Fantastic February!

Another month has come and gone. February has been full of activity and fun...
The month started off with a trip to Leon, Guanajuato with good friends. Lee, Ruthie, Abby, Saul, and I spent a long weekend shopping, sightseeing, and relaxing. Traveling has always been a love of mine and I really enjoy being able to see other parts of Mexico - even more with good company. Constantly, I am reminded of what a blessing these friends are to my life and my ministry here.
 This was a very special month for a family of five here at Ninos. Five children arrived over the summer, ranging in age from kindergarten to junior high. Over time, the oldest boy began to express concern for his two younger brothers who had stayed behind at another children's home. This month, Victor and Ramon joined their siblings at Ninos. The whole family is together again and no one can miss the joy in their faces upon being reunited. 

As is the tradition, we celebrated Valentine's Day with a school party. The kids spent the afternoon decorating cookies, playing games, making cards, and singing karaoke. (It was nice not to be in charge of planning the party this year!)  I also gave special "Valentine's" devotionals on Tuesday to the older primary girls and on Wednesday to the secondary girls, encouraging them to first go to God with their desire to be loved because He is the only one who will ever be able to love them perfectly. With the older girls, I also talked about how to have a healthy dating relationship. This was the first time that I had been really honest with the girls about dating and it was a special for me to be able to speak truth into their lives on a subject that is so important to them (even to the ones in primary!).

Recently, we went on a school field trip to "Granja de Las Americas" - a farm with all kinds of activities to teach the kids how plants grow, how food is made, and many other things. Of course, there were animals to pet, but there were also more 'extreme' activities like go-karting, zip lining, and rock climbing. Needless to say, the kids had a blast! Each child had a credit card that was swiped any time they did an activity to earn points to spend in the store at the end of the day.

This month, we celebrated Carmen's 15th birthday party. Carmen arrived at Ninos with her four younger siblings in November. They have really "assimilated" well into the Ninos world. Carmen is incredibly sweet and I have enjoyed getting to know her. Her quincinera was complete with a time of worship, receiving gifts (a Bible, a purity ring, and more), prayer, a delicious meal, and of course, cake. So glad that we were able to make her birthday special.
My February post would be incomplete without including this picture of my students from English class this week. We are working on clothing vocabulary and I thought that essentially playing dress-up would be the best way to teach them. The kids were divided into teams and each team had a bag of clothing. One person from each team had to go and put on the article of clothing that I said and then run back to tag the next person in line. The first team to empty their bag of clothing won. They had SO MUCH FUN and so did I. Seeing their male classmates in dresses and skirts definitely drove the concept home!