supper.  While we were at the gym, Kaylyn got a little "bored", so I suggested that she call my mom and surprise her with a call from Honduras.  Kaylyn, Jaden and I all got to speak to her and to our surprise, Alina was also there so we got to chat with her as well.

From front left around the table clockwise: Cristofer, Jeremias, Jaden, Gibran, Kaylyn

   To finish the evening, Jaden decided to go play soccer with the grandecitos (Moncho's boys).