Adventures in Ecuador

One Happy Girl

2012-01-05T19:12:00.001-06:00

Greis went home to live with her family this past Friday. Her dad came to Casa de Fe to pick her up, and she was ecstatic. Dwight asked her what she was going to do at home, and she said, “Eat fish.” ha. Kids LOVE fish here…. the head, fins...especially the eyes after they’ve been fried. yum.

Geovanny (our therapist) was sad to see Greis go…as were many others. Geovanny was showing Greis’ dad her daily leg stretches and exercises and also how to use her brace properly. We REALLY hope that her family continues with her therapy, or she could easily lose some of her functioning.

The family was at Casa de Fe for quite a few hours that morning…getting all of her stuff together and going over all of the paperwork. I snapped a couple of pictures of them together before they left.

Have you ever seen a bigger smile? Beautiful!

One. VERY. Happy. Girl.

The BEST Christmas Pageant EVER!

2011-12-17T22:03:00.001-06:00

Melissa organized the Christmas pageant this year, and it was so amazing! She did an awesome job with the costumes, props, music…everything! The kids were just awesome. The night started with 5 of the older girls doing a ribbon dance, and that made me want to lie down on the floor and bawl my eyes out. Knowing what these girls have been through and the journey they’ve been on to gain self-worth and confidence…..and to watch them be able to perform in front of a crowd of people… wow. The power of our Father is amazing.

The pageant is the story of the birth of Christ told from the animals’ point of view. Some of the older girls were not so thrilled to be dressed like animals, but they ended up coming around. They all did such an awesome job…not one line forgotten!

Jonathan was a little sheep. It was H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S. Instead of crawling with the other sheep during their song….he kept flopping down on his belly and kind of swimming around on the floor. The shepherd…and even another sheep (Maribel) had to keep poking and pushing him. After that song, they were just sitting around onstage during another part. He decided it was fun to pull off tufts of cotton from his costume….totally distracting from the acting going on. The other kids were trying to pick it up and stick it back on him. classic.

The big night took place in a community center here in Shell, so it was a huge deal for the kids to perform in that setting. There were several maestros and their families, tias, people from our church, missionary familes, and other random people from the community. It is our prayer that hearts were opened to Christ and that the message of His birth was remembered above all.

Sorry these pictures are out of order. They’re a combination of mine and Dwight’s, and I can’t figure out how to change their order. I’ll try to post some short videos, but I hope this works for now!

Christmas Pageant

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Maestros & The School

2011-12-17T21:01:00.001-06:00

Progress on the school is very exciting these days! When you start to see the walls go up it really feels like it will happen sooner than later. Here are some great pics Dwight took last week….

Flavio a.k.a. Puma

Hernan a.k.a. Caiman

Luis a.k.a. Burro

Jaime a.k.a. Profesor

Jaime and his wife just welcomed a baby girl this week! She needed an emergency C-section, and the free/cheap hospital in Puyo did not have any surgeons that day. Crazy, we know. They had 2 options….to ride in an ambulance over 2.5 hours to another city or come to HCJB Hospital Vozandes here in Shell. It’s considerably more expensive than the public hospitals in Puyo, but it wasn’t even a safe option to wait another 2.5 hours in an ambulance! So….they ended up at Vozandes where her C-Section cost $800.00. They were definitely not prepared for this part, because they thought it would be a natural birth until just this past week when she began to experience complications. They have had to borrow money from family members to pay their bills, and it has cleared out their savings as well. Please keep their family in your prayers, and also praise God for their healthy baby girl!

Fredy & Jonathan

Dwight enjoys working on the site whenever no one else is around, so he took advantage of that today to finish a welding project. Jonathan went with him, and it was like a dream for him….mounds and mounds of dirt at his disposal. Dwight brought home some great pics, so I could share in the fun they had.

Dwight said he heard Jonathan yelling, “Atty, apos! Apos!” (pronounced aw-pose); translation- “Daddy, shoes! Shoes!” This is what Dwight found…..

Total fascination. I don’t even want to know why he has dirt caked all around his mouth.

LOVE his little feet and hands….this was my gift for the day. He has grown and changed so much since April! He’s getting a little chubby lately, and we love every bit of it.

Pastor Appreciation Day

2011-11-07T19:41:00.001-06:00

Sunday before last was Pastor Appreciation Day, and the church family we’re a part of had prepared a few special things to honor Pastor Angel and his family.

We have been taking the 8 oldest girls to church for a while now, and they’re finally getting over their painful shyness. They were all a part of a skit this morning, and I couldn’t believe that they were so excited about it. I later found out that it was a silent skit, so then I knew why they were so eager. They are usually terrified to speak in front of a crowd! The skit represented the temptations and burdens of this world and the freedom that we can find from them through Christ.

This skit was about the pastor of the church, and how so many people in the body continue to put more responsibilities on the pastor than he can handle. Each group from the church was represented by someone who would come talk to the pastor….youth group, women’s ministry, men’s ministry, worship, etc… Each person would explain to the pastor how they were just too tired and could not handle their ministry work any more, and they proceeded to hang the burden of their work around the pastor’s neck. After the pastor was completely loaded down, he got down on his knees and broke down before the Lord. As he was crying and praying, Jesus (played by an American doctor, Matt Kappen) came behind him and took the burdens from his shoulders one by one. Afterward, the people representing all of the ministries came back before the Lord and confessed, kneeling down before Him. Jesus replaced each of their ministries and provided the strength they needed to continue in their work. It was really moving, and I think it spoke to a lot of people in the church. Please pray that hearts would be touched for service to HIM.

Hernan (one of the maestros and a good friend) represented Missions.

Gami’s Here!!!!

2011-10-21T13:59:00.001-05:00

My mom came back with us from the US, and we’re so excited! I’m sure I’ll have more fun pictures in the future, but here are some funny ones of jonathan so far.

He gets carsick on the drive from Quito to Shell, so we always keep large ziploc bags ready to go. Toward the end of the trip (the curviest part!), he decided he needed to keep his bag ready at his face. He did this for 30 minutes!

Although he appears to be unhappy….this was HIS idea, and he was grinning until I took the pictures. Such the little actor.

I love Gami for this one…she taught him how to wash dishes!

Here are some random pictures of 2 of my favorite boys…..asleep.

Alaina (our nurse) just told me he has grown 4 inches in the past 5 months. THAT’S why all of his pants are high-waters….

Latest Newsletter

2011-10-06T21:18:00.002-05:00

Click here to read our latest update from August and September. You can subscribe at the bottom of the newsletter or on the right side of the blog.

Thank you for all of the prayers and support!

Hear, Hear……

2011-09-26T21:06:00.001-05:00

Last Friday was a very important day in our household. Jonathan got his first smiley face for good behavior in school. It was only the 2nd week of school, but STILL. Take a look at the other kids’ rows, and you’ll see how few sad faces they have….not many. Except for David; they’re two peas in a pod apparently. You have to be bad MANY times in class to earn a sad face, but Jonathan has managed that every day so far. The change in his behavior between home and school is quite perplexing to us. Oh, the joys of parenthood.

My Pablo

2011-09-23T14:07:00.003-05:00

Pablo is definitely my special buddy, and he made my day today. One of my jobs is to give out new clothes and shoes as needed, so all of the kids treat me like I'm Santa Claus when they need something. I love seeing their excitement when they get something new, but nothing compares to Pablo's excitement.

I went downstairs to find him, and I told him to go tell the tia he was coming with me to get new shoes. He raced into the other room screaming, "TIA, TIA!!! Arriba!!! Mrs. Tandy!!! Zapatos!!!" He didn't stop- just ran into the room and back out- screaming the whole way. He threw down his ever present rag/hand towel/glove- whatever he’s flapping around for the day, and that’s how you know things are really serious. He flew upstairs to the 3rd floor as I tried to keep up.

We found the PERFECT shoes- velcro Spiderman with LIGHTS. The person who donated those shoes had no idea how valuable they would be! :) Pablo was ecstatic….especially about the lights. I told him to go show them off downstairs, so he stomped down the stairs and ran to anyone he could find. He figured out that if he kicks his feet in the air the lights will turn on….quite humorous to behold.

We did new clothes next, and that was equally as exciting. I never knew that new underwear could be THAT big of a deal. Wow. He kept pulling them up really high and popping the waistband. Lol…. We got him dressed in a new outfit, and he couldn’t stop rubbing his new shirt. He had his pile of new clothes bundled up against his chest, and he did NOT want to let them go. He raced downstairs immediately, and went to put them in his drawers. He wanted to throw away his old clothes, but I told him they were still ok to use. It was hilarious watching him put everything in its proper place.

The tias and teachers all made him feel so good…whistling, telling him he was handsome. The joy and pride was just oozing out of him, and it was so much fun. He definitely brightened everyone’s day today…especially mine. I love him so much.

Here are a few photos…. This is his special smile for the cameras...

Here it is again...but he was so excited he kept tilting his head back at the same time.

Just this week I was talking to someone about my old job. I was telling her about my old clients...how much I miss them and love them....how when I was with them I knew that I was doing exactly what God created me to do...and the joy that comes from being in that moment. I miss it all so much. I feel like my time with Pablo today was just a special gift from God...to remind me that He knows my heart. Thank you for Pablo, Father!

We're Alive!

2011-09-19T16:41:00.004-05:00

I knew I hadn't posted in a long time, but I had no idea it had been 2 months! Wow. Time flies. The summer is always a blur. We've also started doing newsletters, so after I spend time working on that I feel like I've done 4 blog posts. I've yet to figure out how to get the HTML newsletter easily transferred into a blog post, but I'm working on it. I'm trying not to duplicate my blog posts with my newsletter info, so I want to get the newsletters posted on here. For now, you can sign up to receive the newsletters on the right side of the blog.

This is the only way I've figured out how to easily show our newsletter. Just click on the following links:

April, 1st Newsletter Catching up since moving here in March, 2009; focus on goals for ministry during this new phase of commitment to CdF.

May, 2nd Newsletter Beginning of summer teams, regular ministry

June & July, 3rd Newsletter Finishing summer teams, school updates, Grace's miracle

Warning: Grandparent Update

2011-07-16T14:25:00.007-05:00

That's just a heads up to let you know that this post is for the grandparents and family at home....which means A LOT of pictures of the same thing....Jonathan. :)

I have to say that our favorite thing about the house we live in now is the front porch. We're on the 2nd floor, so it feels more private on this level. The porch is HUGE. It's also perfect, because Jonathan gets to play outside without being downstairs in the muddy jungle yard we have on the ground level. Anyway....I was realizing how much I appreciate our porch as I started to upload all of the pictures, and I realized that the majority of them were taken here.

Ha! His face looks so chubby! This one cracks us up, because it really doesn't even look like him.

Most of it actually did make it into his mouth.... First experience with shaving cream....total success :) I wasn't joking when i said pictures of the same thing....

These are backwards in order....so he slowly gets cleaner as you go down. :)

Love the hands....

We were at Ecoparque with one of the teams, and he decided to start modeling for Heidi and I. He's such a poser!

I wish you could really see his face! This was one day after he woke up from his nap. He kept falling asleep sitting up, but he was fighting it.

Ok. This should be a sufficient number of pictures for the grandparents. Love you guys!

Sarita & the Gemelos

2011-07-12T14:03:00.007-05:00

3 little ones that we've had for a long time went home recently.

Sarita's mom was 14 (I believe) whenever she had her, and she asked CdF to care for her until she was able to do it herself. What we thought would be a year or so turned into more than 3. We recently started Sarah's adoptability process, b/c the mom never came to visit. As soon as she found out about the adoption, she showed up on the doorstep....VERY pregnant about to have another child. She came back about a month later carrying the newborn in a sling, and Sarah went home with her.

It was hard for everyone to say goodbye to Sarah, because she had been at Casa de Fe since birth. But....it's always a good thing to see a family reunited. As always...we ask that you pray for Sarah and her family. Pray that they would come to know Christ personally, and that Sarah would be raised in a healthy environment.

This is Nila on the left and Sarita on the Right. Hilarious.

The gemelos (pronounced 'hemelos') were twin boys that were actually triplets. The parents could not care for all 3 of them, so they kept one and sent the other 2- Josue & Nathanael- to CdF. In this case as well, we heard that the mom was pregnant again. It's hard to know that these moms are not taking care of the children they already have, and yet they're pregnant again! I don't know as much about the boys' family. I know that their aunt and grandma are very involved in the care of the 3rd little boy that stayed with the family. Raising kids here is often a family affair, so that's pretty typical. Please pray for the parents...that they would take responsibility and be involved in the boys' lives.

Casa de Fe's 1st Art Show!!!

2011-06-19T17:48:00.004-05:00

I don't know what's going on with blogger right now. It won't let me move/copy any of my test or pics. So...sorry for the random order. The explanation is at the bottom. :)

Ms. Norma- Pre-K teacher this year....her make-up was for the dance. :)

The kids gave Bethany roses afterward. It was definitely an emotional night...a culmination of a lot of hard work. She got mad at me for taking this pic. ha.

Ali was telling the crowd about all that Bethany had taught the kids this year.
Getting them all to look at the same time was impossible! Ingan and Tia Nelly were amazing hombres.

He wasn't so much into the dancing, but he still looked really cute. :)

Dwight with Maribel, Jeni & Rosa....they're growing up way too fast!

Now for the art...which was supposed to show up first. This was one of the Kinder kid's watercolor.

Pre-K Dance with Rosa in the middle

Rosita was the star of the show! She sat on a chair in the middle of the dance floor and shook her hips the whole time.

LOL...I had to put this in here. I'm pretty sure it was one of the older girls' version of Miss Alison.

These were amazing! Miss Ali's class all did these, but this one was my favorite.

Way, WAY too grown up- L to R- Rosa, Jeniffer, Maribel, Gabi, Jhulisa, Marcia, Maria (We take these girls to chruch every Sunday morning. drama queens!!!)

Pre-K getting all dressed up :) It's traditional for kids to rent costumes for everything...school performances, parades, etc...

I know these posts aren't in order by date of event, but who cares. Nothing feels 'in order' during the summer, so it's all good.

I mentioned in a recent post that Bethany Sauls came to teach art this past year. She really did an amazing job. We all saw how much the kids responded and grew under her direction. There has been so much healing and positive self-expression through the things she has done with them! God has definitely blessed Bethany with a natural talent for art, and she turned those gifts around in service to Him....beautiul.

At the end of the school year, Bethany organized Casa de Fe's first annual art show. It was awesome! She had collected the kids' work throughout the school year, and she made sure that each child had at least one piece on display. She spent a ton of time framing and labeling every piece, and the final display was incredible. The kids were just giddy that night...all dressed up as everyone in the community came by to see their work.

Laptop

2011-06-19T17:31:00.002-05:00

I received a HUGE surprise when the first team (Brookhaven 1st Baptist, Mississippi) came a few weeks ago....They brought me a brand new laptop- almost exactly like my old one! My old laptop had been making crazy noises...shutting down whenever it wanted too for different lengths of time, etc... for about 6 months. Considering the majority of my job here is on my laptop, it made work a little challenging!

Anyway...the week before Brookhaven came, my laptop completely crashed. eh...I honestly had not even thought about trying to replace it, and then SURPRISE! Patti Sue had told them about my laptop months before apparently, and they had already been raising money to buy me a new one that would be reliable. I was/am so humbled by such a huge gift! Saying 'thank you' seemed so insignificant! I thought I should at least post it on here, so it would be a little bit bigger of a 'thank you.' ha. :)

On that same note....the other night Jonathan did something that was both funny and sad at the same time. Dwight and I both were frantically trying to catch up on emails one night after being with the team. We looked over, and Jonathan was setting up one of his little board books to look like a laptop. He was punching his fingers on it like it had a keyboard, and he was moving his head along to a silent beat....VERY busy obviously. It was hilarious....then sad, b/c he obviously has seen this modeled for him WAY too much! Anyway...still makes for a cute picture.

Goodbye's are NO FUN!

2011-06-17T17:00:00.003-05:00

We had a night of sharing and encouragement for the 5 staff members who are officially leaving this year. They're all out of the country now except for Ali....they're missed greatly already! Here's some more info. on each of them.....

Pehr & Ingan were here for a year from Sweden. They're both teachers at home, and they served in multiple areas at CdF. Here's their blog, and you can use the Google translate link to switch it to English.

Dallas Farrell came from Washington to teach for 2 years, and now she's living in Dallas. :) Dallas posted on the CDF blog.

Alison Bowen came from Alaska/Texas :) to teach for 2 years, and she's moving back to The Woodlands, TX. See her blog...

Bethany Sauls came from Austin/Conroe to teach art this past year, and she's moving back to Austin. Here's her blog.

We will miss these wonderful people so much!!! Keep them in your prayers as they go forward from here.

School Pictures

2011-06-09T13:42:00.005-05:00

Chad & Andi Irwin are missionaries with MAF here in Shell. They are both talented in photography, and they bless everyone here with their gift. On their 'time off,' they're constantly doing photo sessions for other missionaries and friends here in Shell.
They came out to Casa de Fe last week and took school pictures for us, and they turned out so great!! Here's a link to visit their blog where they've posted all of the pictures: http//www.irwininformer.blogspot.com/2011/06/casa-de-fe-school-photos.html

Summer!

2011-06-08T16:30:00.004-05:00

Well, our summer officially started on May 24th with the arrival of the first team. I'll post more about them later.... Since I'm so behind on blogging, I'm just going through my latest pictures as a guide for what to write about. Here are a few of the latest things going on.... Jonathan sleeping with his wooden parrot....a gift from his new Uncle Rob from Brookhaven.
We went on a hike to Hola Vida (waterfall) in celebration of Dia del Nino. Jonathan was playing with Elizabeth...his new best friend from Brookhaven.

Before the hike with

We never get our picture together, because I'm always taking them!

We had a despedida (going away party) at the Nate Saint House for the 5 people on staff who are leaving. Dwight led worship for the missionary community, and it was such a blessing to feel like we were in English church!

We had our first outing/activity with the girls' Sunday school class from church. We went to the river and had a parillada (BBQ). They've been SO SHY at church, so this was a good way for them to open up a little with the other kids and their teacher.

Ha! We eat sack lunches with the teams on the front porch of the MUB. Jonathan and Dwight passed out afterward. This is not a pose. :)

Summer is always a crazy time for us. This year we have a HUGE blessing in Heidi, a volunteer who is helping us with teams. She is traveling back and forth to Quito (which we've always done before), so we now get at least a day or two break in between each time. It is already making a difference in this year's schedule, and we're so grateful!

Please pray that we will surrender our selfish desires and be servants in whatever way God desires. It's especially difficult when we feel tired and stressed, and we're thankful for prayers!

Uncle Trent & Justin

2011-06-06T16:48:00.003-05:00

My big brother (Trent) and friend (Justin) got to come visit earlier in May, and we had a blast! Well...Trent was sick the majority of the time, but Dwight and I loved staying home at night and just hanging out with him. Justin traveled and was busy enough for all of us. :)

Jonathan had a blast playing, reading and watching movies with his uncle. I'm so sad....I lost my recent pictures whenever my laptop crashed, so I don't have the ones we took of Jonathan with Trent. I found a couple from our return trip to Quito on my camera card, so i wanted to share.

Jumping with Justin

Sportin' his Quito pajamas- Trent loved them.

Thank you for your visit! We loved every minute of it!

Beto's Baptism

2011-05-30T19:50:00.003-05:00

Beto is Mama Ines' son, and he taught Spanish and Ecuadorian Social Studies for our 3 classes this year in the CDF school. (Mama Ines is the manager of all of the Tias who work at Casa de Fe.) We love Beto, and Dwight and I both wish we got to spend more time with him. We've watched him grow over the last couple of years, and it's so exciting to see him take this step in the journey of being a Christian. He is surrounded by peers who are not living a Christian lifestyle, and we've watched him continue to be an example to them. Recently, he began to study with a local pastor and was baptized 2 weeks ago on Sunday. Praise God for his public statement to follow Christ! Please continue to lift him up...that he will have the courage to stand alone at times, and pray that God will give him a thirst for more knowledge of HIM.

Meet Jonathan!!

2011-05-13T13:52:00.005-05:00

We want to formally introduce you to the newest member of our family. :)

We have been fostering Jonathan since April 21^st, and it has been a joy. I (Tandy) am on my new work schedule with him, and it has been a huge blessing so far. We all walk to CDF around 7:40am, and I work there while Jonathan is in Pre-K from 8:00-12:00. We all go home for lunch, and I work from home in the afternoon with Jonathan while Dwight returns to CDF. Since 80% of my work is online/emailing, it actually helps A LOT to be able to work at home in the afternoons without as many distractions.

Jonathan came to CDF the first week of June last summer, and we really don’t have any background on him. A young man dropped him off, but we have never heard from him again. He said he wasn’t a relative, but there’s no telling what the truth is. So….we didn’t have a name or a birth date. Everyone at CDF decided to name him Jonathan (Dwight’s name here), and his nickname became ‘pajarito’ because he mimicked everything you said to him.

Everyone always asks how we “picked” him out of all of the kids. Last fall when we were making this decision, he was truly the only abandoned child we had here. All of our other kids have family members and situations where reconciliation might be a possibility in the future, but that is not the case for him. So….that was how the decision was made.

The process for getting him adoptable has begun. The police are doing a public report which includes posting his picture in the newspaper in case there are any family members who will recognize him. Once he is adoptable, his case will move forward as a ‘national adoption.’ After living here for 3 years (next March), we will be able to adopt as nationals. Until that time, we will be legally fostering him; and hopefully that will work in our favor when the judge makes his final decision.

It is our prayer that if Jonathan does have any family members who want to take care of him…that God would allow them to find him! Although we would love to adopt him, it would break our hearts more to know that he has loving family members out there looking for him. For now…we are going to continue to love him as our own!

Please pray for us. Pray for wisdom and patience as new parents. Pray for him…to prepare his heart for whatever the future holds. Pray that he would come to know the love of Christ…whether with our family or his.

We wanted to share a few pictures with you. He’s quite the little poser when I pull the camera out. Please forgive the excessive number.....this blog has been a long time coming for our families!

He loves to bathe....and cheese big time.

He LOVES to wear a hat....
Playing with Mrs. Ingan...
First trip to the pool...
I didn't even think about an Easter egg hunt, but some of my wonderful friends did. :) He used his backpack to stuff them in. This was actually a weekend before we took him permanently. We were living with the Waskosky family, and Jonathan loved David. This one's for my dad...who always gives me a hard time for never putting pictures of myself on here. love you, daddy! He LOVES to drink water, and he'll choose it over anything else we offer. SUCH a poser!!!
Some friends of ours took some family photos a couple of weeks ago, and they did a great job. These pictures weren't really planned...they just snapped them of jonathan while he played between shots. They're my favorite!
This is his sweet face.......and his 'too cool for school' face. Hands down the best picture of him so far....

New Home

2011-04-28T08:18:00.003-05:00

We are in our own house!!! That's a really big deal for us. :) Since we came back to Ecuador in January, we've been living with other people. Speaking of those other people......

THANK YOU to Wes & Donna King. They housed us for 6 weeks during language school in Banos. I'll do a full post on that later....
THANK YOU to Dan & Tracey Whitehead....who housed us for 4 or 5 weeks...basically any time we came to Shell during the last 2 months.
THANK YOU to the Waskosky family who let us live with them for their last 3 weeks here in Ecuador.

We continue to be so humbled by others' attitudes about their homes. These missionaries truly do have a different mindset of 'their' things. We pray that we'll pass their hospitality along when we have the chance with others in the future.
The Waskosky family moved back to the States last week after 24 (can't remember exactly, but a LONG time!) years in Ecuador. They have given us a HUGE gift in allowing us to live in their fully furnished home for the next year or two. We lived under the Waskosky's during our first year here, and we already miss them. Their family has been such an example of hospitality and sacrifice to us.
We are still unpacking, so the house is a wreck at the time. :) Here's a pic from the front/outside. We lived in the downstairs the first year, and now we live in the upstairs.
We are thanking God for His continual provision!!!

New Life

2011-04-27T17:38:00.004-05:00

Good Friday is a very big holiday here in Ecuador, and there are a lot of traditions surrounding that day. We really want to focus more on the resurrection, so we put a lot more energy into teaching our kids about the resurrection than the normal culture here does. All of our staff did a wonderful job of reminding the kids what this holiday is all about. It was also refreshing to not get caught up in the trappings of the holiday we've created this to be in the States.

At Casa de Fe, we combine spring break with the Easter weekend, so we did not have school last Thursday through yesterday (Tuesday). The holidays have been a time of encouragement and renewal, and everyone really got to spend some much-needed quality time together.

For us, the holiday started last Thursday at lunch..... We were invited to lunch by Jaime, one of the maestros. They had made a huge pot of fanesca over an open fire. Fanesca is a traditional soup cooked during 'semana santa.' It has 12 different things in it, and it represents something. Although..... everyone we ask doesn't have a clue what it is. :) They put these huge pieces of dried salted fish in it, and that's the most special part. Here are a few pictures from our lunch.... I'm always so humbled when someone here serves us in their home.

Jaime's wife, Aida; son, Jonathan; Aida's grandmother

Thursday night we went up to CDF for a special night that the maestros had planned for the kids. This was the first time that the maestros have done something like this outside of work, and it was....AMAZING. Honestly....we've tried talking about it and put it into words, and we just can't. This event just feels like the culmination of so many things we've all been praying for and working toward.

The guys built a big bonfire up near the future school building, and they took all of the big kids up around 7:30. Cris led the kids in worship and Freddy shared with them afterward. He spoke to them about the life of Jesus, from birth to resurrection. Hernan prayed a beautiful prayer afterward- prayed for the kids to be future teachers, missionaries, doctors....

It was so amazing to hear all of this coming from the maestros. These men will hopefully be working at CDF for the next 10+ years, so building into THEM is building into the kids' lives as well. This is one of our biggest goals for these next couple of years, so please pray for this part of the ministry.

Afterward Hernan led the kids in some games, and they had a blast. The punishment for losing was dancing or singing in front of everyone.... We saw some interesting moves from some of the staff members. :)

Freddy with Javier, Ivan & Pablo

What a God we have!
And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus!
Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life
and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—
and the future starts now!
1 Peter 1:3 MSG

Bye, Sami!

2011-04-15T09:38:00.009-05:00

Yesterday we said goodbye to little Sami. Sami was brought out of the jungle by Florence Judd (a missionary nurse) last year. He had been neglected and was incredibly skinny and underdeveloped for his age. He had a cleft palate, and we think the parents were just overwhelmed with not being able to properly provide for him.

He recently had his 2nd surgery that corrected the roof of his mouth, and that was a big deciding factor in his parents taking him back. Although....he did not have ANY problems eating before that surgery..... :) He is quite the little gordito! That has kind of been the joke and joy of watching Sami develop since he arrived here. He gained weight so fast! His belly was so huge, but it took much longer for his arms and legs to catch up to match his belly. They still haven't....:)

Florence brought his parents here yesterday afternoon, and Sami came walking out to meet them. Florence had to tell them that it was Sami, because they didn't even recognize him! You can see why....

April 8, 2010, when he arrived November 2010 when we moved into
the new property. I picked this pic, b/c this
is his classic Sami face. :)

It was a joyful reunion although Sami didn't recognize (or react if he did) his parents. They had their youngest son with them, and there are 3 more older than Sami at home. 5 boys! A lot of the tias and kids came to give Sami goodbye hugs and kisses. We all prayed with the family as well, and everyone kept telling them to feed Sami A LOT!
Dwight gettin' some lovin' while the parents talked to Mama Ines
Right before they left, the mom pulled a tiny little monkey out of her baby sling! It was a gift to Florence for helping them. Florence turned to me and said, "What on earth am I supposed to do with this!?!" lol.... She's about to leave on furlough, so she can't keep it. She asked the mom if she could leave it here at CDF, so we could take care of it for her while she traveled. The mom replied, "No, you can just stick him in your bag and carry him with you when you travel." :) So...she ended up leaving with the monkey and bringing him back this morning. We're babysitting for a week.
Sami made THE FACE (in the pic above) whenever he saw that the monkey got a banana. His facial expression worked, because the tias gave him one too.
Our kids could not get enough of him!
Walking away...Sami was waving and blowing kisses, but I couldn't quite catch it.

Please pray for Sami's parents...that they would come to know Christ more fully and that they will have the strength to care for their 5 boys. Pray that Sami would grow up being loved and taken care of!

Update

2011-04-08T08:14:00.005-05:00

We're alive! :) Sorry for the long break from blogging. I had wonderful plans to start blogging again last month, and then we couldn't seem to finish our support letter. I was still hoping to get the pdf on here, but I'm giving up momentarily and posting the text only. We hope to send our letter out via email and snail mail if needed, but this is the first/easiest step at this point. I promise more updates on CDF soon! Here is our first official support letter.....

WHERE WE’VE BEEN- In March of 2009 we moved to Shell, Ecuador, to work with Casa de Fe- a home for abandoned children, many of whom have disabilities. Our original one year commitment was extended twice, and we found ourselves in Shell until November 2010. During that time, God proved His faithfulness and continued to lead us in ways we had not expected. Since this is our first initial support letter for the future, we want to catch you up on what has happened so far…..

In terms of work, the majority of our energy went toward constructing the multi-use building, coordinating and leading short term mission groups, and managing volunteers. Although we wished that we had more time with the children, we felt called to continue with the work that was most needed. The construction project consumed our time and energy for the last six months or so, but the sweet reward of seeing the kids in their new home was worth it. We moved the kids into the new multi-use building on November 6^th, and we were able to have our first praise and worship service there the following day. Dwight spoke to the kids during that time about being thankful for their new home but to never lose focus of where our true home is with our Father in heaven. We can’t begin to describe what it was (and still is!) like to see the kids in a clean, safe environment, singing their hearts out in celebration. November 7^th was Dwight’s birthday, and it was one we will never forget. Let’s just say we were all a little emotional that day. :)

We returned to Conroe about two weeks later, November 2010, and we had purposely not made a decision yet about returning. After praying for clarity and direction for the future, we both felt God clearly telling us to return to Ecuador. Once that decision was made, we spent time in prayer about what we should do during this next time period. We knew we needed to redefine our jobs and expectations for this next season, and this was confirmed by God leading us into agreement about the changes needing to take place.…

WHERE WE’RE GOING

We feel that our investment of time and energy during the last year and a half has built a strong and trusting relationship with those at Casa de Fe. Building on that rapport, we want to focus more on the spiritual development of the kids and teach them what it means to have a personal relationship with Christ. We want to serve and teach the tias (caretakers) and the maestros (construction workers) more about Christ and deepen our relationships with them. We also feel that God has called us to minister to the international volunteer/missionary staff at Casa de Fe. Since our arrival at Casa de Fe, the non-Ecuadorian staff has increased from five to more than twenty full-time volunteers, and that rapid growth has really changed the dynamics of the ministry. We feel the responsibility to provide Christ-centered resources for the non-Ecuadorian volunteers, and we pray that God will allow us to be a source of encouragement for them. It is our prayer that we will have the discernment to be able to hear God’s voice and the wisdom to maintain our priorities and boundaries during this next season of life.

Something more tangible that God has put on our hearts is learning the language. We both have become conversational in our Spanish, but have not had formal training in the grammar or proper usage. Non-Spanish speaking visitors often incorrectly assume we are ‘fluent.’ Our desire to deepen our relationships here in Ecuador can only be possible if we learn more of the language. This is never more evident than when we hit a language barrier during intimate conversations about the gospel, family, or personal stories. Because of this and the other goals for our ministry, we feel that focusing on language training is necessary.

The major change we feel God calling us to is to foster one of the children from Casa de Fe. We have always shared a desire to foster and/or adopt ‘one day,’ but we really did not have a clue how that process would unfold in the future. We had never imagined that we would actually live overseas and adopt directly, but it seems that God has made that kind of opportunity a reality for us. In Ecuador you can adopt as ‘nationals’ after you have lived here for three years, and we will be able to fulfill that with our new commitment to Casa de Fe. Adoptions are never easy here, but we’re trusting that God will work things out for His glory. We will begin the adoption process by fostering one of the children from Casa de Fe, and that will hopefully begin around April 20^th. We so badly want to honor Him in this decision, and we ask for your prayers as we enter a new phase of life.

WHAT WE SEEK...

Now that we find ourselves looking at a future of another year and a half minimum here in Ecuador, we are faced with the reality of the longevity of our situation. This journey began as a simple one-year commitment to come volunteer, and that is why we have never sought out an official mission sending agency. During our time here, we’ve been able to learn so much through our missionary friends about both mission organizations and private supporters. Overall, we have come to realize that we are really missing out on a lot by not having committed supporters who are invested in our lives and ministry here. We have been so blessed through the support -spiritual and financial- up to this point, and we are excited about taking things a step further by becoming more purposeful in the relationship we want to have with regular supporters. We ask you to prayerfully consider how you can be a part of our lives, because we are eager to share what God is doing with others!

Financially, God provided for us during the first year, and He filled in gaps that we had not expected. When we decided to return for six months (which later increased to nine) and asked for financial support, we were overwhelmed by the generosity of our family! Our home church allowed us to give a presentation of the ministry at Casa de Fe, and a love offering afterward provided us with sufficient funds to be fully supported until this point. Praise be to God.

We currently have an estimated budget based on our expenses up until this point, and we have made adjustments based on projected changes for our upcoming commitment. We have calculated a need of approximately $25,000 for the next twenty months. This amount includes one-time costs of $7,000 for language school, airfare, adoption, an Ecuadorian driver’s license, and a monthly budget of $900. We keep track of all expenses, and our budget is available to anyone who would like to see it in detail. Conroe church of Christ continues to be so supportive of us, and they will continue to receive our donations. This can be a one time donation or a monthly payment of a set amount. We are hoping for those who choose to give monthly that this will serve as a reminder to pray for us and Casa de Fe.

The church has offered to receive our funds for the purpose of making your gifts tax-deductible. However, because the rules for tax-deductable giving have become more defined, it is necessary to abide by the following regulations. When you write a check for us, DO NOT put our full names on the check- even in the memo line! The check can be made out to ‘Conroe Church of Christ,’ and you can put ‘Ecuador D&T’ in the memo. This is the only way the church will recognize that the check is for us, and the government will not recognize it as a personal donation.

If you would like to partner with us, please fill out our ONLINE SUPPORT FORM found below. If you are not able to complete the form online, please send the information to the address below, hand it in personally with your donation, or email us the information at dwightandtandy@gmail.com . More than anything, we desire to be covered in prayer and supported spiritually. Asking for money is never enjoyable, but we continue to learn how beautifully God brings people together in this process.

The frustration and fear that we sometimes feel about surrendering our future to God is overpowered by His peace and the hope that we have in Him. Thank you for being so supportive of us during this journey. We can’t wait to partner with you, share more intimately, and be encouraged in prayer together.

Grace & Peace in Christ,

Dwight & Tandy Martin ~ Casa de Fe, Shell, Ecuador

Checks can be mailed to:

Conroe Church of Christ

Attn: Dwight & Tandy, Ecuador

1860 Longmire Road

Conroe, TX 77304

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A Few Pics

2010-12-01T09:50:00.002-06:00

Since I'm a little behind in my blog posts.... :) Check out Andi Irwin's blog she did on the big move. We asked her to come take pictures the day of the move, because we wanted someone to capture some moments with the kids on the first day in their new home. She did an amazing job!

http://www.irwininformer.blogspot.com/

Home Sweet Home

2010-10-29T13:18:00.007-05:00

WOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!!! Yesterday we moved Patti Sue's house (the 'Baby House') into the new building! They ACTUALLY slept there last night! It's very surreal to be in this moment, because this has been a long time coming. We will not move the main orphanage until next weekend, so it's kind of hard to feel much relief at this point. We still have a lot of planning and packing to do, but I know we need to celebrate this small step! :)

Yesterday morning, 9 out of the 10 babies at the house were taken for the day by different people in the missionary community. It was quite humorous to see them all leaving in the morning for their day out. ha! We kept Suzanna with us due to her medical and feeding issues, so she was the first child of Casa de Fe to officially move in!

Several of the gringo volunteers and the Ecuadorian workers helped load up Patti Sue's house and bring everything up to the new property. We worked on cleaning everything as it came in, sorting, organizing, setting up the rooms, etc... Here's a little of the craziness. Mrs. Martin took pictures for us! :)
Dwight & his dad making a new base for one of the cribs.
The tias did an amazing job in the kitchen!
Some of the girls came up after school to help Patti Sue get organized and hang some curtains.

The babies were brought in around 5:45, and it was craziness after that.
We pretty much had everything set up and ready, but I think they were just overwhelmed by the new scenery. It was quite dramatic for a while. :) Nanki wanted OUT!!!

Angel was having a blast.

Jhony
Please continue to pray for us throughout next week. The plan is to move the classrooms and education material to the new property as soon as school gets out at 3:00pm next Friday, Nov. 5th. The next day we plan to move the kids, and that is going to be a long day! We're going to have clorox baths, lice treatments, haircuts, etc.... We want to be CLEAN when we move! :) Fun times.

On Sunday morning (also Dwight's 30th birthday!), we plan to have a worship service with the kids in their new home. I think we're all just overwhelmed to be a part of this right now. Our God is so big, and the ways He works out His plans are just unbelievable. Father, please help us never lose sight of the fact that you provided all of this. Help us teach these children to be thankful, but to never forget that their real home is with You.

Cole Therapy

2010-10-29T12:41:00.003-05:00

Although I love all of our teams that come....I just HAVE to post about a recent team that came specifically for therapy. This is the reason I chose to come to Casa de Fe, yet it's also something I don't get to spend any of my time doing. So.... to see this team come in and provide so much for our kids in this specific area.... Wow. It was just incredible.

Cole Therapy (based in North Houston area) contacted us a while back, because they were looking for an international organization to partner with on a long-term basis. (hopefully!!!) They wanted to know if our kids could benefit from speech, physical, or occupational therapy. We answered with a resounding, "YES!!!"

The company had an application process for their therapists, and the resulting team could not have been more perfect. We had 2 speech therapists, 2 physical therapists, and 1 occupational therapist - all women. The ladies shared that some of them did not know each other well before coming, but it was obvious that the trip resulted in some new friendships. It really was a joy to be around them throughout the trip.

I was SO IMPRESSED by the team's work ethic!! I think the first day was a little overwhelming, because they just got to briefly meet every child (about 25) who could benefit from any one of the therapies....usually more than one is needed for each child. They went to the hostel that first night and sat down as a team, and the next morning they came to me with a plan. In the next couple of days they proceeded to fully evaluate every single child for each respective discipline. They would work at the orphanage all day, and then they stayed up every night until 1:00 or 2:00AM typing up their treatment plans. By the end of the week, they left us with a binder full of the completed treatment plans for each child, AND the information was all translated into Spanish for our therapist here.

I cannot explain to you how exciting this was/is!!! I told them it was like Christmas. :) We've just never had anyone be able to complete their work (therapy-wise) from start to finish like this, and the translated treatment plans will be effective for a long time to come. It is just such a gift for us.

They also spent a lot of their day-time hours with the kids- working on new exercises, fitting braces and adaptive equipment, working with our therapist, Geovanny..... the list goes on! I wish I would have taken more pictures, but the team promised to send me theirs. Here are a couple that I got of Martin whenever he used his quad canes for the first time. He is fearless when it comes to trying out new equipment!

THANK YOU to Cole Therapy!!! Thank you to the executives who provided this opportunity for your employees by counting this trip as paid work. Thank you to each of the 6 women who came and shared their knowledge and love with our kids. We hope to see you all in Ecuador again one day!

MeMom & PaPa in Ecuador!!!!

2010-10-26T10:20:00.007-05:00

Dwight's parents arrived on October 16th, and they get to stay until November 1st. It has been SO awesome to share our lives here in Shell with them, and I know it means the world to Dwight to have them here! Unfortunately for them....they are keeping our work hours with us every day. ha! :) They've been a big help to both Dwight and I with our daily work, and I feel like I have a magical house-cleaning fairy visiting my house at night. LOVE that. We've been eating like crazy...enjoying special treats from the States and our favorites from here. It's been so exciting to watch them experience new things and bravely conquer some fears!!! We are just so thankful, because their presence here is an answered prayer...possibly even qualifying as a miracle! ;) God is so good. Anyway...I'm horribly behind on my blogs, but I wanted to share some pictures from their first day here. We arrived in Shell last Sunday night, and we came straight to Casa de Fe so they could meet the kids.

Let the hugs begin!!! Junior has only been with us for a few weeks now. He is adorable!
The gemelos are always eager to be held during tours. :)
I love this one! They decided to have a little group hug.

Nayely was gettin' some serious lovin'! MeMom first....
Then PaPa.....

I just love her little hands around his neck. We went around to the back to see the big kids, and they were all lined up on the stairs- fresh from the shower. :)
Dwight was introducing the kids to his parents, and Pablo was trying to get his attention in the meantime. :)
I LOVE this picture!!! From L to R- Kevin, Wilson, Jimy, Javier, Ariel, & Gilmar - Que guapo!!!
Tatiana, Ana, & Dubiasca....with Ariel sneaking in the back.
Coco is HUGE. I think Dwight pulled some muscles when he threw Coco in the air.
I'm pretty sure 'PaPa' got a workout lifting the kids up over and over and over....
Our resident beauty queens, Maribel & Nicole
This used to be Dwight's daily routine whenever he was here at Casa de Fe on a daily basis. All of the kids crowd around the window, and he takes turns throwing each kid into the air....3 times each to keep it fair. :) Alejo is probably the funniest one, because he gets this terrified panicked look as the highest point....but then is grinning by the time you catch him. He does it EVERY time you throw him up, and it's hilarious! You can almost see his expression here....he's at the scared point in this pic. lol...

Sarita :) I wish you could here the deep giggle that she does every time.
This was taken as Jonathan came down from his little trip in the air. Love it!
The next 2 pics are of the gemelas (female twins). They crack me up! :)

Mrs. Martin has been taking some awesome pictures since this first day. Hopefully I'll get them up in the near future.

Here's a video that I know the family will enjoy seeing. A sweet moment!

Jefferson LeDonne

2010-10-12T08:56:00.006-05:00

Jefferson is officially adopted now!!! His family started the process last summer when they were here, and it's finally complete. It has been so awesome for all of us to see it from start to finish.
So....here is part of the journey in pictures. :)

The LeDonne family arrived in Quito mid-August. They didn't get to come to Shell for a couple of days, so I had Jefferson call them on my cell. Here are some pics of the first conversation they had in-country....
The first two are talking to his dad....

then mom.... :)

Jefferson and I were waiting at our house on the day the LeDonnes were driving to Shell. It was so exciting!!! We got 'the call' and went walking over to where they were going to stay. I was supposed to take a lot of pictures, but I got too caught up in the moment!!! Here are a couple....
Jefferson got to stay with the family throughout the process, and it was so fun to see him be with his new family. He didn't hesitate one bit in calling Tim 'Daddy' and Lisa 'Mom.' It was great. His new sister, Lizzie, and brother, Connor, were so great with him. Everyone who spent time with them noticed that Jefferson was just completely at home.

They were here for almost 2 months going through the final stages of the adoption process. They got to stay with us for a couple of weeks at different times, and we loved it!! It was so special to see them bonding...and hilarious to hear some of the stories as well. :) I just have to say that one of my favorites involved the subject of circumcision. You could just say that Jefferson was quite concerned about his new brother....and more concerned that he would somehow become like him.

So....Here's a pic. of the day they went to meet the judge for final approval of the adoption. They all had to dress up for their appointment, and Lisa had brought the cutest outfit for Jefferson. Here's a quick snapshot of the family outside of the courthouse.
God was definitely taking care of things and smoothing the way for them, because every checkpoint they had was completed on time. In case you've never been here before...that is an AMAZING thing.
The ONLY delay they had actually came on the day they were supposed to finally fly out of the country! That was when all of the drama happened in Quito, so they were delayed a day. Here's a pic of when they finally got to fly home. :)

Since then, they've had a couple of weeks at home together. Tim posted some pics on Facebook, and I've put some of my favorites on here. These are from Jefferson's first week in the States.

Classic first trip to Wal-Mart..... They said he LOVED the greeter who so freely handed out stickers.

If you haven't met Jefferson....He has no toes on either feet. He was badly burned as a child, and doctors said he might never walk. That's not even close to the case now.... You'd never know!!! They said his scooter is his new favorite sport. :)

Here's their whole family...minus an older daughter. Aren't they beautiful?!?

Jefferson has been a favorite of many visitors over the years, and I know everyone is so excited that he is now a part of a family. Please continue to keep the LeDonnes and Jefferson in your prayers. God is so faithful.....

The Latest

2010-10-01T11:54:00.007-05:00

Things have been as crazy as ever lately. There are so many things that have caused me to think...'Oh, I should blog about that.' oops. So. This blog will be very random.

- Construction is coming along, and we are all so excited to get closer to completion. This picture is from a few weeks ago, but it was a very exciting moment for Dwight. He built this attic space above the 2nd story, and it was quite the project. - This is Greg Chalmers handing Dwight the wood....Greg visited with a small team for a week this past summer. He saw the need for more help at the property, asked if he could come.....and now he's here for a couple of months. He's been a huge blessing in so many ways, and we're all encouraged by his servant heart.

2 or 3 weekends ago we had a huge group of volunteers come to work at the property. Patti Sue invited the missionary community, and Steve Wilson brought a bunch of the skilled workers from the hospital maintenance department. We were joking abut this being our own version of Extreme Home Makeover, b/c all of the hospital people were in their matching blue polos. :) This is a picture of Dwight speaking to the group before getting to work. He did the whole thing in Spanish!!! I know I'm not supposed to be prideful, but I couldn't help it. ;)

- Sewer problems. Not a fun topic, I know. BUT.... We experience it regularly here at Casa de Fe. Our kids tend to shove the most random objects possible down the toilet. We were having issues earlier this week, and we had cleared the pipes on our side of the fence as much as possible. It was still backed up, so we had to call the city to come check things out. This is what they did to the street outside of Casa de Fe...... Apparently the culprit was a Keen sandal (we have about 40 pairs of them!). Who knew a Keen sandal could travel that far in such a small pipe!?!

- FUN moment- It's so awesome to see how God brings people together through Casa de Fe. One of our volunteers (last summer and winter), Carolyn Asbach, has become a good friend of mine. I got a random email from her boyfriend (whom I've never met), and this was the result of our conversations:

Isn't that awesome!?! He asked me to send a bunch of updated pics of the kids, and he made Carolyn a book....just passing it off as something sweet to encourage her. The picture above was the last picture in the book, and he was on his knee when she got to this page.... Pray that God blesses their marriage!
Also...please take note of Pablo holding the question mark. It's by far the best part of the picture. :)

I just cannot get over God's creation here.....It's so humbling to be surrounded by this kind of beuaty every day. If we look in one direction, all we can see is rainforest. If you turn the other way....you see snow-capped mountains! It's incredible. It's normally not clear enough to see the mountains, so when they come out every couple of months; we all get really excited and rush to take pictures. - We have now had 6 straight days of crystal clear skies, and we've woken up to this every morning. This is the view from our porch.....It's hard to see the mountain in this picture, but I wanted you to get the idea. These are both actually volcanoes. This is Sangay....still puffing every now and then.

This is El Altar. There is a huge crater on the other side...amazing.

Since we've been here we've experienced both earthquakes and erupting volcanoes. It gives these beautiful mountains- always a reminder of God's power- a whole new meaning. The verse below reminds me of God's infinite power....and our infinite smallness.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;

may the Lord rejoice in His works-

he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,

who touches mountains, and they smoke.

I will sing to the Lord all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Ps. 104:31-33

Thank you for our backpacks!!!

2010-09-16T09:50:00.003-05:00

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!!!

2010-09-14T14:39:00.006-05:00

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

2010-09-07T14:15:00.004-05:00

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.

New Home

2010-08-30T19:56:00.004-05:00

We've moved...again. :) A friend of ours hooked us up with a new apartment near the MAF housing. It's usually used for very short-term, but the owners gave us permission to stay through November. The rent is CONSIDERABLY less than what we're used to paying, and it's a huge blessing.

It is sparsely furnished, but everyone has been so generous and given us things to borrow while we're there....a bed, refrigerator, dishes...the list goes on.

When you walk into the apt, you're in a wide hallway. There are 2 bedrooms on the right half, and one main room to the left. Here's our bedroom. We're just using the other room for storage. I felt like I was living out my childhood fantasy of being one of the Boxcar Children. As I was cleaning the place out before we moved in....I was trying to imagine every possible use for each item I found tucked away in the closets. One of my proudest accomplishments...our couch. :) It's a bed...with one of the thin mattresses flipped up. There was this really random piece of material...like 3 double sheets sewn together...PERFECT for a big huge slip cover. A couple of random patio furniture pillos....2 more pillows from my friend Dawn...Tah-dah!

We've added some things after I took these pics, but I didn't know if it would ever be this clean again.

Here's the main room- living room/dining room/kitchen in one! :)Here's the view from our front door- 2nd story of the building. That's the Nate Saint Missionary School below us.Home Sweet Home for the next 3 months!

Jonathan

2010-08-30T19:28:00.004-05:00

Last Sunday we had Jonathan over for the afternoon and evening. He's had a mullet since he arrived, and we decided that needed to change. Dwight got his first chance to give a haircut with only scissors...no clippers. He did a great job. :)

Check out his belly! He had just finished 2 plates of arroz con pollo and maduros.

Afterward we went inside to take a bath. Is this not the cutest picture EVER?!?

AFTER

Goodbyes for Now

2010-08-16T15:30:00.004-05:00

We've had quite a few kids leave over the past few months, and I don't think I've posted about all of them going home. Here is a complete list (for the time being) of kids who've gone home to their families. PLEASE pray for them!

- Thalia, Abigail, and Alondra- These 3 sisters left at the beginning of the summer. Thalia just came by last week, and she said everyone is doing well. Abigail and Alondra are at their family's 'finca' in the jungle right now. I always grill her about whether or not they're eating enough, safe, etc... They were abused by their landlord before coming here, so please pray for their protection from further abuse. Their dad is raising them alone, so please pray that he would learn to be a good father to them.
- Jessica- Our little powerhouse went home about 3 weeks ago. Her mom came by to pick her up for a visit, because her grandmother was not doing well. Jessica told her mom and us that she wanted to go home for good. The reason Jessica came in the first place was because the mother could not take care of her/provide her needs. We won't be surprised if Jessica decides to come back, but we will continue to pray for her home life in the meantime.

* Blogger decided to stop loading photos....

- Esteban- Esteban's family has not visited for a couple of years now. We started his adoptability process a few months ago, and that begins with contacting his family. After we contacted them, they began to come visit Esteban again. He now walks independently with his braces, and we're thinking that changed him in his family's eyes. I think they believe they will be able to take care of him now. Esteban and Rosa were best friends, so here they are together. :)

- Carlos & Marley- Their mother visited the last week of school (2nd week of June), and Carlos REALLY wanted to go home with her. Marley was bawling her eyes out, because she did NOT want to go home. Marley was abused by an older half-brother, so she does not want to live with her mother again and have to be around that brother. Long story...The mom eventually came back 3 weeks ago, and both Carlos and Marley went home with her. We were confused about why Marley would have changed her mind. We don't know if the mom told her something to bribe her or what.... Just please, please, please lift them up...Marley especially.

Fernando & Laura- We got Fernando and Laura over a year ago. Extended family members brought them in whenever their dad was sent to prison. In Ecuador, the children are placed in the jail cells with parents if there is not any other family to take care of them. At this point, their mother was not in the picture. We've had them for the past year, and it wasn't until this summer that the mom came around. It was heart-breaking to watch her with the kids the first time. We don't know the truth of why she left in the first place, but the possibilities are endless. She began to visit the kids regularly, and she cried every time she came. Mama Ines and our social worker visited her apartment in Ambato, and they said she is definitely prepared to take care of the kids. Pray for their protection and their mother as she becomes a single mother of two.

Short-term Team Video

2010-08-10T15:02:00.005-05:00

I completely forgot to post this earlier!
We had a team come from Amite Baptist church (LA) the first week of July, and they made a slideshow of their trip to share with their church. I thought they did a great job, and I wanted to post it on here. I feel like they show a lot of the little things (food, the guesthouse, etc...) that really help you understand what a trip down here would be like.
The video starts with their MAF flight to visit the Waorani....that's not what Shell is like. :)
This team had connections with the Whiteheads, so they were split between Casa de Fe and MAF. The group was made up primarily of their church choir, and they had a concert one night at the Whitehead's church. I was so impressed, because they sang quite a few songs in Spanish....while none of them can speak the language! I thought that was very brave of them, and the community loved it.
For those of you coming....I hope this makes you more excited about your trip!

How Could I Forget the HOEDOWN?!?

2010-08-07T17:28:00.005-05:00

Yes, we had a hoedown in Shell, Ecuador; and I can't believe I left such a memorable occasion out of my update post.

So...the Hardin family used to live here in Shell, and they come back every summer so Mike can work in the hospital. Apparently, Mike's 2nd profession of choice behind a surgeon....is being a line dance caller...or anything related to country dancing. (That's what his wife told me.)

I was alone for the majority of the event, because Dwight had a basketball game. (Yes, there's a hint of hostility in that statement.) BUT...he did show up for the last ten minutes- covered in sweat and wearing a long-sleeve camo t-shirt- for some 2 stepping to George Strait. That made up for it..... almost. :)

I'm posting these pics for the enjoyment of those who were there, and because they will introduce our families to some of our dearest friends here!!! A lot of our volunteers were there, so I love seeing everyone in these photos.

We started with the chicken dance...followed by the Cotton Eyed Joe and a few other line dances....

Of course we had to stop and stuff our faces, because that's what we do when we get together. During the break there was a watermelon seed spitting contest. Kris (whom we used to live under the first year here) was AMAZING. I wish you all could have seen it. I love these two pictures in succession....especially that you can never really see what you want to see. It was beautiful.

Next we learned to square dance. I was especially lucky, because I was in the same group as my good friend Tracey Jo. (That's not really her name...Dwight called her that one day, and she LOVED it.) Anyway...she wasVERY exuberant in her square dancing....wishing she has some fuschia colored petticoats. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. She's in the brown... you can't even see her other leg, because she's lifting her knee so high.

Time for the TWO STEP!!! Dan and I took the first round....it took us a while, but we got there. :)

The rest are some fun couple pics that I just love... good times.

Fred & Desi Schmidt

Paul & Kim :)

Dan & Tracey Jo

Here's Ron & Margie with Huevito (Samy)...Dwight says he looks like a Humpty Dumpt character....big round body with little stick legs hanging out. He NEVER stops eating!

So....there you have it. Missionaries dancing. Who knew!?!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!!

2010-08-04T10:36:00.003-05:00

Happy 50th birthday to my madre today!!! I feel like a horrible child, as I have missed both of my parents' 50th birthdays this summer. I would love nothing more than to be with them in person...possibly throwing birthday parties with an age theme.... I think my dad was kind of relieved that I wasn't there to do that for him in June. ;)

Excuse the wedding attire....This is the most recent picture I have of the family. My brother's birthday is in late August...and he's too handsome to leave out anyway. :)

I love you, Mom & Dad! Mom, I hope you have a great day! Thank you for your support and excitement about where Dwight and I are at in life right now... It means the world.

Muchas Cosas

2010-08-03T11:39:00.004-05:00

I know an update is long overdue, and so much has happened in the last few weeks. I'm going to try to abbreviate things, but we'll see....

Since the last post on the 17th....

We continue to have visitors who help with construction on the property and work with the kids. Whiting family of 6, Rick Herold and his crew from North Dakota, Brian Brijbag and team from Florida, few more summer volunteers came in, and now we have a team in from Dallas. They're wrapping up morning VBS right now... :)
Dwight and I moved from one house to another last Thursday. We continue to live in our friends' furnished homes while they are out of the country. This is our 5th "home" to live in since we got married 2 years ago. The current place is only for a month, so we're not even unpacking. Wait....change that to I (Tandy) am not wasting time to unpack.
Another personal note....Dwight and I will be staying through until November. The building is still not finished, and Dwight wants to see it through to completion. I'll continue to help organize things for the move and help with all the volunteers and school staff for this next year.
Lots of changes with the kids as well....Esteban and Jessica both went home to be with their families. Marley & Carlos went home yesterday as well. Carlos has been wanting to go home for a long time. Marley did not want to return, because she was abused by an older half-brother when she was younger. Somehow, they both ended up going, so please keep them in your prayers.
Yesterday we received a sibling set of 4- 1 girl and 3 boys. Their father is in prison, and his sentence is for 16 years. Please pray for these 4 as they settle into their new home. School will be a huge adjustment for them considering
all of the other older kids now speak English.
Tia Retreat- We are having overnight retreats for the tias- split into 2 groups between last weekend and this coming one as well. It has been a joy to serve these ladies, because they always work so hard with the kids. Loly Isbell is leading the spiritual lessons and worship. Please pray that all of the tias' hearts would be opened to the gospel, and that they would really come to understand how much our Father loves them.

- This home is owned by missionaries in Quito, and people all over the country use it for retreats. It's beautiful! It's up on top of a secluded mountain...an amazing view on all sides.

Here's the entry-way... Love it!

Tia Gloria and I were the last ones in musical chairs. You could say we're both a little competitive. ;)

The MUB continues to progress. It deserves its own post, and I don't have any new pics right now. :) The doors will go in soon, and we will be able to start moving things over at that point.
I just needed to post a picture of this. Dwight had Freddy over the other night, because they needed to work on plans for the building. The group who took the kids to the beach left some extra S'more ingredients, and Dwight has been savoring them one at a time. :) He was so excited to teach Freddy about this American tradition....even if they used a gas stove.

My brain is fried. I can't think of anything else at the moment, but I'm positive I'm leaving things out. We're transitioning out of the summer and into the school year, and there are so many things to be done.

Please pray for all of us...that we would be strengthened during this time. Pray that we would be able to work in ways that are pleasing to God...have healthy boundaries with our time and not let the 'busyness' bring us down.

New Video!!!

2010-07-25T15:11:00.002-05:00

We are SO EXCITED about this!!! Here is the new video we will be able to use for fundraising for the the future homes. PLEASE feel free to forward this, use it for your own presentation, show the world....you get the idea. :)

It might take a while to load. Make sure the HD is turned off on the right side of the screen, and that will make it quicker. Follow the link, and you'll be able to download the video if needed.

Yes...I know I look ghetto during my interview..... If you know me well, then you know my hands were moving around like crazy while I talked....which you can't see....which makes my head moving around look ridiculous!! All of the volunteers got a good laugh out of this last night. We also love Dwight's statement of "multiple different backgrounds."
Always good to laugh at yourself, and this has provided plenty of those opportunities for us.

Enjoy!

Casa De Fe from Under the Threshold Productions on Vimeo.

Progress!

2010-07-14T16:11:00.006-05:00

The volunteers took the older kids swimming at the property this weekend, so I went up to get a couple of pictures.

On Saturday morning, the team from Amite Baptist in Louisiana helped with completing the cistern. They got to experience the joy of pouring concrete in Ecuador.
The land will be filled in around the cistern, and the laundry area will be built on top. This underground cistern will be a back-up source for the MUB whenever we lose water in Shell.

Freddy is a master at making the concrete perfectly smooth.

Making progress on the tile.... Ivan and Carlos :)

I love Ivan's expression...

MUB

2010-07-09T10:29:00.006-05:00

Our FABULOUS summer volunteers have the kids occupied with non-stop activities, and I'm loving it. ....Hence my ability to post on here 2 days in a row. :)

I took these pictures at the MUB last week...and I'm just now getting them uploaded. I'll probably take some more this weekend....meaning you'll see them in a week or two. ha!

Tom was a great help in getting the tile started. This is Patti Sue's room that they're working in, and it's now finished.

Sexy knee-pads....

This is the one bath-tub, which will be so great for the babies!

2 coats of paint on all walls and ceilings = tons of fun for our volunteers

Eva worked on trim all day. :)
Pehr and Dennis built and hung the first door. Woo-hoo! All of the doors will slide for easier wheelchair access.

The Ecuadorian maestros and workers have been focusing on the jobs upstairs, because gringos don't know how to do them. :)

Dwight said they've already almost finished the enlucido- the smooth concrete mix that they put over the blocks. Hopefully we'll start plastering upstairs next week.

Catching Up

2010-07-08T16:41:00.006-05:00

I'm so behind in blog posts.....Forgive me.

I was uploading new construction pics from my camera, and I saw a few from the beach trip. I'm waiting to get pictures from the team that took us, because I didn't take many. I got a couple whenever we were doing indoor activities...and relied on everyone else to take them while we were on the beach. :)

Dwight and I LOVED getting to spend time one-on-one with our 'buddies' for the week. Here we are on the bus....settled in for the 10+ hour trip.

Dwight and Angel

Me & Jeni
The group planned a daily schedule including group games, arts and crafts, worship, etc... They did an awesome job.

Even the boys participated in the arts and crafts.....

Ivan and his partner, Luke

Jefferson

....big boys too.

Oh yes....I can't forget the lice party in my room. Woo-hoo! Miss Alison was the victim this time. :) Jeni checked me as well, and I am miraculously lice-free...for the time being.

The girls kept showing Ali what they pulled out...lol.

It was so great to get away and just spend time with the kids for a week. Dwight and I weren't in charge of anything, and it was fabulous.

Suzanna

2010-06-30T16:40:00.003-05:00

A Chinese family from a city 11 hours away brought in their baby girl last week. Suzanna was born with hydrocephalus, and the parents decided they did not want to keep her. She is 3 months old....and she's beautiful!!!

This was the first photo Patti Sue sent out, but I'm sure she has more by now. :)

Please continue to pray for everyone here at CDF. We continue to have a new group each week, and we currently have 13 individual volunteers here as well. The volunteers have just started their full-day summer schedule, and they are such a blessing! The kids are still getting classroom time and one-on-one tutoring in English...as well as art, P.E., etc... We're being careful not to call it "school," but it definitely resembles it. :)

Patti Sue is leaving for the States for a couple of weeks, so please keep her in your prayers as well. Dallas, Ali and she are all attending a conference at Cornerstone, and I know they'd all appreciate your prayers.

The bottom floor of the MUB is painted....from what I hear. :) I hope to have pics up soon!

2nd Video of Rosa

2010-06-12T22:16:00.002-05:00

See the post below for the explanation on this. I haven't been able to load videos in months, so I posted the first one before it could mess up on me!

I wanted to share this one for Julie. I love the Hi-5 at the end!

Rosa

2010-06-12T21:13:00.003-05:00

The team from Asbury brought 4 people who worked on medical/therapy related issues. Julie is a PT, Teryl an OT, Don's a pediatrician specializing in kids with special needs, and his wife Debbie is a nurse. These 4 people were so dedicated and worked so hard! Each of them did so much in their respective areas, and all of us at Casa de Fe were ecstatic to see the progress. There are so many stories with the different kids, but I think Rosa's stands out the most of all.

Julie put Rosa in a wheelchair for the first time, and it was amazing to see how quickly she learned to use it! Julie showed her how to turn it, and she was maneuvering all over the place 2 minutes later. Sorry the qualities of the video are not great. We were too excited to care. :) ( I don't know why, but it put the video at the bottom of the post.)

As if this wasn't enough....The next day Julie modified a walker we had so that Rosa could use it. She put a shoe on her stump where her foot was amputated, and Rosa was so proud of it. She took off using the walker like she'd been doing it forever. This is one strong little girl! A volunteer took these pics, but there's no way to capture Rosa's joy.

Progress at the Property

2010-06-12T20:38:00.005-05:00

We had about 40 American helpers at the property over the last two weeks, and there has been so much progress! It's awesome to see things coming together.

First Baptist Brookhaven was here for 2 weeks, and during the second week we had another team of 11 come from Asbury United Methodist from Tulsa, OK. Both teams had awesome attitudes, and they were willing to do anything we needed at the site. Here are a few pictures of the building that I took on Thursday.

The main entrance in the front....
Stairs up to your right....

Storage closet under the stairs....Check out the tile for the first floor!This is the common area that includes the kitchen. This space alone is as big as the entire toddler house we currently have. Close-up of the kitchen area. Again....at least 5 times bigger.

They poured this cistern on Tuesday....of course it was all mixed by hand. :) There are 4 large bedrooms off of the common area. - And there is PAINT on the walls!
You can't get a picture of the entire bathroom area, because of the way it's situated. All of the other bathrooms have walk-in showers, but this one has an elevated bathtub to use for the infants and kids with special needs. To the right of the divider is a really large storage/closet space where the sink is also located.

One of the Ecuadorian workers working on the plaster. The walls need 2 coats before they're ready for paint. It's an incredibly precise process, and lots of the volunteers tried their hand at it. The maestros make it look effortless.

The workers are still doing block upstairs, and they'll be working on the enlucido this week while we're gone. This is what you see when you come up the stairs. The middle is a common area. There are 3 large rooms to your left.

Looking into the middle room, which is the office.... The room to the left will be for medical/nursing, and the room on the right of the office is the therapy room. There is another kitchen upstairs in this corner. Patti Sue's plan is that the upstairs area can be used for special events and large group gatherings.
This view toward the back right is where there are more bathrooms/showers.

We are in Quito right now after seeing off both teams from this past week. A team from New Mexico arrives late tonight, and we head to the beach tomorrow. This group comes every 2 years to take the kids on a beach trip, and we get to go this time! Jeniffer is my buddy for the week, and Dwight has Angel. We're so looking forward to spending some time with the kids away from the craziness of the summer. Please pray for safety.

Thalia, Abigail, and Alondra went home on Friday. I think this has definitely been the hardest situation for all of us to be a part of, because the girls were abused by a family acquaintance before. PLEASE pray for them. Also pray that their dad can come to know the Lord and be the father he is called to be.

Also....to end on a positive note....Happy Birthday to Dwight's mom (11th) and Tandy's dad(13th)! We love you both!

Jonathan David

2010-06-03T12:42:00.003-05:00

Those names might look very familiar to the Martin family.

We got a new little boy this morning, and he did not have a name. Apparently it was my turn to name a child....and his new name is Jonathan David. Just like that.

What really happened.... Mama Ines and Patti Sue were pressuring me to name him. I asked 'Why am I responsible for this?!?' (It seemed like a big deal!) This is when they informed me it was 'my turn.' (I didn't know we took turns for this.)

I was trying to think of something....Patti Sue mentioned David...which made me think of Jonathan(in my head).... Then Mama Ines said..."Jonathan?" (out loud), and I said...."Yeah, I was thinking about that..." And then the next thing I know, his official name is Jonathan David.

They talked about making his last name Martin, but I stopped it at that. Dwight's at the property and has no idea there's now another Jonathan. :)

Jonathan's parents had never given him a proper name...They only referred to him as "loco." I pray that he will never find this out or remember this word as he gets older!

Apparently they were trying to sell him on the street, and a young man took him from them. We were contacted yesterday...all of the legal stuff was done this morning, and now this will be his home. He will hopefully be adoptable one day.

He's malnourished, but he'll catch up quickly.

Isn't he beautiful?!?

Let the Games Begin....

2010-05-26T11:43:00.002-05:00

This is our last week before teams start coming, and we are all frantically trying to prepare. I just sent 57 emails this morning....so now I'm waiting for the onslaught of returns. :)
Our first team of 25 arrives this Friday night....9 of them leave after 1 week & 16 will stay for a 2nd week. We have another team of 11 coming in to overlap with the remaining 16. The day after both of those teams leave, a group of 10 will come in. We will leave the next day with 20 kids and head for the beach for a week! The group will come back to Shell for the next week to work on the property. And on and on through the end of August....

All of that to say... The blog will suffer greatly during this time. :) Please expect a serious lack of communication on my part.
For now....I wanted to just give you a few updates on what God has been doing here lately.

Last week we received news that we have been given a $50,000 grant from a foundation in the States! Patti Sue and I sat down to write a simple proposal/request...and 2 weeks later the money was wired. God is so amazing! With this money, we can pay off one of the hospital bills in Quito, completely finish the MUB, and help with the new school-building. We will also actually have money in the bank account that has been EMPTY after each of the last few pay-days.
Antoney, Veronica, and Lorena have all gone home with their families recently. These are all hopeful situations, and we're happy the kids can be with loved ones again. Please keep them in your prayers.
Thalia, Abigail, and Alondra are possibly going home after school is over. This is not as hopeful of a situation, but Patti Sue and Mama Ines are doing everything possible to provide the girls resources to ask/call/come for help if needed.
Ivan & Edy (brothers) might also go home to be with their dad. He could not take care of them as a single father, but he has recently re-married. The step-mom wants to bring the boys home, so this is a great situation!
Fernando in the toddler house is also possibly going to live with his father as well. The single father took back his older son a couple of years ago. The dad works as a sort of traveling salesman, and the older brother stays with him. Now that Fernando is a little older, the dad feels like he can take care of both boys. This father loves them very much, and the boys' lives will be changed by that love.
We are ready to go for next year! We have 3 full-time teachers committed: Ali & Dallas returning, and Megan Shepherd (one of our friends!) will be new. Omer & Mary Jane Troyer will be here for most of the school year; Omer will be the Director of Education. Ingan & Pehr - a couple from Sweden- both teachers- will also be moving here for the year. We have a pediatric nurse coming to work full-time as well...Ashley Van Conant. Mike & Lindy Waskosky will continue to help in so many ways. We also have 3 other full-time female volunteers for the school year.... Bethany Sauls, Aleta Lucero, and Amanda Moore. They will be helping with one-on-one tutoring, therapy, teaching P.E., teaching art, extra-curricular activities, teaching pre-school & ESL, etc.... I hate to clump them all together like this, but we're so excited about every single person! God has provided...as always.
Things are going great at the property! The walls are going up on the 2nd floor. Within the next 2 weeks, the walls on the first floor will hopefully be completely finished (2 layers of plaster & paint). Tiling will begin soon.... The new school building's foundation is being worked on as well. PLEASE pray that things will continue, and we'll be able to move in with plenty of time before school starts!

I'm sure I'm forgetting many things.... Please keep all of us (CDF staff) in your prayers as this summer begins.... the groups, end-of-school, completion of MUB and school, etc... It's very easy to get caught up in the work and craziness, and none of us want to lose focus on WHY we're doing this. Please pray for wisdom as we balance our time and priorities. God is evident in the things that are happening, and we don't ever want to be so busy that we lose sight of that.

JP

2010-05-13T15:07:00.008-05:00

Patti Sue has been in the States for the last 9 days or so, and we got to keep JP with us. He has a crazy-late bedtime, and he gets quite hyper between 8:00-9:30. It became official rough-house/wrestle time for he and Dwight every night. :)

People are always asking about him, so I thought it was time for some pictures....

Uncle Dwight changed his fair share of diapers. (He might say MORE than fair!) He was not amused that I was taking pictures....this was an especially bad one.

Look at that sweet face....

PLAYTIME!!!

He loved to put his forehead to Dwight's and look out of the top of his eyes...reminds me of Tanner!

Those wet spots on Dwight's shirt are where John Paul bit him. :)

The next morning...spending time in the kitchen with me.My favorite pic of all!

Mischevious

Showing off

He LOVES taking a bath! Most Ecuadorian houses (including the one Patti Sue is currently in) don't have bathtubs, so they use small plastic baby tubs. John Paul wasn't sure what to do when I put him in the bathtub at our house for the first time. He quickly figured it out though, and he splashed half of the water all over the bathroom. The tias working at Patti Sue's said I had spoiled him....now he screams when they give him a quick bath in his little tub at home. lol...

Weightlifting

2010-05-07T23:11:00.003-05:00

We now have four kids participating in weightlifting: Angel, Jessica, Thalia, & Marcia. They had a competition in Puyo 2 weekends ago, and we all got to be there to watch. I think all of the cheering gringos are amusing to the other people there....

We can't use flash during the competitions...so please excuse the blurriness. Mel took the pics, and she did a fabulous job. Thank you, Mel...

All of the female competitors being introduced... Marcia is 2nd in on the left. Look at the girl in the white shirt/red short sleeves in the middle....Jessica is to the left and Thalia is to the right.... YOUR left and right. :)

Marcia is still very new, but she's doing great!

Thalia is doing awesome as well... I'm amazed at the level of maturity she shows when she is competing. It takes a lot of concentration and effort, and she is such a little athlete.

Jessica is in a league of her own.... She always wins everything there is to win in her bracket. It's crazy to watch how much weight she lifts. I think her last lift was something like 50 kilos...??

There are 3 judges...all watching different elements. White flags are what you want. :)

Angel stepped up and looked just like the sweet boy I know and love. THEN he just morphed into this man looking person! He is really at a competitive level, and I was nervous about the amount of weight he was lifting.

It's not pretty when he lifts....his face contorts, he grunts, yells, and breathes really hard. Very scary for me to see him like this.... He still talks in this high girly voice when he speaks to us in English, so it was hard to wrap my mind around this new image of his.

It is so great to see these kids involved in something that they can really take ownership of. It's difficult for children raised in any type of group/institutional setting to really form their own identity and take ownership of anything. I LOVE to see them find something they enjoy, work hard at, and succeed.

These same kids are actually in a city a few hours away...competing at the National Championship for Ecuador. Last I heard, Jessica had won 3 gold medals and broken all of the records in her division.

2010-05-03T17:11:00.003-05:00

We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. Romans 5:1b-2 MSG

Change of Plans....AGAIN

2010-05-03T15:03:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to give another update... Last week we received a phone call from the Army, and Dwight's orders have been revoked. We have spent the last month gearing up for the deployment, and we were both completely at peace about it. We were even looking forward to a few things!
Now we are back where we were in March....knowing that we need to make a decision for what we'll do after September. Please pray for us.
Thank you for all of the encouragement and prayers! We're still just hanging on for the ride...trusting that God is in control.

Springtime Fun!

2010-04-26T17:33:00.002-05:00

Tammy did an awesome job planning an Easter party for the kids at our house. She brought decorations, favors, had all of the games planned out...It was a dream come true for me. :-)
It was the first time for us to have that many kids over to the house we're at now, and we were SO thankful for the huge yard and covered porch!

Doyles' Visit

2010-04-23T12:30:00.002-05:00

FINALLY!!! It has been even crazier than normal lately, and I'm so behind on posts! I can't do slideshows from our house, so getting this done during work hours at the orphanage seems impossible. :-) I'll follow up with another slideshow of the Easter party that Tammy planned for the kids. They had a blast! It needed its own slideshow...so I'll get there eventually!

The Doyle family came to visit the last week of March and stayed through Easter Sunday. Dwight met the Doyles in Alaska when he was first stationed there, and they became his second family. They moved to Tennessee while Dwight was deployed in Iraq, so they haven't been able to spend time together in several years. It was a sweet reunion!

We had so much fun having them with us for the week, and there was just no way to capture everything we did in these pictures! Dan, Connor, and Sean helped Dwight out at the property, and the Ecuadorians were AMAZED at how big the boys were. :-) The boys taught P.E. with Dwight and Dan was assigned some semi-unpleasant nursing jobs...Martin's cast and some vaccinations. Tammy helped with the shots as well, and she was an organizational DREAM here in the office! ( at our house too:-) ) She spent so much time getting all of the kids' medical folders up to date and organized. That has been a huge blessing!

Dwight and I felt like it was Christmas in March! Tammy has spoiled me rotten with vanilla candles, Bath Junkie, coffee, creamer, and a new salad dressing I LOVE. Dwight was surprised with a MASSIVE container of chili, several blocks of Velveeta, Ranch powder mix, cookies, his favorite artichoke dip.... the list goes on! Wow... We are still enjoying a lot of the food. :-) They also brought tons of donations from our Walmart Wish List for the orphanage, and I can't wait for the kids to use it all in the new building. Thank you to all of the others who donated things for them to bring as well!

It was just such a blessing to have them with us for the week. We LOVE sharing our lives here with people we love. It's just impossible to really get people to understand what things are like here and how special these kids are. You just have to come for yourself, and you'll see how easy it is to fall in love!

Thank you Dan, Tammy, Connor, and Sean for spending your Spring Break with us! We loved every minute of it.

Update on Our Future Plans

2010-04-16T09:29:00.002-05:00

Dwight received orders from the Army a couple of weeks ago, and he is being called back into active duty. We don't have a lot of details at this point, but we're pretty sure he will be deployed overseas for a year or so.
This means that Dwight will miss the entire summer here at the orphanage, and that makes us ALL very sad! I (Tandy) will return for the summer, and I plan to stay for the length of his deployment...through next year.
So...thank you for your prayers! We know that God is in control, and we have total confidence in His plan.

Martin

2010-04-10T15:52:00.005-05:00

PLEASE take note of the new masculine background. Well.....it's as masculine of a "scrapbook" background that I could find. :-)I was hoping to catch up on the blog with all of the pictures from the Doyles visit this weekend.... BUT- apparently our new internet provider will not allow the slideshow program. ugh! I'll get them on here eventually...

Now to the point of this post....MARTIN!!!
Those of you who have met Martin know how stinkin' cute he is. A little less than 2 months ago while we were in the States, a group of surgeons from the U.S. came to Ambato on a medical mission trip. Patti Sue took Martin, and he had 3 tendon releases on each leg! Ouch. These tendon releases allowed his legs to be perfectly straight for the first time in his life. He had to wear a cast that started at the top of his thighs...down to his toes...held by a bar between his knees.

It was time for Martin to have his cast taken off, and we happened to have the perfect candidate for the job... Dan Doyle is an ER nurse, and he's a pro at taking off casts. Tammy is a nurse as well, so they were the perfect combination for the job.

Here's Martin in the car on the way to our house- where we decided to take the cast off. Notice how happy he is....
We get to the house.....He is still happy, and he says that he's ready to have the cast off.
Here's Martin after he has FULLY realized what's going on... Notice how NOT happy he is now...
It was very difficult, because the saw and scissors we borrowed from the hospital were incredibly dull. Also...the cast is supposed to be used as a brace every night, so it had to be cut very specifically to maintain the right support system.

Geovanny is our physical therapist, and he was there when Martin had the cast put on.

We gave Martin a chocolate bar to cheer him up, but he squeezed it so hard it melted. lol...

Look at those poor, puffy eyes!

We did it at our house, because we're the only ones who have a bath-tub....I think he's happy again! :-)

It's awesome to see him sitting with his legs straight out in front of him like this. He has always sat in a "w" shape, with his knees bent and feet sticking out behind him. He still sometimes falls back into that habit when he gets ready to move across the room, but we're working on it. He's going to need continuous therapy to maintain full functioning and allow the tendons to completely heal.

It's awesome to see these steps through the years... It was so exciting when he gained more independence by learning to use a walker.... I cannot wait to see him walk and run on his own! God is so awesome.

Longest Trip EVER From Quito to Shell!!!

2010-04-07T19:39:00.002-05:00

WOW. Wow, wow, WOW, wow, Wow.
Sorry...I had to do it....again. I just can't think of another way to start this post. I know I say that a lot, but this time it's frreal! (that's how my cousin Kristin says it.)

So...We had an AWESOME time with the Doyle's, and I plan to post on that soon! I just wanted to do a quick post on the past few days, though. I'm going to go through the timeline to somewhat abbreviate the experience...

Monday, 2:00 PM in Quito: We pick up the Rustick family at the airport in Quito...This is a family of 9 (Yes! They have 7 kids.) who will be staying here for a month to work at the orphanage.

The van driver has no idea what's going on....says he's supposed to take us to the guesthouse- rather than Shell, where we're supposed to go ... Patti Sue is there, and she is NOT happy:-) ...We go back to the guesthouse, where Vicente (our main driver) is waiting with a different van.... We move everything over to the new van.... Now... When we made the reservation, I specifically said we needed 11 seat belts, and that we'd be putting luggage on the top of the van. Needless to say.... Patti Sue ended up keeping the majority of the luggage to bring down later.... The guys strapped 4 bags to the top of the van...Vicente stopped on the way out of Quito to buy plastic....Guys get out to strap it all on top.... We're on our way!

About 2 1/2 hours (half-way) into the trip... We are all gazing out the windows in admiration of the mountains, clouds, etc..... when Vicente slams on his brakes. Of course, we all look to the front to see what we're avoiding.... only to see a man jogging across 4 lanes of traffic toward us! Vicente is basically just skidding down this hill....trying to veer to the right as this guy CONTINUES to jog toward our path, and we end up hitting him! There was absolutely NO WAY that Vicente could have avoided hitting him! The only way I can get you to understand is to imagine someone running across 4 lanes of traffic with a blind-fold on. He literally did not look in any direction...EVEN as we came skidding into his line of vision. He NEVER hesitated or even flinched...HE literally ran into US! I know that sounds ridiculous, but I'm being serious.

Needless to say...He had been drinking. Anyway...we jumped out of the car, and he was sprawled on the ground. His head had hit the front corner of the windshield on the driver's side, and it broke the windshield. These are those funny vans that just have a flat front... The guy was breathing, and tons of people crowded around.... We are wondering what's going to happen, because when drivers get in an accident they are just automatically put in jail. - There were plenty of eyewitnesses who vouched for Vicente, but we were still doubtful that he could just walk away.

The ambulance came, and they loaded the guy in. The cop who was on the scene didn't know what the laws were for this situation, and he said we just needed to follow him back to Latacunga.....which is 30 minutes BACK in the direction we came. So, we follow him to the hospital (not the police station) where Vicente goes in with the cop to check on this guy.
Remember that we are going through all of this with a van full of first-time visitors...7 of whom are children!!! We're able to find a bathroom, water, and eat a dinner of granola bars while we wait in the emergency entrance parking lot. After an HOUR, the cop says to follow him again. 10 minutes later, we are led into the police station parking lot. It's dark and cold by now, but everyone is desperate to get out of the car and stretch a little. When we do this.... the female cop who has now been assigned to watch Vicente asks me if she can get in the car. I don't really understand what she wants, but I DO understand that I should probably give it to her. :-) So...she climbs into the car and then yells over for her "friend" - one of the military guys- to come get in the car with her. SERIOUSLY?!? So, here we are with the 7 kids, standing outside in the cold while they snuggle on the van seat and listen to music playing from their cell phone!!! Classic.

FINALLY...at 10:00pm, our 2nd van arrives from Quito to pick us up. We all load up in the new van...tell Vicente goodbye as they take him off to jail...and we're on our way. At 1:00am, we are about 30 minutes outside of Shell.... It's raining pretty hard.... We come to a mud slide that is blocking the road. NO WAY. We couldn't believe it. So..... We drive back to Banos...about 30 minutes back.... find a hostal and all climb into bed around 1:45am.

7:30 am Tuesday morning- Everyone wakes up excited to finally get to Shell! We don't worry about bathing or even putting on clean clothes (not that we had any!) or brushing our teeth, because we're going to be in Shell in about an hour anyway.

8:30am... We stop behind a long line of traffic about 30 minutes outside of town. After we wait 2 hours...hear about 20 different explanations from various people.... We are told the road to Shell is completely shut down due to mud slides. Apparently, noone will be able to pass for 2 or 3 DAYS!!!!

Our only other option to get to Shell is to drive BACK to Quito, and take a route in the opposite direction to come full circle to Shell. After about 10 phone calls and more incorrect information from various Ecuadorian sources....we find out that Tena (the city you can take the other route through) is flooded even worse than where we are!

Essentially...We're told there is absolutely no way to get to Shell. We'll just have to wait it out somewhere. So.... We go eat. :-) Back in Banos....It's lunch time...we can't do anything else. After eating, we find a nice hostal and make plans to stay the night. Oh yeah.... since we won't be able to drive across, we are making plans to make a 4 or 5 hour hike (with the 7 kids) in order to make it into Shell on Wed. morning.

We're resigned to staying another night....we're settled at the hostal...It's about 4:00pm, and we hear that the road is open and cars are going through. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. We have a million questions....some of which were:
"What happened to the bridge that was GONE?!?"
"Is it actually SAFE already?!?"
"Should we just stay?"
"Do we have enough daylight to pack everyone up and try again?"
"We sent our bus to Quito, so now how do we get all 11 of us there?!?"

Those were just a few of the things coming up.... Oh well. We end up staying the night, even though the roads are all miraculously present and clear.

Also....While we are stuck in Banos, we find out that Alison, Dallas, and Beto are there as well. Then Mike Waskosky calls us, and we meet up with him! Patti Sue is stuck in Quito...waiting for the word that it's clear to come down. Our team that is coming in on Tuesday decides to stay in Ambato until they hear otherwise.... It was just craziness.

7:00 Wednesday morning: We wake up at the hostal to find that the Rustick family's groceries have been stolen. NO WAY. I just cannot think of anything more that could happen to this family on this trip!!! Thankfully, the hostal subtracted some of their cost to account for it. (Dad, I know I keep misspelling hostal, but that's how it's spelled here! I can't help it.)

8:30....We have rented a new van, and we're on the way to Shell! YEAH!!! We drove all the way through without any problems. There were 15 different mud slides, and the wreckage was insane. The majority of the road was gone on one curve, but they had essentially just built up into the mountain, which became the new road. - If you haven't been on this drive....You're essentially driving along the side this mountain range for 40 minutes, so these mud slides come from straight above and just completely cover the road as they continue down....or it takes out the road with it.

10:00am We make it home, drop the family off at their house, change clothes and head into work. Patti Sue made it within a couple of hours...the teachers made it back in the early afternoon, and the group arrived at 4:00pm. 3 tours at the orphanage and an attempt to catch up on email took up my day, while Dwight wiggled around on the ground all afternoon trying to fix a dryer at the orphanage. We got home at 6:00, and we are DONE. We told the group we'd go to dinner tomorrow night. :-)

So...that was much longer than I thought, but I just HAD to share. It has been a CRAZY few days. BUT...I do need to mention that we were SO impressed with the 7 Rustick kids! They are amazingly well-behaved...never complained or whined... That part of the trip was awesome! We got to sing with them, tell some jokes, and it was a joy to be with them!

I'll end on that positive note. :-) As always...Sorry for the long email. I just re-read it, and I definitely did NOT abbreviate it like I said I was going to. oops. It's another one for the fam! ha.

Praise God that the man we hit is fine. Before we left the hospital we were told that he was awake and becoming more alert, and that all of his vitals were good.
Please pray for Vicente. We're assuming that he's still in jail at this point. It usually takes a few days at minimum for the police to "investigate."
PRAISE that everyone made it safely home during the last couple of days. Aside from all of us associated with the orphanage, there were several other missionary families from Shell who made the same trip. God is so good!

Quito!

2010-03-26T20:52:00.002-05:00

We have had a CRAZY week, and we are now in Quito trying to relax.... We're staying at OMS with our friends Darryl & Kelly, eating Tony Roma's delivery, watching March Madness, and looking for blog backgrounds. :-) VERY different life than in Shell!
The Doyle's (Dan, Tammy, Connor, and Sean) are flying in tomorrow night, and they'll be spending the next week with us in Shell. We are SO EXCITED that they'll be able to meet the kids and be a part of the work there!
That's all for now...... except I must make a comment about the blog background. Dwight informed me last week that our background was "too girly," so I have spent the last hour or so trying to find a masculine Easter background...... NEGATIVE on that one. So...I gave up and posted this ridiculously feminine background for your viewing pleasure.

Prayers Needed!

2010-03-21T21:32:00.003-05:00

Those of you who have visited CDF any time in the last year have met Maria Fernanda, a sweet little girl with special needs. Maria became ill recently, and she passed away at the hospital in the early morning on Saturday. This was very unexpected, and things progressed very quickly.
We buried her yesterday afternoon next to Esteven, and it was very strange to be going through that process again so soon. Similar to Esteven though... We are all taking comfort in knowing that she is perfectly healed and whole with her Father.

Please pray for Patti Sue right now as she is the person who bears the weight of so many decisions that have to be made. Please pray for Mama Ines and all of the Tias who have taken care of Maria for the last year.

In addition to this....we have just had a crazy weekend with several different things going on. Please keep all of the following in your prayers as well:

~ Our teachers: Dallas, Ali, and Lana (Ali's Mom) have a horrible stomach virus (no school tom.)
~ Baby Nanki has the same virus
~ Mike Waskosky fell and broke one of his wrists this afternoon...requiring surgery and the insertion of a pin
~ Amanda is in the hospital receiving IV antibiotics and treatment for some infected areas caused by her cast (which has now been removed)
~ Dolly was brought in to the hospital, but did not have to be admitted. She has been struggling with lung issues, but she seems to be slowly improving.
~ Praise report...Rubi had an abscess on her neck drained earlier in the week. We took her in on Saturday morning to have it checked and cleaned, and the doctor said it's healing perfectly.

Thank you for the prayers that I know will be prayed. It's comforting to know how many people support Casa de Fe spiritually, and we are fully trusting in God's perfect provision right now.

It's SO GOOD to be here....

2010-03-18T10:27:00.005-05:00

Because of my ridiculously long post about the last 6 weeks, I'm now posting about what actually took place on Monday. :-)

Monday morning chapel was awesome, and it was so good to hear the kids singing praises again. They learned some new songs while we were gone, so they were very excited to show them off. :-)

Ali planned a skit that the kids absolutely loved! She was playing a train conductor whose train was headed to heaven. She stood on a chair calling for all ticket-holders to come forward, and her mom was the first person to come up. (Ali's mom is subbing for Melissa while she's in the States.) So... Mrs. Lana stepped up and went on and on about how she does so much for the church... AND she sings in the choir... you get the idea. Ali told her she didn't have the right ticket, so she had to walk away from the heaven-bound train.

Miss Dallas was next, and she was a VERY glamorous 'rich lady' - who happened to be wearing purple star-shaped sunglasses. lol... She presented a ticket representing all of her money and how she gives away so much to the church and the poor. This wasn't enough either...

Then came Dwight.... WOW. I am so sad I don't have a video of this, because it was priceless. He had his shorts hiked up really high...glasses taped in the middle...and a big stack of books. He had a ticket of knowledge, and he just DID NOT understand why he wasn't able to get on the train! He KNEW everything, and it just wasn't making sense.

Right here he's adding it all up on his fingers...the kids thought he was sooooo funny.
HA! I love this one.... check out both of their facial expressions.

REJECTED......He's trying to find the right answer in his books as he walks away.

Ali called for any other ticket-holders, and I had given the last ticket to Thalia. She went up to the front, and her ticket just said 'Jesus.' Ali made a big production of it, and everyone celebrated that Thalia FINALLY got it right!!! Jesus was the ONLY thing you needed to make it on the train for heaven.

Here are the rejected ticket-holders....

It was really a cute lesson, and I think the kids truly understood the message. Sometimes it seems like they just hear the Scriptures, prayers and Bible stories, but you don't know if it's really sinking in or not. .... Ali came in to the office yesterday and said that Thalia and Jeniffer asked if they could pray with her, because they wanted to ask the Holy Spirit to come into their hearts. Praise God!

What a privilege to be able to be here and be a part of this.....

On another note... the Tias made my day by making volquetero (minus the tuna). They know it's my favorite, and it's the only time I eat a snack with the kids. YUM! It was just icing on the cake that morning.... Please feel free to come visit, and I will gladly share with you.

We're BAAAAACK!!!!!

2010-03-15T09:14:00.007-05:00

Wow! The last 6 weeks have FLOWN by! I apologize for my failure to blog during the last few weeks. I had grand intentions of doing it more while I was in the States......

So...To catch you all up... We had a great time with family and friends while we were home. Some of the highlights...

1. Fried venison

2. Our niece, Amy's ladybug birthday party and weekend with the Elliotts

3. Reprieve from cockroaches

4. Nani's bread...inhaled in various forms- loaves hot from the oven, rolls, sticky

buns, cinnamon toast....you get the idea

5. Our nephew, Cayce's birthday party and weekend with the Striplings, Mom & Dad

Martin, David Martins and MortesDD put this really cool collage on her blog, and it would open up when you clicked on it. I'm not that sophisticated with the blogging world....so sorry for the small pics. :-) This was the first time we saw Cayce since he was born!

6. Lots of time with two of the cutest nephews in the world...Tanner and Daylen- AND their beautiful mom...Kim :-)

I kissed Tanner's little cheeks... A LOT (well...maybe they're not so little)

7. Mexican food...several times

8. Shopping....Including a 5 1/2 hour trip to Wal-mart....accompanied by Dwight :-)

9. A FABULOUS few days (for me) spent with Emily, Peepaw and Bo on the farm

10. Chik-fil-a and SWEET TEA

11. Settlers of Catan with Mom, Dad and Trent (important side note: Mom & I won)

12. TEXAS BARBECUE

13. Dinner with Mrs. Lupe and Vikki...got to see Ryan too!

14. Awesome time in worship with our home church family

15. Mason jar burgers and homeade pizza from Shelley :-)

16. Short but fun time with Kristin & Chris...this included STEAK

17. American Idol with my daddy

18. Shopping (and packing) time with my mom!

19. Sausage cheese balls and oatmeal chocolate chip peanut butter cookies (at

separate times) with Mom and Dad Martin...
20. Sopapilla Cheesecake and LOTS of laughs over old yearbooks with Jeremy and

Carrie

21. Houston Rodeo with David & Kim....Who knew how many Tim McGraw songs

we knew ALL the words to?!?

Wow....There is no way I can mention everyone we spent time with on this list! I'm sure Dwight could make another list and mention 20 different things I am forgetting.

Mr. & Mrs. Martin gave us a ride to the airport last Wednesday. Anyone see any similarities in this pic???

Mom stayed home from work to help us frantically pack. :-)

At the airport.... I wish I had a picture with Dwight's mom, but she conspicuously left all of the ones of herself off of her blog. ;-)

We got into Quito on Wednesday night. Our good friend Darryl Chambers, who runs a guesthouse in Quito, picked us up. Patti Sue and JP were waiting up for us at the hostal...SO GOOD to see both of them!

We got back to Shell on Thursday afternoon, and it feels SO GOOD to be back!!! I wish everyone could visit here, and then you'd understand what I mean. We moved into a new house, so we've been trying to unpack and move in...still a work in progress. :-) We had a team arrive yesterday afternoon, so we've hit the ground running.

**************************************************************************
On another note.... Dwight and I needed to raise financial support after we committed to stay another 6 months. Our home church, Conroe church of Christ, agreed to accept money for us in order for donations to be tax deductible. The elders suggested we do a presentation and then the church would give a love offering. We received more than double what we needed to cover these next 6 months!!! We were/are so humbled and overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone.

To all of our family and friends who fed us and welcomed us into their homes last month....Thank you! We love you!

JP

2010-02-15T21:48:00.003-06:00

Soooo...I've been having serious withdrawls from John Paul (and basically everyone else, too) since leaving Ecuador.

Patti Sue has been so sweet, and she's sent me pics and even video of JP. It definitely makes my day, and I wanted to share.

This first one is my favorite!!! I've never seen him make this face, and I can't imagine what he was doing. lol...

Here's a serious one... He has sleepy eyes. :-)

He's crawling now!!!

Love this boy!

Haircuts!!!

2010-02-04T19:52:00.005-06:00

Dwight & I are back in the States for a month, and I'm trying to catch up on blogs....going through the pics from before we left.

Last week ALL of the girls got haircuts. They were allowed to pick anything chin- length or shorter. A few of the girls were really excited about it, but there were a couple of traumatic experiences as well..... Those feelings didn't last long, though! A lot of them got really sassy bobs, and they look adorable! They couldn't stop looking at themselves in the mirror...flipping their new bangs around and such. We had a lot of prissy girls running around for a couple of days.

Abigail was the first brave volunteer. She was actually really excited about it.

Jeniffer had A LOT of hair cut off...but she looks as beautiful as ever. I wish I had a good 'after' picture!

This next one cracks me up. Notice Thalia on the left...... She was NOT excited about this, and it was really rough there for a bit.

Please take note of her expression now.... We were all going on and on about how grown up and cute she looked, and she ate it up. :-)

Maribel's bob and new bangs look adorable on her! She has on her new outfit from Ms. Arta as well.

Alondra

Veronica

Marcia and Maribel

Ruby

My new little Mini-Me...Dubiasca. I wasn't there when she got her hair cut...but EVERYONE was telling me that her hair looked JUST like mine. lol.... The kids were all so excited about it for some reason.

Thank you to Miss Melissa who spent 3 or 4 afternoons in a row doing nothing but cutting hair! We love you!

Little Troopers

2010-02-04T19:41:00.004-06:00

We had a group of nursing students come through a couple of weeks ago, and one of their projects was to give vaccinations. I wish I would have taken more pics, but I just loved these ones of Fernando. He was so tough!!

Before...... He has no idea what's coming. He thinks this is just another group of gringos who want to love on him. :-)

He's thinking...."Ummmm....Something's not right here....."

My favorite picture..... Look at that face! Notice that Ali is holding the M&M's within sight.

He's looking at the spot...trying to figure out what just happened.

M&M's make everything better..... Smart boy. :-)

Amazingly....quite a few of the kids didn't cry! It was rough watching the other ones who did though. Thank you to the nurses for doing this tough job for us!

Esteven

2010-01-27T14:07:00.003-06:00

Baby Esteven was the little baby who I did a post on when he had his feeding tube put in. He's been in and out of the hospital, and he passed away last night around 8:00pm. Here's the email Patti Sue sent out:

My house is quiet. No oxygen concentrator running, no pulse oximeter beeping, no suction machine running. It is very strange to us all not to have Esteven with us and will take some getting use to. Esteven had a sweet spirit and when he looked at you it was like he was looking into your soul.
Esteven went to be with Jesus at 8 pm on January 26, 2010 and we will miss him.
Any memorial funds sent in his name to CornerStone International US or ACCI Canada will be put toward his hospital bill.
Thank you for your continued prayers.
In His embrace
Patti Sue

We just had a small ceremony at 2:00 pm. They build these tall concrete structures where you slide the casket into one of the slots, and then you put the headstone on the front. Dwight, Freddy & Luis were sealing the front with blocks and concrete.

There are so many mixed emotions for the doctors, Patti Sue and everyone who has cared for Esteven over the past several months. Above all though...everyone involved is happy that Esteven is now perfectly healthy and with his Father.... Mama Ines and Patti Sue both spoke at the ceremony and painted a beautiful picture of Esteven singing, running and playing like a healthy little child.

This is one of my favorite pics that Patti Sue sent one day. Be sure to read his shirt!

I've always loved the visual this verse in Isaiah provides, and I often focus on this in regard to the kids with disabilities whom I love so much...

"Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then will the lame leap like a deer,

and the mute tongue shout for joy....

They will enter Zion with singing;

everlasting joy will crown their heads.

Gladness and joy will overtake them,

and sorrow and sighing will flee away."

Isaiah 35:5-6;10

Won't that be a beautiful sight!?! Thank you, Father, for your promises.

One day....

Oldies, but Goodies

2010-01-22T16:33:00.002-06:00

Ok...so this slide show is from Thanksgiving weekend. :-) Yeah...I'm just a little behind. BUT.... there are some fun pics that I didn't want to leave out....

Sunday after Thanksgiving, we went with a friend and his family about 30 minutes out of town to visit their property. Jaime (pronounced "Hymay") used to work at the construction site, and Dwight really values him as a friend and someone he can trust. Jaime's wife and little boy came along, as well as Jaime's dad. We all piled into a tiny little car and had a blast!

We first stopped at their aunt and uncle's house, which was a simple wooden shelter on raised blocks. I wanted to take a picture, but it just seemed wrong. It very much felt like they were on display for us, and I didn't want to make things awkward. You'll see a lot of pics from their house first.... They raise several types of animals, and also live off fruit from their land. It was amazing, because they just kept walking around pointing out different uses for all of the plants and natural growth.

Next, we hiked up to Jaime's property. They plan to build a house there one day and possibly open it up for tourists. It will be beautiful....On top of a ridge in the rain forest with a clear view.

Afterward, we went down the road to visit a "zoo," which was really just a few animals around a house. It was more about rehabilitating and keeping animals in their natural habitat than anything else. People come from all over to study a lot of these species.
Okay...think that covers it!

Something to Make You Smile...

2010-01-20T08:49:00.003-06:00

Jessi thought this was hilarious. I wish you could have heard her laughing.

Isn't John Paul getting big?!?

THANK YOU!!!

2010-01-18T16:25:00.006-06:00

I know I'm going to forget some people in this post, but I'll still try. :-) We have just received so many donations lately, and I wanted to share a few....

The Gerardo and Kathy Mejia Foundation organized a huge shipment of toys donated by Jakks Pacific toy company. Dole corporation paid for 3 huge shipping containers as well, so a lot of people were involved. We only got a small portion of the toys, and it was still overwhelming!!! Ministries all over Ecuador received similar donations....WOW! Patti Sue picked everything up on Christmas Eve, and they filled up our guest room. Here is a picture of what it looks like now.... AFTER Christmas.

We gave each of the kids 2 big toys, and we've given out some of the school supplies. We're going to share a lot of the left-over toys with the mission hospital and different ministries in the jungle. It's exciting to be able to share!

Here's Alejo squeezing a new Barney and Neopet stuffed animal. :-)

Here is Miss Alison's class opening some large activity mats that they're using in class.

Miss Dallas' class opening some erasable Dora pads.

Yulisa

Ana
Mikaela

Thank you, Ms. Hahn!!

We know Ms. Hahn from the church Dwight went to in Alaska while he was stationed there. She saw one of the orphanage's update letters and emailed me about the needs. I mentioned tennis shoes and gave her some sizes...Needless to say, she bought every pair they had at the store! She also bought them out on long shorts, cloth diapers and everything else on the list. She shipped 5 huge boxes to some ladies who came to visit right after Christmas.

Thank you Julie, Michele, Nancy and Valerie for bringing everything down! Thank you for all of the goodies you left as well. AND for making New Years' Eve a blast for the kids!

Here were (some of) the piles after we organized them by size. We brought the kids over in groups to get fitted and inventory everything.

Javier loves his new sneakers!

We also had some others do a clothing and toy drive, and we just received the last of that with our team that arrived yesterday. Thank you to Cindy Wine and Faith Christian Church in Springhill, Fl, and Daniel & Lubna Mohr...AND to Carolyn & Rosemarie Asbach, and the Troyer group for transporting it all down! We're still getting everything unpacked and organized, but I know the kids are going to absolutely LOVE this stuff!

Here's a random picture of the construction site that Julie took while she was here last week. Gives you an idea of how it's progressing with the walls going up! They received another huge shipment of blocks today, so things are moving along!

LaBouef Family

2010-01-12T13:47:00.001-06:00

We just received word that Joshua passed away. The entire family is traveling from Quito to Shell, and we don't have any details beyond that.
Please, please, please lift them up in prayer right now and through the weeks to come.

Please pray!

2010-01-05T08:19:00.002-06:00

Rick and Sharon Labouef are long-time missionaries who live here in Shell. One of their sons, Freddy, lives with his family nearby in Puyo. This past Saturday, one of Freddy's sons, Joshusa (3 yrs. old), was in a water-related accident. There are not specific details as to what happened....only that he was unaccounted for for 20 minutes before he was found in the water unconscious. He was immediately taken to a local hospital, then brought to Shell to be flown to Quito. He was non-responsive throughout this time.
He was placed in intensive care in Quito, and they induced a 72-hour coma to allow his body to recover. The updates over the past few days have been positive. His fever has gone down, heart-rate lowered and fluid reduced in his lungs. His induced coma will end this afternoon/evening, and then they will be able to assess the damage to his brain.
PLEASE join us in prayer for Joshua's healing. Rick and Sharon have touched so many people's lives, and there are people praying all over the world right now for this family. Joshua's situation is very serious, and it's apparent that if he recovers- it can only be attributed to a miracle from our Father.
Joshua's parents' names are Freddy and Sondra. Siblings are Daniella (young teen), Matthew (Kindergarten), and baby Jake. At this point, Freddy's brothers have all traveled to Quito, and they are surrounded by family.
Please pray for everyone involved in this situation.

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." 1 John 5:14

Christmas!!!!

2009-12-30T14:22:00.004-06:00

Wow... the last 2 weeks were a complete whirlwind getting ready for Christmas. I've tried to put things in chronological order with the slideshow, but I still feel like it doesn't begin to capture everything! :-) There were several other parties with friends in the community as well.

That shipment of donated toys arrived in Quito on Christmas Eve! Patti Sue and Mama Ines drove up at 5am and came back at 5pm. I wish I would have taken a picture of the toys that FILLED the van. We gave each of the kids 2 toys, and there are still a ton left. Our guest room is completely occupied by them. :-) We're excited, because we'll be able to share with the tia's and others! There were also a lot of school supplies donated, and they will be so helpful come spring!

The party on Christmas day was a blast! The kids had a lot of fun, and I think everyone was excited about getting in bed that night. lol.... They got 3 gifts total, 1 from whichever adult drew their name, and 2 from the donation and Mami Patti. Before we gave them the 3rd one... They kept saying..."MORE gifts?!?" They just could not believe it!

Hope you all had as merry of a Christmas as we did!

This slideshow is a bit different.... If you just put the cursor over the picture, the caption will appear. The blog layout won't allow the slideshow to be any wider, so I would recommend double-clicking to open it in a different window.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

2009-12-30T10:23:00.001-06:00

Mrs. Sharon had a birthday party for Jesus for the preschoolers a couple of weeks ago, and we had the privilege to be there! :-)
My camera battery was almost dead, so these pictures didn't turn out very well. I caught a few, though!

More to come for the big Christmas party!

Con Muchas Manos - With Many Hands

2009-12-15T14:29:00.002-06:00

God continues to work in our lives, in the lives of the children, and in the construction of the new site using the hands of many people, both local and foreign. I have attached pictures of the work site. It is not "all inclusive" because it lacks the many people who donate themselves and their money to the construction. But it does show part of the progress. Since the last construction site blog, we have built more inspection boxes, plastered/enlucido the ceiling of the first floor, and worked almost 36 hours straight pouring a second layer of concrete for the 2nd floor. If you remember the government workers poured the 2nd story and did a very rough, unlevel job. It took more material than we expected because the low spots were lower than we expected. We had our first ever ALL Ecuadorian group out of Quito come and help prepare and pour a part of the first floor. We have since finished the first floor pour over a 3 day period and began blocking in the walls on the first floor. It is looking more and more like a house. We had a friend from Kansas, who is a professional electrician in the States, come to visit another family here in Shell and we were able to set up a breaker box in the multi-use building (MUB) and run the lines. The MUB has ELECTRICITY!!! Luis, one of the men that works with me, has a brother and dad who are both electricians here in Ecuador. Luis has grown up helping his dad and is very knowledgeable about electricity. Thank you, God, for Luis. He has been and will be a great help to us. For the many of you who knew Pedro, the young man on salary for Casa de Fe, we ask for prayers for him and his wife and daughter. He is no longer working with Casa de Fe and I have had very little communication with him since he left. It is with many hands that God continues to put this building together. I am thankful for all the hands that come to work, to touch a child, or are raised in prayer across the world for Casa de Fe. Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus, the Cornerstone in the construction of Casa de Fe.

Good times....

2009-12-15T13:20:00.005-06:00

I feel like I just CANNOT keep up with blogging as things keep happening! It just seems nonstop right now, and I'm sure it's the same for all of you reading this. Just so you know...you cannot escape the pre-Christmas craziness- even if you're in Shell, Ecuador. :-) It seems like there is an event or party to go to every other day.... Not to count the preparation for Christmas with 58 kids! I am so excited about the Christmas Party we'll have on Christmas Day! Can you imagine the excitement of all of these little ones?!?

I just wanted to share a little bit of what's been going on lately...

These are a couple of pics of Cintia that I took the other day. I just think she looks ADORABLE with her pigtails and red and white stripes! I also think this picture captures her mischieviousness perfectly. :-)
Here we are having dinner at O Sole Mio....the BEST Italian food you'll ever have in your life. Seriously. The guy is really Italian, and there are no words for his pizza..... Dinner was Patti Sue's treat for all of us for our little Christmas celebration together! I wish I had pictures of the cheesecake she made for dessert....Wow.

This one is for our parental and family units....

Oh, man.... I wish you all could have been here for chapel yesterday morning. The teachers gave each of the older kids a part to play in acting out the birth of Christ. It was quite humorous. When the pre-schoolers saw the animal masks, they burst into "Old MacDonald," since that's what they were used for this summer. :-) This picture was snagged at the end, and it was pointless to try to get everyone to look at once. Notice that Maribel is the shining star (with her hands up in the air.)

My favorite part of the picture is Pablo. It happened to capture him doing one of his favorite things...grabbing people by the faces for surprise kisses. It's never a choice, trust me. :-)

Sweet boy... He loves to participate in chapel, and when everyone else repeats the prayers....he always joins in!

This is baby Esteven. He's been in the hospital for several days, because he had a feeding tube put in late last week. Dwight wanted to go see him, so I tagged along and took some pics. I've been meaning to blog about him for a while. This little baby has serious health issues, and he isn't stable enough to travel to Quito for more conclusive tests. BUT...he has shown improvement with his breathing, and he is growing and changing every day! Please keep him in your prayers.

This was the first time I got to see him use his new gear. It works so much better than having to do it through the nose!!

Dwight loves his little feet. He'll definitely need corrective procedures in the future, but considering all of his other needs....that hasn't been addressed yet.

Check out his cool 'do. :-)

We got two new kids last week, Mikaela and Antony. The police brought them after a neighbor reported that the mother had left. Apparently she leaves for several days at a time; and the little girl, who is maybe 3 or 4, takes care of her little brother, who seems to be almost 2. Can you imagine what it was like for them to be left alone?!? Unfortunately, the mother will probably be able to get them back. Hopefully, she will change her ways after having her children taken for a short time. We're not sure how it will pan out at this point, but the police are working on it.

They are absolutely beautiful!

Look at those cheeks.... Adorable.