First Day - 2nd Grade

Somehow I managed to delete my first day photos (I didn't take many to begin with!). I had 3 left and my favorite one - gone. I'm a little disappointed about that but oh well, this one will do. Braden said his first day was "good"....which is what I had expected/hoped to hear :)

She'll be here....one day.

Today Truitt asked me "Mom, when is our sister going to be here?". I said "I don't know but I can't wait to see who God has for our family". I found this today and I'm SOOOO getting one....the symbol is Chinese for love and I LOVE this necklace, just seems appropriate :) First things first - we need a girl name!

The People

Here are some of the sweet people we met...

This is Allison and Tamy...they were two of our 6 translators. So very sweet, they are in 11th grade and volunteered their free time to be with us!
This is Maria, mom of 7 kids. Last year Hope Coffee was able to add a kitchen to her very small, two bedroom house. She was such a happy woman, always smiling when I saw her.

This was one of the 2 classrooms at the school on the mountain. It housed 87 kids, grades 1-6 in 2 bulidings with 2 teachers!! Children here are only required to go to school to 6th grade. If they can afford a uniform, supplies and can get to the one public school in town they can continue in school. That said, many of the children go to school until 6th grade and that's it. Some stay home and watch their siblings so their moms/dads can work. Others work hard themselves to support their family. This is one of the many things that has been on my mind. Poverty is cyclical and it can't be broken without hope and a knowledge that there is something beyond this poverty, which is what they've known their whole lives.

This is Oscar, having lunch just outside the school. One day as I was chatting with his cousins and sister he snuck out of school to follow us to the Pulperia (snack shop)...his mom saw him and he reluctantly returned to school. We passed him a snack through the fence :)

During the school break (10-10:45) we gave everyone tatoos. It was fun, they were all animal tatoos. The kids would pick an animal and then tell us how to say it in Espanol, it was fun!

Beautiful huh? Kids are gathering around during the break...not sure what Andrea is handing out!

We had VBS each day from 2-4. It was nothing fancy like you see here in Katy - just worship, stories, songs and games and the kids LOVED it. It was refreshing to do things simply, things don't have to be big to do BIG things, know what I mean?

This was our travel team. Mark, Michelle, Micah, Ariana and Malachi are just tot he left of us. They live there on the seminary grounds (so pretty!) and run Hope Coffee, minister with and to the local Honduran people. They're doing an awesome job and we're so pleased to be a part of it all!

The Work....

This is one of the houses that we worked on. They put a new floor and a new roof on this woman's house. As they took off the old roof they were covered in black soot....which caked the inside of the roof because she cooks inside (the smoke doesn't always go outside).

This was the old roof, just beyond the roof you can see some stuff under the tree - that is

all

she

owns.

This is a 2 rooms house, many were just a single room. You can see in the corner where she cooks with a small hole for the smoke to escape. Also her floor is completed and has had a smooth coat applied so it isn't rough on her feet.

This is Mauda's house. Single mom of 3 girls under 5...one room home. She told us she would move her kitchen outside because it is too much smoke for her new baby (3 months). They will take the old tin roof and make her a cover over her new cooking area so she is able to cook outside when it's raining.

This is Mario helping to put in the new floor in another home. Once it has dried the smooth coat will be put on. For this whole process the house has to be empty for about 1-2 days.

Candy Land

Star Wars style...

We're back!

We got back from Siguepateque yesterday evening, so happy to see my boys! My inlaws spoil us, not only did they watch the boys but they brought them back here so they would be here when we got home! AND all the boys clothes were washed and folded and we came home to some great BBQ. Thanks Oma and Grandad. Another thing...when we got back I had a voicemail from our case manager and our dossier was sent off while we were away - yay!! We are praying for a speedy referral so we can begin the next round of paperwork.

I have a little time this morning, the boys are at chucrh with Kurt. I am home with a stomach bug....better here than in Honduras! I am going to start on Monday of our trip as Sat and Sunday were "fun" days, getting to know the grounds of the seminary, going to church and having some fun doing the zip line at a park. I'll post those days at the end of the trip. On Monday we got up and ate breakfast, it was served at the seminary - we ate brekafast, lunch and dinner there. The food was great and there was always some fresh fruit which was also GREAT. That morning the guys went to the church to start the addition of a bathroom. Most of the women and children went to Isabella's house, a widow, and we painted most of the morning. The walls there soak up the paint so after one coat we began to paint again since we had time before lunch. Then Mark (our missionary friend who lives there, planned the trip for us etc) picked up Kurt, Braden and I to go back to the seminary to visit our Compassion child David. He and his mother (along with a few compassion reps) came all the way from Danli (about 3+ hours) so see us - we were thrilled! Braden and I were a mess - hands and jeans covered in paint! When we pulled up David immediately hugged us and introduced us to this mother. The interpreter was great, we all cleaned up and headed out to a local restaurant (we ate there on Sunday and knew it was close) and treated them to lunch. I'm not sure if they ever eat out, my guess is no....so that was a fun treat! They all picked desserts to go home with them. When we got back to the seminary the rest of our team was there having lunch and heading off to VBS at a local church. We stayed behind and visited a while longer. We were given some crafts from David that he worked hard on, it was very sweet. We also gave him a loaded backpack (pencils, paper, rulers, sharpeners, Uno game, lego set, an Aggie t-shirt etc) and a few other things. We gave his mom, Margarita (I was good about saying her name in Spanish as opposed to a Texan in a Mexican restaurant!) a loaded shopping bag with more necessities (towels, washclothes, cooking utensils and I did get her some nice lotion for herself). It was a wonderful visit and I am so thankful they made the trip to see us. It was amazing to finally meet him as we have known him through letters since he was 5 (now 13). Hopefully it won't be the last time we get to see him in person.
This is Isabella's house (the widow). This is considered pretty big in this area, it has 4 rooms (2 bedrooms, living area and small kitchen) and a bathroom with running water/electricity.

The guys are showing them how to sifting the sand/dirt properly. Once it's sifted they take the sand and mix it with cement and water to make mortar. They are tiling the porch outside. This is by far the nicest house we worked on the entire time we were there.

Braden and I, painting the kitchen

Braden and Hannah painting. The other little boy is David.

Isabella and her two oldest daughters were helping us paint. Isabella's husband helped to fabricate metal buildings for churches all over Honduras but he was murdered about a year and a half ago.

Kurt played soccer and basketball with David...Braden watched most of the time while I visited with Margarita and the Compassion ladies.

David Lopez - 13 years old.

All of us just before they left....such a special photo. I will be sending him a copy as well!

Honduras

We leave for Honduras tomorrow morning...I can't believe it's time to go already! We will be serving some families in need of roofs and floors. We will also be helping to run VBS, we're expecting anywhere from 40-60 children, yay! Blake and Truitt are with Oma and Grandad, I know they'll have a blast. The house is rather quiet as I type....strange. Braden has already said several times "I hope Truitt and Blake are having a fun time", so sweet - he's going to miss his brothers, especially Truitt. I will miss them too!

We went to the lake last weekend...got out the new tube

Our day together....we dropped the car off at the tire store and walked to Chucky Cheese for games and lunch. It was a nice afternoon. I had 2 pieces of pizza and the boys finished the rest!

i800 approval - check!

So we FINALLY got our government approval for our adoption. In about 2-3 weeks our papers will be off to China, yay!

Summer

Well it's hot....and the boys have been enjoying the pools. Someone in our neighborhood is getting a pool and as we drove by Braden said "Pools cost lots of dollars, huh?" I replied "Yes they do". He then said "if I dug pools I'd do yours for free Mom". Sweet boy :)


Blake in his "suit", this thing is a lifesaver...literally! Blake is fast and it's hard to keep an eye on 3 so I'm loving this outfit.

On to Second Grade

Braden had his "celebration of learning" event the last week of school. I went up to the school and watched their class read some poems and then each child got up and read a few things about their year. Sometimes Braden seems to care less if I participate (like when they had their horse race on rodeo day, I made a decked out cardboard felt horse. I asked him if he'd like me to come see him race he replied "you already saw my horse, you made it". Oooook then.) but I could tell he was glad I had come....and so was I!

Braden and Mrs.Watson