Little Update

Well finally back again....today was the first day of school!! It was obvious with my little boys that they have not had to sit still enough through the summer:(...so it will take a few days of getting back into the routine..it will be very good tho and I am happy to be started again. Of course our most important subject is spanish:)...hopefully with some regular perseverance we can make some progress with the language:) We still do need to order some books as we have the money to buy them..in the meantime we have enough to get started. I think the teacher had some challenges in dealing with the mexican children as well:(

Nicole had to go and pick up Carlos and Pablo's mama and get her to the hospital because she partially miscarriaged and needed a D&C and has no home to go home to because her and her latest friend aren't doing well so she is coming here for a few days to heal....we pray it will touch her heart.

Robert was gone all last week..he had to go to his mothers to do paperwork to get his birthcertificate..and they didn't have all the right papers last monday so he had to wait till they came back this week to finish paper work...it was quiet without him and it was so good to once more have in my arms again last evening....he is being testy after running the streets for a week but that is not surprising and should be fine in a few days of finding his limits again and some extra cuddling and loving:)

With school starting Daya went back to get her sister Aneyeli and her neice Aneyi...so that is 2 more little girls...so that is 4- 3year olds then 2- 2year olds some of the time...that seems like a lot to ask of the teacher with 6 other students so pray with me that God provides an answer. All the years I did the little kid class rise up and I long to do it again but my own keep my hands pretty full at this point:) God will provide,I'm sure!! And I just found out we are getting another 4 year old girl for going to school....Also our cripple girl Alehandra has been at Victory Orphanage since the mudslide but is now coming back home also a17 year old girl Theresa is also coming back here to live so that is quite a bit of addition..so pray with us that God gives the needed help and grace so these children can truly have a home and get their needs met not just getting fed and clothed...feeding anbd clothing them is some of the simpler things to do...truly touching their hearts and them changing from the inside out takes the work and help of God!!.....so it is a big work and it nearly doubled in the last week so please pray for us and help in the ways that God lays on your heart to do...some pray , some send letters, some make phone calls, some email, some send money,etc...Thank you for your encouragement and support!!

Sorry we have not blogged sooner....my hands are pretty full:) This is Gannah.....Let me back up a little to explain why. When we got here it was soon noticable to me that even tho 10 year old Mari had a natural attachment to her 3 year old brother Robert and did most of his care..she is definitely a 10 year old and would get very frustrated with him and slap him and shake him or such similar things....i am not meaning to put Mari in a bad light she is a very sweet 10 year old nevertheless 3 year olds need a mother,not just sisters:) so I started to ask God for Him to work it out without being offensive to Mari but I wanted Robert to be with my boys and I wanted to be a mama to him....Nicole was fine with it but I waited and prayed and tried to warm up to Robert because at first he wanted nothing to do with me. Well at the beginning of this week I realize Robert was sleeping with his big brothers instead of Mari and I rejoiced that it was a step in the right direction. The second night the boys had him Robert woke up and cried and cried and I could hear the boys frustration as they tried to quiet him and again I rejoiced that we were one step closer to my desire...so in the morning we asked them and they were telling Asher all about it so I looked at Robert and asked him if he wanted to sleep with Rafael and Michael and his eyes lit up and he says yes. At bedtime he wasnt too sure but settled easily. Mari had told me the problem at night is because he is so itchy....so I put antiitch cream on his itchy spots which ends up being most of his body and antibiotic cream on all the scratches that have turned to wounds so he was smiling by the time he settled...woke up only once begging for mari but i told him No ahora, manana.(not now,tomorrow) and put cream on and he settled again. The next day Mari assured me he would sleep with her and I did not pressure any but by bedtime she brought him to me and wanted him to sleep with the boys:) The next day she was willing for me to bathe him and get him ready for bed:) And she asked if he could please sleep with my boys muy dias(many days) and now she wondered if she could bring his clothes over too...and they are all talking about he is mi hijo(my son):) And I had the opportunity to talk to the girls and the boys about not hitting him or shaking him etc that they are the sisters,I will do the mother work and discipline him when he needs it ......so all in all we are rejoicing at Gods gift of giving that to us....And since Nicole is down for surgery we also have Pablo and Carlos with our family so the week Elena leaves we get 3 more boys so now we have 10 children in our 20x20 house!!!:)And guess what it is 5 boys and 5 girls:)...girls aren't in the majority anymore. we realize that pablo and Carlos are more temporary but we are loving it while it last:)

And the doctor looked at robert and said the rash is something because the dogs have a parasite......so we got some medication to get rid of it...we still need to figure out the dog drama..my opinion is they are more work than they are worth but I am not a dog lover ever yet alone when they disease our children but I am sure we will find an answer. Several of the children have the rash so hopefully we can have some happier children after this episode...its miserable to be itching and itching.

So I tell you all that so you understand if I write less..a mother of littles is more one on one demand than older children so we are entering the little boy world:) i sure wish I had some of the many things I gave away from baby class and of my own since we now have little boys:) They love the few books I do have!!:)

Nicole is recovering...she is with friends till next Friday. The problem with her speedy recovery is she is still managing the whole world from her phone so that is not very restful. We took all the children from the village to visit her yesterday...she gave them a little science lesson about what happened and showed them her incision and of course they could see her cathader bag...they were pretty big eyed:) It was good for them to see her.

Morning Report...

Thank you all for your prayers for Nicole. Her surgery went incredibly well. It lasted four hours with minor complications. Because her bladder and uterus were connected, she will have to have a catheter for 2 weeks in order for it to heal. So far everything is going well, please continue to pray for a swift recovery. We will post more details when we get them.

Please pray today!!

Today we need you to pray for Nicole...at 6pm she is going in for surgery. What is normally a rather minor surgery (hysterectomy) is a life threatening experience for Nicole. She has this rare blood problem called Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). Her uterus is covered with varicose veins the size of a mans finger(10mm). There are only 100 such cases recorded in medical science and makes it a 40% chance of failure....BUT then there is God so we ask you to join us in prayer for her this evening...she gets to the hospital around 4:30 and surgery is scheduled for 6. To top that off she has a rare blood type so they do not have enough blood in case of hemorraging so she has to go and give a pint of her own blood while they give her some volume plasma that will sustain her for a day so that during surgery they have her own blood to give back to her..all sounds crazy to me but I do know that God loves dealing with exaggerated situations..just more obviously His loving care through the whole thing.

If all goes well she will be in the hospital 2 or 3 nights then she is going to stay at a friends house who has electricity so she does not have to use an outhouse as long as she still has stitches:) and hopefully it will be easier for her to relax if she is not here where there is always so much going on. The women here are truly amazing so I am sure we will do fine. Nicole translated some common sentences that I need all the time for communicating so it should all be good:)