Swing your partner round and round...

Miguel and class-mate Lizbeth dance during a special event for Mother´s Day at the Special Education school. 

It is so neat to watch these children with differing abilities and disabilities dancing like pros. 

The elementary class sang a special Mother´s Day version of "Las Mañanitas" with Miguel playing guitar and Lizbeth signing.  All of the children in the school are learning sign-language.  Here Juan is on the far left and Toño is to the right of Miguel.

Spring Break

Spring break is two weeks long here and the kids are always ready for a break from school when it comes around.  I asked them to tell me the highlights of their break and they very excitedly answered, “painting, sleeping in, playing water games, going to the park,” etc.  I wonder why no one answered, “extra chores”?  So here are some photos of the best moments of their break, according to them.

Katie´s mom and dad brought the children paint-by-number kits which they worked on for one hour every day.  They looked forward to that hour more than any other scheduled activity and would rush to the table when they saw it was time.  I loved watching them take their time to do the painting right, and the final outcome was beautiful.  Toño and David are still finishing theirs and they are also turning out very nice.  We are having them framed so that they can hang them by their beds and be proud of their works of art.

Spring break always falls right when the weather turns from comfortable to way-too-hot, so it is time to get out the shorts and buzz hair.  I want to take a moment to thank all of you who over the years have given clothes donations.  It was a wonderful feeling to be able to go through the clothes we have stored and find EVERYTHING I needed for the season change.  The kids enjoyed going though the shorts and tee-shirts I brought out and choosing what they wanted and trading them in for coats and sweat-pants.  Off with the hot, on with the cool!

To cool down on hot days we played with water balloons and in the pool.  ¡Al ataque!   

Easter week was full of activities.  Thursday we celebrated the Lord´s Supper at church with a birria dinner and breaking of bread.

For Good Friday the children drew pictures of the crucifixion and shared them during William´s sermon at church.  

Saturday we painted eggs to share at the Resurrection Sunday breakfast at church the next day.


Sunday we worshiped our Risen Savior at church and then came home for a nice lunch and egg hunt. Gaby thought it was so funny that there were eggs all over the yard!

So there is a little look at our Spring break.  At the end of the two weeks the kids were rested and excited to go back to school and be with their friends again. 

New Paint and New Prints

One of the home improvement projects that we have wanted to do for a long time has finally been done. We had painted the downstairs of the Home with regular paint for economic reasons and every time we had to wash the walls the paint would wash off. We finally now have the diningroom and hallway painted with washable paint thanks to the Zanesville Alliance church in Ohio who donated the money to buy the paint and brushes and the Torre Fuerte Alliance church in Guadalajara who came out and painted. A few days ago we had the kids re-handprint the main wall with washable paint, a memory of them that will last even if they at some point leave. (For those interested, we left Danielito´s footprints on the wall and painted them blue, along with Cristofer and Victor´s handprints. The blue means that they are no longer living in the Home but will always be in our hearts.)

Mimes

Miguel, Toño and Juan participated with their school in Cultural Week this month performing a mime of the song "Color Esperanza" (The Color Hope). Three of the students in their school are deaf so all of the children in the school are learning sign language so that they can all communicate together. It was amazing to see them waiting to perform and communicating with each-other without opening their mouths. To think that these three boys who struggled with Spanish when they first moved into the Home are now learning to communicate in 3 languages (sign, English, and Spanish) is just so wonderful.

Visitors from Alaska

We had a wonderful visit from Katie´s parents this month. They were only here for a week, but the kids loved every minute of thier visit and got in lots of play time and hugs. Katie´s dad, Chris, set up a great music system in the Home that pipes music into every room through old radios and a transmitter. It is so great to be able to put on quiet music or an audio book at night and let everyone listen to it at the same time while they go to sleep in their beds. Thanks dad!