Sarita & the Gemelos

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!!!

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

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!

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

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!

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

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!