It was much too late to blog last night when we returned from feeding the homeless, so I put it off for today.


Yesterday, Wednesday, we started out early. Susan needed help with preparing food for the CIPI employees' Christmas lunch. We peeled and cut carrots and cucumbers and assembled mini sandwiches. Then we had to get to CIPI so the Tias could come to the Mission House for their get together. Merany and I were asked to work in the special needs area and we definitely didn't mind! Jenny and Lilly helped us. I know that this is a lot of work, but I sure didn't know just how much work it was. We were on our toes all day! We were bit, scratched, pinched, etc, but enjoyed every minute.

Kurt bought us Santa hats to wear

Since the Tias were gone, I snapped a picture of all of the kids. I have not been able to get one of everyone of them since we have been here.

Chamba- Isn't he a cutie? He is pretty content unless you mess with him when he wants to be left alone :) Merany and I brought him fries and cookies. I loves eating real food, but since it takes so long for him to eat he doesn't get it very often

Tonia is a sweet girl, but not a cuddler. She sticks to herself unless she wants to sit on you. We had to pick her up off of Chamba many times. I am not sure why she has such a fascination for this lol

Luis Antonio- I did not get to know him very well. He pretty much stayed to himself.

Jessica- she is new to the center. She came last week while we were there. Her mother left and when her father went to work he would leave her in the floor and put her some food out on the floor for when she got hungry. She is not completely comfortable with being loved on, but I think she is getting better.

Mabeline-this sweet girl's condition was a product of abuse. She looks as though her arm was broken and healed on its own right above the elbow. She also has a pretty large scar on her head under her hair. She does not like to be in a standing position, but I will say that seems to be better now than when we first got here.

This is Lionel-I want to take him home with me! He is such a sweet little boy. You can tell he has a lot of potential if they had the means to work with him. He gets bored and cries some. He could come a long way if there were therapy and classes available to him.

Jose-Luis is a mess, but he is precious and gives great hugs :)

Nelson is a precious little boy, but he does not like for you to touch his chair. If he is in the gated play area he HAS to be in it, but if you take him for a walk or to swing, he doesn't care to have it.

My Marvin...oh how I am going to miss this sweet boy and precious laugh!!! I love how he will 'buck' in his chair so I will get him out

Fernando is a complete mess, but I think he is still one of my favorites. He is such trouble because I think he is bored. He has nothing to challenge him here at CIPI. I do not believe this is anything the employees of CIPI can control, I think it is because they don't have the means to offer anything more.

Sweet Muchado, this is Merany's little boy. He loves to listen to music and have you rub him. Wednesday he spent a lot of time in my lap and I enjoyed spending some time with him. When you are not rubbing his belly like he wants yo to he will grabbed your hand and show you how to do it correctly.

After our day of being Tias at CIPI I came home and rested for a while. Then we got the stuff to prepare food for the homeless. We had enough meals for 146 homeless people. We delivered them after 10:00pm and come back to the mission house. I have a lot to say about feeding the homeless, but don't even know where to begin! This is an experience  will not forget and I will have to share with you at another time....

Boys will be boys...

Today was a great day....does anyone catch a theme lol

Yesterday, Monday, I did not feel to great!  We went to CIPI that morning, but the Tias were with us the whole time so we didn't get a single picture. My little Marvin sounds congested just like me. One of us must have gotten the other sick. I pray he gets better. They say he is in and out of the hospital a lot with pneumonia.

We went early so I could come home for a Skype date with my kiddos at the daycare. I really enjoyed getting to see them, and I THINK they were happy to see me too :)

Sweet kids

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After that Merany, David and I finished the Christmas tree. We are pretty proud of it :) There are about 2,000+ lights on this tree.....I hate that I won't be here to take it down lol

I went to bed not long after getting done with the tree. I waited up to talk with my momma, and then crashed for the night. Yes, I am 24 years old, and when I am sick I still want my mother.


Today, Tuesday, we started our day off pretty early and headed to San Martin. When we got there we were greeted with lots and lots of hugs! I am gonna miss all the hugs and love we have received while we are here. When we were there last week the Tio that works with the boys in the 'baking department' said they were in need of pot holders. We brought about 16 pot holders and 4 new aprons and you would have thought we handed him a million dollars. He was so very grateful!
After that we went around to the houses and visited with the boys. They were excited to see us, and we were excited to see them too. Lilly and I saw some boys with a soccer ball so we decided we should play them in a game of soccer. Lilly, me (the gringa) and Chepe won against the Tio, Gio, and David. We were pretty proud of ourselves 4-0!!!! Once again, the Tias were close by all day and we never got to sneak a picture. We were invited to come Friday morning the the Christmas celebration. We are excited to be apart of it!!


We left around lunchtime, grabbed a bite to eat and headed to CISNA. There were very few boys there today. A lot of them have gone home on vacation. I was sad to find this out. We will most likely not get to see them again before we head home. We brought some cookies and M&M's for the boys. Then, they wanted to play us in a game of soccer....they are hardcore soccer players. We had a good time and it was quite the workout! Lilly and I were on a team with some of the boys and Merany was on the other team. Lilly and I won again.....duh :) I have had some amazing soccer coaches on this trip!!!!

After we played soccer, we sat down right outside the "soccer field" and just talked...well Merany and I did a lot of listening, and the boys did a lot of talking. I know it sounds crazy, but I just loved sitting there listening and laughing with the boys. About half way thru the time we sat there one of the boys said he was so glad we came. He said if we were not there they would all be in their own rooms and they would be bored, but instead they were all sitting together, talking and having a good time. By the end of this talk time, I was reminded that BOYS WILL BE BOYS...no matter which country I am in!!!! Oh me....

I managed to sneak a few photos at CISNA... bad, I know :)

Merany and Franklin

Wilmer was telling us a wonderful story.....

Just sitting around talking :)

Me and Alexander

No matter how many times I make it known that I do not speak Spanish, he still just sits and talks and talks and talks....so I just listen :)

We left CISNA around 4:30 and went to the grocery store for a few things.....I know this is gonna sound crazy to most of you, but Merany and I have gone this whole trip with NO MTN. DEW!!! Guess what we found tonight!!!

new favorite grocery store!!

We were a tad excited!!!!

When we got home I cooked Merany, David and me some nachos.....Marsha's Nicaragua style :)
She would be proud....We ate them outside with the Christmas lights lol! In the middle of supper I got a message from Stephanie, Linnzi and Thomas to Skype so when we were done eating I Syped for a while! I enjoyed this time!!!

Aunt Mal's pretty girl

Steph is trying to show me that she has her first tooth :)

Screaming at me...pretty sure she was telling me how much she misses her Aunt Mal :)

After I was done Skyping with them, I Skyped with the McCaleb's.

The beautiful Sarah Beth

Not long after that my momma got online and we chatted for a while. I am loving my time here in El Salvador, but I have to admit, I do miss my family and friends back in the States. So glad they have taken time from their day to chat with me for a while!


People keep telling me that the kids here are so blessed to have us come and work with them, but I don't completely see it that way. I have been blessed to be able to work with them. They are showing me daily all of the things I take for granted! I am blessed beyond words to have the life, family and friends that I have. They are showing me that all the things I worry and stress over are just trivial parts of life. I hope and pray I can remember the lessons they are showing me when i return to the US.

Week One is GONE!!!

Wow! I must say week 1 flew by! I know the days do fly when you are gone, but I am still surprised every time!

This weekend we kind of took it easy. We visited, had a soccer party, decorated, went to church, visited some more.....

Yesterday, Saturday, we woke up and lounged for quite a long time in the outside living room area. We caught up on the facebook world, read, watched tv and talked. We had a good time out there.

Then we decided we should be productive, so we worked on the tree some more! I am telling you, this tree has become the trip long adventure :) We have enjoyed it though....



We had to go to the second floor to assemble the top of the tree and fluff it...



And then we had to go down, turn the tree around and fluff some more!

And with the angel it really towers high!!

About the time we finished up the decorating for the day, the boys from CISNA showed up to watch the big soccer game. Real Madrid and Barcelona played, so I guess that's a big deal around here :) Most of the boys from CISNA go home for vacation, but these two boys have no family so they got to come hang out with us. We set up the game on the outside TV, got some snacky foods, and ordered pizza. I think they had a pretty good time!

the boys :)

Merany, Lilly, William, Geraldo, Dayna, Kylie and David watching the game

We REALLY were enjoying the game lol

We also had some other guest floating in and out all day. People that Merany met this Summer. They stopped by for a visit. It was a slow day, but we really enjoyed it!

Sunday: We got up and went to church with Lilly and her Mom and Papi. It was the first internationally service I have been to where we were given personal PAs with a translator coming through. It really helped us follow along with what was going on.....except for the occasional radio station that would break thru :)

The Girls

After the service we went to eat at China Wok with Lilly, Ernesto, Jenny (Lilly's sister), EJ, and J Le. We had a really good time together.

J Le

The girls: Me, Lilly, Mer, Jenny and J Le

Isn't she a DOLL!!

When we got home we got back to work on Christmas decor, watched TV with David (another friend staying here in the Mission House) read, skyped, and chilled.

Skyping with my best friends! Steph doesn't know that I took this, but I LOVE it :)

Um, this is at least 1500 lights, and we need at least 500 more......whew!

The cute little dining room area :)

We have had a great weekend, and I have enjoyed some downtime, but with downtime comes homesickness! I am definitely ready for next week to start! Heading to CIPI in the morning and cannot wait!

Have a great week! Remember to be thankful for everything...big and small!

You Will Feel Happy and Sad At The Same Time.....

You will feel happy and sad at the same time.....This is how Merany explained San Martin to me this morning.  She could not have come up with a better explanation!

So today we went to San Martin, a center for the older special needs. I have to admit that I was a little uneasy at first. I was not sure what to expect. All I knew is that the majority of these people do not know how old they really are. When I started feeling uneasy about them hugging/ rubbing me or all in my face I would remind myself that these are just big kids! Once the uneasy feeling wore off I had such a great time!

We started out by feeding the ones that were in House 1. There were quite a few different houses in the center and they were arranged around a basketball court. I was handed a bowl and asked to feed Alvin. The Tia told me "slow"....lets just say that was an understatement, but I did enjoy it. All of the other boys in the house were done eating, the Tia had cleaned up, and Alvin and I were still working on our bowl. Alvin never spoke a word, he just kept looking at me in the eyes and I knew exactly when he was ready for another bite. Sweet moment!

When we went to House 2, I had the absolute best time I have had in such a long time! I am pretty sure I have never laughed as hard as I have during this time! Keka and Mario were two boys that I will not forget. Keka was not born handicapped. As a child, Kaka's father used him to transport drugs. He would cut him open, put the drugs in and sew him up until delievery. This went on for long enough until the effects of these things to his body took over. Keka seems as though he really knows what is going on, but his precious body does not have the strength to keep going. Mario is another boy in this house. Mario was right by Keka all day. I made the comment that Mario and Keka must be best friends :) While we were in the room with the two boys, Mario remembered Merany letting him listen to Micheal Jackson and Justin Bieber, so he asked about it. Merany got the music started and the laughing and dancing began! Mario was quite the character and Keka just watched him and smiled! Mario got out a plastic flute and played along to the music! It was so funny, but he did an amazing job..I got a video of Mario showing his Micheal moves and playing the flute, but I cannot figure out how to put it on here!!!

Mario and Keka

I could go on and on about each house, but we would be here all night :) These were the highlights of my day!! We hung out, coloring, joked, LAUGHED and had such a good time with SO many people today at San Martin! I am so glad we went to San Martin and I am glad I didn't let my uncomfortable feeling keep me from enjoying my time with such precious people!