Still Here

Sorry for the absense. I have been here at the casa all this time but just have been neglectful in my writing. I have had my hands full most of the days. The newest boy in the adolescent's home has become quite a challenge for me and I spend a huge amount of my time watching over him. Although this casa is a great place for these kids to be raised and they live a lot more comfortably than most other children in Honduras, there are still kids here with problems. Imagine taking a random sampling of 38 kids growing up in the foster care program in the U.S. and how well adjusted/well behaved those kids would be. Probably not a lot are. My friend Kristina, Geri's daughter, is a wonderful success story of taking in foster kids and eventually adopting them into her family. But I would guess that there are a lot of problem stories to the contrary that balance that one out. Well, group homes (orphanages) in Honduras are not much different. Lots of great success stories, but a few troubled kids mixed in. Right now we have one troubled 11 year old living with me. It is very taxing to deal with a child who does not want to work, study, obey rules, respect adults or other children. Unfortunately is has occupied much of my time that I would spend doing fun things with the other boys in our house so they have to suffer. Please keep us in your prayers so I have the patients and ability to deal with these things properly and maybe the Lord can make a change in this boys life.

Weekend at NPH

I finally made it back to NPH to visit Maynor. Friday was his 9th birthday. He was surprised and very happy to have a visit for the weekend and his birthday. He continues growing rapidly and next year will probably move out of the little kids home into the first of the older boys homes where they live in groups with others of the same age. There are about 8 new boys in the childrens home where Maynor lives, mostly very young so after knowing all their names in the past I am back to seeing kids who I don't know again.
As always, it was much cooler there in the mountains and very nice to sleep at night without a fan pointed directly on me. Being the rainy season, the posa, the lake created by the little dam on one of the streams, was completely full. When I was there in May it was almost empty which you can see in the photo I posted back then. All of the kids kept asking where Mauricio and Maynor from my casa here are. I think I will take them back for another visit next month after they finish school for the year which is the first week in November.
The food there is always very interesting. Dinner and breakfast are generally about the same. Friday breakfast: beans, rice and tortillas; lunch: chicken soup; dinner: 3 paper thin pancakes. Saturday breakfast: beans, rice and avacado; lunch: chicken and potato salad, dinner: beans, avacado and 1 boiled egg.













Maynor on his 9th birthday

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Kindergarden class ..............................................................The dam where they swim.

Youngest Kids

It was about a year ago that I posted the photos of the kids who stay at home during the mornings because they are too young to go to school. Well there were a lot of additions in the past year. Last year Erick was the only boy at home during the mornings with 8 girls. Now the boys out number the girls 6 to 4. Dulce and the 5 boys other than Erick were all new additions to the casa during the past year.









Brian (2 yrs.)....................................... Roberto (2 1/2) ...................... Misael (19 mos.)








Dulce (4 yrs.) ........................................ Sarai (2 yrs.)......................... Gustavo (4 yrs)








Erick (5 yrs.) .............................. Juan Fernando (almost 3) ..................... Mirna (3 1/2)








Yohanna (5 yrs.)