Preparations and First Day of School!!!

First day of school!!! The kids have been so excited and today was the big day :)! We had a wonderful first day and were beyond thrilled to have two beautiful new school rooms.

After arriving last Monday, we've spent the majority of our waking hours working on the new school rooms-touching up paint, helping with grout, assembling bookshelves, decorating, lesson planning. We had amazing help from all of the people on site-anything from building doors to mopping floors. It would have been impossible to start on time without all their help! I've attached mostly pictures, as they will tell the story better than I can in words!

Thank you to all who are reading this for your part in making this possible!

Painting the K-2 table!

Painting the K-2 room!

Working on the baseboards in the K-2 room

3-6 grade room

Assembling bookshelves!

Unpacking School Supplies

Getting closer...

Excited kids! 

Our beautiful new reading corner

3rd-6th grade room!

K-2nd grade room!

Computer corner

Excited teachers on the first day of school!

Starting the day...

Discovering the items in their pencil boxes

New class t-shirts

Presenting an "All About Me" activity to the class 

A first day "snowball" fight!

Skyping with "Mommy" and family

The wonderful couple stepping into Amy and Chuy's shoes for the month!

Arrival!

JOY...that's the overwhelming feeling that overcame me as I returned this week to Camichines and all my wonderful students! They were so excited to see us and chattered our ears off until we went to unpack! I can't wait to update more, but for now I just want to say thank you for your prayers! We had a safe arrival and are in the process of finishing and setting up our new school rooms to hopefully start school this coming Monday. I'll post some before and after pictures soon!

Preparing to Return

It’s hard to believe my time in the U.S. is winding down! My summer has been a wonderful combination of reuniting with friends and family, resting, working, and preparing for the upcoming school year. My heart is definitely in two places! While I’ve been so blessed to reconnect with everyone here, I’m also getting very excited to return and see my “Mexican family.”

Jenny and I will be flying back August 19th and will plan to start school the following week. The Acosta family (the family that runs the shelter) will actually be in the U.S. for the months of August and September so we would appreciate prayer that the general day-to-day happenings in the shelter would run smoothly in their absence.

At this point, Jenny and I do not have an additional intern signed up to help us for the first semester. However, we are still praying that the Lord would provide someone for us. I am also still in the process of raising finances for the upcoming year.

Prayer requests:

• Safe flights back on August 19th
• Raising the remaining finances needed for the school year
• That God would provide an intern to help in the classroom for the fall semester
• Smooth start to the school year in the Acosta family's absence

 Thank you so much for your continuing prayers and support! 

Coming Home

This week was a whirlwind of packing and last minute celebrations! We'd appreciate prayer for all three of our return flights on Monday, June 3! I'm looking forward to catching up with friends and family over the summer, as well as preparing materials to bring back with us in the fall. Thanks again for all your faithful prayers and support over this past school year!

Winding Down

We are down to one week of school left! It's so hard to believe! This weekend and next week will be filled with report cards, parent teacher conferences, the end-of-the-year party, preparing summer school materials, packing, and even doing a small amount of preparation for next year. It's not quite sinking in yet that we'll be leaving so soon! Our past couple weeks have included lots of fun activities so I'll try to catch up my blog with lots of fun pictures! This is going to be a long one :)!

Piano Recital
We had our end-of-the-year piano recital where my students had a chance to perform for the family and a few other guests. I got to sit and enjoy how far they've come in a year!

All 10 of my piano students!

One of my students made me this beautiful painted tile as a "thank-you!"

The directors gifted all the teachers with flowers! Thank you!

Weekend! 

Over the weekend, Kylie, Jenny, and I attended a baby shower for one of the ladies from our church and then took Kylie to experience Tonalá (a huge market with unique craftsmanship represented).  

Placement of Bows=Our predictions
A Girl-Bow in Hair
A Boy-Bow on Shirt 

Me and Sandra, the Mother-to-Be

Tonalá!!

Thanks Steve and JoAnn for driving us!

Kylie's Birthday
We were able to celebrate Kylie's birthday with dinner out and of course-the famous celebration in the house with all the kids! They were so excited to give her all her presents! :) They love Miss Kylie!

The Zoo! 

We were so excited to take the kids on a field trip to the zoo! I love experiencing the wonder of God's creation through a child's eyes! Some of the biggest hits were the goldfish in the ponds, the june bug on the sidewalk, the squirrels in the animals' pens, and the coins in the bottom of the crocodiles' pond...no joke! :) Gotta love what catches their eye! 

Best quote from the day: A 4-yr-old response to a snake bobbing his head, "I think he has the hiccups!"

We did get to enjoy a very friendly giraffe and many amazing sights! Hope you enjoy the pics! 

A Mexican polar bear?? Yes...yes he's real and yes he's outside in the 100+ degree weather. Poor thing wasn't moving very much...

Fascinated with the goldfish :)

Two Roses

Two roses were brought to our room last week, and I found myself puzzled as I watched them slowly change. One rose turned its face out for all to see and opened wider and wider each day. The other closed itself tighter, fell lower, and ceased to bloom altogether. Roses from the same vase…one bloomed, one withered…why? This image kept returning to my mind throughout the week, and I realized that this is a very clear example of our choice as believers. We can choose to let the burden of the pain and suffering in the world rest on our own shoulders, to keep our eyes pointed down toward the mess, to close ourselves to all out of fear that we might be hurt, to forget that we were never meant to carry it all…or we can choose to gaze upward in the midst of whatever life brings, to see our Maker who has the whole world in his hands, to open ourselves up to give and be vulnerable, to reach out our hands to the world, to surrender all the pain to His ever-loving heart, and in doing so…to reflect the most radiant beauty of all: HIS.

My Dad and the Team from BHBC

This past week brought numerous blessings of all different shapes and sizes! My wonderful dad put together a 12-man construction mission team from my home church and brought them down to do heavy work for us. Here are some of the ways they blessed us:

My Dad

Me and my Daddy :)

Of course, the top blessing for me was having my dad here! It was so good to see him and spend some time with him. The kids absolutely love him! In addition to working construction daily, he came in to our classroom and taught another Bible lesson, sang goofy songs with the kids, and taught them a little about writing. Thanks Dad, for all your hard work in organizing the team and bringing them down! Love you!

Dad singing his famous "Bind Us Together Lord"

Mr. Scripture
Back in the olden days...when I was a junior higher...there was this really cool guy named "Mr. Scripture" who used to come in and motivate us to memorize as much of the Bible as we could. Years later, this very same Mr. Scripture walked into our classroom here and used his motivational skills to encourage our students in their memorization challenge. Thanks Phil for all your hard work and for loving our kids! They can't stop talking about "Mr. Scripture!" :) It's fun to see everything come full circle.

Mr. Scripture in full costume!

Mr. Scripture reciting Psalm 34 with the kids

Construction
Wow...I don't even know where to begin on this one! The guys KILLED themselves to get as much done as they could. After a whole night of traveling and few to no hours of sleep, they still couldn't wait to start on the projects as soon as they arrived! I'll attempt to put together a list of what they accomplished in a mere five and a half days, but I'm sure I'm missing some:

For our future school building:

• Set up plumbing and electrical
• Leveled and poured cement for two large rooms
• Poured cement for second floor
• Hoisted and set beams for the roof 

For the second floor of the shelter:

• Leveled three rooms
• Tiled two rooms
• Primed/painted three rooms
• Set up and tiled a small laundry room
• Set up plumbing and electrical
• Cleared all three rooms

Misc:

• Gathered rocks to be laid for a cobblestone road out near the property 
• Cleared a third floor room in preparation for further work
• Making water trips to keep enough water in our tanks for the week
• Feeding/watering the animals in the fields

The whole crew! THANK YOU!!!

Thanks so much gentlemen, for your godly examples this week and your incredible work ethics! The students learned a lot about working hard from watching you! You were a blessing to us all!

Hard at work!

Schoolhouse BEFORE

Schoolhouse AFTER

Future bedroom leveled and tiled!

Future boys' room painted and leveled!

Future boys' room painted, leveled, and tiled!

Leveled and Tiled! 

Third floor room cleared out!