Rollercoasters

 Hello again, friends and family! How has my week been? Overall, it was a wonderful week, even better than last week I would say. This week the lows were lower, but the highs were also higher, so everything balanced out. Through it all, God has blessed me tremendously, as He always does.

Happenings

The end of last week was relatively normal for the Leones house, except for the fact that there hasn't been school because of the "smoke hazard" in the area. There have been some forest fires nearby (but not close enough to put Familia Feliz in any kind of danger), so the district of education decided to be extremely cautious and limit school last week, so the kids would only have school for two days.  There are two reasons this was a problem. One, a lot of the kids are already far behind where they should be in their schooling, and canceling school for a lackluster reason doesn't help them learn any faster. The "smoke" was just a haze in the air, and it's not like keeping kids from school would help anything. Secondly, when the kids go to school every morning, the house parents get a much-needed break from the constant chaos, noise, etc. But with school canceled, the kids were at home all day; no breaks for anyone. That was really hard. But God is good, and starting today, school has returned to normal.

The weekend, however, was one big roller coaster ride. Friday night was very enjoyable, as it usually is, but it was especially good that night because I got to FaceTime with my family, cousins, and grandparents. The next day was a different story. Besides having to do the worship talk for vespers on Sabbath evening, it was supposed to be a normal, relaxing Sabbath. It ended up being quite eventful.

About ten minutes before we had to go to church that morning, I noticed Selim, one of our younger boys, bending over in the yard and quietly crying. I went over to him to see what was wrong, but couldn't figure out what was the matter. Then, one of the other boys came over and said Selim had thrown up, and then I saw that there was a little something on his pants. It looked to be some of his breakfast that he had involuntarily regurgitated, but it was a tiny bit, so I wiped it off of his pants and looked around to see if there was any more of his breakfast on the ground but found nothing. Selim stopped crying and was looking fine, so I didn't think anything else of it. We all got to church and sat down to sing some hymns as we always do before splitting off for Sabbath School. I was sitting next to Selim in the front pew doing my best to sing along to the Spanish hymn everyone else was singing when I looked down and noticed something on the floor in front of Selim. I did a double-take and discovered more of Selim's breakfast on the floor. Not more than three seconds after I saw what happened, Selim threw up more of his breakfast onto the thankfully tiled floor. At this point, I realized I needed to take Selim outside just in case he had more to throw up, so I scooped him up, being careful to keep his mouth directed away from me, but as I was about to start walking out of the church, another torrent of granola and banana splattered onto his pants, my hand, and the floor. As soon as that episode stopped, I ran outside with him as quickly as I could, just in time for the next wave to begin. After about two minutes, poor Selim had successfully vomited out the entirety of his breakfast. I walked him over to the clinic just a few hundred feet away, and Sophia took him while I went to find new pants for him at the house. When I got back to the clinic and was putting clean pants on Selim, Justin came walking into the clinic with three more of our boys trailing behind him. Apparently, they too had thrown up their breakfasts. It was clearly something in the food because after getting it out of their systems, all four boys were just fine. After cleaning them all up and giving them some charcoal, we took them back to church. Thankfully, we made it through the rest of the morning without incident. I am definitely getting to experience more aspects of parenthood than I was planning for, but I am grateful for the experience nonetheless. d

Justin and I were unaware of this, but the Pathfinders and T. Juan and T. Emi, who are the Pathfinder directors, had some event to go to in town on Sabbath afternoon, so Justin and I were left with 12 kids all afternoon and evening. Except for shower time, which is always a nightmare, the afternoon went by pretty smoothly. To match the theme of the day, we had another curve ball thrown at us right before Sabbath evening worship. Very suddenly, dark storm clouds rolled over Familia Feliz, and a stiff wind started blowing, so because of the chance of rain and the Pathfinders not being back, worship was canceled that night. That meant we had another hour to occupy the kids before supper, but this ended up being the best part of Sabbath without question. The storm clouds loomed overhead, but it didn't rain until later that night, so we were able to play outside in the wind and cooler temperatures with our boys and some of the boys from the Guerreros house as well. We all had a fantastic time! T. Juan and T. Emi got back with the Pathfinders not too long after, which allowed Justin and I to relax somewhat for the rest of the night. It was a wonderful end to a very eventful Sabbath.

Morning power nap for Emir and Alvaro

Selim sleeping with his eyes open

Not sure what Isaac was doing in the background

Leonardo from the Guerreros!

For some reason, Emir doesn't like smiling
for photos, but trust me, he was having a blast

Teacher Mateo getting smushed

The boys having a blast climbing us/the tree

It felt like fall that day, and I remembered that I
won't get to experience fall for another year.

"God, please show me what to do."

This past Sunday was undoubtedly the most challenging day I've experienced so far at Familia Feliz. It started out like a normal Sunday. Justin and I made pancakes and hashbrowns for breakfast. We ate a little later than we would have liked, but the kids loved the food, so that was a win. The challenges began when we attempted to get all the kids at the table for breakfast. I would get some of them to sit down at the table, but then they would get right back up again while I was trying to get the others to sit down. They just wouldn't listen to what I was telling them. That was the theme of the day. I would tell them to do something or not to do something, and they would agree but then as soon as I turned my back, they would go right back to doing what I told them not to do. During lunch, one of the boys had three spoonfuls of rice and lentils to finish, but when I told him to go back to the table to finish it, he flat-out refused. So I gently but firmly took him by the hand and led him back to his plate, so he could finish. He resisted me the whole way. I had to sit with him for a good ten minutes while he did his best to escape me. Finally, he calmed down enough to finish his food. As soon as I finished with him, I saw another boy dump his food in the trash, so he could act like he had finished it all. So I promptly brought him back to the table and put more food on his plate for him to finish. He ate some of it but then proceeded to again throw away the last two spoonfuls of lentils and rice, so again I gave him two more spoonfuls of lentils and rice. At this, he refused to eat it, and I knew I wouldn't get him to eat it without forcing his mouth open and shoving the food in, so I told him he had to eat it at supper. He didn't like that either, but he knew he couldn't do anything about it, so he calmed down eventually. Another problem we had was our boys throwing rocks at the Guerreros (the older boys). I told them to stop throwing rocks at least seven times that day, but they would only stop for a little while, and then they would be right back at it a few minutes later. 

After an afternoon of playing, fighting, and being disobedient, it was time for the boys to clean the house, take their clothes off the laundry lines, and take showers. To help give them motivation, I told them that if they did all those things by supper time, we would let them watch a little something before bed. They liked that idea, and they nodded their heads when I told them to go start cleaning, but did they actually do what I asked them to do? Nope, they didn't. I kindly asked them a few more times to start doing their chores and reminded them that there would be no movie if they didn't do them, but it had no effect. They just kept playing in the yard. One of our more obedient, helpful boys went to take a shower, but that was it. Nobody else lifted a finger. So I gave up. I gave up trying to get them to do their chores. I didn't know what else to do, so I sat down and watched them play. I started asking God what I was supposed to do. All that day, I had been extremely patient with all of the kids, never raising my voice, and asking them very nicely to stop misbehaving. I've never felt very comfortable being super harsh with the kids, but being patient and kind with them wasn't working, so I was just at a complete loss. I was begging God to show me the best way to take care of these kids. Then, I found myself putting myself in the shoes of our kids. With my extremely limited Spanish, I've gotten pretty good at telling them what to do, e.g. "You need to wash your plate", "Stop throwing rocks", "Go take a shower", etc., but the only real positive feedback I can give them right now is a simple "Thank you". So from their perspective, they are being constantly told to do things they don't want to do. Granted, we are telling them to do good things, but in their little minds, it probably just feels like they're being bossed around. When I realized this, I had no heart to keep nagging them to clean the house and take showers, so all I did was sit outside the front door with the shampoo bottle in my hand and wait for them to come inside and shower of their own accord. Finally, after one of the older kids told them there would be no Shaun the Sheep if they didn't go shower, they made their way inside. After the seemingly endless process of getting all the boys to shower, it was time for supper. However, just as we were serving the food, T. Juan and T. Emi came driving to the house from their day off. It was only 7:00 p.m. They had never gotten back that early before, but Justin and I were so grateful. Per usual, as soon as they stepped into the house, the boys were totally different people. They were quiet, attentive, and proactive in doing their chores. The rest of that night was uneventful, as it usually is when T. Juan and T. Emi are at the house. And so ended one of the longest days of my life. It was so challenging, but God carried me through. To be honest, I still have no idea what is the best way to parent these boys. Especially with the language barrier, it is so hard to show them how much I care for and love them when I'm constantly having to correct their less-than-ideal behavior. I would really appreciate some prayer in this matter. I need wisdom and discernment in every interaction I have with these kids. I know God won't fail me. He's been faithful in the past, and I have no reason to doubt His faithfulness now.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in Him."

Lamentations 3:22-24

Pictures

Valentine found a cool place to sleep

Shellig peas, chopping green beans, and
dicing peppers, so we can freeze them

Selim wearing a winter coat in 78
degree weather

The Guerreros were cleaning out their attic, and they found
a full-face snorkel, so they decided to test it out in the sink.
I wish I knew how it got here.

The pancakes on Sunday morning turned out
really well!

Playtime in the yard

We had an absolute feast on Friday night
when all of us SMs got together. Cornbread,
garlic bread, garlic rolls, chocolate bread,
cookies, and fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice.
Lots of carbs, but wow, everything tasted
so good!

Love this kid!

I became a jungle gym

Alex loves being muy alto

Hanging out with my boys

Jose, the kid on the right, is from the 
Guerreros. It's always nice getting to spend
time with the kids from other houses.

I love this photo

Emir taking a nap

I'm pretty sure Selim took this picture
because I don't remember taking it
myself.

So I've seen tarantulas on campus, but they've
 been at the church, the school, or at the
 girls' houses. I hadn't seen any near our
 house until I went into my room last night
to find one crawling on my Crocs. So...yeah.
That was exciting.

Selim wanted me to take a picture with
Otis the dog

Adrian goofing around in the shower

A beautiful Bolivian sun!