Karlita

This is why Eric does not want me to volunteer at an orphanage:

Karlita.

I think our house would be overflowing with children if I did.

(Although it is a very very long and tedious process to adopt here - which is sad because there are so many kids that need homes.)

I want to take her home.

Forever.

(Excuse the horrid picture - I took it with our cheap camera and had it set without flash - so as not to disturb the precious baby.)

I was mistaken in the previous email.

Karla is not an orphan.

Her and her four year old sister were abandoned by their mother when she was taken to jail.

I don't know how long they were alone for before someone found them.

Thankfully, they were found and brought to Casa de Fe (house of faith) orphanage.

Karla was taken to the hospital and then transfered to Quito (five hours away) because she had severe pneumonia. She was placed in ICU for a few days and then needed 24 hour assistance when moved to the regular ward.

Ladies from Youth World have been taking turns staying with her.

She is a year and a half old but is the size of a five to six month old.

Her functioning is about at a three month old - maybe less.

All this is probably do to neglect and malnutrition.

She doesn't speak. She can't even hold her head.

She has the most horrible case of diaper rash I have ever, ever, ever seen.... I don't think it could even be classified as a "rash".

And she is one of the sweetest of all of God's creation.

While her story is so sad, the saddest part is that there are so many more like it.

Yes, we hear of sad stories in North America, but they are few and far between.

Here, however, they are not uncommon.

And the stories never get easier to hear.

I'm here

Yes, I have been strangely silent.

I'm a little overwhelmed with trying to catch up on the past two weeks or so

-especially with regards to our trip to the jungle.

So good.

So very good.

And that is why I haven't written.

So maybe tomorrow.

Although tomorrow I get to hang out at the hospital with a sweet little one-and-a-half year old orphan girl named

Karla.

She has been in intensive care for a few days, but is finally out and needs 24 hour assistance.

I'm pretty thrilled to be with her.

I think I'll spend a bunch of time reading Scripture to her in Spanish.

Good for me.

Good for her.

One other thing.

Been meaning to write this one for a while.

It has been scrawled on my chalkboard wall in the kitchen for a few weeks now.

Love reading it every day.

It is so good.

Every word of it.

(naturally, I suppose... it is, after all, God's Words)

Isaiah 33:5, 6

The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;

He will fill Zion with His justice and righteousness.

He sill be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;

the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

Every word is good.

fears

One of our children suffers from a lot of fear.

Fear has gripped her from the very beginning.

Even when she was a wee tiny tot (she's still not so large), her fears took over.

If she was near a dog - any dog - even an almost-dead-completely-deaf-laying-and-barely-moving-dog - she would cry and start shaking.

We would pick her up and her poor little sweet body would involuntarily quiver and shake.

She never even had a nasty encounter with a dog, nor any other animal.

Now, she is mostly okay with them, but she fears many things.

To make matters worse, she is studying weather and such things in school right now.

Stuff like tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes (and a big one - how they can cause fires), tsunamis, and all sorts of lovely and delicious-for-the-imagination things like that.

We have been praying every night and often during the day.

We look at verses from the bible, reminding us of who God is, His love for us, His complete control over everything, and that He will always, always be with us.

Finally, I realized that I should do something more concrete to help.

(The bonus is that I could use it as an excuse for another crafty project!)

While in Maryland, I bought a bunch of these chip board books at Michael's.

I got about 12 of them for 20 cents each!!

I wanted to buy every single one they had, but since packing space is always an issue.....

My intent was to use them to do a craft with the girls who are in the foundation, helping them get out, and protecting them from the sex trafficking situation here.

I will hopefully still do that with the remaining 11.

In decoupage fashion, I covered all the pages with random scrapbook paper that I have. Then I typed out and printed off several verses, and glued them on the pages. I added a few embellishments, and the book was done.

I took pictures of all the pages together, but realized that you couldn't read the verses.

Since the verses are the key piece of this little number, I decided to take pictures of each page.

And the finished book.

I used one of those lovely 3M hooks and attached it to her bunk bed.... right beside her cute little head.

Yes, you can buy 3M hooks here.

All you have to do is surrender your passport and drivers license, your second born child - they don't go so far as requiring your first born, give a blood sample and, do a finger print scan.

You think I jest.

Okay, well, I do jest, but they are really, really expensive.

Fortunately, these are imported from my sister-in-law.

I'm pretty sure I haven't paid her back for them.

Moving on.

We also put a push light (also imported from the good ol' US of A) over her.

So now, when she is faced with her fears, especially at night, she can pop on her light, grab her book and spend some time with Jesus.

He is the Ultimate Comforter.

My prayer for her is that God would take this fear and make it into faith;

Faith stronger than the Fear.

the up and coming useless holiday

Okay, okay, it isn't useless

(for those of you who can't seem to show your love to people the other 364 days of the year)

I jest.

Sort of.

Okay, no really, I jest.

Eric really likes that I feel this way about Valentine's Day.

It's like his get out of jail free card.

Maybe it's just because I'm not really into hearts.

Maybe it is because I'm not a big fan of pink.

But quite frankly, as far as I'm concerned, the only good thing about Valentine's Day is the Target clearance sales on the candy.

More chocolate is always a good thing.

unless you're my waistline.....

Okay, I do actually like helping the kids make fun and creative Valentine's for their classmates too.

And sometimes the treats to take to their parties.

My son, however, seems to really like Valentine's Day.

Last weekend, he spontaneously - like with out any talk about it, any suggestions from anyone - decided to make Valentine's decorations for our house.

It was really sweet, cute and mushy and I love him for it.

Although I really loved him a whole lot before.....

Anyway, I will now feature his decorating ideas.

Perhaps it will spur you on to love and good deeds or something.

(like all the many paint colors displayed about the tile? difficult to know how to paint to cover up four other colors non-perfectionistic painters left...)

Yes, there is a lovely smattering of hearts throughout the house.

I did not photograph them all.

But the Piece de Résistance:

Now that is cuteness.

I am particularly fond of the 1.5 inch masking tape with which it is adhered.

So I decided to join into the spirit of the celebration.

I have hauled some Valentine's decorations, that I got for about 20 cents each, across the boarders of several countries.

I may as well use them.

Kitchen:

Living Room:

Aquarium:

Yup, that's all I got.

Stunning, isn't it?

annual team conference

All last week - Jan. 30 - Feb. 3 was our organization's team conference.

While Monday through Thursday consisted of sitting in meetings/sessions from 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., it actually was pretty good.

I shouldn't be surprised since we have great leadership and are part of a great mission, but when you hear Mon. - Thurs., 8 - 3, what would you think?

sore bum?

lots of nap time?

extra caffeine?

droopy eyes?

migraines?

(I did get some of those - for real)

prayer for a volcano to erupt?

Ya, me too.

But really - it was quite good.

The Sunday prior was family day out at El Refugio (the camp that is part of Youth World).

It too, was a good time.

We started off the morning having church together.

Then we had our team picture taken (seen above.... that picture includes all hired support staff, children and Casa G. guys.... the actual team of "missionaries" is a lot smaller).

We ate lunch and then had free time.

I was asked to prepare something for the young kids to do, which I did, but none of them showed up. They were having too much fun playing together. That's better anyway.

But since the kids didn't come (was going to do a nature scavenger hunt and then make a craft with what they found), I had free time too!

So, I went zip-lining!

This is Katie and I gearing up to go.

We're pretty excited.

And all ready to go.

Eric, Maddy, Cade and Lucy were all there watching.

No one else wanted to go - Eric and Maddy have already done it, and Cade and Lucy were not quite prepared to face that fear!

But I'd been wanting to do this for a long, long time now.

What is that thing dangling from that cable?

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

NO! IT'S....

just me.

While that was super duper fun

(like high school, but funner),

the best part of my day actually came earlier.

Like back to the church service time....

actually just after the service.

You see, I had been planning something for quite a while now.

I knew that this Sunday was the day when all of the team and all the Casa G. boys were together.

Probably the only day each year when everyone (bearing the sick and infirmed, of course) would be together

- would be together, that is, to play a nasty trick on!!!

Wa-aa-aa-aa!

(insert evil laugh)

I have this wig, you see.

It is quite drastically different than my real hair.

So I donned my wig and pretended it was a new hair-do.

A hair-do that went a little extreme based on lack of communication ability in a foreign language....

We picked up some of the Casa G. guys to drive out to the camp with us.

I had Eric go in the house first and tell them that I got a haircut, it was really different and I didn't like it - and was sensitive about it.... so they should be gentle with me.

They all came out of the house and tried to hide their surprise.

Some of them didn't even say anything to me about it and some of them complimented me.

When we got to El Refugio, everyone there was pretty surprised as well.

There were lots of comments, questions and compliments.

At the end of the church service, we had announcements.

I had to give an announcement about the kids' activity.

After that, I said I had another announcement.

I ripped the wig off and started laughing.

The place went crazy - especially the Casa G. guys.

They went nuts! It was hilarious!

They all ran at Eric and started hitting him and bugging him - they were so completely surprised and mad that we had pulled one over on them!

It was, quite simply, FABULOUS!

I had to get a picture with the guys.

I wanted to pull it off longer but I forgot that we had pictures right after.

It was a blessing, however, as I was going crazy - it's itchy!

Of course, after everyone saw that it was a wig, they all wanted to try it on.

There were many pictures taken.

The guys, in particular, loved trying it on.

Scary how pretty some of them were!

All of them, except for one, tried it on and hammed it up.

On the way home I asked them which they preferred (probably not the most fair question to ask!... it could be taken wrongly no matter what answer they give!)

I got very little input.

So, how about you?

short and dark

or

long and light?

super bowl sunday

borrowed projector,

borrowed tv (slingbox from Michael's tv in California),

sore and sick husband,

mattresses on the floor (only because yes, we still do not have a real bed),

blank wall,

and

a plastic crate.

The makings of a great (?) Super Bowl Sunday.

(by the way.... Maddy was more amused by the game than she looks!)

ah, despicable me! aka: birthday party for a 13-year-old

We had a party.

Yup, another one.

This one was a month and a half over due.... but at least we did it, right?

Maddy wanted to do a movie on the roof, with 50 of her closest, most intimate friends.

(we narrowed it down to 25....)

We showed one of our new family favorite movies:

(Do you like the tape job on that poster? The masking tape really sets off the beauty, doesn't it.)

The white balloons were supposed to look like those old style lights around a marquee sign.

Um, they don't.

Anyway.

I made cupcakes.

I should have really taken one out of the tray to take a picture, but you get the idea...

They are supposed to look like little containers of popcorn.

I made wrappers for the cupcakes on the computer, cut them out and Maddy wrapped them around. Maddy and Mia helped me cut marshmallows to look like popcorn. And then we painted a little yellow food coloring on them to look like butter.

They were pretty darn cute.

Most of the evening was a comedy of errors 'n' things.

We had set out to borrow 2 white tents - one was going to be for the concession stand.

Maddy and I made signs, I was going to put lights up, I got all the containers so it would kind of be like getting food at a real theatre....

But it ended up looking like this:

Yes, so, the people who own the tents forgot that they had lent one out to someone else. So we got one - no problem, one is fine, I thought.

Except that 1) we couldn't figure out how to put it up and; 2) when we did figure it out (after a few phone calls), we discovered that not all the pieces were there.

So no cute white tent with scalloped edges that I could decorate.

But we did have soda, popcorn, nachos with cheese sauce (found a great recipe not using Velveeta cheese.... does not exist here. It was scrumpdilisious!), twizzlers (brought back from my trip) and manichos (little chocolate bars with peanuts).

I discovered that this particular group of kids are not popcorn fans, even though I spent a great deal of time popping 22 bags of popcorn and pouring real melted butter in them all.

But I am not bitter.

No, not me.

Moving on....

Poor Eric (and our neighbor).

After playing flag football all day, they moved our sofas down a flight of stairs and then up two flights. They were so pooped already, and then they did this.

Heros really.

They need capes.

So after all that moving everything up there, it started to thunder....

and worse than thunder, teenagers started to arrive.

Some were early.

We were behind.

Aren't South Americans supposed to be late to everything?

Okay, back to the thunder.

And rain clouds.

One of the girls said that you had to put three "x"s somewhere, and that would keep the rain away.

In the spirit of being the coolest and most funnest mom ever, I gave her six straws and some tape so she could do her thing.

The creepy thing was that it didn't rain until someone lay some things over the three x-es.

Within minutes it started to drizzle.

No joke.

Someone removed the things off the x-es, and it stopped raining.

Still no joke.

Although it kind of was a joke, because we were all laughing pretty hard about it.

(Perhaps God had a little more to do with the rain than the x-es, though!)

We finally got everything set up and then realized that the projector we borrowed didn't work.

Eric fussed with it plenty, but no progress.

So he called someone else we knew had a projector and went to go and get it.

In the meantime, we attempted to light the birthday candles so we could sing to Maddy.

Five matches later and no lit candles.

Maddy and I had a bunch of the kids gather around to form a shield from the breeze.

I, very rapidly, lit the candles.

We, very rapidly, sang happy birthday.

Maddy, very rapidly, blew out her candles.

(just for point of reference - my favorite volcano - Cotopaxi, is just behind Maddy)

Eric got back, set up the new projector and we were off and running.

We brought out lots of blankets and cushions too.

It got a little nippy.

This was before that nippy weather set in:

After the movie, we had planned to play Wii on the big screen.

Problem was that the new projector didn't have the right thingies for plugging in the Wii.

So Eric, since he had nothing better to do, hauled our TV up there and set up the Wii to that.

It was far from big screen, but fun (hopefully.... hard to read the crowd), none-the-less.

Once the party was over, we took down all the furniture and stuff (our neighbor, who is a early to bed kind of guy, fell asleep on the couch so that he would hear us when we were done and could help Eric bring the stuff back down.... now that is one kind, thoughtful and helpful person).

And we took down the x-es.

Within minutes, I kid you not, it started raining.

We were very thankful.

Dry furniture is a good thing.

It was one of those God things - a blessing that He allowed us to have a dry party (in more ways than one!).

After all was said and done, Maddy opened her gifts.

(Opening gifts in front of guests is a no-no here.)

Notice all the smelly stuff?

(or the smell-good kind of stuff, if that's what you are into...)

Maddy must have a reputation for being stinky or something....

the majority of her gifts were scented!

(only kidding, of course!...

love you Maddy!)