January: Gifts for the children, gifts for me!

Hola!

It's been a while! I hope this blog finds you happy and fulfilled with how your year's begun. I have had a great January, filled with gifts and little joys!

The Day of the Kings (El Dia de Los Reyes Magos) was celebrated here in Mexico on January 6. This is the Mexican's big gift-giving holiday, while Christmas is more about a family meal and spending time together. Here at the Casa, there is a long-standing tradition of three authentic "Reyes Magos" coming, dressed in all the garb of an ancient wise man, to deliver a bag of gifts to each child. The kings come in the night and place the bags on the beds of the children.

In addition to these gifts, the children were invited to several "superstores" to share a breakfast meal and receive gifts from the employees. In some cases, there were other festivities, including pinatas! Seeing all this gift-receiving, I couldn't help but think about the children's need to give, as well. As they say, "It is more blessed (and sometimes more fun!) to give than receive." So I organized a gift exchange for the girls in which I gave them each a fixed amount of pesos to spend along with a secret pal. We took several little ventures to a store filled with earrings, lip glosses, hairbands, etc., and I tried to encourage the girls to think about what their person would like and get them something appropriate. Once we'd purchased and wrapped all the gifts, we had a gift exchange in the castle/tent. I first talked about the importance and joy of giving and then had them go around one by one to give their gift and also say something encouraging to their person (i.e an admired characteristic). They seemed to enjoy the time thoroughly and hopefully learned something in the process. I also challenged them to keep up with and take care of the gift they'd been given, as they struggle more than anything with personal responsibility. Another educational benefit was the financial planning required to choose things they could afford, decide what items would be the better "deal" and know how much change to expect.

After Dia de los Reyes, we were back to real life. The kids went back to school and I got back to work with the clothes. I have finally decided to try an entirely new system with the girls. After a lot of talking with the staff, contemplating and observing the chaos that was their clothes system, I came up with a method that will hopefully minimize my involvement (so that when I leave they still get clean clothes weekly) and teach the girls personal responsibility. The idea is that each child has now been assigned clothes that are officially their own, and their assigned number is written in the tag of each article of clothing that belongs to them. This way, their quickness to shift the blame when clothes are thrown on the floor is eliminated, and their tendency to just go "borrow" someone else's shirt when they don't have a clean one is decreased. The other major change is that instead of being brought up in bulk after being washed, the children go down and sort through the wash to find what is theirs and deposit it in a bin with their name. They do this twice during the week and then, on Sundays, when all their clothes from the week should (hypothetically) be clean and dry, they bring up the entire bin, sort it, and fold it. Then they report to me how many clean pants, shirts, etc. they have and I exchange each article for a new one from their tuperware box. This exchange is an accountability check, so that they are unable to receive the new until they have proven that they are properly taking care of the old. The numbers make labeling easier (the alternative is writing their whole name in each article of clothing) and it allows for the children to grow without having to change their labels. (For example, Lupita, 4, is #1, but in a year, she'll probably be #2's size and Areli, #2, will move up to the #3 spot, vacating her clothes for Lupita's use. We will see if this method continues to be successful and if so we'll hopefully expand it to incorporate the boys as well.

After initiating this, I was a bit spent and thus happy for a break! My coordinator, Wendy, my ex-roommate, Erika, and another friend came from Mexico City and swept me away to Guadalajara for 3 days. We stayed with an old host family of Wendy's who was very hospitable and embraced the "mi casa es su casa" mentality. We explored the city via horse-drawn carriage (for about $2.50 USD!!) , went to a famous restaurant where female mariachis serenade you during your meal and visited a market where they sell their famous Guadalajaran glass for ridiculously cheap (pitchers, glasses, vases, etc.). I bought a beautiful set including a pitcher, 6 glasses and 4 juice glasses for what would probably be about $11 USD. I don't know whether you'd call that a gift or just a steal!

To really fill you in on this past week, I'll have to begin again around the first of January. After the festivities of Christmas and Dia de los Reyes, it hit me that I was completely incapable of doing all that the staff require of me or even doing what it takes to meet the children's needs. I felt extremely overwhelmed and stressed, in addition to feeling more and more lonely. As I rarely leave the Casa, I have very little contact with anyone in my peer group, let alone with people who understand my culture and language. This all came to a head one Saturday night and I cried (literally) out to God in a way I don't think I ever have before. I begged Him to do something, to deliver me. I didn't even really know what I needed other than just generally "help!" The next morning, the Directora notified me that another girl was coming for at least 3 months and would arrive before the end of January. Hallelujah! Even with God's immediate faithfulness, I chose to worry instead of trust for all of January, not sure this girl would really be helpful or a person with whom I could connect. She did arrive on the 29th and I am happy to report that so far we have connected well and she is already a huge gift from God to me. So praise Him for hearing us and answering!

Another gift to the Casa as a whole is the recent birth of Myrtle Elena, the brand new baby girl of the assistant director and his wife. She was born yesterday morning, February 2nd, so she's not even home from the hospital yet, but I am sure she will be a precious little joy to her parents, to all of the children and to me! She's newborn #3 for me in my Mexico experience so far (see November's blog), but I never cease to be amazed at the miracle that is new life. Praise God that the birth was natural and that Mommy and baby are healthy and happy!

So as you can see, God has been so faithful to the claim in James 1:16-17,
"Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

My prayer request is that my relationship with the staff would continue to be good. (With time, the politeness of strangerhood has faded into an high level of "confianza" because of which both they and I at times forget the universal importance of appreciation, respect and kindness.) I'd also invite you to pray with me for the Bible studies I am planning to start with the older girls. (I didn't get to start them in January, but I have some lessons already planned out and ready to go for this week.) My prayer is that the girls would participate and learn to love God through their study of the Bible.

Thank you so much for reading, and for your prayers, emails and letters. They are such an encouragement to me! Keep them coming and update me on your life as well, por favor!

"Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land." Proverbs 25:25

...although you are free to send bad news, too, if that's all you've got... :)

Con mucho amor, Lauren