Brayan

Most of you by now I am sure have heard about Brayan and the miracle we have before us. He is blessed to be alive. He had a near fatal drowning. Although with all he went through from being under water without oxygen and to being unresponsive. God has worked a miracle. He has had no side effects that we have seen. He is back to himself. It was just two weeks ago on Friday since it had happened. It all was such an nightmare. 

The terror that raced through my heart and mind when I came to find out he had drown and they were not sure he was going to make it. It was horrible. 

 After a few days of being in the hospital we got him up and walking.

His mother was also with us the whole time we were in the hospital. I called her when we were in the ambulance on the way to hospital. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it or what lied ahead. She showed up at the hospital and stayed until he was discharged. 

His smile that all melts out hearts. He is back to himself.

Offically a teenager

Happy Birthday Cindy!!! She turned the big 13 on Tuesday.

Garden

  Ana has been doing a good job of daily watering the plants and pulling weeds. Jose is usually the one in the garden checking to see how big things have grown and how many vegetables are ready to pick. He picked our first batch of squash the other day. The ladies were all excited about the squash and the next day both houses had squash for lunch.

Brayan and Jose picking squash

happy birthday

Happy 7th Birthday Cris!!!!!!

Ears pierced

Only a handful of the girls have their ears pierced. Last week they all decided they wanted their ears pierced. So one of the staff members opened the girls ears. I told the girls they couldn't change their earrings til August 30th. Some of the girls have already switched earrings and/or lost an earring. Trying to teach them how to keep them clean. Will be lucky if a few of them still have their earrings by August 30th.
Olman decided he needed in the photo too. Although don't worry we didn't pierce his ears. :)

Sisi, Nohemy, Maryuri, and Daniela (back)

Any, Katy, and Olman  (front)

Happy Happy Birthday

Miss Maryuri turned 10 last Monday. Happy happy birthday Maryuri!!!!!

Face painting, poliaroids, and pizza

A group from WV/OH came last week and played with the kids for the afternoon. Although what they brought to share with the kids was something the kids are not use to having or seeing. 

First of all they took Polaroids of the kids. The kids had never seen anything like that before. They all wanted their picture taken with everyone they knew so they could get as many polaroids as possible. The all anxiously waved their photo waiting for it to expose. 

On top of the polaroids the kids also got their faces painted. They got to pick out their design that they wanted and then someone from the group painted it on their faces. Then to end the evening they brought homemade pizza. They had worked during the day to help make the kids homemade pizzas. The kids love pizza but even better homemade pizza for supper.

 Even the big kids wanted to paint their faces. Brayan getting his face painted.

Nohemy getting her face painted as Any waits her turn.

Snow

The kids got a little taste of what snow is like. Lanetta brought a science experiment for the kids to do. It was making instant snow. The kids absolutely loved it. They felt it, played in it, threw it, made snow men, and squished it in their hands.  Pamela absolutely loved playing in it, which sort of surprised me. They all really enjoyed their instant snow. I just wish they could all experience real snow. They would love it!!!

 Jackson's snow man

Lanetta showing the kids her fun experiment.

Sewing classes

A few months ago Donna came here for a weekend to teach the girls sewing classes. She has got all of the girls their own sewing kits. This weekend they got to use their sewing kits. 

Well she is going to try to come every few months. This last weekend she came for the second round of classes. She was wanting to buy an manual sewing machine to teach the girls. Although right across the street Mi Esperanza has their sewing classroom. So they let her use it with the girls through the weekend. Thanks Lori and Janet. Hopefully it will be a facility she can continue to use as she teaches the girls.

Ana

 The girls got to make their own headbands/ hair clips. They have worn their stuff they made I think every day. They love them. The best part if they made them.

 Guadalupe

 Rosy

The older girls got to make a pattern and sew a simple shirt. Donna teaching Daniela to sew her shirt.
Thank you Donna for coming and teaching the girls. It looks like she will be back in October to teach the girls some more.

Happy Birthday Pamela

 Pamela turned 17 last week. She is the oldest of all of the kids. She has been here at CASA now for 7 years. We have seen her grow up into a beautiful young lady.

Happy happy happy Birthday Pamela!!!!

Playground

The kids are all SUPER excited as they have a new playground. After a few weeks of teams working on our Pinterest playground it is finished. Thanks to all of you who help with the funding, the building, and painting. A team was here today and put the final coat of stain on the playground. So it should be all dry and the kids can play on it tomorrow.

Garden

The kids got a lesson last week on how to take care of a garden. There are two Harding students who are here working in Honduras for the summer and they took an afternoon to talk to the kids. They learned what a raised bed was and how they work.
A handful of the kids helped fill the bed with dirt and fertilizer. They even helped plant tomatoes, green peppers, squash, and onions. Fernando and Josue are pretty excited about getting to water the plants. Dorian is working on putting a fence up to keep the kids and dogs out.
Hopefully soon we will have some good vegetables to eat.

Summer is here

Things are busy here at CASA as we have several groups starting off the summer helping here at CASA. The rock wall little by little is being taken down and a new block wall is being put up. I am excited to see it all finished. It is a lot of hard work. So little by little a group works on a section and hopefully by the end of the summer we will have a lot done. This will be good for security. 

Also there is a group here building a nice and sturdy playground for the kids. The kids can hardly wait to play on the new playground. 

The kids love getting to see familiar faces and meeting new ones. They also love to jump in and and help out in whatever way they can.

Excited for the summer and all that it brings.

happy birthday Fernando

Fernando has been counting down the days for months now til his birthday. The day has finally arrived. The kids if they want get to spend the night with us on their birthday. He spend the night here Thursday night as there was no school on Friday. He played with Korbin, watched TV, and played games on the ipad. Then for his birthday Friday he went and ate lunch at Dilma's house. Then a group invited the kids to Pizza Hut Friday night. He was ecstatic.
Although he likes to tell everyone he is 12 or 13. We don't really know how old he is. Although after all of the paper work we had to go through and we finally got his birth cert. it states he is just turning 11. So 11 it is!
Fernado has really matured this year. After being baptized in March he has been really interested with studying the bible. He is faithful and every week comes to our house to study. He always carries along his notebook and bible. He is really wanting to learn and grow. I am proud of the young boy he is growing into.

Happy happy birthday Fernando!!!!

Visitation

Most of the parents come monthly to come visit their kids. There are two parents who are super poor, but would not miss visitation for the world. They always find a way to come and bring a little something for their kids.
Doris, Katy, Fernando, and Reina's mom is one of those parents. Reina decided last month she wanted to work all month and save her money to give to her mom at the next visitation. I thought that would be an excellent idea. The first week she wanted everyone to know that she was saving her money for her mom. As all of the other kids got paid their allowances and went and spent it on snacks. I figured when it came down to seeing everyone else buy snacks she would give in and want to buy too.  Although she only spent .50 all month of herself and the rest she saved.
All month long she saved little by little and had me put the money in safe keeping so no one would steal it from her. Friday was visitation and she had saved us $4.00. That's a lot considering she gets paid .50 a day to help take care of the babies. She was so proud of what she had saved. She understands her mom doesn't have much and she wanted to help her out. She could have done a number of other things with her $4.00, but she choose to save it for her mom. It brought tears to my eyes as she proudly handed the money to her mom on Friday.
I am proud of you Reina!

Easter Egg Hunt

First thing Sunday morning the kids wanted to know if we were going to have an Easter egg hunt in the afternoon. The kids got the eggs down out of storage. Pamela and Ana after church stuffed them full of goodies. Then Pamela and Ana went to hide them. Although four eggs we couldn't find. I guess the kids will find them in the days to come. 

Olman and Josue enjoying their treats from their eggs.

 Lupe

 Katy and Any

After the Easter egg hunt I told all of the kids I needed a picture. Getting a picture with all of them together is very hard task. All 23 of them plus Korbin!!!

All of us at CdE wishing you a late Happy Happy Easter!!!!

Sewing class

The girls are getting sewing classes. About a month ago they had a weekend long of sewing classes. Some of the girls caught on better than others. Although the girls are super excited to be learning. This is the first of many classes they girls will receive. Thank you Donna and family for investing your time and energy to show the girls. A few of the boys even jumped in on the action and sewed a few stitches. When this is all said and done hopefully they will be able to make many things.

new swim suits

 During Holy week many people take trips to the beach, swimming pools, or the river to go swimming. The kids went and spent the afternoon in a water hole about half an hour from here. The kids were super excited as they got to try their new swimsuits that were donated a few months ago.
Even though we didn't take any "big" trip I still think the kids enjoyed their afternoon at the waterhole.

happy happy birthday

Katy turned 10 today!!!! She got a package a few weeks ago in the mail for her birthday and she was so excited today to open her birthday present. Happy Happy Birthday to Katy!!!!!!

Antonio

After 6 months of therapy and getting help Antonio graduated from the program he was in and is back home with all of us at CASA. The the kids are so happy to have him back home and all of the adults too. The boys had a party planned out for him. The boys with their money bought pizza and coke. Matt bought a cake that all of the kids got to share in the celebration. The pizza and coke was the boys private little party. They had the room all decorated and were super excited to have Antonio back home with them. 

Sunday morning we attended church with Antonio. They prayed over Antonio and presented him with a certificate showing he had completed his 6 months.

We are very proud of Antonio and how far he has come. Praying that he continues to stand strong in HIM.