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