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
Casa de Sion is a charitable program based in Guatemala, and is part of Safe Homes For Children, a 501(c)(3) non-profit org. We help improve the lives of Guatemala’s least fortunate children with nutritional, educational and medical initiatives. You can help us make an impact in these poor Mayan communities through your donations and volunteerism.
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