chuggin through october

Hello everyone!

well, another week has gone by, and can you believe it? it's nearly november! wow......time sure does fly here, with so much to do.
things are going well here, today was mail day so we finally sent out our latest quarterly sponsorship project - the fruit of many months labor. and now, without delay, i'm beginning the christmas project! ideally, we've gotta get it out within the next mail day, so i've got about 2 weeks! definitely getting that rolling, haha. also started sorting through all the clothing donations, getting them out of the bags and onto the shelves, and sorted into sizes. so that's my monday project. there's been a lot of rain here lately, according to the fall weather, so it's been cooler......by which i mean, still 75 degrees. : ) but it's cooler, still. still in the upper 80's when the sun's out in the morning, though.
well, a few of you were asking to see the trautwein family, who i'm staying with, so here's a picture for you! vic and leslie are the parents, and their kids are sam, micah, luke, and chase. (boy-girl-boy-girl) they've been a fun family to get to know, definitely very different from anyone i've ever known, but there's always so much to learn from others! so they've been great to get to know.

one thing i would like to ask prayer for is the dominican children here. they are so precious, and i have really come to love them so much, but it can be devastating to see the backgrounds that they come from, and the situations in which some of them still live. this past week, i was over in palo blanco, helping out and learning about the nursing program over there. of course, most of the time is spent just talking with and loving on the children, who usually hang out there even when they don't have school, because of the loving environment. this 4-year-old little girl, fabiola, (pictured with dustin, who does construction and is married to anna the nurse) was especially precious to get to know, and we enjoyed her most of the afternoon. that is, until her mother came into the yard with a huge cane stick, furious with her for not knowing where she was. the problem with this is, the dominican parents don't ever keep track of their children, and so it certainly was not this little girl's fault that she had come to be at the school. nevertheless, the mother angrily chased fabiola out the yard and down the road, and we watched helplessly, knowing that there was nothing we could do to stop her from getting a beating. thankfully, when fabiola returned for school a few hours later with only a few small bruises, and she did not seem too beat up, and we think that one of her older siblings helped with that. but the reality is definitely there for these children; it seems no matter how many times i've heard about these situations, the gravity of it never really touched me until i came here and was virtually slapped in the face with it. i've also seen situations like this at ANIJA, with some of the non-ark kids from the community, and it is very sad. on the better side though, there is a huge difference being made in the lives of these children, and it's so wonderful to be a part of loving them the way they need so badly to be loved. the head of the school out at palo is also working with the parents, little by little, to try and quell some of this abuse, and teach the parents how wrong it really is. afterall, the parents grew up in just this same manner, they only need someone to show them the love of God as well. so good things are happening here; i would just ask prayer for the protection of those children we still are not able to reach.

well, it is getting pretty late, if you can't tell by my muddled speech in this entry. haha, sorry it's a little throw-together. but i hope that you all have a wonderful week, strong in the Lord, and that He continues to grow and teach every one of us about His great grace in our lives. thinking of and missing you all....
~allison