The kiddos chirstmas morning!

Rostia and her new PJ's

Sisi

Maryuri

Cindy getting her goodies out of her stocking

Jackson

Daniela on her new cell phone

Christmas morning

Monica

Katty

Doris loving her new baby

Fernando sporting his new hat
Christmas Day

Monica

Happy New Year

May this new year of 2009 be a year that is blessed and filled with provision from God!
Happy New Year!!!!!
2009

Fitto and Daniela
Christmas Day

Casa de Esperanza Newsletter

Casa de Esperanza
Making a difference
One child at a time
P.O. Box 9222
Columbus, MS 39705
cdehonduras.org
Amigos de Casa,
We at Casa de Esperanza hope you had a blessed Christmas. We did.
Thank you to each person that donated for the kids' Christmas. Karen had
a fun time shopping for them.
At this writing, all the children are well. Praise the Lord.
We have completed the bunk bed project. We wish to thank all churches
and individuals for helping with this project: The following churches or
individuals gave enough for at least one bunk bed:
Ladies class Borger Church of Christ, Borger, Texas, Central Church of
Christ, Topeka, Kansas, Belpre Church of Christ, Belpre, Ohio, Linda
Morsher. Several other individuals gave smaller donations which, when
combined, was enough for one bunk bed. We greatly appreciate every
donation for the bunk beds. The kids are enjoying have their own private
space.
A special thanks to Fairview Heights Church of Christ, Fairview Heights,
Illinois for their gift to buy bunk beds to completely furnish the new
cottage.
And speaking of the new cottage, it has been completed except for paint and
a few other minor details. After the inspections are done, we will be ready
to start taking more kids. We hope this cottage is full of rescued children
soon.
Rayner, one of the AIM students, is now working with Rosita teaching her
sign language. Rayner is working with Rosita a couple of mornings each
week. Andrea, another AIM student, is doing some arts and crafts with the
kids, also a couple of times each week.
All of the paperwork has been completed for Pamela's surgery. We hope to
have that scheduled soon.
November saw the end of school. We had three kindergarten graduates,
Daniela, Monica, and Fernando. They will be starting to first grade in
February. Everyone will be advancing to the next grade. A couple of them
just squeaked by, but they will be advancing.
Looking back on 2008, we had tragedy and triumph. We saw Yovani,
Marvin, Mario, Francisco and Antonio leave Casa de Esperanza and return
to live with their parents. We also welcomed Doris, Jackson, Sisi, and
Rosita in the Casa de Esperanza family. We opened the Casa store which
has been more successful in its first year than we ever dared to hope.
We want to thank each person that has given financially to keep Casa de
Esperanza open. Thanks to each person that helped with school uniforms,
with our Thanksgiving, and the kids Christmas, and to those that gave
monthly and yearly. We could not keep going without each and every one
of you. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Please continue to
remember us in your prayers.
Please feel free to share this newsletter with anyone you feel is interested in
Casa de Esperanza and let me know if you would like to be added to our
mailing list.
We hope you have a blessed 2009.
Terri Tindall

Katty Katty

Christmas boxes

Healing hands sent a container with Christmas boxes for all of the kiddos in the area churches here in the area of Teguc. Well the ones for Santa Ana were delivered and the kids from Casa de Esperanza went and helped hand out the boxes to those in the community! Here they are lined up before headed out to hand them out.

How good it feels to give!

christmas dinner

Rosita
The Santa Ana Church Christmas dinner

Monica

Brenda and Cindy

Maryuri and Katty

Opening Presents!

Pamela

Brayan

Fitto

Merry Christmas to all

We wish you a Merry Christmas.....................
Today was a fun filled day, a little stressful with everything going on but the kids loved it!
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
No luck right now with getting pictures up, I have been trying for over an hour and no luck! I will keep trying!

Maryuri with her hand full of good ole sticky marshmallow!

Sisi

Sisi at the campfire

Ready....

The excitement is in the air here. The kids are ready for Christmas to be here! They are all anxiously awaiting tom morning! They all keep asking when and how and how many more hours and the list of questions goes on..........
Thank you to all of you who gave to help us out this year with Christmas!
I will try to post some picture of tom, but we still continue to have problems with the internet, so we will see if I get lucky tom!

I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. May you be blessed with the time you spend this holiday season with friends and family! In the coming year I pray that abundant of blessings are poured out upon you and your family and may God always be honored!!!

Mexican Train

The older kids are always borrowing the game from me, they have found a new love for it! I am going to have to invest and get them one too! :)

Cindy

Cindy

Judge Not

A good friend sent this to me and it is something to think about:

I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade..
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.

Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.

'And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber - give me a clue.'
'Hush, child,' He said, 'they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you.'



JUDGE NOT.
Remember...Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian
any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours........

Thank you!

This year for our Casa de Esperanza Christmas cards Kippa Norsworthy donated her time and did a very cute design for us with all of the kiddos pictures! I want to thank her for doing this for us. Her work is beautifully done! Check her out......... http://www.kipscreations.com/

Thanks Kippa!

Honoring

"If your life honors the name of Jesus, He will honor you"

2Thes. 1:12

campfire

Kiddos at a campfire we had the other night roasting hotdogs with Rayner (AIM intern) helping them out

doris

~Happy Birthday Doris~

Today is Doris's b~day. I am pretty sure this girl has never celebrated her b~day. They do not even know how old she is or when she was born. We can't let those miss out just because they do not have b~days. So we make a b~day for them and celebrate!!
I walked in this morning to wake the girls up for devo and I began yelling at Doris that today was her b~day and sure enough she shot right out of bed. For those of you that know her, she is not a morning person and she is usually the last to get out of bed most mornings.
She has been so proud of herself that today is her b~day. She just feels so special!! She had received $1.00 to go spend at the casa store for her b~day. She came to the store and filled up with goodies and just giggled and laughed!
Then this evening we celebrated with cake!! She laughed and giggled and giggled some more! She loved every minute of it!!!!
I will try once again to upload photos from today but not too sure I will have much luck!

Jackson

Johny to Jackson...............

Several of you have asked who the new kid is (Jackson). Well it is Johny! He has just had a name change. He was brought here by the judicial system they told us his name was Johny Alexander Bangas Zuniga. All of the paper work the judicial system gave us says his name is Johny, but they were just going by what "Johny" h had told them. They judicial system had found him on the streets and picked him up. They have no other information to go by other than what the child told them at first until they do a further investigation.
Last month I found out from the judicial system that Johny's name is Jackson. Which that would explain why we could not find his birth certificate in the Honduras registry. They said that he was not registered and they could not find him under the name Johny. Well when we gave them his new name Jackson Onasis Jiminez they were able to find his birth certificate. He will be 7years old on the 11th of Jan.
We do not know why he lied and said his name was Johny. Maybe it was because he was never told what his real name was or he was told to lie about it his name.
So I hope to have cleared up the confusion for many of you wondering who "Jackson" is.

Love

Remember, those who deserve love least, need it the most.

judging

I read this the other day from one of my friends blogs and it stuck with me and thought that I would share and pass it along. http://lnorsworthy.blogspot.com/

One would be short-sighted as well as unrealistic if they were to assume to never incorporate someone’s past in the way they view their present. It’s humanly impossible to forget someone’s past mistakes, but just remembering isn’t judging.
When we assume one’s final chapter has already been penned and we don’t leave open the possibility for change we judge. When we judge others we remove the potential for others to allow God to work in their life.

uploading

Still trying to get pictures to upload. Not having so much luck. Stay tuned!

Nov. Update

Nov. 08

Dorian and I began the month by spending some time in Nicaragua visiting with Dorian's family. This was important to me as it had been a year and a half since I had last been there. Please pray for his mother as she raises two grandsons.
The children here at Casa wrapped up their school year and are now on break until mid February. Monica, Fernando and Daniela have graduated kindergarten and are moving on to first grade!
The rain stopped finally it has been cold here. It gets in the low 50's sometimes at night. Sounds kind of balmy until you realize that there is constant wind chill, no insulation and no heat of any kind. We here at Casa are blessed to have a sturdy home and plenty of clothing and covers; things that many here do without.
We have been so blessed this month by having many of you blessing us with funds towards expenses of Dorian's surgery. Thank you so much for all your donations, they are deeply appreciated and valued. I know times are tough and uncertain in the States but our God continues to see us through any obstacle.
Hopefully many of you received a Christmas card from Casa with pictures of all the children. This was donated by Kippa Norsworthy at kipscreations.com. Thank you Kippa!!
Each Thanksgiving, Jen and I would purchase and prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal for Casa staff and children. With Jen serving another ministry and Dorian and myself being short of funds, we thought we would have to downscale this year. But thanks to "BJ's Buddies" a small group from Belpre and Terri Tindall's mom we were able to continue the tradition. I think the staff enjoys it almost more than the children! This year we served about 45 people as we all thanked our Father for his blessings.
As we get ready for Christmas any of you wanting to send money for the kids Christmas can send that money to Casa de Esperanza PO BOX 9222 Columbus, Mississippi 39705. Be sure to make a note that it is for Christmas. Thank you to so many of you who have come together and sent money for the kids new beds for Christmas! :)
Dorian continues to feel better each week and we continue to be honored to have the privilege of serving God's people in Honduras.

~Blessings~

pursuing........

"Pursue the things over which Christ presides."

~ Col. 3:1 ~

Surgery

Today we finally got the surgery authorized for Pamela's foot. Still no date set right now but we have got the letter from the Judge giving us premission. It was not an easy task but at last we have it and we will probably get it scheduled this coming week. I will keep you updated on to when it will be. As for now keep her in your prayers as she is a little antsy to get this done!

Telton and Manos Felizes

So it looks as if we are going to get help for Monica and Doris's learning disabilities. We are in the process of getting them accepted in Telton to start there next year. It is a lot like Easter Seals.
One of the good things is that they even get to go there for free. Telton will work with each of them individually and see what areas they need work in the most and give a diganosis for each child. They also have pyschologist and doctors there for the children which is part of their education. So I am excited about this journey ahead for both of them. With the special education they will receive to meet each of their own personal needs to help them grown into a better person.
Also we are going to start Rosita back at Manos Felizes (Happy Hands). She was going to school there before she lived with us. She attented some where between 2 to 3 years there. We are going to try to get her back into school there so she can learn sign language to the fullest extent that she can. She has already learned a lot but forgets it since she does not use it daily. We know some sign lanuage here but not by any means what she needs to learn. She has started two times a week also here at the house recieving classes from one of the AIM interns. She is fluent in sign lanuage and is giving classes to Rosita.
I am thankful for these open doors for these children with special needs. I pray that these places are truly a blessing to Monica, Doris, and Rosita.

Kinder graduation

The kindergarten kiddos graduated on Friday. Monica, Fernando, and Daniela are now on to first grade.
It took a little coaxing to get the kids to go to graduation. I was headed to town with the rest of the kids to go to visitation. So they were a little upset they did not get to go see their moms or go out to eat. I reassured them this was a huge accomplishment and they should be proud! So after explaining to them all of this and that they were going to be BIG 1st graders now they were ok with going to graduation.
I have pictures that Ashley and Brenda took from the graduation. I have tired several times to get them uploaded but right now not getting the internet to cooperate with me. I will keep trying!

Brayan

Brayan getting ready to eat!

thanksgiving pic

Happy helpers....... Spent a good part of the morning with Fitto and Pamela peeling and cutting potatoes. Fitto stayed with me working until the food was cooked and ready to be served! He was washing and cleaning up after me as I made messes and running here and there for the things that I needed.

Thanksgiving meal

Daniela, Sisi, Rosita, and Cindy....................filling up their bellies
The green bean cassarole Sisi thought it was green peppers and she threw the green beans one by one under the table so she did not have to eat them. Rosita. filled her plate up two times overflowing and had sweets too!
They all loved the special day we celebrated being thankful.

Thankful

Count your blessings.................

We are blessed beyond belief! Why does it take a day like today for us to remember all that we are thankful for?

What are you thankful for today?


I want to thank all of you from BJ's Buddies (Belpre) and from Terri Tindall's family who contributed money to our thanksgiving meal which made it possible for us to celebrate today!
Many pictures were taken but bare with me as I try to get them uploaded!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

helping out

Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

Phil 2:4

my girls

Cindy and Pamela......all grown up!

thanksgiving!

Rosita, Brayan, Doris, Fitto, Sisi, and Johny....................................HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanks to Debby for providing the crafts for the kids!

Out of school

All of the kids are officially out of school as of last Thursday!

Still have lots of pictures I want to post but we continue to have slow internet and I am unable to upload photos. Stay tuned...........

Campfire

Roasting marshmallows
Jackson, Rosita, Fitto, and Fernando

troubles

Right now we face financial problems in the U.S. and we are unsure of the times to come. 

I truly believe that God is trying to get our attention. He is trying to bring our attention back to HIM and for us to stop basking in material things. Sometimes I am just not too sure what it will take for Him to get our attention back on HIM.

We are all guilty at some point or another..............

I pray that this is a time everyone drops to their knees and calls out to our GOD!

school

Things here at Casa are good. The kids are finishing up the school year. Some are already out and some will be done this week and others by the end of the month. 

Have been trying to upload pics since Sat. and have not had any luck. The internet does not seem to want to cooperate with me with all of this wind! 

GMA

Those of you who know me I am very close to my gma and love her dearly. She is the only grandparent I have left. The week she had to have surgery and it broke my heart that I could not be there to be there for her. She is 83 and in good health but had to go in for surgery on her knees. Just asking for your prayers for her thru all of that and that she comes thru without any problems. She is still in the hospital but hopefully this weekend will be transfered to a place to help give her therapy for the next 2 to 3 weeks.
So please as you read this say a prayer for my gma!
Thanks!

Johny

Oct. Update

October 2008

October has been a challenging month for us here in Honduras. Dorian is still recovering but it has been a slow process. God is continuing to heal and Dorian is getting back on his feet. We continue to struggle somewhat financially after Dorian's surgery. So far we have received $250 from our supporters but the surgery cost us approximately $3500 so please continue to take us before our Father that the finances will be okay. Thanks to those who have sent money and thanks for the prayers also. All of Honduras has has a rough month with torrential rains from tropical depressions. Lots have lost home and everything they owned. The cold has followed the rain and the winds are strong. Through this all, I am most thankful that God has provided for us here as Casa and Santa Ana. Rosita who came to us with no hearing and unable to talk had some more testing this month. It has been very difficult for the doctors to adequately test Rosita. But we finally have the results and she can not hear at all in one ear and only something as loud as a rock concert in the other ear. So we must find suitable school for her and we must learn sign language. Anyone who is wanting to contribute to the children for Christmas will need to send those contributions to : Casa de Esperanza PO Box 9222, Columbus, MS 39705 (Be sure to note on the check that it is for Christmas)
We are in process of raising funds for Thanksgiving meal here at Casa. I have always paid for the dinner for all the children and all the Casa staff but with the current state of finances, I will be unable to do so this year. I know there is at least one small group in Belpre Ohio who will be sending some money to help with this. Anyone wanting to help please feel free to email me for more information. The children have learned to play chickenfoot dominoes and are doing well in school when they have it. Pray for Honduras as it is election time here and everything is always in turmoil then, even more than normal. Continue to pray that Dorian and myself will continue to be His hands and feet in Honduras.

Blessings
Dorian & Karen Guido

- Show quoted text -

Christmas time.........

Starting to assembly the tree Brayan and Fitto

So the kids have decided that it is time to put up the Christmas tree. Since it is the end of the school year for the kids here they have already put up trees in their classrooms and for a while now have been ready to put it up here at the house. So this afternoon when we got home from church that is just what we did! Each of the kids were way excited, squeals of laughter and excitement were in the air for sure.

Coloring coordinating the branches

Pamela shaping the tree and filling in the bare spots

Rosita listening to the music from the christmas lights.........she said she could hear it?!?!

Putting on ornaments

Figuring out the lights

The finished Casa Christmas Tree

3 years!!

Three years ago today I came here to his foreign country. God made it clear to me that this is where he wanted me, and I will be here until it is clear to move on.
I can remember mine and Jen's crazy journey to get here like that! Oh the memories! Our first year was for sure tough but it has helped to grow me into the person that I am today! And look at where I am today!

Slumber Party with Rostia!

8:30pm
And the fun begins....................

9pm
Drawing/Coloring

10:30pm
Washing dishes, she wanted to mop too but I did not have a mop over here with us, and I was not about to go to the kids side. She is loud at times and I was afraid she would wake up the kids. Then we would have a big Casa de Esperanza slumper party, not too sure I could have handled that!

11pm
Here she is dressing up my prayer bear she found here in the apt. While also enjoying some pumpkin seeds we cooked!

dance party!11:45pm
I got some shut eye from 12am til 3am! Dorian stayed up with her!
After waking up at 3am she was ready to go and asking every little bit when she was going to leave to go to the Dr. So come 3:30am she wanted to brush her teeth and get ready, so I let her. Also come 3am the Dr. said she was not allowed to have any more to eat or drink. At this point I am not too sure she wanted any more to eat because her belly was full and she had the hicups!

4am
Playing one of my favorite games, bejeweled! It took her a half an hour or so just to learn to work the mouse. Still not sure after playing for an hour she figured out how what the object of the game was, but the important thing was she liked it!
These are just some of the moments captured last night at our slumber party!

So Miss Rosita had testing done today for an more accurate test on her hearing. For those of you who have been following my blogs we had been thru a big long process with testing and did not get accurate results with the other testing we had done. So it was next on to a machine they would hook up to her to read her brain,( sorry I don't know the technical name of the test). They wanted her to go to sleep so they could hook the equipment up to her and get accurate tests of reading her brain. Also in order for her to get tested accurately the Dr. said she needed to stay up all night.....yep thats right NO sleep, a slumper party for us. So we kept her here in the apt with me and Dorian. We started the night at 8pm but with no elec. due to all of the wind here. So the first hour we ate all sorts of goodies and filled our tummies and just laughed and giggled. Well then came 9 pm and she was wanting to do something so we got out paper and markers and went at it. Well about 10pm she was ready for bed! She was not wanting to keep her eyes open and was ready to lay down. Well thank you Lord the lights came on at 10pm and that gave her energy and she was up and at it. The pictures above explain the rest of the night. :) Although Dorian was kind enought to stay up with her and I did get to sleep off and on from midnight til 3am. :)
Rosita came over to the apt a little bit ago and wanted to know if she could watch TV and draw with me. I explained to her not tonight, we both our in our own beds and were going to sleep tonight. She just looked at me with a ornery little smirk. Today she has slept most of the day from the meds they gave her. Lets just hope she still sleeps tonight!

She left this morning with Marc at 5:30am(at 5am I sent her on down to Marc's, she was ready t go and I was ready to sleep. She had made it thru the night and now just hoping Marc could keep her awake in the car on the way to town. He said he had no problems with keeping her awake. Just many adventures in keeping her in line! :) The Dr. drugged her up with meds to help her go to sleep. Although with not sleeping all night I am sure she would have fallen asleep there on the table on her own. The test began and right off they could tell that her left ear had no hearing. Then it was on to the right ear, they found out she could hear at 110 decibels in her right ear. They said as an example that, that is rock concert level. So in all we found out today it is not correctible. So now it is on to game plan number two. We are going to have to get her going to a school so she can learn to sign, read, and write.
So please continue to pray as we continue to take the next step with what to do for the best of Rostia.

Pumpkin

Here is the pumpkin! A little sad looking I know but it was the best we could do.

Had a little problem cutting the teeth, it's a true WV pumpkin. Missing some teeth! Although Dorian got the glue gun and glued back in the tooth!

Carving the face

Cutting off the top!

So yesterday on our day off Dorian and I found a pumpkin at the supermarket. I have never noticed the past couple of years here that they even sell pumpkins here in Honduras. So I was quite happy when I found one. Fall is by far my favorite time of the year and I miss it. So to have a little bit of home here with me during fall made me happy. I was even more excited to carve a pumpkin with Dorian. He had never done it before! So it was fun to get to carve a pumpkin with Dorian. I had to do a little convincing but soon after Dorian was up and cleaning out the pumpkin and carving away. So here are some pictures I thought I would share of Dorian carving his first pumpkin! Wish the kids could experience this too but the pumpkins are a little too expensive for us to buy them for all of the kiddos.

SUN!!!

So the rain has seemed to settle down for the time being. Although the sun is out now and we are loving the weather especially today! There are many who are suffering the after math of all of this. They have no home, they have lost loved ones, they have lost their crops, and lost so much more. So even though the rain has stopped be praying for so many as they recover and get back on their feet.

Here they all are............

Here is the BIG happy Casa de Esperanza family!!!