MUB

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?!?