Thank you for our backpacks!!!

We received new backpacks full of school supplies from a team in August, but we didn't have any new ones for the kids who go to the special needs school. I asked Greg to bring some with him, and they are perfect! I wish you all could have been here to see the joy in their faces when I showed them to him.

These pictures crack me up. I couldn't believe how good they were about posing for me!

You can see Kuka in the background on this one....not really interested. L to R: Boris, Pablo, Tatiana, and Dubiasca

Check it out! She decided to join the group. :) This is her special 'smile.' She closes her eyes and scrunches her face.

My favorite of all!!! Those of you who know Pablo can probably imagine that crazy fake laugh that he was doing in this moment.

Thank you Mr. Greg & Mrs. Lynne!!!

First Day of School!!!

I cannot believe it's already time for this!!! Yesterday was the first day of school, and it was awesome. Since last school year ended, we have been planning to start school in the new building. It was only last week when we realized that wasn't going to happen, so we had to adjust QUICKLY. The teachers and staff have done an AWESOME job of being flexible and working in these temporary conditions! Here are a few pics from yesterday... (sorry for the random order- blogger is not cooperating at the moment)

The Ecuadorian government provided a pre-school teacher for us this year, Ms. Norma, and she is wonderful. She attended all of our in-staff training, and she's totally on board with what we're teaching. She is so great with the little ones! She has Pre-K 3 & Pre-K 4 in the mornings, and some of our staff will help her as well.
Jonathan went to chapel for his first time. He couldn't stop pointing and grunting, because he was so excited to be with the big kids. Every Monday we will pledge to the Ecuadorian flag as well.

I realized I haven't blogged on our newest kids! There is one sibling set of 4... Gabriela is the oldest. She's in the red shirt...only half of her face is showing. oops. Jimy is beside her in the white, and Ariel is in front of him.

Kevin (2nd from the left) is their youngest brother.

If I would have known this was going to happen, I DEFINITELY would have been ready with my video camera! Megan & Dallas accompanied Edy, Ivan, & Javier with some amazing beatboxing. (Side note...I just had to look up how to spell that word...my whole life I thought it was BEEboxing.) Wow...

Nayely & Rosa are both in the Pre-K 4 class. They weren't too sure what to think of everything.

HA! This is Alejandro's famous facial expression. He maintained this look (crease your eyebrows really hard together) for the entire time at chapel.

I just LOVE this picture of Coco! If you look at his hands, you can see that two of his fingers (they're webbed) are crossed through one slot.... SO CUTE. Also...this picture is very deceiving, because he was never sitting in that chair for longer than 20 seconds at a time.

God is amazing. Look at the picture of our school staff this year!!!! Left to right...Ingan (ESL & Tutoring), Ms. Norma (Pre-K), Miss Megan (1st-3rd), Miss Dallas (Kinder), Miss Alison (4th-7th), Miss Aleta (P.E./tutoring), Mr. Omer (Director of Education), Miss Bethany (Art/tutoring), Miss Amanda hiding in the back (P.E./Pre-school/Tutoring), Mrs. Mary Jane (nursing), Mrs. Desi (music), Mr. Beto (Lenguaje & Ecuadorian Social Studies). Isn't that incredible!!! Missing from the picture....Mike Waskosky (Bible) and Ashley Van Conant (Nurse). To stand back and look at this picture is just...I don't even have words. God has grown this place, and it is so humbling to be a part of it all. I think we had 5 or 6 people for school staff last year. What a difference in one year!

Work Weekend

So.....yeah....the Multi Use Building is STILL in progress. It seems like we've made (and then

changed) our plans about 254 times now. PLEASE pray for Dwight and the other workers as they continue to work all hours to get the building done. Pray for the rest of us as we attempt to have more patience with this process.

This past weekend we were all up at the property trying to help out. (notice I said trying) Almost all of our school staff came in 2 days before, and they were all there to help as well. Let me introduce you to everyone... (I know the girls will love that these particular pictures are accompanying their introduction.) One day soon I'll put up some pics where you can actually see their faces.

Megan is our 1st-3rd(ish) grade teacher this year. She was cleaning for me, so I could put down the plastic molding....so sweet of her.

Ingan was working at the property every day last week....She's amazing.

Patti Sue putting flowers on the dining room chairs. She's had to bury her inner artist over the last few years, but this was the perfect outlet. :)

Patti Sue recruited Bethany to help with the chairs....considering she's our new art teacher!

Alison....returning to teach the oldest class (4th-6thish) and Aleta, one of the support staff, who will teach P.E. and help with lots of other things.

Some of the tias came up to help clean....SERIOUS dust.

Amanda will also teach P.E. with Aleta, help with tutoring, extracurricular activities, etc...

Ingan and I scooted around on the floor like this for hours (fri afternoon & saturday). I felt like such a wimp afterward, because I was so sore. I think we are now fully qualified at applying plastic molding.

Did you know Dwight was a welder?!? Yeah...me neither. I think he learned by watching a few videos online...no big deal apparently. He comes home every night to proudly point out his new burn marks and patches of missing hair. :) He's also now a plumber, electrician, general contractor, cement man, etc... fascinating.

No...all joking aside... After I worked at the property for one and a half days (and felt like I couldn't move and never wanted to go back), it really made me think about how hard Dwight works! I honestly cannot fathom how he does it day in and day out. Not to mention that he has all of the planning and management responsibilities on top of the manual labor. Anyway...it just really hit me. Please pray for him as he continues to work so hard to finish the kids' new home.

Omer & Mary Jane Troyer (Omer's our new Director of Education) came in on Saturday afternoon, and they joined the teachers and Patti Sue on Sunday to pain the classrooms. He took a bunch of pictures and made a slide-show. I have to say...I LOVE it when someone else makes an album, labels the pics...and then I just get to post them. :) He had some great pics of the building from several views, and I know a lot of people are anxiously waiting for those updates. Copy and paste the following link to see his pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=mjotroyer&target=ALBUM&id=5513543171264898097&authkey=Gv1sRgCPT7lZO3hYevYA&feat=email
**Take special note of the roof over the laundry area in the back! Dwight & Freddy were working so hard to finish that on Saturday...and they did! (at 7:00pm!) They had just secured the first 2 sheets of metal when this crazy storm blew through and ripped both sheets off. It was very discouraging, but Dwight was SO relieved and excited when they finished that night. Thank you, God! Each small success means a lot at this point.