From Lorena...

It's Saturday night and I've survived the first week of school. The schedule has drastically changed, but I’m adjusting. We wake up at 4:15am every morning (4:15!), and start the same routine- prayer, chores, devotional, and breakfast. The kids leave for school between 7 and 8, and either Mary Ellen or I drive a couple of boys to a special needs school in Chihuahua. It takes almost two hours roundtrip, and we make the run twice a day. During the day, we’re able to rest a little, and we also help out with whatever needs to be done. Mary Ellen has been working in the office quite a bit, and I’ve been…driving lots. These tasks aren’t always the most exciting, but we want to be a blessing in anyway that we can. And if means driving around all day or sitting in the office, that’s what we’ll do. When the kids get home around 12 or 1, they have to go straight to the cafeteria to do their homework, with the help of some of the staff. After just one week, I’m realizing how behind so many of the kids are in school. It’s impossible to give each of them the individual attention they need because of the adult to kid ratio. After homework is finished, the kids can play for a while until dinner and devotional. Then, we’re off to bed. Most of the girls in our room are asleep by 9, and Mary Ellen and I go to bed soon after that.

Okay, here’s the deal. I’m hanging out with Mary Ellen and Daniel (whose parents let us stay with them on our days off) and I’m super distracted. We’re listening to music and goofing off and I just can’t stay focused. So…here are a few pics from the week. Enjoy. More to come next weekend. Love y’all.








We unloaded a truck of rubble from the jobsite for the new boys home here. These little guys came along, too.





After a few hours of working at the jobsite. Miriam is someone that I want to become closer to, but she is easily frustrated with my Spanish so it's difficult to talk to her for very long.





A group I took to the jobsite to work. We always have fun, but it wears me out!





Driving through Chihuahua.





Coming into the city.





These are the guys that Mary Ellen and I take to school. The one on the right loves to test me. Laughingly, he'll threaten to throw objects out the window and sometime he does. One day this week, he threw his backpack into the bed of the truck, and threw the other guy's backpack into the bed of another truck. I successfully retrieved it and tried to scold him, but was laughing on the inside.





Mary Ellen singing Yankee Doodle.





Before school.





Brother and sister.





I think the kids just finished explaining how some of the girls in our room woke Mary Ellen up in the middle of the night b/c they thought there was a snake in the bathroom. Sergio's sister had a little accident because she was so scared. Here, he was scolding her for getting too close to the snake, which turned out to be a big bug.








Our cat had lots of kittens right here on the couch and the girls crowded around to watch. Big news in the house.





The orphanage is way down the road on the right. Click on the photo and you can see it.





I think this was taken on the way to the jobsite. I love living close to the mountains because I'm constantly reminded of God's power in His creation.