Sleepless

Tonight I can't sleep. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all of the orphan statistics that I encounter on a daily basis. There are an estimated 147 million to 167 million orphans in the world today, and over 1.5 million of them live here in Mexico. However, my favorite statistic is that it only takes one person to change the life of one orphan child. Tonight I had a great talk with my roommate Caroline about what it would really take to change the course of a child's life in one of the casa hogar's we serve. So I'm sitting here thinking about the 35 kids living at Del Norte and what it would take to alter the course of their lives. First and foremost, it takes Jesus in their lives. None of us can love them out of the brokenness that comes from being abandoned at a children's home and the various kinds of abuse and neglect they've experienced, but our God is big enough to heal even the most broken of hearts. I'm regularly overwhelmed by their need and my limitations, but God isn't. So in my sleeplessness I'm claiming God's promises for the orphan child and praying that God would show me what I can do to help those 35 kids. These promises from the Bible are painted on walls, doorways, and window frames throughout Del Norte to remind the kids of what God has promised them. Sometimes I need the reminder too.

-God promises to defend them

-God promises to rescue them

-God promises to deliver them

-God promises to come to them

-God promises to hear them

-God promises to not leave them

-God promises to lift them up

-God promises to lead them out

-God promises to be their father

-God promises to make them a home

-God promises to not forget them

-God promises to extend mercy to them

-God promises to execute true justice for them

-God promises to give them food and clothing

-God promises to help them

-God promises to maintain their cause

Field Trip

This week one of our groups was able to take the kids from El Retiro Juvenile on a field trip to the bowling alley. I love taking the kids on field trips, we get to see them smile and laugh and be more like normal kids for a while. It was quite an event! Because it was a little over an hour bus ride, we gave the kids chips, a soda, and a cupcake for the ride. So special treats mixed with bowling made for one great afternoon!

Me and Alva, she's very snuggly

Paolina granny-bowled and still got an 88!

Alva was always excited, no matter how many pins she knocked down

Becca won with a high score of 115, but we weren't far behind her

The final scores, and proof that I was beaten by a little girl who bowled 3.1 mph

Small Groups

"When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours." Romans 1:12

This week we had a really amazing group of students from my old high school in Cincinnati come to visit. I was blown away by this group, they worked super hard, love each other a lot, and really desire to grow closer to the Lord. My favorite part of the week was getting to know 4 very special girls who were in a small group that I led in the mornings. I got to see close up as preconceptions and walls crumbled, hearts were softened, and relationships with God were renewed. On one of the last nights the group took communion and then had time to pray with the small group leaders or with each other. After praying for a few of my girls, I was amazed as I sat back and watched the students gather on their own in several small groups to pray, and then one big group to pray together. I can't wait for them to take this back to their high school and put it into action!

Baby Steps

I've started working with the 1 and 2 yr olds at Del Norte on some "early intervention" techniques. As we've been spending more and more time with them, and watching them next to our director's kid who's the same age, we're realizing how far behind these babies already are! So from now on I'll be going to Del Norte on Mondays and Thursdays with another staff woman to try and get the babies moving in the right direction. This Monday was the first day, and so with a few group members we played with play-dough, puzzles, balls, read a counting book, tried to eat Cheerios, crawled around a lot, and practiced some walking and standing. I was so excited to see that Alexis, who just turned 1, will now stand up or take a few steps if you're holding his hands. And he figured out how to eat Cheerios, all major accomplishments in my book! You can see he worked really hard, he fell asleep eating his lunch with 30 other kids running around screaming.

2010 in Review

Today I'm taking some time by myself and reflecting a little on the past year. And I realized no wonder I'm exhausted, I lived a LOT of life in 2010. It was a year of growing up and making some big adult decisions, learning to trust God and his plans for my life, and making some new and amazing friends. So let's review my 2010 together!

-I went back to school full time to pursue a physical therapy degree

-I dropped back to part time and then quit my social work job

-I got to watch one of my old clients go to her dream university and 3 of my old clients get adopted into amazing families who love God a lot

-We took a family vacation to California to visit our good friends, Dain and Terry and have one last family vacation before I moved and Clayton started his real job

-I donated my hair for the first time, after over 2 years of growing it out

-I went to the spring leadership retreat, summer conference, and fall retreat with Clear River Church where God showed up and showed off big time

-I got to do a trail marathon, a century bike ride, 2 sprint triathlons, 1 olympic distance tri, 1 half ironman, and a full ironman all in a 5 month span (no wonder I'm still exhausted!)

-And the biggie, I moved to Mexico as staff with Back2Back Ministries to "provide care for today and hope for tomorrow" for the orphan child.

As I look forward to 2011, I have little to no idea where my life is headed. I know that God is good and that he has a plan for my life. I know God always gives me what I need in the moment, and right now knowing that I'm living here in Mexico for the next 8 months is what I need to know. Pray that God would give me wisdom and direction as I make some big decisions on where my life is headed after August!

Pre-hair donation, it was cut a little shorter than chin length!

Family vacation in California. Clayton and I were determined to sit on the beach even though it was cold and no one else was out there.

My 25th birthday dinner with my good friends Jenny and Ashley.

At summer conference Heather, Jenny, me, Karissa, and Marissa shared a tent next to some Clear River friends.

Clayton and I before our half-ironman triathlon in July.

On the bike leg of Ironman Kentucky in August, where the heat index was over 100!

One of my friends at the Rio 1 soup kitchen in Monterrey

Giggles

For about 3 weeks, I'm helping take care of my neighbor's 6 yr old foster daughter while they're in the United States for Christmas. I think the day after Christmas might be one of the most universally difficult, tantrum filled days on the planet. The presents are all opened and played with, the candy and soda disappear, the lack of sleep wears on everyone, and it's just cold. So after a particularly difficult morning, and mandatory naps for both me and the kiddo, we had an interesting night. We laid down to read our favorite bilingual book, Noah and the Ark, and my sweet little one decided she wanted to read all of the Spanish parts! And she even read some of the English parts too. Then she started a tickle fight and we spent a good 10 minutes just laughing and giggling with each other. Around 1 am she had a bad dream and was freezing, so she jumped in my twin sized bunk bed with me, wrapped her arms around my neck, and was back to sleep in less than a minute. As a pseudo-parent, I'm convinced that God gives us those times of giggles and snuggles to help us remember to enjoy our kids. And at the end of a very difficult day, it was a welcome reminder!

My Christmas Family

Meet the sweet people that I spent Christmas with. Lonnie and Angela invited me to live with them in their house (just on the other side of our campus) for 2 or 3 weeks during Christmas. During that time they're also watching my neighbor's foster daughter, so I've been around to help out with the extra Spanish speaking kid. Sharing a room with a 6 year old has been quite the fun experience. She loves to sleep in my bed, wake me up really early to watch Cinderella 3, and speak really fast Spanish to me in the middle of the night when my brain is still sleeping. This morning I woke up to her face right next to mine telling me she was cold and wanted to play with her new Play-Doh set now. So, while this blog loads I'm decorating play-doh cakes. Here are a few pictures we took one afternoon just playing around the house.