Betel House Beach Trip 2015

So after trying numerous times to plan a trip to the beach, we finally made it.

Here are some pictures of the house where we stayed.

Pau instructed us to eat plenty of fruit during our stay.

Our back patio.

It was Kenia, Tadeo, and Mani's first time ever at the beach and they all had a great time.

Fish dish Friday evening.

Friday was Yaneli's 16th birthday and we picked up an ice cream cake in Hermosillo. (To get to this beach you have to drive two hours south to Hermosillo and then about an hour west.)

Yane was not thrilled about getting her face smashed in a hard, cold ice cream cake... 

But she was a good sport.

We collected shells, built sand castles, rode the waves, went to the pier and jumped off, and tried out sea food restaurants. Here I wrote "Casa Betel" by one of our sand castles. Pau, Kendra, and Marce were honestly not too excited about the trip, thinking about dealing with Mani's tantrums away from home. However, he only threw a couple tantrums and we all had a great time. I think it was all the better because of the low expectations.

Yane preparing to meet a wave.

Kenia and Yane riding the waves.

Tadeo loved the waves and sitting on the beach where they could wash over him.

One afternoon we even rode an inflatable banana boat...spray in your face, leaning to keep from tipping, bouncing over the waves. They dumped us off a few times.

On our trip home, we went to the lookout mountain in Hermosillo. I hadn't ever been there, but it is quite the view.

The family looking out over the city.

The sign reads, "Jesus Christ is coming."

Thanks God that there are still people announcing Thy coming. 

Thanks that the trip to the beach was such an enjoyable and bonding adventure for our family.

Please pray for our family as we continue to adjust to Yerania's absence (see post "A peek into my classroom."). Pray for Yerania as she adjusts to life with her family and that she would continue to seek God. Please pray that I and my two students, Luisa and Jesus (Chuy), would experience a smooth entry into preschool next Monday.

Expo Esperanza 2015

Expo Esperanza is a three-day event of project judging, demonstrations, performances, and animal showing similar to a 4-H fair. Their mission is "to develop leadership, responsibility, and techincal skills in today's youth through experiential learning programs that encourage proactive involvement at community and personal levels." Translated "Expo Esperanza" would mean something like "Hope Exposition."

So, we enjoyed an exciting and successful Expo Esperanza 2015.

I was thankful that Bonnie Dotterer, my mentor, could be here to visit me during the Expo.

Early Thursday morning...campus awakening for a busy day...

Tadeo eating breakfast

Chairs set up for the kids to sit while waiting to be called in to the judges.

An hour later...it's filling up...

The tables and chairs were set up according to categories and the children could line up for a certain category. The judges sat at tables in the classrooms inside the school (beyond the door in the picture) and the children came in one at at time to be judged. The projects judged here Thursday morning were: dessert, salsa, cookies, tortillas and bread, 3-D art, sewing, photography, scrap booking, painting, colored pencil, drawing, creative writing, LEGO creations, entomology, horticulture, and mecatronics.

Small species and chickens displayed in the cancha (volleyball court).

Watching the advanced bovine class (cows).

Kenia and Secretary

She got a purple ribbon! 

Miguel won grand champion and Axel won reserved grand champion.

Intermediate barrel racing. 

Barrel racing is the most exciting event of the Expo in my opinion.

All the intermediate horse participants lined up to receive their awards.

Bonnie and I watching the animal shows.

The instrument, singing, and musical group performances took place Thursday afternoon. Here Kenia is singing with Estephania Shick.

Friday morning Tadeo participated in an Expo event for the first time, riding Conde in the beginner horse class. I walked beside him, so I didn't get any pictures, but Bonnie sent me this one. 

Demonstration, Oral Interpretation, and Scenic Arts (Drama) took place Friday afternoon.

Gloria Arcoverde, Candi Mendez, and Marisol Garcia did a cowgirl dance that won the beginner class championship in communication at the Prize Banquet on Saturday.

Expo participants smile for the camera.

The prize ceremony and banquet on Saturday evening. 

God's Gifts: A successful Expo Esperanza 2015 :)

A Peek into my Classroom

Clinic Day: August 2015

Bright-eyed, bushy-tailed we leave the house at 4:30 in the morning...

playing with play dough while waiting to be called for an appointment...

reunion with a friend, border guard Angelica

Yerania's Farewell Open House

Yerania and I

I have been enjoying getting to know Yerania more and more in the past weeks especially when she was in my sewing class for expo and also visiting together. Over the last few months, she has been making plans to return to her mother and so on Friday, August 7th we hosted a farewell open house for her. She will be sixteen this month.

The open house was very kid-friendly! :)

Yerania left to be with her family on Monday, the 17th. We are really going to miss her...

Coffee flavored ice cream made from goat's milk on a Sunday evening. Thank you, Keith!

A Peek into my Classroom

 As I've been decorating and preparing my classroom for school to start, I have been getting more and more excited. Here you see my shelves for teaching supplies, a vowels poster, and the poster for registering each morning. 

Here shows the classroom facing the door. The white table is where my two students, Luisa and Chuy, will sit. To the left is my desk and to the right is the toy corner.

 The toy corner.

The library is in the corner behind the bookcase.

Facing the marker board. To the right is my desk and to the left is the library corner.

Outside my classroom is a room that Jaqui (the kindergarten teacher) and I will share. In it we have our crash and bump course. The kids ride on the little scooters following the green tape. They walk on the colorful "rocks," balance on the tippy board, jump on the trampoline, and finally crawl through a cloth tunnel across the blue mat. 

Our kindergarten and preschool start on Monday, August 31st.

Coming Soon: update about the Expo (August 13th-15th).

Expo Expectancy

Well, the Expo is almost here and the kids have been hard at work. 

Here is Kenya washing and leading her heifer, Secretary.

And showing her sheep in a mock show, judged by Amanda McClure.

Here Fernanda is working on a bag. 

After our second sewing session.

 She has since sewn the parts together and all we need is a large button for closing the flap.

The last Friday of July we said goodbye to some of our summer help, Mary Leman, Kristen Fehr, Kailey Whetrich, Maria Steffen, and Amanda McClure.

Pictured here (Back L-R): Amanda, Michelle Schick, Cassidy Wulf, Katie Monroe, Kristen Knochel

(Front L-R): Nicole Hamilton, Maria, Kailey, Mary, and Kristen Fehr

It has been such a pleasure to get to know all of these girls and it was hard to believe that it was already time for some of them to leave!

A partly humorous, partly very frustrating pattern has been developing in our household recently. The boys copy each other! When Mani throws a tantrum, Tadeo decides he would like some attention too. If one of them decides to laugh obnoxiously, they both do. Here Mani is upset and so has his head on the table. As you can see, Tadeo decided it was a good pose as well. Besides, he wasn't to happy about eating the rest of his bread either!

Tuesday afternoon, we spent some time at the Cafe. And enjoyed some hearty, bucket-filling laughs with these journals. The titles apply well to our present situation with some of the kids. 

The purple journal reads, "I'M A PARENT? A journal to ponder the unfathomable circumstance that I somehow have offspring even though I have no idea what I'm doing but it sure seems like everyone else does because they're not stinting on the advice as if I don't love my kid(s) which of course I do, but the little bugger(s) are going to need therapy no matter what and in all honesty I couldn't adore them more but sometimes I think I'm going out of my mind with frustration and self-doubt."

 (Bucket-filling is CVE terminology for filling your joy bucket, something we all have and need to fill. We can help each other by finding things that fill other peoples' "buckets.")

Prayer Requests

Tomorrow (August 6th) is clinic day, so pray that we can have a smooth, productive trip. 

Also, Tadeo has begun to wake up and yell in the night every couple nights and then he sometimes vomits. We think he is vomiting because of the yelling, but we don't know why he is yelling. Maybe scared, maybe copying Mani's bedtime tantrums? Please pray we can solve the mystery or at least that Tadeo can discontinue his nighttime screaming.

No longer recent news, but still an important prayer need, Joe and Denise moved back to Indiana unexpectantly a couple weeks ago and they and their previous household of boys especially need our prayers. There are seven boys ages ten to fifteen. At this time, Dayton and Kathy Kupferschmid and Seth are sharing the caretaker responsibilities, but please pray that God will grant them each strength and that none of the boys would feel rejected or use this life event as a defense against God. 

Gifts from August 1st: 

So many Christian friends that encourage and uplift

The sunsets

Music

Books (esp. biographies. I love reading stories about real people. Their messages have special power because they really happened!)

Cool breezes brought with each rain.

Answers to prayer.