Loving Orphans...

My Ramon!





Ramon, Rosa and Tia Raphaela





Dressing up to see Ramon was quite the task!





Ramon and his Dr.





The Dodge squatted today! Just a LITTE overloaded!





The beautiful mountains on our drive home tonight!





The kids were so excited to see us drive up with a truckload of much needed items...just like Christmas! The money that many of you sent was used to buy this food!





Shampoo, conditioner, face cream and hair gel by the boxfull...thanks to St. James Lutheran Church in MONTAGUE Michigan! Thanks guys! This is only part of what you bought for the kids! The girls are especially thankful for the hair conditioner!!! :)






4 bags each of flour, rice, beans and sugar. The good news is that this is just one load of many that we will be purchasing. One 50 lb. bag of beans only lasts for 3 days. That's a lot of beans!!!


Today was a busy day for me but very rewarding. We were able to puchase many needed items for the orphanage. Since donations have been low...they have had to do without for so many things. The kids don't get tortillas here anymore unless they make them...and they have been without flour. Someone donated some bags of tortilla dough all made up an they have been using that the past 2 weeks...but now they are out. Since they aren't able to purchase tortillas anymore...the meals seem sorta empty. No one complains, but it is missed.

The greatest news, is that Ramon is coming home this Friday. We saw Ramon at the hospital today and met with the Dr. Ramon seemed to be in good spirits, although he teared up when he saw his arm without the bandages (the one where they did the skin grafting from). His arm is very pink where the patches of skin were removed. I told him it makes me love him even more because pink is my favorite color. He gave a big smile! I am glad that Keri will be here for Ramon's transition home. Ed and Rosa are counting down the hours. They both are at the hospital at different times each day...and the gas money alone is outrageous. It will be a good thing for everyone to be together again!!!


The excitement is building for the MI-KEN-OAKIE team coming down! Tomorrow will be only 1 more day!!! Yippee! I'm so excited to see everyone...but of course there will be that special someone...my PRINCE! Please pray for the team that is arriving on Thursday night. Some will be beginning their journey Thursday morning and driving straight through while others will be driving and flying. A lot of connections need to be made and 2 vehicles will be crossing the border which can have it's hitches...just ask Fred and Roger. The request I have is that they will not be discouraged as Satan does his best to keep them home. Gary and I have many stories of tough things that have happened to keep us from coming down here. So, for my team members, I have a scripture for you to read. It's from II Corinthians 4:16-18. "That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." AMEN!!! Then a quote of Geoge Mueller was so fitting, I must add it, "Remember, the very time for faith to work is when our sight begins to fail. And the greater the difficulties, the easier it is for faith to work, for as long as we can see certain natural solutions to our problems, we will not have faith. Faith never works as easily as when our natural prospects fail." Today I am thanking God for my 'poor sight'!!!