Mission Team Visit

Here are some photos of the recent visit by a mission team from North Carolina, Louder Than Words Ministries. One of the first opportunities I have had in a long time to get a group photo of most of the kids together.

Special Cards for the Kids

Lauren's church in Ohio, St. Mary's parrish, had a vacation Bible school where the kids made a huge stack of cards and letters to each of the kids at the casa. Each child got about 5 different cards personally addressed to them and decorated by a child from the church. Some of the cards were from a Spanish class and were written in Spanish. The kids were all very excited to have something special sent to them personally. Thanks to Lauren and everyone at St. Mary's for this very thoughtful gesture. Lauren and Mark also have a web page devoted to the kids here at Casa Corazón where they are actively trying to get padrinos (sponsors/godparents) for each of the kids. http://www.the-orphansprayer.org/

Special Day

Thanks to everyone for thinking of me on my birthday and sending the cards from the church. I received 3 cards full of signatures and well wishes from everyone at Church of the Messiah. That was very thoughtful. Here, I got a cake and had the spanish version of happy birthday sung to me numerous times. I think Mauricio was more excited about my birthday than I was. He started singing to me in the morning two days before and did so again the day before and day of my birthday. He also went out and bought me a nice present from the market. The little kids who don't go to school came over in the morning to sing and all the school age kids did so later in the day. Then I was taken out to dinner with a few of the people here which was very nice.

Rotation of the Boys

Jonathan ......................................................................Jaime

We had a big change at our house a couple of weeks ago I have been waiting to write about after I saw how it worked out. Jonathan, the youngest at 11, moved back to the main childrens home and Jaime, also age 11, moved from the main home into our house. There were a few reasons behind this, but mainly Jonathan is very immature, much more so than the other 3 boys in our house and Jaime was a big disciplinary problem in the main home. I was really dreading the move for fear of the disciplinary problems coming to our rather calm house.
The change has worked out well so far. Jonathan is enjoying playing with all the younger kids again, but he still comes to our house every morning to do his homework for school.
Jaime has done much better in our house. He was a real bully with the younger kids in the main home and in ours there is no one smaller than him to bully so that problem stopped. The ladies in the main home are happy not to have to deal with his behavior anymore. He has almost constant supervision with me which he needs and could not get in the main home with 32 other kids. His behavior at home has certainly improved. He continued to have problems at school, so now he is being home-schooled by a teacher hired to work one-on-one with him in the mornings here.
So for now, the move has benefited both boys and the main home without disrupting our little house too much either.

Amor y Vida update

I went to the hospital on Friday to see the older kids who left Amor y Vida. All of the kids have to go to the hospital once a month to get their medicine prescription renewed and I knew Aug. 1st was the date the older kids go so it was a good opportunity to see them all again. I saw Giovanny who left Amor y Vida 3 years ago, and most of the kids who left recently. Only one, José did not show up for his appointment, which is a concern because he won't get any medicine without making each appointment. Hopefully he rescheduled for this week. The kids are mostly getting adjusted to living in the outside world after living in a group kids home for years. It is sad that several of them are no longer going to school. Hopefully they can start again in Feb. when the new school year starts in their new neighborhoods.
Three of the kids who were set to leave Amor y Vida the past couple of weeks are being allowed to stay there until the school year ends in November (Jessica, Alfredo and Brenda). This is much better than what happened with the others being forced out mid-year in school. My godson, Angel, who just turned 14, was given one more year until he has to leave to live with his Aunt and two brothers who he has never met. Hopefully during this year he will have the opportunity to meet them or visit them for a weekend so he will know them a little before the move. At least he has a year to prepare mentally for the change. So the future for the other kids is a little better than what happened with all the older ones last month.