Once again, I have to apologize for not keeping to my "write at least once a week" promise. Getting Christmas together for 18 kids, 6 in laws and 6 grandbabies takes alot of time. And then I have twenty suitcases to fill with donations and items my family needs for the next 6 months in Guate. Luckily I shop thru catelogues and phones, but it is still time consuming and nerve wracking. Everything is now ordered and as ready as it is going to be for both Christmas and our flight the first week of Jan. We are now at the beach waiting for our grown kids and grandkids to arrive tomorrow. We will all stay in two big cottages for the next week. My time with my grandbabies before we return. That is the only really bad part of living in Guate; I miss my grandkids.
The orphanages are growing. Thirty kids at the lake. In Jan. we will have 12 children whose parents can't feed them or educate them, but are still their parents. We had a bunch more ask us to take their high school kids and do the same, but I want to see how this works out before I get into it big time. At the city orph, we have 15 children. The police brought us a 14 year old boy two days ago who had been beat to a pulp by his dad. He also had not been feed in 3 days.
My big sorrow this year is I am probably going to loose Jackie and Stephanie on Sat. Their mom will not let them stay and let us send them to school, etc. She works 24/7 16 hours a day so she won't see them or be able to supervise them. I am so worried about their future. We have educated them at the orph as to when to call someone if abuse starts happening and make sure they have phone nos. to call. I will visit them in a month and try and make sure their life is going okay. Jackie will tell me what is happening if she hasn't been too terrorized.
This is the really hard part of this job. Falling in love with the kids and having no control over their lives.
We have had some great donations to take back with us. New shoes for all the kids, $400.00 in cash and presents for the kids from a couple of sources. Those donations really help the kids and help me emotionally, knowing that others care.
Vicki
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

Gosh I can't believe I haven't written since we got home. Life has been so busy tho. We have spent alot of time seeing the adult children here and the grandbabies. My 2 year old grandbaby Karleigh stays with us during the week while her parents work and she is fun. Plus the children who live with us have school work to do since they are missing school in Guate. Plus we have so many doctor and dentist appts. to make and keep as well as hair cuts, etc. Then there is ordering of supplies to take back with us. Where we live is pretty dang isolated and we are 3 to 3.5 hours from Guate city where we can do any real shopping. So I have been ordering everything I can think of we may need for the next 6 months. Then there is Christmas for our 18 children and 6 grandchildren.
Anyway now to the orphanages. Our new house in San Lucas for the city orphanage has hit a snafu as we try and settle on a contract with the owner that we can both live with. No small job when he writes no English and we read little legal Spanish. The kids there need to get registered for school and it has created problems. On the 28th, a group from Guate City threw a big Christmas Party. Dinner for the city kids and the lake kids. We brought the lake kids into the city for the party and everyone had a great time with pinatas and face painting and comedians.
The next day was sad tho. We lost our precious Bryan and little brother Angle. Their parents petitioned the courts to have them moved to an orphanage that was just down the road from where the parents live. It has a good special ed program, just like ours does. There was nothing we could do. We tried as the boys have been doing so well with us. They just sobbed when they had to go and poor Bryan, who can't hear or speak, was horrified as was Angle who is only 3 and had just gotten settled in and secure with us. Life is so hard for some of these little ones.
Pedro spoke with Jackie and Stphanaie's mom [ did I mention the court turned down our appeal of their case ] about the girls continuing to live with us and go to private school and we will pay their travel to visit her on the week-ends. She wants to think about it. Her fear is the courts will not like it and take the girls from her. We have two new 14 year old grils at the lake. They were sent there by their moms who can't feed or school them so that is what we will do.
We have a wonderful group in Washington state who is collecting new shoes for all the kids that we will take back with us. Anyone who would like to send things for us to carry back with us, please send them to our home address by Jan. 4. Just contact me by email at 20.vicki@gmail.com
We still need Christmas at the Lake orp, if anyone would like to contribute. Also needed are single sheets and blankets. The kids love peanut butter and we never seem to have enough.
Vicki
Director of http://www.safehomesforchildren.org