Sunday, February 28, 2010

Hangin' with the Big Dogs?

Last night after dinner we took all the kids for a walk/hike which included some strenuous hill-climbing. Although he hung in there like a champ during the walk, after a bath it was lights out!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Compare 6/11/09 to 2/26/10

The Children the day we got them June 11, 2009


Here they are today, February 26, 2010

Do you think your prayers and your sacrifices are making a difference?

Breaking News

Evidently running can be a major source of embarrassment...

Angel, who never has accidents with peeing, was running to the park and got well ahead of us. When we made it to the park Karen came running telling us something about Angel peeing...then Angel came to us and he was soaked down the front of himself.

When we asked if peed himself he said, "Yes, Joyce because I was running." Two things come to my mind...1) I didn't know running would cause that & 2) Don't you wonder why he didn't stop running?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Girls, Big & Little


Karen beautifully models the new ballet outfits




Both Joyce & our friend Marcia Warrington had birthdays last week....decorations by the children with an assist from our cleaning lady


Tuesday, February 23, 2010

More School

We interviewed another private school today....everything sounded great and then we took a tour of the classrooms and facilities. 26-30 kids in each class, small class rooms, and when I checked the work on their boards it was very disappointing...i.e. 6th grade - the question was, "What animal do you see in the picture?"

That's what you get in private school education so far. It looks as if we will have to search out the more expensive schools to find some decent education. Right now it just feels as if we're wasting another year of their lives.

Tomorrow we will take them all to this school to have evaluation testing done to finally find out what grade level they should be on.

Thursday we will go to two other schools...pray we find something acceptable and affordable.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Just the Ordinary

We did nothing special today...up at 4:45 a.m., get dressed and begin to set the table for breakfast, serve the kids as they wander in, wash the dishes, review the Bible study, have the Bible study, take the kids to school, return and get Joyce and Gershon for a trip to Pricemart, return & unload groceries, leave to pick up kids from school, set the table and serve lunch, put the little guys to bed, take 3 girls to dance, return from dance & take the three oldest to the bank to deposit their earnings, return to get supper, eat, wash dishes, take a walk with kids, return for baths, & soon BED!!!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Sunday

Sunday means getting up, dressed, fed, dishes done, children's Bible study, our Bible study, and today a personal study time for preaching today. Busy morning, but a very good morning!

We continue to search for better schools for the other children...we just had a couple knock on our door and tell us they heard about us and our wanting a better school for our children and they want to help. We will go look at their school on Tues.

Still fighting colds and coughs, no worse, but not much better either.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

School, the Truck, & Just Things........

I had a meeting yesterday with another Christian bi-lingual school, only this time it was a real school with real teachers...I didn't think I would ever find such an animal here. I quickly fell in love with the principal and one of the teachers attending the meeting as we discussed the possibilities of moving Fabiola & Mauricio into their school. The problems are that they aren't fully yet bi-lingual and all instructions, conversations, and even play time are in English, and the fact that they aren't up to grade level for their ages.

I told them the kids story and they want to help, so we are working on a plan to take the two of them to the new school in the afternoons for in depth English study with a certified teacher, and to get them ready to enter 5th grade (again) in September. We believe this is a divine appointment and we're eager to get started...just waiting for the school to call back Monday and tell us if they will indeed set up such a program for our kids. PRAY!

We still have problems with our truck, it's in the garage again all day today, and it creates real problems for us. We really need to get it running correctly and we really need another vehicle. PRAY!

Gershon is at his school this morning, Joyce has rented a taxi and taken Fabi to jazz classes, and I have the rest here while I'm trying to study for a message to preach tomorrow at our church. PRAY!


Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Work Day

Gershon & I painted the entire downstairs this morning. It desperately needed it after 9 months of 20 hands all over the walls everyday. They were black and looked as if they'd never been painted, in spite of the fact that my nephew, Tom, and I painted everything just before we moved into the house. Our work makes a great difference...it's almost like moving into a new house and Gershon did a great job. I did the trim and he did all of the roller work, which is the bulk of the painting.

Shortly we will head the airport to pick up some good friends and a new Board Member. Right now the girls are all at ballet class, the three little boys are in bed, Gershon is in bed, Antonio is still in school, leaving only Cesar, Mauricio, and myself. It's like a mini vacation!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

School updates

Antonio is now going to his school for a full day, from 7 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. We are pleased with their decision to keep him longer and hope this is finally the breakthrough he needs and deserves.

We also interviewed a young woman with a B.S. in Civil Engineering today to be a part time cook and possibly a full time tutor. She sounds really, really good is bi-lingual and seems to have much more depth to her than our previous tutors.

We're still not happy with the school for the 5 at Sinai, but we're trying to give it a chance to see if they get it together. We don't want to waste another year of their lives in a do-nothing educational environment. It's difficult to find a school that actually has a good curriculum and then it's even more difficult to find one we can afford.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Nice Calm Day

Today was an unusual day...nice & calm! This morning Gershon finally got to go to his new school, IHER, which is supposed to make up two years in one. Fabiola went to jazz dance classes and then it was back to pick Gershon with Joyce and all the kids in tow. This afternoon Joyce took the three little boys for a haircut while I kept the rest from creating too much havoc.

Tonight a new friend stopped by with a movie rental for the kids and allowed Joyce & I to run out for a two hour respite...it was great! We didn't realize until we were on the way home, but we really enjoyed just sitting in a restaurant talking about nothing in particular and not being interrupted.

A nice day...thank you, Jesus!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Finally the weekend........

For all who thought getting all the kids in school would give us a break (us included), we can tell you we're as excited as the kids that the weekend is here! Getting everybody up a 5:00 a.m., washed, teeth brushed, dressed, fed, Bible Study and out the door by 6:30 a.m. is a real chore. Joyce and I have it down pretty pat though, and look somewhat like an assembly line getting ready for breakfast and getting the dishes done.

Then we start the battle into the traffic...it's the worst time of the morning and in this city of 900,000 with only 4 access roads the traffic is horrendous. Add to that no driving laws, few traffic lights, and "an anything goes" mentality and the morning trip to the schools is anything but a treat. We make it back home, have our own Bible Study, head to the stores (grocery, clothes, shoes, hardware, etc.) and get back in time to go get the kids again to come home for lunch. They are tense mornings....

We're still trying to figure out what grades the kids should really be in based upon their abilities to learn (or inabilities). After one week we aren't very happy with the schools for some of them, but there aren't a lot of choices.

Tonight we all went out for a treat...we went to a little store that has snow cones and an outdoor playground. The kids love it and the owner loves us and gives us big discounts. It's a cheap night out and they feel like they've really had something special.

Keep praying...several have colds and coughs that we're trying to chase away. Tomorrow most of the kids will sleep in, but Gershon's special school begins tomorrow so he'll be getting up early. I put him to work today painting the bathroom so he's ready for his school to begin.

Thanks for all you do for us...we love you each one.
Gershon, Fabiola, Mauricio, Rosa, Karen, Antonio, Cesar, Angel, Jesus, Pedro, Joyce, & Bob

Thursday, February 11, 2010

A Break?

Today I had 3-1/2 hours alone, without any kids; a much needed break???? Or was it?

It's true I didn't have any kids causing chaos, making noise, fighting, crying, or anything else for 3-1/2 hours, but I did have a buzzing-like sound in my head. Actually it wasn't buzzing-like, it was a buzzing inside of my head...it was a dentist's drill in my mouth. I spent 3-1/2 hours in a dentist's chair and I will definitely take the kids any day!

Had to bring Pedro home from school sick today and then he threw up all over the sofa. He seems to be better now, but has asthma problems and some head congestion. Several others are fighting head colds as well, but we have them on meds so we hope to get it all cleared up before we pass it around...a prayer or two wouldn't hurt!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Day 2 in school

Day 2 and we're finding out just how far behind our kids really are. It's frustrating because even the best school systems here are lacking, i.e. we have some of the kids in a private school (supposed to be much better than public) and our fifth graders have homework that consists of writing to 2000 by twos.............what's that about?

Any teachers want to come do a year of home schooling?

Monday, February 8, 2010

It's Only the First Day, But.........

Heading out for the first day of school everyone was eager to get started, and even better when I picked them up they all loved it! It's a great start toward a much better life for these kids.







Sunday, February 7, 2010

Spiritual Attacks

We have been running through the raindrops lately...yesterday Angel spit in Antonio's face, and not a little spit either; and this morning while Jesus was on the toilet Pedro walked up to him and peed on him. At first blush these might seem like 4/5 year old antics, but I don't think so. I can't imagine what would be in someone's head to do either of those and we talked to all the children about it. They, too, are appalled. We work very hard at trying to instill respect for each other, since they never had any for anybody before this, and I simply believe that Satan is attacking us through spiritual warfare to control their thoughts. We spent a lot of time in our Bible Study this morning talking about how we all need to spend more time praying for each other....that we are responsible for each other. We hope some of it sunk in, but we need you to join us in these prayers, to break generational curses or any other spiritual influences that come against them.

We are also experiencing spiritual warfare within the ministry on the home front. Satan is showing up big time and we need Christians to show up even bigger.

Thank you in advance for your prayers,
Bob & Joyce

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Hetic Start

This morning Fabi has jazz class from 9-11 and when we went out to start the truck...it didn't! Called a cab and sent Joyce and Fabi to jazz. When they arrived Joyce called and said the theatre didn't have any electricity and they would only practice one hour instead of two(I guess they can see in the dark for one hour only????) She asked me to call the cab driver and have him return at 10 instead of 11 to pick them up. So I did. She called me back 10 minutes later and said they changed their minds (guess they can see in the dark after all) would I call the cab driver and tell him 11? So I did. (obedient aren't I?)

The mechanic showed up and "beat" on some things under the hood and the truck started...does that give you a warm and fuzzy feeling about future starts?

The youth group at our local church is taking the kids bowling at 11:30 this morning so I have to keep everyone inside so they don't get sweaty & dirty...close your eyes and imagine the decibel level in here! And it's only 9:20 a.m.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Much Needed Pleasant Surprises

We had to give our truck up early this morning to get front disc brakes and some other work done on it, which meant we had to hire a taxi to get to our meeting with our lawyer. We needed to meet him to discuss our next step in gaining residency for myself and finally put an end to our legal entanglements. Our lawyer is a great guy and a hungry new Christian who never fails to bring up the Lord when we're together. Today when our meeting concluded he said he'd like to spend more time with me to continue to learn about the Lord. (you just never know where & when the Lord will use you)

We didn't get the truck back until nearly 6:00 p.m. and Joyce wanted to take the kids to a snow cone place for a treat. When we got into the truck it was apparent that it had some problems now that it didn't have when it left us this morning...lights were flashing and it was fading in and out of power finally stopping just outside our gate and at the entrance to one of the busiest roads in SPS in height of rush hour. After fiddling around under the hood it finally started again we got back on the road to the snow cone house. The snow cones were great, the kids couldn't stop raving about them. While sitting there waiting for the kids to eat their snowys a young woman walked up to us and said she had a question for us. It was obvious that she worked there from her attire...she asked us if we worked for a large orphanage in town. We told her we didn't that we'd rescued these children from an abusive situation and were now raising them as our own. She was amazed and brought her husband over to meet us as well and then told us she was the owner of the Snow Cone House and anytime we wanted to bring the kids there all we had to do was call her and everything would be free! Is that not awesome? We'd had a tough day and it was looking like it would get tougher, and then God sent us an angel to lift all our spirits!

Thank you, Jesus!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Sick Bay

I spent most of the morning in the doctor's office with Angel & Rosa...Angel has a hearing problem which is still not entirely identified, but we have some meds for him to take and then an auditory test. Rosa has an infection in the corner of her eye and has a ton of antibiotics to take for it now.

In addition we scheduled a urinary test for Antonio to try to find some relief for his bed wetting...Antonio needs additional prayer for behavior as well. He had been on restriction for two days and today I left him go to the tree house with the others, but they brought him back telling us he grabbed hold of a tree and just screamed until a man told them to take him home.

And, Pedro's rash is coming back and we don't understand why. It has been more humid lately so maybe that's the culprit.

Fabiola is on antibiotics for head congestion. The other 5 are healthy but always seem to find a way to stir up some kind of disturbance.

Just another day in Paradise...........

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Honduran Justice???

I spent this morning at the Transito Office (traffic police) trying to get a Honduran driver's license. The first guy was very helpful taking me straight to the head of the line and to the teller to pay for my license. Then he told me, "Because you don't have your residency card your license will cost $450.00 U.S.!" Obviously I told him, "No thank you."

I got back into the truck and headed home when I remembered the lawyer who the new Mayor's wife had hooked me up with. I gave him and a call and he told me he would call back in a few minutes. Shortly later he called and told me he'd spoken with the Chief of Police and that I should return to the Transito Oficino and look for Comisario Paz. When the kids (Gershon, Fabi, & Mauricio) and I walked into the office Comisario Paz was waiting for us and took us directly to the Director of Transito. With his step by step guidance we were led through the process and this time instead of asking for $450 they ask for 480 limperas or approx. $24! I now have my Honduran driver's license in hand!

It's still all about who you know and fortunately for us Jesus knows all the right people!!!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Haircuts & dance

Getting ready for school to start, so I took the boys for their haircuts this morning and dropped their uniform pants at a seamstress' house for shortening.

Joyce has the three girls at their first dance class of 2010.

Pedro had a problem in school today...he showed the teacher he thought she was number one with one of his fingers...............never a dull moment!