Hannah, This Blog's for You!

 One of our favorite volunteers, Hannah, just left for a month to travel home to visit her family in the U.S. I don't want to do an "Adios" blog, because although she will not "officially" be working with Casa de Amor when she returns, I know we will still see a lot of her! Hannah has been more than a volunteer, she has been a mother to the children at Casa 1; a constant in their lives. Thank you, Hannah for everything you have done for the children at Casa de Amor.

About this blog. Hannah faithfully took the oldest children of Casa 1 to the Horita Feliz on Saturday. She would always take a picture of the children before they left for Horita Feliz or church. She was worried that the kids would forget how to smile while she was gone! We promised her to take the children each Saturday she was gone. I wanted to post the picture we took yesterday in her honor. See, Hannah, the kids still remember how to smile... except L., nothing we did could make him smile yesterday!! I think he misses you. Hurry back!!

Our Horita Feliz bunch, "Smile for Hannah!")

While we were trying to get L. to smile, "Ana" covered her mouth
in surprise at how crazy we were being...Still no smile from L.!! 

A Visit From Joseph L.

Our friend, Joe!!

As you can tell from the picture above, Joseph Lawrence isn't just any ordinary Joe! I took this picture while he was goofing off with the "gift" I got for Mother's Day! I hope he doesn't get mad at me for posting it!! 

We were blessed to have hosted Joseph for the last two weeks of May. He was a really great addition to the family. While he was here, his main focus was to work on his Spanish. Each morning he studied at a local Spanish school. In the afternoon he did more studying, as well as, running errands having to do with his visa, his teeth and his violin (Not necessarily in that order!!)!

I wasn't having my finest cooking moments while he was with us, (sorry, Joe) but he always ate what was in front of him without any complaints. He even said that he was happy that we were having left over Arroz Con Leche for dinner (again!), because he had missed eating it at the Facultad!

Joseph is in Bolivia studying at the Bible School in Camiri that our friend, Mark Mattox, founded and teaches at. He will be in Bolivia for a total of five months! Joseph is a good friend of Rudi's younger brother, Ben. They both are from Chehalis/Centralia, WA area!!

We had him on the "will work for food program"; so he also helped with some odd jobs around the house and yard. One project that I wanted done was in the backyard. He and the boys had worked together to get a huge stack of uncut wood out of one of the sheds in the backyard. I wanted it cut and put neatly back in the shed. They had started cutting the pile with a handsaw, but did not make very fast progress. I came up with the idea of using a skill saw to cut the rest of it up. They got it done in one afternoon. I was pretty happy with them!!

Pile of wood....before!

Project in process!

Emily even got in on the action.... I don't have an after picture yet, because I hope to turn that corner of the yard into a flower bed with a tree. Come back later to see an "after" picture!

Emily, Myles, Clancy, and Joe working hard!!

Joseph is planning to come back and visit us for the month of July and maybe some of August! He was so easy to have the two weeks he was here, that we are looking forward to his return.

Que vuelvas pronto, José!

Happy Birthday, Ruth

Ruth ready to start opening gifts!

In May our Ruth turned 8 years old! We had a fun family celebration in the morning during breakfast!

One of the favorite gifts, a new baby doll!

Reading her birthday card from Grampa and Grams!

Ruth and Daddy!

We also had a birthday party for her later in the day. Rudi picked up four of the girls from Casa de Amor and, of course her friend Gracie, and Tia Techy and her family were here also! We had chicken lasagna with homemade french bread and salad! Ruth had requested Mud Pie (ice cream and Oreo cake) for dessert... Yumm!!

Emily serving up dinner!

 Clancy and Clara had thought up some fun games and even got prizes from our local tienda. My favorite game they had was "Pin the Party Hat on the Party Girl"! I didn't get any pictures of them doing games...sorry!

Most of the party crowd! Ready for dessert

 When it came time to blow out the candles, Clara blew them out over Ruth's shoulder. I was able to catch their expressions right after it happened. I thought that Ruth's and Clara's facial expressions were classic. Clara looking smug and Ruth looking like, "what happened?"!! Happy Birthday, Ruth, even if you didn't get to blow out your own candles!

The perplexed birthday girl!!