We are so busy. But I know everyone wants to know what is happening. So here goes. One let me catch you up on the kids. We have had several teens leave and go home to parents. They were the kids from Xela who came to us when the orphanage they were in closed due to the owner being accused of sexual abuse. They have now gone to live with their parents. But we have had the government add to our orphanage a 5 and 12 year old. A mother brought her 1 month old and 1 year old to us as she could not take care of them. The courts want us to take a sib group. The mother is starting to use the 9 year old girl in prostitution and they want us to take her as well as her 7 and 2 year old sibs. And finally another orphanage has closed and is looking for places for their 20 children ages 8 months to 4 years. Don't know if we will take any of them. Our new building is almost done. They are stuccoing it now. The middle of this month we have a couple of ladies who are going to go and paint murals on the walls of the kids rooms.
We had a team that got about 1/3 of the septic dug and the builder is working on getting the electric in.
A couple of pieces of news. Good first. Edwin, or Josue as the staff calls him, has a family. A Guatemalan mom and dad who can't have children of their own are in the adoption process and come to visit him. He is the baby who was found on the side of the road in the bushes.
Now the bad. The same group who brought us the 5 and 12 year old decided to do a surprise visit at 10pm on a Fri. night. Their wanted to hassle us. One of their wants was that we have white sheets and blue bedspreads for all the beds. The judges that use us to send children too told them they were crazy that we had a good place and to leave us alone. Just one of the crazy things we have to deal with.
I forgot. The ones of you who know Alicia, well she is back. She left at age 18 with a woman who was going to train her in the craft business. Apparently it did work out, so she is now a new employee of ours and will live at the orphanage.
Have I told everyone of all the marvelous things that the work team of 32 did back in July. Beautiful tables, tons of shelving for the storage room and cubbies and shelves for all the rooms at the new orphanage. Plus they totally organized our storage room and worked with the children.
We alos just had another grop down here who helped some more with the storage room and got the septic 1/3 done.
Our biggest need now is CAsh to build more. I have brought back a lot of jewelry and craft items and if you are close to me can do an in home party where your guests can hear about what we are doing in Guate and what the needs are. Then they will be given the opportunity to buy any of the items I have or special order items, I can pick up when I go again in Oct. If you know of any grants or just want to do something esle, contact me and we will brainstorm.
We have an American couple who has made a year long commitment to help with the orphanage starting in Jan. We are very excited about this. He is Guatemalan and has family there.

Well we just returned from Guatemala and are spending the night in Charlotte at my daughter's house. I have a million blogs to write, but will only write a short one today as we need to get on the road and back home to our kids.
This is one that one of our donors has requested, but I know everyone on the group would like the info. So as of today here are the names and ages of the kids at the hogar.

1. Oliver-2 months [ arrived yesterday and will post his story soon ]
2. Noah- 4 months [ goes to court today; please say a prayer for him ]
3. Edwin- 3 months [ has a Guatemalan adoptive family ]
4. Lydia- 3 years but the size of a long skinny 6 month old
5. Carlos- 1 year
6. Abram- 3 years
7. Carlos- 2 years
8. Lilli- 5 years
9. Diego- 4 years
10. Ana esquit- 8 years
11. Jorge- 4 years
12. Ana Maria- 5 years
13.- jose Julian- 5 years
14. Aura- 6 years
15. Monica- 8 years
16. Wendy- 10 years
17. selena- 10 years
18. carlos- 8 years
19. Rolando- 9 years
20. Dillon- 7 years
21. Yubonni- 4 years
22. Alex- 6 years
23. pedro- 9 years
24. Manuel- 15 years
25. Rosa- 12 years
26. Lubin- 12 years
27. Byron- 14 years
28. Luis- 12 years
29. Maria- 12 years
30. Javre- 12 years
31. Juan- 13 years
32. Deciero- 15 years
33. Josue- 12 years
34. Rudy- 12 years
35. gerardo- 16 years
36. brenda- 13 years
37. fernanda- 14 years
38. juliana- 15 years
39. felician- 17 years
40. helica- 17 years
41 Marleny- 15 years

We have been told we will probably be getting an 8 month old whose mother just died and the father does not want to raise her, as well as a 3, 4, and 5 year old.
WE ARE INTERVIEWING NOW FOR A NANNY/TEACHER TO WORK WITH THE PRESCHOOL/KINDERGARTEN GANG.
We have bought a dehumidifier for the clothing room.

I want to say again how much I appreciate the volunteers. I will address shortly some of the concerns as they are my concerns also. i have had the advantage of dealing with the same issues for the last 5 years so have gained a little knowledge and will discuss it in an upcoming email.

Vicki
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org/