Happy Birthday, my daughter!

Bonita Alondra!!!




Angel, Samuel and Hosea Angel




Oliver




Luis!!!




Juan...can you see the emptiness in his eyes?




Ahhh..Gustavo! 3 eyes are better than 1!!!




Our Team!




Roger and Cielo!




A desert creature!





Supplies purchased for our outreach project.




At the market buying napoli




Lisa, Luis and Jazmine!




Jackie!




Yes...this is a rattlesnake.




Ramon getting the snake in a coke bottle. Luanne...I told him "NO!!!"





Stacy trying to feel like a tall girl while driving the van!




...whatever it takes! :)




Mama getting her exercise!




Pastor Ryan and some guys getting water in a barrel for the girls waterless dorm for flushing!!!






Serving breakfast today!




Mop duty!!!





Dave making a slight adjustment to his T-shirt!




One FULL van!






Amy White's blisters! Who says girls aren't tough? I didn't see any on a couple of the boy's hands...won't say who! :) Scott...can you guess ?




Jared is so patient!




Argh...




Not good...the pipe blew apart...again!




Kim, Carol and Roger enjoying tacos!






Tacos and burritos!




Bonney and Amy enjoying the night with us!




Everyone had fun!




Logan and a grande icecream cone!




Aaron tasting a Mexican corn dog! They are the best.




Dorinachos! Taylor agrees that they are YUMMY!




At the local icecream shop for supper! Health food is NOT served here!




Roger and his amigo. It was in constant use in the boys dorm and Vito and Micah are't even there. Amazing!




Saul and Papa...two men that are passionate God followers!




Papa preaching!




An overflowing crowd for our outreach...all glory to God!




Ryan speaking and Ramon translating. Luanne...you'd be so proud!




Some adorable kids who attended our outreach.




The church filling up as we arrived.




Unloading the van...




View from the church parking area




Luanne...this is a big kiss for you!




Lily Van




Tonya reading to Ramon




Chewy! He is multi-talented!




Logan doing dishes. Becky...take note!




Breakfast






Andrea didn't want to eat. Everyone else gobbled it up!




Tonya handing out the bread.




When the gauge reads this...we have water.




Adilene making sure the water tank at the girl's dorm is full.




Looks like a Chevy commercial to me. It could ALMOST make me like one!




Fabiola, Jared (note...on his knees), Lupita and Silvia





Esayla and her proud mom...tia Selsa




Belem was so proud of her sister!




The winning celebration...the girl's team won!!!




(Back to front)Lupita, Daniella, Elvida, Adriana, Johana, Fabiola, Silvia and Esayla




The team high-scorer, Esayla, was awarded a Coca!!!




Ramon...behind bars!




The girl's soccer team's fans!!!








Brenda




Sweeping off the soccer court before the game. We've had some rain!




Jared is such a great kid. Ed and Rosa might not let him go home...and I wouldn't blame them!




Esayla




Jazmine displaying her artwork!




Alondra and Brenda. What cuties!




Maggie taking a nap in our dorm.



First of all...today is my youngest daughter Chrissy's birthday. Happy Birthday, Cricky!!! It is because of my wonderful children and husband that I am down here. They selflessly put their own desires aside and cheer me on to love the children and staff of Lily. What a blessed mom and wife I am.

Where do I begin? Our mornings begin about 4:45 and end around 10:00 p.m. Yesterday we spent the morning and early afternoon at DIF. Roger, Ramon, Pastor Ryan and Stacie, Amy and her daughter Bonney and I met Alex at DIF. We spent the first 45 minutes waiting (which is quite typical) but it was well worth it. Naria (the new director at DIF) receieved us very openly and many important things were discussed. There were some questions answered by the time we left and she promised more answers by Monday. So far she has kept her word. The exciting news is that she is having her staff research every orphanage to find children who are eligible for adoption and terminating parental rights and she wants to start with Lily. Please help me pray for her that she will follow through with this and that DIF will keep her around for awhile! I am very pleased with her.

Yesterday, we returned from DIF completely exhausted only to load up again to Chihuahua 20 minutes later to the outreach planned for the evening. Our plan was to show the movie, Facing the Giants. We brought all the equipment and DVD...ready to conquer, but God had other plans. Again...a lesson for me to let God be God. Once we arrived, Papa and about 2/3 of our group walked through the very poor community and handed out gospel tracts. The rest of our team stayed behind to set-up for the movie. For some reason our guys could not make the movie's audio play in Spanish. They fought with it for over 1 hour. Finally, after singing several songs...and Amy telling a story, we realized the movie was out of the question. So...our team did a skit, Pastor Ryan shared thoughts about the skit, a few people shared their testimony and Papa preached. At the end there was a moving of God and an invitation was given for people to come forward who felt abandoned and 'Fatherless' and also an invitation was given to the children to come forward so we could pray for their protection. I don't really know about the other people, but I know that the two ladies I prayed with were very sincere. The one lady, Lupe, had been abused as a little girl, has many children and her husband has left her. When I heard her sobs, I felt her pain. Papa and I prayed with her again after the service and she surrendered her life to Jesus Christ. Life is not much more rewarding than that!!! Please help us pray for Lupe! Later, Pastor Saul shared with Ed and I that there were about 20 single moms in his congregation that struggle to feed their children. In the states the term of struggle is so different than here. They only have a shack...and a few blankets. Papa's heart was broken and he wanted to give so badly. So, today, between the team, God's Children's Adoption Agency, team members and TC Westside, we gathered enough money to go shopping for Papa. After breakfast this morning we dropped Amy at Moi's Orphanage and we headed to the market to buy some food. How fun could this be? We took Jovan and Ever with us as bodyguards. :) Actually they were just there to help carry things. To make a long story short, we bought a lot of food and tomorrow we are going to package it up and make up 20 HUGE care packages for these single moms. God is good. We are so thrilled to be able to bless Mama & Papa and Pastor Saul in this way.

After the service last night we came back to Lily too late for supper, so we headed to Aldama to the favorite icecream joint. They serve tons of things like Dorinachos, Elote, Cocktail con Crema, Corndogs, icecream, etc and next door they serve tacos and burritos. Life doesn't get much better than that! We all enjoyed outselves and headed back to the dorms and dropped into bed quickly!

I have got to tell you about Jared. My word, this boy is an angel from heaven. First of all...I kept thinking that I've met him before. After more conversations, I have discovered that he is Pastor Mark Sterken's (Shelby Road Baptist Church's Pastor) nephew. What a small world! To me he is a lot like Pastor Mark...such a zeal for God, life and people. Anyway, to say the least, Gary and I just love Pastor Mark and it is not a wonder that everyone here loves Jared. Anyway, Jared has worked non-stop since he has arrived over a week ago. ONE of his FULL-TIME JOBS he had dedicated himself to is to get our water running up at the dorm. (Bless his heart!!!) So...to all the girls up here...he is a knight in shining armor...to say the least. I'm sure he doesn't mind all the attention the girls give him. :)

FBC...you would be so proud of our team! They have dug trenches, cleaned the bodega, mudded walls, helped with daily chores and played with the kids like there was no tomorrow. There are blisters, sunburns and achey bodies to prove it. The past few nights it has not been a problem to get the team to settle down to sleep. In fact...the nights have been nice and quiet. (The main reason for the quietness is because Roger is sleeping below in another casa and Fred is not here!) Speaking of Roger, he took a tumble today. Now Luanne, he is alright. He forgot there is a large drop off the basketball court...but no broken bones. Just scratched up in a couple of places and a sore shoulder. He will deserve some pampering after all of this. Kim Peterson took a bad tumble when she stepped in a giant hole a couple days ago...and never shed a tear...that I saw! She is a tough chick. She got pretty scraped up...but kept going. Pastor Ryan has been suffering with kidney stones but the Lord has kept him from having to go into the hospital as of yet. Please help us pray about this.

This trip has been a time of real growth for Ramon. He has really stepped up to the plate and has been a tremendous help! At DIF we used him several times for translating, last night he translated for Pastor Ryan at the beginning and then today Amy asked Ramon to go with her to Moi's Orphanage to translate. What a blessing he is. I can see that God has some big plans for him!

When we saw the small rattlesnake, I didn't die. Always thought I would. The tarantulas don't phase me really either...as long as they are not on me. Luanne, I told Ramon not to play with that thing...but he didn't listen. He used a small stick and coaxed that rattlesnake into a plastic Coke bottle. You could tell he has had a lot of practice. I'm glad you weren't here to faint!

I just want to throw this out to see what happens. Lily is in desperate need of twin bed sheets. Right now they have enough for almost every bed...but some only have a blanket. As you might suspect, there are many who are wetting the beds and they have to wait until night to put the clean sheets on because it takes all day to wash them. So, if anyone is heading down...they could use twin sheets. It would be great to have 2 sets of sheets per child. Also, they desperately need more twin mattresses.

I am staring at the luggage tag of the bed across of me and I now realize that I have spelled Stacy's name wrong. Am I not surprised? My apologies to my newest roomie and my Michigan next door neighbor.

Right now I am up at the girl's dorm watching the sun go down behind the mountains as Ed and Rosa share their testimony with the team down below in their casa. That is one of my favorite parts, but I know you want to keep up...so I am here. It's always hard to find enough hours in the day. Keeping up with a team of 23 has been challenging. I pray that someday my Prince will be able to be down here with me. We need our house to sell...and we are praying.

Tomorrow...cinnamon rolls, hugs, packaging up the food donations, hugs, an evening high school graduation, kisses and more hugs. It's a tough life! :) I'M LOVIN' IT!