New Volunteers!!!

Before Robyn and Joel left, we had the arrival of several new volunteers! Samantha (Tia Manta as Edwin would say), Page, and Angela. Samantha is our new volunteer coordinator. She is from Virginia and went to Liberty University. She is great. She does her best to fill Robyn's shoes, which are big shoes to fill! (no pun there Robyn!!) Lindsey is from Florida and is here for 2 months. She worked with Miss Aly's class and taught English to the children. She also was in charge of language therapy, which was a great help! She was great to have around! Page and Angela are friends and are from Oregon. Page was a madre assistant. She ended up leaving early and went to work on an organic farm, which is was best for all of us....except the kids. This was in God's plan even though it was a hard time for some of us. Angela was helping me, but after Page left, she became the madre assistant! She LOVES it! Then Laura came not long after Joel and Robyn left. She was part of the team that built our new playground! It was soooo good to see her again and become a part of our team! She is the other madre assistant. She has taken up sewing, which she seems to be doing all the time! The madres are always having her sew and mind the kid's clothes! Roles are starting to change though since I am leaving soon (even though I should have posted this in September ....which is when they came!!). Here are a few pictures of them serving here at the orphanage!

Here Sam is with Danni....Actually we were making pancakes, and he decided to join us!

Lindsey with some of the students in Miss Aly's class.
From left to right: Roxana, Isabel, Marita, Lindsey, Dante, Kevin, and Yuliana.

This is typical of Angela! She is always having fun with the kiddos! Here she is swinging with Jhonatan! Looks like they were both having a fun time!

The other volunteers hosted a girls night and here is Page (Pagina...) giving Yuliana a facial! They had a blast!

Here is Laura with Dante on the field trip to Simbol. I was back at home organizing the presentations I am giving in December and January. They had a great time....and AMAZING Peruvian stories!!!

Volunteer Fun!!!

We ALL (yes Lindsey came too!) went to Salaverry to eat chicken with the honey mustard we just made....from scratch! So we met up with David and his brother José and had a great time, including a game of spoons....which I was the photographer NOT playing!! HAHA!

Here we are headed down the road! Thanks to Pablo (our watchman) we got a picture will all of us in it!!
From left to right: Amy, Angela, Laura, Lindsey, and Sam (Page had left already :(..)

This was before we left. Aren't Angela and Lindsey cool??

My how Kinder has changed!

Kinder has changed in the past 10 months! I started out with 3 littles ones. Then after Erin left to go back to the US, I had 8! Gradually over the next 7 months, I went down to 5 students! Then I got 2 more little ones! It was VERY stressful for awhile, but then we got the bright idea of splitting the class back up like it was with Erin and I. Since there wasn't another person to help out with that, we decided to have some go in the morning and some go in the afternoon, but that would mean less time off in between to work on the curriculum. The curriculum is almost finished though! I have Zuleica (2), Lady (3), Saúl (5), and Edwin (6) in the morning and Ericka (3), Jhonatan (4), and Paúl (4) in the afternoon. This makes teaching SOOOOO much easier. I can actually teach them and work one-on-one with them! Here are a few pictures of how our new classes are going:

Here are all the little ones right before we split the class!
Left to right: Saúl, Zuleica, Lady, Ericka, Paúl, Edwin and Jhonatan

Edwin praying....even though he looks like he is screaming.

Jhonatan and Zuleica praying....all the kids want to lead prayer in the morning, especially Jhonatan and Paúl.

Paúl praying....

We work on fine motor skills with jewelry and the LOVE it! Here is Jhonatan with his creation!

Saúl making houses out of letter blocks!

Zuleica after she made a square out of play-dough! Look at that smile!!!

Ericka was laughing so hard at her face! She wanted to have the same color as her sweatshirt...aka in Perú...chompa!

Lady after she made her "face" out of play-dough! How cute she is!

Paul showed me his "P" and I didn't even ask him to write that! We were working on the letter "E"!!! I will miss him!

Edwin started to write his name!

Saúl says, "LOOK! 2 triangles, Tia Amy!" Of course in Spanish, but isn't he clever!!

Our Anabel.....

The day Anabel arrived to Hogar de Esperanza

The day Anabel showed any interest in me! I was SOOO excited I had tears in my eyes!

Anabel's Story

What a beautiful little girl! Anabel came to us while I was sick a few weeks back. She is 5 years old. She had a rough childhood including physical abuse, like most of the children that are here. She also had a fear of school. It really broke my heart for a week or so. Every time she would see me she would scream and throw herself in a rage. We didn't know what it was at first, but found out it was a fear of school. While I was in Lima voting, she decided she wanted to go to school with Miss Aly, and has been there since! She LOVES going to class now, which is awesome! I came back and on that following Wednesday she came and sat on my lap with a huge smile on my face. I was so happy. She wanted me to take pictures of us, so I did. This is the amazing transformation God has done in this little girl! Please pray for her as she is continuing to heal from her past. Here are some pictures of her and the ones she wanted of us:

She is a happy girl now!

She wanted these pictures....and now she is always hanging all over us! We LOVE that!!

Isn't she "wonderfully made"? She is definitely another one of God's beautiful creations!

The arrival of 7 kids in less than a week!!! WOW!

What a challenge, but more of a blessing to receive 7 new little ones in less than a week! We had a sibling group of 3 come, then a sibling group of 2 and another sibling group of 2!! Our first group of 3 are Roxana, Lariza, and Dante! They are a fun group of kids. I was a madre of the girls' house not long after they arrived and got to spend quite a bit of time with them. They weren't all smiles at first, but they are now! Every time Dante sees me, he runs and gives me the biggest hug with the biggest smile on his face! The 2nd set of siblings that came are Heydi and Isabel. They are always laughing now. Heidy ALWAYS is wanting you to tickle her! Their favorite thing to do is ride bikes! They both learned to ride here with the help of the others kids! The last set of siblings are Saúl (5) and Lady (3)! They are both in my Kinder class. They were both severely beaten, especially Saúl. After spending day after day with them, they have learned to trust me and know that I will never hurt them. They know that I love them also! I just had this talk with Saúl yesterday. He is a great and SMART boy. He only has a bit more to learn and he will be able to enter 1st grade! That really excites me! Lady is always smiling now! It was hard at first with her in class with being obedient, but that is every new child! They love it here and LOVE coming to class. Sorry I haven't blogged like I should, but I will try to do a better job my last few weeks here. Here are a few pictures of our new blessings:

Roxana with her friend Yuliana out on a fieldtrip.

Lariza digging for crabs! At least the kids didn't come home with crabs this time!!

Dante was at the beach! This was their first time to the beach with us! It was a great time!

Isabel digging for crabs! She is really ornery....reminds me of me when I was younger! I am sure you can only imagine!

Heydi has to have the most contagious laugh ever! I wish you could hear it!

Saúl made a triangle out of play-dough! He is really smart!

Lady playing at the beach! She got so wet this day!

Trip to Ecuador with Miss Aly!

For the last time, I had to leave Perú and go into another country. I chose to go to Ecuador again. I invited Miss Aly, our on-site school teacher of The Miller School! She is great and it was a great time for us to take a vacations as the teachers here at the orphanage. She was so excited to go and was on a countdown over a week before we left. We stayed with the same people that I stayed with the last time. This time was A LOT different. There wasn't as much as a language barrier since I am pretty fluent in Spanish now.....even to the point where I have started to think in Spanish more than English at times!!! We spent time in Machala and Guayaquil. On our way to Guayaquil was one of my favorite moments! I translated my first sermon from English to Spanish. There was one word that I just didn't know how to translate. That would be "gospel" which is "evangelio"! It took the whole time to figure it out, which was really interesting! But when we came back, one of our volunteers, Lindsay, knew what it meant! We spent one whole day in Guayaquil and learned to use the bus system which was fun. I was really excited to eat Taco Bell.....then realized what American food tastes like....and at times it isn't what I think it is going to taste like! She enjoyed it though! We went and walked the strip next to the river which was GORGEOUS! IT was definitely a beautiful day to go to Guayaquil. We also climbed 444 stairs to get to this lighthouse at the top of the hill. The house structures reminds me of San Fransisco. It was a beautiful walk up! We also took LOTS of pictures! Being that have a fear of heights, I didn't walk up into the lighthouse, but she did and took pictures. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:

This was a bridge on the way to Ecuador that they were working on above a river. So instead of doing one lane at a time (like they do in the US), they put a bunch of dirt in the river and made a levy for us to drive on.!!

This lady was working with hemp, which is common here.

This is the fountain in the Plaza de Armas...well that is what we call it in Perú! It is the center of Machala, Ecuador, where we stayed! It was BEAUTIFUL!

Ok, so I knew that they have A LOT of western restaurants and what not, but come on....Cinnabon! I had a friend who worked at one of these stores in Wisconsin, and I am sure he will get a kick out of seeing this picture!! This was in a mall where I just HAD to have Taco Bell!

Amy in front of Taco Bell.....it wasn't really worth it! But Miss Aly enjoyed it!

Here is a huge waterfall....man made of course!

Not sure what this totally is, but there are several flags on it from different countries!

What a neat waterfall huh? This is my favorite picture of Miss Aly and I!!

The lighthouse where the Spaniards used to watch for the enemy coming in. We climbed 444 stairs to get there. Miss Aly climbed to the top...not me. I am sure most know that I am scared of heights!

A view from the top of the lighthouse!

The view from the stairs....and me walking down!

Pictures of Kinder...

August 2008

About time I am sure you are thinking!!! Well LOTS has happened over the past month with the kiddos! Right now they are working on writing their names and their numbers. Most of them know and recognize off their shapes and colors still which is great! We are finishing up the Ten Commandments this coming up week! It is so great to hear them say them. Their favorite is "Thou shalt not steal." I am not sure why, but they say it all the time! They also have made a book where they had to color correctly what I had previously colored. We are in the finishing process of making the book! They are SOOOOO excited to have their own book. We have just memorized Genesis 1:31 from the AWANA Cubbies handbook! They tend to really like the program so far. Starting sometime in the next week or so we will have a NEW curriculum that will last for all times! I am so happy for this. It will help so much since I don't know exactly what to teach sometimes. They still like to do puzzles and the newest things are the train and bowling! They love to bowl....Thanks, Heather, for bringing this! Here are a few pictures and I am sure I will have more soon!

Jhonatan writing "Jh".

Edwin writing "d" A LOT of times!

Ericka writing "E".....she is doing so good!

Zuleica playing in the blocks!

Jhonatan and the new train!

Paul and his legos.....not sure what he was building!

Edwin working on drawing his shapes then cutting them out!

Fiorella's Despedida......Bon Voyage with her new familiy!

August 28, 2008
Yet another child who has received a new family! What a blessing to see a child go from having no parents to care for her to two loving parents! She went to Lima first, which I didn't know about, and then came back a little disappointed. She didn't get to see her new parents or spend time with them when she went there to do paperwork or something of that sort. Her father is disabled from a military accident a long time ago, so it was hard for them to come and see her.....but they did! They came and spent almost a week here at the orphanage. They roomed and got to bond with her in apartment 6, which is another reason that Mr. Miller had them built! It was a great time of bonding for them. Being that normally we don't get much time to talk with the families, this time we did. While Fiorella and her new mother went shopping for new things, her dad would stay back and talk and tell stories....kinda reminded me of Uncle Elbert when it comes to story telling! They had a BIG party the night before they left to go and live in Lima! Here are some pictures of the party and of Fiorella and her new family!

Fiorella with her new family!

Partying in the Comedor!

The tables of treats....look at those 2 cakes! One was for Robyn's birthday from Fiorella's parents! How sweet of them!

Some of the boys with Araceli playing a game!

Joel and Yamelit playing a game!

And there isn't a party without singing!!

Fiorella with Samir! He gave her a card!