Visitation Day

Sundays are visitation days for the children in the children's home. These days can be difficult for a variety of reasons. It is a day when family members can come and visit for a few hours. They are highly monitored and supervised visits. If a child does not receive a visit, it is confirmation that they are forgotten or not important. Sometimes, even when a child receives a visit, there is tention involved as it just isn't normal for families to have to live this way.

Yesterday, a mom came to visit her 3 children. She is not allowed to take the children out of the home because she has not proven that she can protect them. In fact, these children are placed with us because of her history of neglect and abuse with them. I noticed right away when I saw her that she had scratches on her face and looked like she had been in a fight. I took a picture of her face with my phone as evidence. (Really I didn't tell her why I wanted her pic. I just said we were taking family photos that day.) She later confirmed to the kids that her boyfriend had beat her. The kids later told us.

I want all of our kids to grow up and know that men and women don't treat each other like this. I want them to know what real love is most of all. Unfortunately, they don't see it very often from the situations that bring them to live in the children's home.

Rainy Monday....

Today, was a very rainy day. Around noon, a young mom came into the children's home with her 2 young children. They came in with just the clothes on their backs and she told us they had no where to go or stay. The kids were very well behaved. They just sat there and stared. The mom went on to tell us that she had spent 8 years in a government children's home and had only finished junior high. The 2 chilkdren were by 2 different men that she had relationships with but never married. She wanted to know if she could leave her kids with us.

The reality is we are full. We have no way to help them right now. They left after we fed them a hot meal. Where they are tonight, I don't know. Nobody told us this was easy. It's not even pretty. The hard part is that it happens almost every week. These days don't drag us down though. They actually motivate us to do more.

Hope For Tomorrow in Rio 3 - Thanks Lifepoint Vineyard Church!

Lalo

                                                         Wendy

                                                          Kelly

               Home of 31 year old single mom and her 5 children ages 15 yrs. to 2 months

One of the things that we have wanted to do for some time now is offer the teenagers of Rio 3 a real "Hope for tomorrow." We have seen that for teens growing up in poverty, there is not much hope for breaking the cycle of poverty in this country. Many times these teens drop out of school and become parents themselves by the time they are 15.

This past Christmas, Lifepoint Vineyard Church from Monroe, Ohio helped give us that "Hope." They collected a year end offering of more than $9,000 that will be used to help 5 of these teenagers achieve a higher education. Thank you Lifepoint Vineyard Church! The future is going to be different for these teenagers because you cared enough to do something!

God's ways are not our ways!

This is a recent picture of Daniela. If you have been following her story in our blog you know that she woke up paralyzed one morning in late November. She has slowly but steadily been gaining strength over the last several months. I have always felt that God allowed this to happen for a purpose. I can see how God is working in Daniela's life during her recuperation.

I took this picture on a Sunday afternoon. I was walking across the campus of the children's home when someone hollered "Jim! Look!" And there was Daniela standing alone on her feet while leaning against a wall. You can see the huge smile on her face as she knows this was a big accomplishment! The part that I find especially interesting is the lady to the left in the picture. This lady is Daniela's biological mother! She left Daniela over 9 years ago as a 3 year old girl in the children's home. When this paralysis happened to Daniela, one of the first people we contacted was her biological mother. Daniela's relationship with her mom has been a strained one for several years. It is complicated by the guilt that her mom has had over the years. But her mom has come several times a week and has been a big part of the recuperating proccess.

I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but Daniela's mom has a smile as big as her daughter's! She has her hand over her mouth trying to hide it. I could tell her mom was close to crying. God has allowed this orphan girl's mother to be an eyewitness to her daughter's recovery! He has allowed the one who left her in the children's home over 9 years ago to have a front row seat as HE heals Daniela and makes her whole again! God's ways are not our ways! They are so much better! I know He has a purpose in all of this!

Why are they in a children's home?

This is the home of one of our teenage girls at Casa Hogar Douglas. Not the 2 story home on the left nor the white home on the right. Her home is the home that is covered in tarps in the middle. Before she came to the children's home, she lived in this home with her 7 siblings. 2 of them are already parents themselves. Her 15 year old sister has her newborn baby there along with her boyfriend. Their single mom is seldom there and her 3 younger siblings have missed 2 years of school due to neglect. No one is sending them to school! They are part of the 26,000 school age kids in this state that are not enrolled in school that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.

Ruth - a story of God's faithfulness!

The young lady in the center of the back row in the grey sweatshirt is Ruth. 12 years ago, she was a young girl in Casa Hogar Douglas. A year ago, she had a tumor and feared she might die. She even asked Beth if she could help her to find someone to take care of her 2 young daughters after her death. But thanks to the help of a generous donor, Ruth was able to have an operation to remove her tumor! Her joy and thankfulness for what God has done for her led her to want to serve God with her life!

This past weekend, Ruth came to become our newest caregiver at the same children's home that she grew up in! I took this picture today of some of the girls she is taking care of this week. You could make a Hallmark Film of each of these girls' lives. They all are testimonies of God's Love and Mercy! As I watched them play today, I could tell that the girls love Ruth. And Ruth is loving them.

Witnessing all of this is a true blessing!

26,000

I read a statistic the other day in the local paper. There are an estimated 26,000 kids in our state, ages 4 - 14, that are not going to school! Where are they? In the streets? Abandoned? We call them street orphans. There are more of them in the state of Nuevo Leon, the most modern state in all of Central America, than there are abandoned children in our children's homes! We're not running out of work yet!

It's mind boggling to think about but let's not get bogged down by the numbers. Like the starfish on the sea shore, let's make a difference for the ONE! Jesus didn't entrust us with the results. That is His responsibility. He just said "LOVE THEM!"

That's what we're gonna do!

First 2 Months' Updates

In addition to our new office, the first 2 months have brought alot of changes to our children's home.

1. Daniela, who ended 2012 in a wheelchair has been improving and just last week walked across the room with someone helping her. She can eat by herself and is expected to return to the classroom by April on her way to a complete recovery by summer!

2. We were able to have 3 siblings who had been placed in protective custody with the government, returned to us. All I can say about that is that was a sweet day!

3. A little over a week ago, 3 sisters who have been in the process of being adopted for over 3 years, saw their case finalized. On Monday, they got on a plane for the first time in their lives and flew off with their official mom and dad! That brought tears to our eyes!

4. In a little over 30 days, we received 17 new kids! I can't tell you their stories but I can say almost all of them are hard ones. Kids with incredible pasts but all of them are sweet! I mean "take home in your suitcase" sweet kids! I sometimes ask "why us God?" I don't know the answer, but I know we are going to love them all!

New Office!

Over Christmas break we moved into our new office in the children's home. The last 2 months have been awesome for our administration team. We have almost 4 times the space that we had previously. We have been working to have a professional appearance and this is a big part of that!
We pray that 2013 will bring even more great improvements as we seek to "raise the bar" on how we care for the children God has entrusted to us! Our ideal budget would be almost $20,000 US dollars per month to fulfill the 5 part Child Development Model that we have for the children. That would enable us to meet not only the physical needs but also the emotional, spiritual, educational and social needs of the 68 kids that call our children's home their home. That might sound like alot but it is really less than $300 per month per child. If you have 4 kids in your household, could you take care of them on $1,200 per month?
We want to thank all of you who support us! We plan on having alot of great stories to share with you this year! You are a HUGE part of each of these kids lives!