Big Changes...

So our family's lives have had some huge changes in the past week. I wrote about Dora a few weeks ago that we'd hoped to have come live with us and study ( http://soylori.blogspot.com/2010/12/opportunity.html ) but her parents wouldn't permit it. We still grieve that she is not given the opportunity to further her education but are having to accept their decision.

Back in December we also spoke with another set of parents from Cumbre del Gramal, another mountain community where school is only offered till 6th grade. It's an hour-and-a-half walk into town so coming to school after 6th grade is nearly impossible. These parents have five children, and the oldest two are daughters, Nohemi and Roxanna) who are 13 and 14. One graduated from 6th grade this past November and the other a year earlier. They were very interested in the opportunity for their daughters to go to school here but didn't think they could allow them to because they had three younger children who the oldest two help care for. We just had decided that what we saw as a ministry possibility must not be in God's plans. That all changed a week ago on Sunday. :)

That Sunday morning the girls' parents came to church here and said that they'd like to take us up on our offer. Note that this is one day before the first day of school and our home had not been made ready for this so we did have a few slight moments of panic. But the parents said that the family had all had a bad case of the flu and the girls had been sick for about a week and wouldn't be able to come to school till probably Wednesday, which would give us two days to get things ready for them.

We spent Monday and Tuesday removing things from a small bedroom that had been our home office and moving them into our bedroom. In that home office was also a large wardrobe where Monte and I kept our clothes. It's too large to negotiate the turn into our bedroom so it would stay there for the girls to use and Monte and I went and found an open hanging rack to use as a wardrobe in our bedroom. We purchased a set of bunk beds and the girls' room was basically ready.

They came to school Thursday for the first day but because they'd been sick and were weak, Mom chose for them to go home on Thursday night and then over the weekend and came today with their few clothes and ready to spend the week with us. They will come on Mondays and go to school during the week and live with us and on Fridays they will return home to their family.

On Thursday when they came to school we took them to lunch first and decided to go with pizza. The girls had never heard of pizza. Their mom had heard of it but never eaten it. Their main diet consist of tortillas, beans, and rice. We are going to try to take it slow these first few days in introducing them to new foods but they are in for lots of surprises, I'm sure. Their home has no electricity and no indoor plumbing. When I told them about our microwave today at lunch, they'd never heard of one. They've never heard of spaghetti or peanut butter. (Hard to imagine, right?)

So our family is now going to be speaking a lot more Spanish at home and the girls are on a fast track to learn English. We're excited about the opportunities that the girls are going to have and they seem to be very happy with their new environment and the opportunities as well.



Monte's Aunt Pat sent a big bag full of stuffed animals down here in January for us to share with the kids in the area. Ruth and Nathan took in the bag of them and had the girls each pick one for themselves and one for each of their siblings. They loved going through them. Nohemi is on the left and Roxana is on the right in this picture.

Please be in prayer for our family and for the girls as we embark on this exciting adventure.