A Weekend As a Mom

well, we are now headlong into a week of crazy business, getting ready for the summer program! the summer interns arrived last night, and i spent the evening getting their house ready, and making a big pot of spaghetti. but, i don't have any pictures of all that, and anyways, i thought i'd tell you all about my weekend - which is a little more relaxed story : )

on friday, Leona and i decided to go visit one of her students at palo. his parents both recently went their separate ways, due to some hard situations, and he is now living with the neighbor lady. he was so sad when we went to visit - even though their neighbor is a very sweet woman, she doesn't really have the means to care for him along with her other four children. so we asked if she would like us to take care of him for the weekend, and she didn't mind. that being done, we took him right along with us. it was so much fun being with him! after awhile he started to brighten up, and enjoy hanging out with us, and as you can see, after a few hours and with some food in his tummy, he was a regular little boy full of laughter. he had to borrow all our clothes for the weekend, becuase his parents had left him without any, so we took him to the donation closets to pick out some school and play clothes. for most of saturday, we had nate and aaron over, played games, made pancakes, and told stories. angelo especially enjoyed being around older boys who would play with him - it reminded me how much these young boys in our programs need good older-brother type role models!! i think one of the sweetest times was also when we were reading to him before he went to bed out of a picture bible, and he was just completely soaking it up, asking lots of questions and remembering every detail.
then the next day, we had to get to work on his little head, which was completely infested with lice! aaron brought over his shaver, and we buzzed his hair, picked out the bugs, and then washed it with special shampoo. he was so excited to not be itchy anymore! plus he looked super handsome with is little haircut : ) it was definitely hard to take him back home on sunday, but all in all, he had a great weekend, that helped to lift his spirits - and impact mine even moreso! praise God for the blessing that children like angelo are in our lives.

well, aside from that, we're just getting really busy with summer readiness - the kids all finally come back to school for the summer program on monday! our training session went well, the interns are here, and every one is getting excited to get back to time with kids! hope God blesses all your weeks!

allison

Back in Paradise

hello dearest friends -
wow, hard to believe that i am back here again, after a lovely little visit to the states. for those of you who don't know, i went back to wheaton from may 24th to june 5th, mostly for my brother's graduation and the ensuing parties. it was a great vacation, and i really enjoyed seeing those of you that i was fortunate enough to run into!
so here i am, back in the 'land of eternal spring' - or summer, as it really is now. the temperatures sure have skyrocketed! it is so good to be back with the kids, my friends, the other teachers, missionaries, etc.......it's a wonderful group of people here, i feel so privileged to pass a little more time with them. of course, now we're adding all the summer interns to that number, so aaron the team leader is here, as well as lindsey - and many more on the way! add the 20 teams that w here that they might like to sponsor, and watching the relationships grow. i always he're hosting this summer, and you can imagine we've all been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. but i sure love it, meeting new people, introducing them to kidsope that i can help every person love this ministry as much as i do : ) we also have a huge, island-wide sponsorship goal of adding 500 sponsors to our numbers this summer, 200 of which is our responsibility in jarabacoa!!!! so as always, any help that can be recruited would be exceptionally appreciated - just email me if you know anyone interested! (spanglishgirl87@gmail.com) the most recent team here had a chance to meet their sponsored preschool twins at their house yesterday, as well as their mother. as always, that is such a special encounter to be part of, the place where people see that the children they send money to are real people, with lives and families, and beautiful smiles! pictures and letters are wonderful, but there's something about seeing that really sends it home.
then yesterday, we had the last day of school fair, which was super enjoyable - we had clothing 'sales' of all donated clothes for the families, snacks, games run by the team, my own little face-painting booth, and the funny fatman that aaron and i painted for photos. also lots of prize drawings for blenders and fruit baskets, that part was really fun. : ) so, as the summer rolls along, i'll try and keep you all updated, and i thank you again for helping me be here. may the Lord bless and keep you this week!

~allison