Friday, July 31,2009 (Day 21):

I cannot believe I have been in Peru for 3 weeks already! The past couple of weeks have flown by!!

We started off the day a little rough. A couple of team members were down due to illness. Kelli got sick yesterday while we were at the home and Robyn got sick during the night. We sat around and waited for the doctor to come this morning, but Allie, Emily, Meredith and I left around 11 to head to the home and finish cleaning the rooms we painted yesterday. Julie joined us after the doctor stopped by. When we got to the home, we went into the auditorium and started watching the girls dance. Come to find out, the dances were a surprise for us. So we left and started cleaning the floors. We accidentally dropped paint on the floor and baseboards, so we had to try to scrub it off. Fortunately, we were able to get most of the paint up. We then started moving the furniture back into the rooms. While we were cleaning, Juanita came and found me and wanted me to watch Isabella for her. Of course I gladly accepted! I took Isabella outside and we played with some of the other kids. This one boy, Jesus was picking up crayons and telling me the colors in Spanish. He was so precious! The twins were in their typical playful mode. Their mother Yolanda has had a rough life, but she is a very strong woman for it. Allie was asking her today if she wanted anymore children and she firmly said, "NO." With her two boys, I wouldn't want anymore either. They are cute, but definitely a handful! Yolanda and her boys have the same father. She has been living at the home since she was 13. She is now 18. With the new changes, she is going to be let out onto the street and that really worries her. Julie got a chance to talk with her and she asked Julie, "I know God has a plan and it is good, but why am I in this situation?" Julie told her she doesn't know, but knows God has a good plan and that Yolanda needs to pray about it. Sure enough, Yolanda told Julie that she talked to God and that she has a peace about everything now. Now, our prayer for her is for comfort in facing the streets and that a family from the States will be able to get Yolanda and her boys to America. This family came down with a church group and fell in love with Yolanda and her boys. They really wanted to adopt her, but found out that they can't because she is over 16. Now the family is looking into getting Yolanda over on a student visa. Hopefully everything will work out for her. She is a really sweet and mature girl.

After lunch, we hung out with the girls for a bit. One of the girls made a comment about how I am quiet and delicate. I know I'm quiet, but I've never been told that I'm delicate. I told her my Spanish is not very good, so that makes me even more quiet. Then she said that all the other girls didn't speak very good Spanish, but they still talked. Ouch...I felt bad for not really forming strong bonds with the girls, but I was always on baby duty. I was never really with the girls. Even though I was feeling bad at that moment, the afternoon got much better. We decided to show the girls "Cheaper by the Dozen." We thought the movie had a decent message and would provide some good laughs for the girls. Before we started watching the movie, a few of the girls were asking me questions and I could actually understand them! I was chatting with a few and they were asking me how to say a bunch of words in English. It was so fun listening to them trying to talk in English. They loved learning the words. Once we started the movie, it was so cool listening to the girls laugh. They would ask us if we wanted 12 kids to which we all replied, "NO!" As the movie went on, Isabella was getting squirmy and Juanita passed her off to Julie. Julie then passed her off to me. Earlier this week, Robyn taught Isabella "beso." When you tell Isabella, "beso," she will give you a kiss on the cheek. Julie was taking pictures and Isabella bit my cheek instead of kissing it..haha! It didn't leave any marks or anything, it was just funny. After the movie was over, the girls performed some dances for us and then grabbed us to join them. Honestly, today was probably the most fun I have had this week. The girls loved dancing and they were so proud to show us the dances. They wanted us to know how thankful they were for us and how much they love us. Once we started saying good-bye, it was really hard. They did not want us to leave and told us they were going to miss us so much. Several girls asked me to take photos of them and then email them to them. I just wish I had gotten to know the girls a little better, but I know taking care of their kids so they could enjoy some time to themselves was also an important duty.

Tomorrow is Saturday and we get to sleep in!!! YEA!!! We are going to the market to go shopping and to a dance show tomorrow night. We'll see how this all goes!!

Muchas gracias for your prayers and support!

Te quiero,
Dawn

Thursday, July 30, 2009 (Day 20):

When we got to the home today, we were greeted by some of the girls with their babies. The nursery workers were back from their holiday break, so it was nice to have them around. We thought we were going to be able to hang out with just the girls, but Isabella's mom came up and asked if I'd watch her for the day. That made me feel so special. Isabella is definitely my little buddy. I just love playing and hanging out with her. We also call her "Pelo" because of all of her hair. It's wild and crazy, but she is oh so cute!!! Isabella even fell asleep while I was holding her today. A few of us hung out with all of the babies while Julie told the story and the girls worked on their crafts. Julie finished the story of Esther and the girls made bracelets and earrings with beads. I wasn't really in the craft room at all today, but when I did walk in there briefly, I could tell the girls were really enjoying their activity. I can tell the moms love the fact that we watch their babies for them and give them a break. Just like when Juanita, Isabella's mom, walked up and immediately wanted us to take her. I know Juanita loves her child, but she is also 13 and wants to still be a little girl. I still can't fathom what these girls are going through. Each day when they look at their child, it is a reminder of what horrific event happened to them. It breaks my heart knowing that all these babies came from their mothers being raped. It finally ocurred to me why some of the mothers don't want to have anything to do with their kids. One, they are young teens and want to enjoy life like normal young teens and two, they are constantly reminded of an event that they would really like to forget. Don't get me wrong, some of the mothers are great mothers and really take care and love on their kids like most mothers do. To show the immaturity of some, I'll share an example from the other day. One of the little girls, Sandy, fell off her mother's bed that morning and bumped her head. The nurse at the home told her mom, Mary Cruz, to make sure Sandy did not sleep for two hours. Meredith was holding little Sandy during Mass and all of a sudden, Sandy went to sleep. Meredith started moving her around in an attempt to wake her up. She then got up and ran outside in a panic. Sandy's mom just sat there and started giggling. Later, when she realized that Meredith was really worried, she became worried. Today, Mary Cruz left her friend Flora to watch Sandy. Mary Cruz claims to have swine flu. Sadly, she really doesn't want to have anything to do with Sandy.

After lunch, we began painting their rooms. We painted two walls purple in each room and two walls pink. The rooms looked so much better and the girls loved them! They were so excited. Even the twin boys said, "muy bonita!" We sure did make a mess though! I got paint all over my hands and clothes! Tomorrow we are going to look for some curtains to hang in their rooms. Kelli saw a curtain shop just down the street from the home. The girls really want to hang out and watch a movie, so we are going to watch "Cheaper by the Dozen" and eat popcorn tomorrow afternoon!

Julie told us that after the girls gave their testimonies and she told the story, she began sharing the Gospel with them. She said four of them raised their hands saying they wanted to have a relationship with Christ!

I'm heading back to the States in a week!! I cannot thank you enough for your prayers and support!

Blessings,
Dawn

P.S. Andrea, the girl I talked about the other day, has had a huge smile on her face the past two days!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 (Day 19):

We started off today posing as workers from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The new director at the home asked us if we would paint some of the bedrooms. We cleared out all of the furniture and started cleaning up the rooms a bit. Then we used sandpaper to scrape the glossy surface off the walls and taped off the baseboards. The sandpaper gave us quite an arm workout and caused quite a mess. Our group of 8 split up into two different rooms, so we got a lot knocked out during the morning. While we were eating lunch, our driver, Henry, painted the ceiling and primed one of the rooms. He worked so hard! We all discussed how cool it would be if Extreme Makeover actually came in and redid their rooms. We would like to get them some curtains, paintings, lamps, and fun girlie things for their rooms.

After lunch, we did our program with the girls. I helped watch the babies all afternoon. The girls went and listened to a continuation of Esther and made mosaics for their craft. I got to spend most of the afternoon with my little friend Isabella. She is a handful, but so much fun. I didn't know she was attached to me until Julie came over and picked her up and she immediately turned around and reached for me. At one point while all the girls were listening to the story, most of the babies were crying. Wow..craziness! Three of us were trying our hardest to calm them all down. I enjoy watching and playing with the babies, but I wish they had more toys to play with. There are very few things for them to play with and the mobile babies get into everything. They also put everything in their mouth. It would be nice for them to have some teething rings and blocks to play with instead of rocks.

Today was a good day, just very exhausting. Tomorrow we will paint the rooms pink and purple!

Thank you all for your prayers and support!!

God Bless!
Dawn

28 de Julio

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 (Day 18):

Today was the Peruvian Independence Day! They were supposed to have a big parade, but it was canceled. I'll give you three guesses as to why it was canceled, and the first two don't count. If you guessed swine flu, you are correct! They are really paranoid about this swine flu business. I think they are making this out to be way worse than it really is. Anyhow, today we headed back to the girls home. They had asked us to come join them for a special Mass celebrating Independence Day. All the girls came in with their babies. A few of them took communion, but not all of them. After Mass, we divided up. We originally thought that the girls from the other home were going to be there, but they were not. A few of us took the girls to sing songs while the rest of us took care of their babies. I chose to stay and help with the babies. One of the moms had asked me to feed her son, but he didn't want to have anything to do with the food. We all passed children around trying to feed them and keep them happy. After that, Allie and I went to give our testimonies real quick, but came back to help with the babies quickly afterwords. Julie told the story of Esther to the girls and apparently they loved the story and were upset that Julie hadn't finished the story. After the girls listened to the story, they came in to decorate little foam frames that they wrote their Bible verses on. I took care Karmin's daughter the entire time. Her daughters name is Dulce Maria, or Sweet Maria. She was the cutest, most content baby! While the girls were working on their craft, Karmin would pass little animal crackers to Dulce and she would just munch on them. Then Dulce was introduced to bubbles and she absolutely loved those. Her face would light up and she would try to chase the bubbles. I felt bad that I wasn't really talking with the girls, but I also know that the girls appreciated us taking care of their children so they could work on crafts and such. Karmin did thank me after she was finished with her craft and it was time for lunch.

After an extra long lunch, we had originally planned to paint the girls rooms, but seeing that we didn't have paint yet, our plans changed. We were then going to play games with them, but when we went to find them, all the girls were packing up their stuff in their rooms. Apparently they were moving to new rooms. We then started helping them pack up their clothes and move it all to their new rooms. I ended up watching some of the kids for them. As moms packed, I played with babies! I played with this one little girl forever. She was precious! She has so much hair and she is just about to start walking. I had to constantly watch her to make sure she wasn't eating rocks or dirt, but I still had so much fun playing with her. I know the moms appreciated us watching their kids for them while they moved because they didn't want us to leave at the end of the day.

Julie and Kelli told us the best story once we got back in the van. One of the girls, Andrea, has a 1 month old little girl and is having a hard time loving her/accepting her. Julie and Kelli have been trying to get through to her the past couple of days. They were both at the hospital when she gave birth, so they have a stronger connection with her. Julie and Kelli had noticed her not treating her baby as she should, so they wanted to talk to her about that. Kelli wanted to tell her the dangers of shaking baby syndrome. When they sat down to talk to her, she really began to open up about everything and she didn't realize the harm she could do to her child by shaking her. All she knew is that she gets frustrated with her baby and didn't know how to handle it. As the conversation went on, Andrea told Julie and Kelli that she wanted to accept Christ. She had a lot of anger built up and she realized the only way she could be free was to have a relationship with Christ. The anger she has stems from her childhood. When she was born, her biological parents did not want her and her adopted parents passed away when she was 6 or 7. She was then passed from home to home and basically was left to fend for herself on the streets. She became a maid at a well off family's home in Lima and the brother of the owner began raping her. She wanted desperately to get out of there, but the owner would always lock her up in the house. One day, the owner left a lock open and Andrea escaped. She was found on the street by a lady who became her Godmother. Her Godmother ended up bringing her to the home. This poor girl has already gone through more in her young 15 years of life than I could ever imagine. Once Andrea, Kelli and Julie walked out of the room they were in, I could tell there was a difference in Andrea. At this point, I didn't know the story and that she had accepted Christ. Andrea had this huge smile on her face and she wasn't as cold or hardened as she had been. She ran up to her baby and gave her a kiss on the forehead. I'm anxious to see how she acts tomorrow. I could tell the difference in her and I could see how the Lord completely changed her.

It's amazing watching these girls. Some of them are simply not fit to be mothers. Others are completely mature about it and know how to be a mother. Jackeline is one of the girls that is not fit to be a mother. She was barely hanging on to her 4 month old son. He also had a fever and she had him out in the cold like it was no big deal. At one point she was carrying him around on her shoulder like he was a baby doll and she would just leave him laying around. She is the girl that wanted to play with Play-Doh yesterday and was playing with the 4 year old twins in the Playskool houses. I know she is definitely not mature enough to be caring for a child and I'm fearful for the day when she is let out on the streets by herself with the precious little boy. Luckily the new director was somewhat getting onto her about how she was treating her son. Hopefully the girl will learn how to properly care for a child.

Please pray for these girls!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! It is greatly appreciated!!!

God Bless!
Dawn

P.S. It is amazing how creative the little kids get. They don't have blocks to play with, so they were stacking little plastic chairs and they made a little school bus by lining up all the chairs in a row. It was too cute to watch!

Week Numero Tres

Monday, July 27, 2009 (Day 17):

Happy Monday!

Today seems to be the day that the exhaustion of the trip caught up with us. Everyone, including myself, were talking about how tired we were today. We persevered though and loved on kids!

Today we went back to the girls home that we visited a couple of weeks ago with the church that was here. It seems like forever ago that we went, but it was only two weeks. This is the home with all the teen moms. All of the girls have been sexually abused and as a result, have children. It is so sad to watch because these girls are still children themselves. They do not know how to fully care for a child. It was very interesting watching the girls carry around their children. Some would barely hang on to their 4 month old babies. I can tell some of them definitely want to still be a child and not have to take care of a child.

As has been the case the whole time in Peru, we had to be flexible again today. When we got to the home, we noticed all the girls had their kids dressed up in red and white and their strollers were decorated. Come to find out, they were getting ready for a little Independence Day parade. Tomorrow is the actual Peruvian Independence Day from Spain. Another girls home from down the street came down to watch the parade and show the girls put on. This other girls home is actually about to combine with the one we are going to this week. Both homes have new directors and they are wanting to combine forces. Hopefully, this will be a good move for all of the girls. Kelli told us the other home was run down and used to have a terrible director. It's our prayer that the girls have an easy transition with new leadership and new roommates.

The celebration started off with the singing of the National Anthem of Peru. It was so cool to hear all the girls singing their national song so loudly. I wish Americans would sing the Star-Spangled Banner as loud as these girls sang their song. Then one of the directors read off the facts about Peru's independence. Of course it was all in Spanish, so I had no clue what was being said. Then the parade started. The little twin boys and a girl were the leaders of the parade. They were just about the cutest things I have ever seen. Then all the moms pushed their little ones in strollers. After the parade, the girls dressed up and performed some traditional Peruvian dances. Everyone then started dancing...what's a fiesta without dancing?!?

While we were hanging out, talking with the girls, one girl asked Robyn how many children she had. She said, zero. The girl looked at her and said, no, one, two, three... Robyn still confused asked someone to translate. Sure enough, the girl was asking Robyn how many children she had. I think the girl assumed that everyone young woman around our age has at least one child. The girl was shocked that we didn't have children.

After lunch, we had a question/answer session with the girls. Of course, the all asked if we had boyfriends and asked why we didn't. Then we played the pass the ball 10 times game and soccer. The girls loved getting to play the games. Some of the interns watched their children so they could come play. Right before we left, this one girl, Jackline starting clinging to me. She is 12 and has a 4 month old baby. I think her mentality is probably around 6. She tried to feed her son an orange earlier in the day. She also wanted to play with Play-Doh with me. She is the main one that I can tell is not mature enough to have a child. It's so sad because I know she wants to play like a normal 12 year old. She doesn't want the responsibility of having a child. But some horrible person abused her and got her pregnant. I'm hoping I can form a relationship with her over this week.

I was actually surprised that the girls were willing to latch onto us. I figured they have more of focus on their children and not forming relationships with us. Hopefully through the teaching of Esther, these girls will realize that they are beautiful and that God loves them more than anything else in this world.

Please keep these girls in your prayers. They have been through so much already in their young lives. Pray for them and their babies. Also, be in prayer for the transition of the new director and that the girls from both homes will mesh.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! You all are amazing!!

God Bless!
Dawn

Day of rest

Sunday, July 26, 2009 (Day 16):

Today was definitely a Sunday and definitely a day of rest! We slept in today and it felt absolutely wonderful!! After we all got up and ate some breakfast, we decided to explore the Miraflores district of Lima. Miraflores is where our hotel is located. We walked to a grocery store located by the Buckner office and we bought fixings for our lunch. Instead of going to a restaurant, we really wanted something lighter and thought a little picnic in the park sounded fun! After we got our lunch fixings, we stopped off at some benches and ate our lunch. Then we walked to another store, Wong, that Meredith has been anxious to go in. The Wong reminded me of a Super Wal-mart in the States. It was really crowded causing me to want to get out of there as fast as I could. As we were exploring the store, by the meat counter, there were little shopping cart parking spots. Found this interesting and funny. After our little exploration, we decided to go paragliding. It is basically para sailing without the boat and you are strapped to someone. We put the harnesses on and basically ran off a cliff. My heart didn't nervously sink like I thought it would. It was so cool though because I got to see the city. We flew around over the Pacific and the mall that we always go to for dinner. It was interesting looking on top of all the buildings along the coast. Quite a few of the buildings have swimming pools on top. I really wish I would have brought my camera to take a picture of the view. Meredith was the only one that did not go, so I left it with her to take pictures. Once we finished, we headed back to the hotel and ordered pizza for dinner.

After dinner, we had church at the hotel! We listened to a podcast on iTunes. The preacher preached a sermon on Matthew 9 and 10. He talked about compassion and sharing the Gospel with the 4.5 billion people that are not Christians. He told us that we should not be afraid to go out into the world to spread the Good News. Some of the girls were convicted on how they had treated one of the girls at the home last week. This girl has ring worm on her nose and neck and some of the girls did not want to hug her anymore, so they would shy away. They all talked about how that sermon made them think, in the whole scheme of things, if we get ring worm, we get ring worm. The important thing is that we loved on these girls and shared the love of Christ. In a couple of weeks we are going to a home with kids that have lice. I'll be honest, I'm a little leary of that, but I pray that I won't let that get in the way of me loving on these kids. I'm going to have to remind myself that God loves them no matter what. Jesus wasn't afraid to touch the lepers, so I should not be afraid to love on kids with ring worm and lice.

We are having a great time here in Peru! It's hard to believe that I only have 11 days left before I head back to the States! I'll be honest, I'm anxious to step foot back onto American soil! We drove by the US Embassy the other day and all started singing "God Bless America" at the top of our lungs. Julie just started laughing at us.

Side note: Our driver, Henry, is nice enough to turn the radio to English speaking stations for us, however, the song choice is quite interesting. It is a very eclectic group of songs that are played during our drives. Ranging from Kenny G to Taylor Swift. There is one song we hear all the time with the chorus saying, "are we human or are we dancers." None of us had ever heard the song before, but we hear it all the time down here. Now we just start laughing when we hear it.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Con amor,
Dawn

God Provides

Saturday, July 25, 2009 (Day 15):

Today was our last day at the girls home. I went into it bracing myself to be crying by the end of the morning, but that did not happen. It was a little different when we walked in this morning. Everyone was preparing for Mama Rita's birthday party. They were putting up balloons and practicing their traditional dances. Marisol attacked me when I walked in and drug me over to a bench to sit with her and another girl Norma. Marisol kept hugging me and kissing my cheek and telling me my hair is "muy bonita." Thanks Marisol, I'm glad you think my hair is pretty. The other girl, Norma, has a physical handicap and rarely comes out of her room. She asked me a few questions that I could actually tell what she was asking. I used my broken Spanish to respond and ask her questions. She then told me, "Tengo siesta." I told her she could lay on my lap and nap if she wanted. She leaned on my shoulder and took a little siesta. Kelli told me that Norma had fallen into a hole in the street and wasn't found for several days. I don't even want to imagine what that precious girl has gone through. She was very sweet though! As I sat there with Norma resting on my shoulder, I watched the girls practicing their dances. I'm really thankful that I got to watch them practice because we didn't get to stay for the fiesta. The girls had to go to Mass in the little chapel at 11:30, so we left. Since the girls were all being shuffled into the chapel, it made it easier for us to say good-bye. They couldn't clutch onto us like normal. This helped prevent the tears. We said our good-byes and headed to our next adventure for the day. We were going to surprise a young mother of five with supplies for her new house.

We took her mattresses and some kitchen supplies. This women basically lives in a box of wood. Her church donated the house and it sits on dirt. She will have to leave in December, but at least she has a place to get on her feet for right now. A refrigerator is going to be delivered later this week. The woman doesn't have any electricity or running water, but the little restaurant down the street from her has graciously agreed to provide her with electricity. She was really overwhelmed with our gifts and said she was embarrassed that she didn't have anything to give to us. We told her that God had provided everything and it is all a gift for her.

Tonight we went to a really fancy restaurant here in Lima. The food was amazing!!! It had an all you can eat buffet! I had two plates of salad. It was great getting to eat some fresh greens! The restaurant had a pasta bar, Chinese bar, meat and a fondue chocolate fountain with fresh fruits! We definitely chowed down!! I didn't even feel like we were in Peru at this restaurant. It felt more like we were in Vegas or LA at some hot spot. The restaurant didn't open until 8, so we had to wait a bit. Well worth the wait! It was kind of weird though because people didn't really show up until about 9:30 to eat dinner. Our drive home in the cab was a little scary seeing that our cab driver didn't really like to stop for traffic. He just kept driving on through. We made a mental note of his number and decided he would not be our driver anymore!

Side note: The area where the girls home is located has a bunch of roof dogs. Even the girls have a roof dog and it's name is Lassie. When I heard the girls calling it's name, I just about cracked up. The dog lives on the roof, but appears to be very happy!

Also,we saw the sun two times this week!! It was probably for a total of 30 minutes. Sounds weird, but the sun never comes out here. It's always foggy, cloudy and smoggy. We get really excited when the sun peeks through the clouds!

One more thought, our theme for this week has been Provider and how God is our Provider. I think it is really cool how the Lord allowed us to provide food for these precious girls earlier this week and how God provided the home furnishings and home for the woman and children we saw today. It's amazing how the Lord mysteriously works like that! He has been blessing this trip tremendously and I pray the girls we loved on this week realize how much God loves them.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! It is very much appreciated!

Dawn

FIESTA!!

Friday, July 24, 2009 (Day 14):

I always love Fridays! My mom hid some cards in my suitcase and I found them on the first night. Each envelope has a different date at the top for when I am to open a card and read it. Each card has a Friday date, so I look forward to Fridays when I get to read a card!

Today was such a fun day!!! When we got to the home, we noticed all the little girls were not out. We only had the older ones greet us. Once inside the courtyard, we noticed the door to the little girls room was closed. We decided that we were going to wake them. It ends up that they were awake, they just had not come outside yet. Another odd thing we had noticed when we got there were the extra adults wandering around. Come to find out, the home was hosting a retreat in their little chapel. Sadly, some of the older girls have been booted from their beds for these people on the retreat. After hanging out for a while, some playing volleyball, me teaching little girls how to knit, we decided to try to play a game that wouldn't disturb the retreat. We went inside one of the little classrooms and started playing "Heads up, Seven up." It was a little difficult trying to translate the game, but we made do. The older girls understood, but the younger ones didn't quite understand that you only push one thumb down. We still enjoyed our time playing the game. After that, Julie finished the story of David and then the girls made little castles for their craft. While Julie was telling the story, she would ask questions to make sure they remembered the first part of the story. They certainly did. Julie went round taking pictures of the girls castles, which I have included for your enjoyment. These castles were amazing. Julie and Allie decided to have a competition on who had a better castle. They were adding trees, cars, kings, fences, etc. I think they were having a little too much fun with the craft :)

A lady here in Peru is gracious enough to make us sack lunches everyday. Most days are ok, however, today's meal was not so great. She made these two sandwiches that we were really unsure of and we got papaya as one of our fruits. I realized that I didn't like papaya last week in Cusco. I got it one morning for breakfast thinking it was cantelope. Not so much. None of us really wanted our sandwiches or papaya, so we convinced a few of the girls to come sit with us. We gave them our leftovers, but told them it was a secret. This one little girl scarfed the food down. She probably ate her body weight. It was so sad to see. We were so happy to feed them, but also sad to see how hungry they are. Once we finished with our lunch, the girls had not eaten their lunch yet. The people there for the retreat were being fed first. This kind of irritated a few of us. Plus, we noticed how much food the people on the retreat were being served. We were all about to throw a fit if all the food we had just bought was being used to serve the retreat people. However, we did find out that the people on the retreat paid for the food, so everything we bought for the girls was still going to the girls. That made us feel much better.

After lunch time, we did our program with the older girls. I actually jumped on the trampoline with the little ones. Meredith and I were keeping them entertained. They decided to play, "Pero, Pero, Gato." As we were playing, they would throw in the Spanish word for bunny. Meredith and I just went along with everything and laughed. After a while, they gave up and wanted to jump, so we did! While the older girls were working on their crafts, I noticed one of the girls had "I love God with all of my heart and my friends from Texas." I about fell out of my seat. I thought that was the coolest thing. She had one of the girls write what she was saying in English, so she could put that on her castle. I have included a picture of that one too! As the older girls were working on their crafts, we surprised them with our little party. We started handing out coke, cookies, cheetos and candy. The younger ones were still eating lunch. Once they found out about the goodies, they made sure they got some too! The girls were very excited about their treats.

After we sugared the girls up, we played games with them. I played volleyball with one of them for a while, and then one of the girls from Spain came up with an idea to play this game where there are two teams and you try to pass the ball to your team members 10 times without the other team getting the ball. We played that game for a long time and it was so much fun. You could tell the girls loved it. We liked it too. Gave us a little exercise! After that we played partner tag for a while. We ended up staying 45 minutes later than we planned, but it was totally worth it! Once we got in the van to head back to the hotel, it wasn't long before everyone was asleep! Our drive is about an hour each way and every morning and evening, we all fall asleep.

It has been a great week at the home! Tomorrow is a big celebration for Mama Rita's birthday. Apparently we will be seeing some dances. I can't wait!

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

God Bless,
Dawn

Halfway Point

Thursday, July 23, 2009 (Day 13):

Today was the halfway mark for my journey. It's hard to believe that I left Midland two weeks ago and I will be back in Midland two weeks from tomorrow. My flight will actually leave two weeks from tonight. Seems strange to only have 14 days left. This week has certainly flown by!!

When we arrived at the home today, the girls were excited to see us. They all greeted us with open arms and little kisses on the cheek. Then they went straight to their knitting. Quite a few of the girls have been walking around this week with yarn and knitting sticks. Some of the older ones actually know how to knit, but the younger ones do not. I'm not sure if the girls that are volunteers from Spain gave them the supplies, or if they have just had them. They do love their knitting though. We convinced a few of them to come play volleyball with us for a while. Then Kelli and Julie were trying to get all the girls together to sing and dance for a while. I asked my little buddy, Shulay, "Te quieres bailes?" She gave me the funniest look and said, "Te quieres bailar?" Oops, I didn't properly conjugate my verbs. I was trying to ask her if she wanted to go dance. While the girls were doing the "Cha cha slide," Meredith and I got the supplies ready for the crafts. We had the girls paint pictures and little Ruthie was the biggest help! She made sure every seat had a little glass of water to dip paint brushes in, there was a chair at every seat, and paintbrushes for everyone. Once Julie told the story of David and Bathsheba, the girls came out and started painting their pictures. After a while, Robyn went around and made a black mark through their pretty pictures. The idea is that tomorrow, the girls are going to make something beautiful from that black mark on their pages. We're trying to illustrate how Jesus makes something beautiful out of our mistakes. Most of the girls were very confused by this and some even got really upset. One little girl cried for the longest time. Robyn felt terrible and once the girl realized the reason for the mark, she was better.

We had extra help in the translating area today. Eric works for Buckner in Peru and we spotted him on the street this morning and asked him to come with us. The girls love Eric. They remembered him from last month and they mobbed him. He headed up the volleyball game and helped the girls untangle their yarn for most of the day.

Just before lunch, Sulay wanted me to help her with her knitting. I have knitted scarves before, but it has been a while. From watching some of the girls, I could remember how to knit, but couldn't figure out how to start it off. I did figure it out and worked on Shulay's knitting for a while. I then showed her how to do it. Once the girls realized I knew how to knit, I became the knitter after lunch. While the rest of the team was doing the lesson with the older girls, I was teaching the younger ones how to knit. I also became the string holder for the girls to make friendship bracelets again. Shulay made me another bracelet. It's only half finished, but she tied it on my wrist. Shulay also gave me the picture frame with her picture on it that she made the other day. She is a really sweet girl, but she can get a little attitude! A few of them get really fussy when things are not going the way they want them to, or they are forced to stop doing something they want to continue doing. Even though they can be grouchy at times, they are still so much fun to play with. I was even attempting to teach some of the girls English words and they were catching on!

We were going to throw a little surprise party for the girls today, but found out one of the volunteers birthday was today and they were throwing a party tonight. So, we are throwing the little party tomorrow. We got them soda, cookies and crackers. I can't wait to see their faces when we surprise them!

Thank you agian for your prayers and support!

Blessings,
Dawn

Food for the Hungry

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 (Day 12):

Hola mi amigos!

Today was a pretty good day! It seemed kind of long, but it was good. This morning started off with a team member not feeling so hot. We called in the doctor and waited for him to come and check her out. After that, we left our member at the hotel to get some rest and took off for the market. We went to this huge market that was like a huge Sam's outside. We got so much food for the girls home today. We got about 40 kg of beans, two huge bags of rice, butter, cooking oil, 160 eggs, meat and surprise snacks for the girls. There are some things at this market that no one would ever see in America. Eggs just sitting out and fresh meat just hanging out in the open. We got the chicken from this little stand. The chickens were hanging by their feet. The entire body was there, minus the feathers. It was a little disturbing for us to see. We couldn't believe people were sitting there eating lunch by this stand. I guess if that is your culture, you are used to it. We watched as the ladies cleaned out the insides and chopped the chicken into pieces. Again, we all had to turn our heads. We are all very thankful that we don't see our food like that before we eat it all the time. Surprisingly, Kelli and I did have chicken tenders at TGIFridays tonight! After we gathered all the food, we headed off to the girls home. Once we got there, Mama Rita was in such shock that we brought so much food that she was pretty much speechless. It is great knowing that we are helping these girls out not only by providing them food, but also by showing them love and God's mercy and grace.

Since we spent most of the morning at the market, we had little time to work with the girls this afternoon. Our thoughts were that we'd rather provide them food than work on crafts. However, we were able to work on crafts and tell the story. The girls were split up again, older girls and younger girls. While Julie was outside translating the instructions for the crafts, I entertained the younger ones by playing the "Como se dice?" game. I would point to something and they would tell me what its name is in Spanish. Then Julie told the story of David and Goliath. The girls loved the story. They didn't even want to sing songs, they wanted the story. Then we switched and the older girls came in. They had been working on friendship bracelets. I had to give my testimony today and once I started talking, I noticed that all the girls stopped working on their bracelets and were listening intently. One girl asked me why I believed the Lord's peace or something to that affect. I read to them, or I should say Julie read to them, Jeremiah 29:11 and Philippians 4:6-7. As Julie would read them, she would constantly ask them questions about what she just read. She would also ask them questions about what I had just said. What an awesome teacher she is! Always checking for understanding :) The girls got both verses down pat! Once we finished with the story, we went outside with the younger girls and Sulay gave me a friendship bracelet she had made! By the end of this trip, I'm going to have an arm full of friendship bracelets!

One thing I have noticed about these girls is that they love to hug on you and to give you kisses on the cheek. I guess I thought that since they have experienced some sort of abuse that they would be leary to have someone near them and hugging on them. I'm thankful they like our loving affections towards them. When we arrive, all of their faces just light up! The run up and immediately starting hugging everyone. I can tell that they really enjoy having us there. I have a feeling Saturday is going to be a rough day when we leave.

Many thanks for your prayers and support!

In Him,
Dawn