Transitioning into Summer

 

On May 28th, I had my final Nurture Group session with the girls. It was so fun to spend that time with them each Friday and I will miss it!

One of the CVE girls is my employee as she takes the kitchen slop to the pigs a few times each week. She was really struggling for a few weeks, but I'm thankful that after a "crisis," she decided that she did want to continue with the job and has had a great attitude and has been fulfilling her responsibilities. At this time, I have three CVE girls working under me. It is a good opportunity for them to learn job skills, how to be responsible, and follow through. It has also been a real learning experience for me as I learn to be the boss/leader, train them, call them out when they aren't following through, etc.

I'm exciting to be sewing Expo projects with Kate Ramsier (summer volunteer) and three CVE kids this summer. We are planning to make small quilts or quilted pillows, so one day last week, Kate and I went through all the fabric scraps and tried to come up with nice combinations. 

The rest of the summer volunteers arrive this Thursday and I have been planning menus and other kitchen items for the summer. Also, our kitchen helper, Amalia, is retiring a week from today, so I will be more hands-on in the kitchen this summer. It is a time of transition! Please pray with us that we can find and hire another local staff member to help in the CVE kitchen alongside Bertha, our cook. We have been putting a lot of thought into what would be the best arrangement for the kitchen and appreciate your prayers!

Finding Old Friends

A couple weeks ago, I was telling my coworker about my classmates from the fifth grade in San Ignacio. I had briefly thought before about looking for them on Facebook, but never had. So right there during my lunch break, I decided to start looking and quickly found all of the girls in the photo above plus several more even though I only knew their first names! 

A few weeks before that, I had seen a young lady at a store that I thought looked like Fabiola (the girl directly to my left in the photo above). I found out that it was her! So fun to reconnect a bit. So many of them are married and have children. How the time flies!

We took all the remaining frozen bananas from the freezer at CVE and Amalia made some delicious chocolate chip banana bread! Yum!

I happened to have a lot of tomatoes in the fridge on Tuesday and decided to make some roasted tomato salsa. I like using foil because then I don't have to scrape all that roasted juice off the pans!

The Friday after Miguel's family left, I must have been missing the action at my house because I invited this cutie over for a spontaneous playdate. It was a Friday afternoon and I was returning to CVE in an hour for a dinner, so why not? We had a blast playing with pick up sticks and singing into the fan. We'll have to do it again sometime!

Yesterday after Wednesday night church, Denver was showing Mani and José old videos of them goofing off. I had to capture the moment. I think their stair step ages impressed me, thirties, twenties, teens, preteen, and toddler. So thankful for the men who choose to invest in the lives of these boys and for the boys who choose to come to church and be a part of our lives. Please keep praying for them!

On Sunday, Juantan gave a sermon on masculinity according to the Bible. In a community with so many absent fathers and plenty of opportunity for young men to get involved in gangs and the drug trade, men of God are a treasure. I get really passionate about this! Please join me in praying that God will raise up men in this community that will be servants, leaders, protectors, seekers of wisdom, and who will glorify him! And that they can connect and be the iron that sharpens iron for one another.

God bless!

Kitchen Ceiling Remodel

According to Civil Protección, we needed to cover up the insulation in the ceiling in the kitchen area. So last week, a drop ceiling was installed. Below are the before, during, and after photos.

Kitchen Before

Dining room Before

Storage room kind of Before

Kitchen During

Dining room during

Storage room during

Kitchen After

Dining room after

Storage room after

The couches from the dining room set up in the cancha during remodeling.

Lots of Family for Mother's Day

 A couple months ago, Miguel's brother Pedro and the rest of the family started discussing the possibility of them all meeting here in Magdalena to celebrate Mother's Day together. (Pedro lives in California with Miguel's dad. Miguel hadn't seen him in 9 years!) So on May 8th, Miguel and I picked up his mom, three siblings, nephew, and baby niece in Hermosillo at the airport and on Sunday, Pedro, his girlfriend Brenda, and her grandfather arrived from California. We spent a fun, lively week together. Pedro, Brenda, and her grandpa went back to California the following Monday. Lola and the rest stayed until May 23rd.

Mother's Day evening (May 10th here) we all got dressed up and took family photos. Lola hadn't been with all of her children in nine years!

Back L-R: Kevin (nephew), Brian (brother), Miguel

Middle L-R: Pedro (brother), Lola (mom), Fani (sister), Me, Brenda (Pedro's girlfriend), José (Brenda's grandpa)

Front L-R: Fernanda (sister), Natalie (niece)

(relationship to Miguel)

Pedro, Lola, and Miguel on Mother's Day

We so enjoyed meeting our niece Natalie (Fani's daughter). She turned four months old while she was here and didn't cry much at all unless she was hungry.

Miguel loves babies and Natalie soon had him wrapped around her little finger.

On Mother's Day here (May 10th), Fernanda and Kevin went to work with me and helped me make pizzas for the houses. (The kitchen ladies were off work for Mother's Day)

We made a tres leches cake with mango on top for Mother's Day.

The kids hanging out. I enjoyed going with the little boys to the park and playing hide-n-go-seek!

Making Pozole! We had a lot of delicious, mexican cooking!

Brenda and her grandpa making us a shrimp dinner. 

One unfortunate event took place the first Sunday afternoon when Pedro arrived. They were driving from California and he had never driven across the border into Mexico, so Miguel, and I and his mom decided to drive up to Nogales to help him cross. On the way, we hit a tope a little too hard and completely snapped this hose under the front of the car. So we sat on the side of the road for a couple hours, Pedro drove down on his own, and Keith Beyer (thanks Keith!) brought a trailer to haul our car back to Magdalena. Let's just say I had a bad headache that night from the sun and all the chaos in general. Thankfully, I felt better by the next morning!

The Sunday before Pedro left, we spent some time in the plaza. Here I am with Fernanda, Fani, and Natalie.

I enjoyed connecting with Fani over the two weeks she was here.

All the girls!

Miguel and I in the plaza.

Miguel with his mom and siblings and Fani's two children, Kevin, and Natalie.

Sunday, May 23rd, we got up at 3:30 in the morning and we're at the airport by 6:30 AM. We helped them get their boarding passes and check their bags and said goodbye. So much fun! We will miss them! Until next time...

Goodbye Tadiboy!

First of all, it's been over two weeks since I updated. The second week of May I said goodbye to Tadiboy! I'm so thankful that he arrived safely in Indiana with his family and hope I can visit him there sometime soon. Above we were getting ready to do our last horse riding session.

This past semester Bertha has been spending time cooking and doing other projects with a few of the CVE girls. Here she is sewing with one of them.

This Friday (May 28th) is my last Nurture Group with these girls for the school year. We've had so much fun!

Last Friday we did abstract watercolor paintings. Some of the girls even tried painting with their eyes closed! We had a lot of fun.

I was surprised to find a toad in the kitchen the other day. Usually I don't see them until the beginning of July when the rains start. We were thankful for two light rains last week as everything here is very, very dry. We are in a drought right now.

Spotlight on Balto! and more...

Balto playing with his friends at CVE!

The black dog belongs to Fe Leman and the brown dog belongs to the Slagel's.

We were worried about Balto last week because he was subdued and seemed sick. Finally we figured out that he had a cold and we were able to get him the right medicine. Since Miguel works at the vet office now, he got lots of treatments including shots and was feeling better within a week!

Tuesday when his favorite girl from CVE visited, he was pretty sick, but we pampered him, and at least she enjoyed it. He even joined us for a game of uno! just kidding.

Sadly, I don't have many other pictures this week. So just a quick update...

I had a cold last week as well, so I stayed home from work on Wednesday and Thursday. 

Thankfully, I was feeling much better in time for our annual Fun Day on Saturday!

Each year for Children's Day (April 30), CVE has a day of games, competitions, and prizes. Last year, we missed it, but this year we were back with a small, but exciting version.

I was in charge of organizing it this year which was new for me. 

We had four competitions, an obstacle course, a race, a water balloon toss, and a coloring competition. There was also a volleyball game, lunch, and ice-cream. 

On Saturday evening, I ran into Mani (one of the boys I used to care for) and we had him over for supper and some games. These relationships can be so complicated sometimes for me, but I was thankful for the chance to connect and thankful that he has been spending more time with people from CVE in the last week. Please continue to pray for him, Yubal and Yoani, and Jesus (the other boys I cared for). 

This week, Tadeo and his family leave for their new home in Indiana. I will miss him a lot! Please pray for them in their transition and for all of us as we adjust to their absence. 

Miguel's family plans to arrive this Saturday for two weeks. His brother is coming from California. We are very excited. This will be the first time he has seen his brother in about 8 years! Please pray for our time with his family that it can be a blessing for all of us!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and God's blessings to each of you!

cooking painting working living loving

Watercolor with my Nurture Group girls

Monday a couple weeks ago, I had to run into town to pick up some bread for a cookout. And guess who I ran into? This handsome young man. It was so good to see Mani again. He got a nice haircut since the last time I saw him. We had a nice chat while I waited for my bread order. I can't believe he's already 11 years old!

A week or so ago, the church administrators located this large machine shed/barn in downtown Magdalena. The owners were willing to lend it to us for church services in exchange for us cleaning it up. Here Cassidy, Marce, and Issa, sweep water from the power washer. It got power washed from top to bottom and Sunday we had our first service there. We are so thankful to be shielded from the hot sun and for all the space! This is still a temporary arrangement, but we are thankful for God's provision.

I've been trying to cook more balanced meals this month. Here's a photo of parmesan chicken with rice, broccoli, and sliced tomato.

And ribs with salad and a small baked potato.

It's been fun. Basically, I've been trying to have more vegetables.

The Lemans are back for three weeks before their big move. Tadeo came to the comedor this afternoon and hung out with me while I worked on cleaning the sergers. We enjoyed our juice boxes that got donated from the Midwest Food Bank! It's neat to see the new things he's picked up from the last month while he was gone to Indiana. I'm going to miss this kid, but I'm starting to get used to the idea. Thanks for all your prayers!

All the fuzz...

Thankfully, all seven sewing machines I was working on and the two sergers I cleaned today should be up and running soon. I'm only missing one screw for a presser foot on one of the machines and it should be in the mail. Then all the sewing machines will be working!

I cleaned around a number of these "broken" machines for three years and plotted how I could get rid of them. Finally I decided I had the time and I should stop being lazy and tackle the project. It's been interesting and I've definitely learned a lot about cleaning out fuzz, adjusting tension, different brands and foot pedals, screws and screwdrivers (multiple trips to the shop to try to find one that would fit!), and so much more. 

It's a good reminder to me to not shy away from new and seemingly difficult tasks! 

Miguel and I would appreciate prayers for a trip that his mom and siblings (including Pedro from California) hope to make to visit us over Mother's Day. 

It's been a bit since I added a poem, so let's end this post with this little poem about contentment and satisfaction. I wrote this in 2011. I was 16 and I had no idea what God would lead me toward! I pray that even now that I've found "my place in life," that I would continue with the same patience and contentment in the daily tasks. I still don't know what may be ahead!

Satisfied with Jesus Way

Content to grow and learn in Thee

Content to watch and wait

Content to do the daily tasks 

For God is never late

Content to pray and read God’s word

To encourage those I meet

To sing and praise God’s wondrous works

To look to heaven’s gate

Content to seek a home above 

Content to please the Lord

Satisfied with Jesus way

And all He leads me toward.