Icecream on a Sunday afternoon.

We finally found a zoo that would take this little monkey. Don't feel too sorry for him, he was fed plenty of icecream.

This is the other little boy we sponsor and are fortunate enough to get to hang out with here.
Alejandro is a talkative, full of energy and mischief ,six year old boy.
Fits in well with my brood. :)

Franco and Diego. Two of Silas' best "eedo's" (amigos). "Dat my eedo! EEEDOOO!"
He loves them and they seem to enjoy him tagging along. These two boys and Alvaro live in the same "Casa" (the family style orphanage housing).

A couple weekend ago we took a group of kids to a nearby park to play on the playground and to a little icecream booth. It was a little crazy keeping track of that many kids but they all had fun.

I opted for the cob of corn covered with hot sauce and lime (chile y limon).
I'm a total Mexican food junky. My husband calls me Mexican garbage mouth. I'm not sure why...maybe because I'll try anything.

out with our kids.

Ever tried these? A Mexican favorite not complete without chamoy sauce to stain your fingers red.

I recently tried to post some pictures through a backdoor route to my blog since I can't actually access blogs from my home at the mission. I did discover a way edit and post writing but the pictures didn't work so well...so far.
A couple of these pictures were posted last week but I'll post them again in a much more enjoyable size.
A couple weekends ago...I think. See this is the problem with blogging every 2 weeks. My memory is not that great.
Anyway, we took our kids out to a nearby town for a tour around the market and then out for lunch.

This is a little playground beside the restaurant "Baja fiesta". A real restaurant this time. We often go out to eat at out door taco stands but it is a nice change to actually sit down somewhere.

I think it may have been the first time Minerva and Alvaro have eaten at a restaurant. They thoroughly enjoyed their very large order of enchiladas. Alvaro had enought to take a doggy bag home with him, he also took his prestinely clean paper place mat. Nothing goes to waste here. Its fun to spoil them and it sure doesn't take much to do it.

Some kind of lizard and a horny toad. They didn't keep them too long and no I did not hold either of them. After a few days I made them release them. I convinced them that they would likely die in their bucket and they might miss their families. That wasn't a complete lie...only half of it.

Raw Material.

I have been thinking about something lately and since I'm experimenting with being able to post from my trailer I thought I'd follow it through to its not so logical conslusion. I've been struggling lately with who I am. Trying to figure out in the midst of feeling pretty darn useless what God can do with a person like me. I have felt very humbled these past weeks.

Its just me. No job well done to point to. No accomplishments. No big contributions to the work here. No minsitry that I can tangibly point to. Just little old me homeschooling my kids, hanging laundry, chasing a two year old and loving on a handful of others as best I can. To say I am feeling insignificant even lonely at times would be an understatment. Its been hard not to get discouraged sometimes. For the most part I am so happy here and I do know that discouragment is something we came prepared to face. It's not unexpected but it still comes.

Stress, opposition and conflict (not here in Mexico) has also had me feeling about as big as an ant ready to be crushed.

How can God use someone like me?

I talk too much.
I am shy.
I am a strange combination of the two.
I am compasionate to a fault sometimes. I cannot even stand to see a houseplant get thirsty.
I am a jump in with both feet kind of person.
When faced with stress or confrontation a person's instincts will either be to fight or flight.
I completely lack the flight instinct.
I am a big chicken when I should be brave.
I am bold when I should be meek.
I am relaxed when I should be alert.
I am stressed when I should be calm.
I sometimes speak before thinking through how my words are being recieved.
I am prone to disorganization.
I am sometimes a lazy parent and take the easy way out even though I know I will pay for it later.
To borrow a word from a blog friend, I'm down right spazzy.

How can God use someone like that? I don't know. I don't know why he would want to. I'm sure there are other people who are more tactful, orderly and less prone to goofing up than I am. As far as raw material goes I think he's got His work cut out for him .

I'm just me.

I want God to make me the best me possible. The woman that he created me to be without the pitfalls of selfishness, pride, fear, envy , insecurity, bad attitudes, self pity etc. that creep into my life when I least expect it. Maybe to weed out those things we have to be faced with them head on and see them for what they are. Sometimes it takes a ridiculous amount of conflict to bring those things out to the surface where we can actually see them and sometimes it takes stripping away all those things we selfishly hold on to and put our pride in. Both are happening simutaneously and I don't know how much more mirror looking I can stand.

I have asked God to change me, grow me up, mould me and make me more like him.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised when that process sometimes involves pain or discomfort. It's been a crazy couple years in so many aspects of life but we have seen God do amazing things in the midst of it all.

I cried to God last night that I think I've had enought pruning for this season. I don't know that I'm through yet but maybe a break would be nice. I do know that the more severly we are pruned the more fruit we have the potential to bear.

I'm just feeling a bit steeped in humility right now. I feel God working though ,draining any last bit of pride in myself out and replacing it with dependance on Him alone. That is not an all bad place to be. Wrapped in the arms of a loving God.

I feel better just writing that down. I don't know what it is about journaling this way, about sharing my heart that makes me feel less alone. Maybe because I know someone else may be able to relate.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving to all my American relatives and friends!
We just enjoyed a wonderful turkey dinner brought down and cooked by a group of American volunteers. The meal was provided for all the kids and staff here and i heard included about 40 turkeys. It was delicious and I even snagged a spare piece of pie for later. I warned everyone that the piece of pie in the fridge was waiting for me and my coffee. We'll see how long it goes untouched. :)
I just discovered that I am able to access blogger.com even though I have not been able to access anything blogspot. com from my home here at the orphanage. This post is actually an experiment of sorts. I can't actually bring up my blog or anyone else's from here but I can post a blog I think. I haven't made the pictures work yet though.
Let me know if you see it! I am still able to read comments through my email page so please fee free to comment occasionally. Yes that is a big old hint. :) I think I may have lost my readers.....that tends to happen when you can't make the blog rounds very often. I'm hoping I can catch up on some reading as well as writing on my next trip to the cafe.

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

Baja 1000

This friday, other than attending Mexican festivities, Roman and his dad set out in search of the Baja 1000 route. They camped out at the pit stop at Santa Marta for a few hours.
They didn't stick around long enough for the cars to pass by but watched the speed demon motorcylcists racing. They weren't dressed nearly warm enough and poor Roman froze. Bad mommy. I should know better, just because its 25 degrees celcius when they leave at 3 doesn't mean they won't freeze their tails off by 5. It dropped nearly 20 degrees. Thats the Baja for you.
Roman had a blast though!

I just realized reading over my last paragraph what a woman I am. My take on the evening of cars, motorcycles and burning rubber was....my poor boy got cold. Oh well I'm a mom....its seared into who I am, why fight it?

Roman was given the royal treatment by the racers waiting for their turn to drive and the pit crews there. One motorcylist was especially kind and let Roman join his pit crew.

He even let Roman wear his pit crew jacket and use a light stick to wave in the ridersf brother who was going to switch off with him.
My boy felt pretty important.
This guy is one of the top Baja 1000 racers. What a genuinely nice guy!

Don't get any ideas Roman! I know how fast and dangerous that race is.

One of the pit crews.
All around the crews were Mexican fans camped out around bonfires and of course lots of grills cooking up things like goat tacos.

The boys passed on that delicacy, but they had a great time and came home with tons of stories I'm sure they'll be telling for years.

Fiesta Mexicana!

This weekend was Revolution Day in Mexico. We had to wikepedia it becuase we had no idea really what we were celebrating.
It does mean lots of fun though. We watched a parade in town , complete with dancing kids dressed up in their little revolutionary costumes. It was so cute! I thought it would have been funny to paint a little mustache on Silas, dress him up and send him out. He wouldn't stand out would he? I didn't do it though I just chuckled to myself like a nerd thinking about it.

People were selling eggs everywhere. They cleaned out the shells and filled them will flour and confetti then covered the hole and decorated them. The kids and their friends had a blast as you can imagine. Just when we thought Silas' hair couldn't get any whiter we filled it with flour!

At the local park we found a ton of food stalls set up for the occasion and unlike fairs back home or in the states the food wias cheap! I ate like a pig of course. My new favorite sweet treat is Bunuelos (I think that is what its spelled like...could be wrong). Basically its a flour tortilla deep fried and dipped in what I think might be melted raw sugar cane (could be wrong on that one too) it forms a delicously sinful carmelized coating on a cruchy pastry like tortilla underneath. mmmm.

Other than a lot of Mexican fair food they even had some rides. They were kind of expensive...in comparison so they each only had one ride. Silas chose this one. Coming from Disneyland it was...well...very Mexican...but the kids loved it.

It was so much fun to be out among the people and the culture just having fun. We were just one of the crowd, other than the fact that we don't exactly pass very well as Mexican. We do our best. :)

The Dayhome

There are some big things happening at the Dayhome for children with disabilities. This past week they all went out to watch the foundation being poured for their new building. In this new building they will continue to get an education, learn lifeskills , recieve medical attention when needed and of course a lot of love...just in a new and more spacious setting.

Alexis, Domitila and little Angel.

Here Martin is discovering a straw can be used for so much more than just drinking his milk.

The princess, miss Alondra. She is the teeny tiniest litle girlie here.

I just can't help but love these kids! They may have bodies or minds that don't function quite like ours do but they are a blessing to all who know them.