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.

Scenes of Summer

Tadeo's newest friend is our most recent addition to the CVE family, six-year-old Gema (pronounced Hema). Here they are playing a clapping game during Thursday night basketball a couple weeks ago. Soon after arriving, Gema was taken to get glasses for her severe farsightedness (+2). When she put them on, she grabbed Raquel's face and exclaimed, "I can see you! I can see you!" Once in the car, she exclaimed over being able to see her shoes. She has many allergies, poor balance, and is quite talkative. Please pray for Gema, Cristina, Laura, Chuy, and Raquel (Jarrin Rabe) as the family adjusts. 

This video is from July 12th. 

Evening at the Plaza

We have been blessed with some glorious skies lately...

The last two pictures I took walking to Jovenes (Young Group) at the Wulf's on Friday night.

Saturday night, the ladies here ages 13 and up were invited to the Wulf's for Country Night hosted by Cassidy Wulf and the rest of the summer staff girls. It was very enjoyable.

This picture shows Tadeo supporting himself with his right hand, something we've been working on for the last couple months. I'm hoping the OT from clinic will be excited to see the progress when we go the beginning of August.

The rains always bring the frogs...the picture doesn't do justice to this monster of a toad.

Sewing Class

Perla with her nearly finished Olaf quilt.  

(Olaf is the talking snowman character from the Disney movie Frozen)

The finished product

Regrettably, I didn't take pictures of the other projects. I know...it's really sad. But yesterday was my last class session. Maybe I can get some pictures when they present their projects at Expo. In the first class (July 6th-13th), Perla made a quilt, Cristina made a handbag, and Aracely made a pillowcase. In the second class (July 15th-22nd), Yerania worked on a dress, Julissa worked on a quilt, Nere worked on a skirt, and Mariela made a handbag. Yerania and Julissa will finish their projects on their own, but I will have to see about helping Nere. 

Please pray for today through Saturday as our elder, Bro. Mike Leman and two other elder brothers, Lynn Fiechter, and Ron Messner spend time here. We will be having communion as well as spending time visiting and discussing plans for the church. Pray that God's direction and wisdom would guide each one of us and that we would feel His presence, inspiration, and blessing. Pray that God would make our church a true haven of truth and Christian love and that He would touch the hearts of the people so that they would come, and taste, and see!

And please pray for CVE, for each staff member and child that we can take frustrations and fears to God, be open and respectful about our feelings, and that we can feel God's hand over us even in the hard (and really hard) times.

Gifts this Month: For challenges and successes with both Tadeo and Mani. Sometimes it seems like we are running backwards whereas other times we seem to take a few steps forward. My time with Tadeo both today and on Tuesday went considerably well much to my delight and relief. I am always excited when he communicates more. Last Thursdays class (a week ago) was a disaster of hitting, biting, and me at my wit's end. I am so thankful though for all God is teaching me through these boys, all the children here, and my relationships here at Casa Betel. 

For the song birds. This morning I went out to sit on the front porch and watched a little bird with a bug in its beak jump up on our hammock. It looked around and jumped to a beam of the porch roof. Before each hop, it would peer below as if to make sure no predators were following. After several more hops, it arrived at the nest and I could hear the baby birds chirping. Sometimes watching one of God's little creatures is just what I need to smile at the world again. 

Prayer Ponderings

Please pray for the CVE board meeting tomorrow. 

Gift of the Week: Prayer. Did you ever stop to think about it? We have free access to speak with the Creator and Sustainer of this entire universe at any moment AND He is interested in what we have to say! Imagine that you could have a free private conference with the president, the boss of your company, or another leader anytime you wanted and your thoughts mattered to him! That's just pretty amazing. So several points on prayer: I've felt rather needy the last few days as I realize my inadequacy and powerlessness. I can't change situations. I can't change people. I can only be responsible for myself and my interactions with others, and I can pray. As a result, I think I've been praying a little more fervently than usual and guess what? God has been faithful and God has answered prayers. Not all the problems are solved and the path hasn't turned into the lazy river at a water park, but I know that God has heard me because there have been several specific answers for which I prayed. I also am remembering that several days ago I asked for prayers that my communication with others be clear and kind. To anyone who prayed, I want you to know that God answers prayers. No, I did not suddenly become a flawless communicator, but conversations happened and I am so thankful. Finally, I just finished reading an email from a friend where she wrote about prayer as well. Was that a coincidence? I don't think so. God has this important lesson for me that prayer matters and it makes a difference. And if I think about it...this lesson is an answer to prayer. :)

Don't stop praying!

Also, today is five years since my dad passed away. So in memory of Daddy...

My 11th birthday

Bubble fun.

Puzzle time

Class with Tadeo Video

Tori and Marshall enjoyed water fun on some of my last days babysitting before school ended.

The last thirty minutes before school ended for the summer. 

I had to snap a few pictures of these cute puppies before I updated. 

This one is Daisy and belongs to Yerania.

This one is Maddy Jane and belongs to Yaneli.

(I love their collars. :) )

Guarding the house. I took a while to get this picture because they wouldn't stay sitting. 

A collection of various videos from Tadeo's class time.

Please pray for summer school which started this morning that God would bless the kids, the teachers, and each class and that we would all be successful learners. Also, please pray that I can learn to clearly and kindly communicate myself in all of my relationships here especially with my room mate, Kenia, and those I live with here at Casa Betel.

Gift of the Week: I am thankful for the cooling, refreshing summer rains. I am thankful for the last week which has been very relaxing and allowed me plenty of time to prepare for the next busy month.