Celebrating the Holidays in Paraguay.

We spent this holiday season getting to know Paraguayans' traditions surrounding Christmas and the New Year. They do celebrate the season very differently than we normally celebrated in the States. To begin, the temperatures this time of year are soaring, with most days reaching into the 100's. Also, gifts are traditionally given to children on Day of the Kings in the first week of January, instead of on Christmas Day. The season also involves several nights of very late dinners (at 11PM or midnight) and a whole lot of firecrackers.

We celebrated in the children's home with a special dinner on Christmas Eve where each child received their Christmas presents. Thanks to donations from some friends from Peerless Road Church in Tennessee, we were able to buy wonderful Christmas presents for every child.

Opening presents at the Christmas banquet.

More donations from here in Paraguay provided the special gifts for Day of the Kings.

Alejandra with her Day of the Kings gift.

Needless to say, the kids had quite a wonderful holiday season and are enjoying their vacation from school. The coming school year will begin in February, and the kids are already asking for prayer for their studies for the new school year. The children are learning to take all their needs to the Lord in prayer and each Sunday it is a joy to hear them open up and bring more and more of their worries and needs to the Lord.

In December, we celebrated two birthdays here in the home. Nilda, our eldest, turned 14 years old. She will be going into the seventh grade this coming year and lives in House 1 with her four younger siblings. Nilda is extremely responsible. She is a very hard worker, both in school and around the house. She plans to begin studying English intensively and it is our dream that she would be able to attend college in the states one day.

Nilda at her outdoor birthday party.

Mili, one of our youngest, also had a December birthday. She turned 5. Mili is just plain adorable and lives in House 3 with her four older siblings. She will be in Kindergarten this coming year. She loves animals and playing with her tea set. Mili has a contagious smile and is so much fun to watch.

Mili- yes, she is adorable!

Another important piece of news is the arrival of Heather Lutz. Heather is a friend of ours from our home church in Tennessee and has come to Paraguay to serve in the children's home for six months. She has been involved in several short-term mission trips in Latin America and already speaks some Spanish. She is learning more vocabulary daily. This week she started her English classes with the children in the home and they are so excited to be studying with her. She is also assisting in the planning of Sunday services and other special activities with the children. When in the states, Heather worked in an after school program for at-risk children and has worked for several years in the children's ministry at church. With all of this experience, she is bringing so many new ideas to what we are doing here and I am so thankful that the Lord has sent her to be with us! Because we had problems with our well pump, we have been without water nearly the whole time Heather has been visiting. For that reason, we have not been taking many pictures (not being able to bathe well does not allow for the best photo opportunities)! She has handled it like a pro, and today, finally, our water has returned. In the future, you will be sure to see pictures of her working with the kids.

We are excited for what the Lord has in store for this new year. Our goal for this coming year is to be able to open three additional homes. We are still receiving multiple calls/visits each week concerning children that need a home. The need in Paraguay for children's homes is great. If you are interested in supporting one of our children's homes and in helping us to reach more of these precious children with the love of Christ and the security of a family, please contact us at mortonmissions@gmail.com.

A Visit from Lee University.

In December, we were blessed to have a visit from a team of Lee University students. It was wonderful to have our friend William Lamb (Director of Service Learning at Lee) and his son on the team, as well as seven other students from Lee University.

The team at the airport just after arrival in Asuncion.

They came bearing so many gifts both for us and for the children's home that the day we unpacked the bags felt like an early Christmas. They brought with them a weed eater, chain saw, and hedge trimmer, for which Shaun and Roberto Carlos (who takes care of a lot of the grounds' maintenance) were thrilled. Yes, they checked all of those items onto the plane! They also brought with them a new pair of tennis shoes and Reebok bookbags for every child in the home! The kids have never owned bookbags or tennis shoes of this quality and they were thrilled to receive them.

In addition to the gifts that they brought, the group spent each of their nine days in Paraguay working hard to serve our facilities, completing an incredible amount of projects: tree trimming, cutting grass, cleaning and organizing our industrial kitchen, painting the playground equipment, cleaning our primary school building and yard, organizing our computer lab and classroom space in the administrative building, painting two houses, hosting a community event at the school, walking throughout the community to pass out family photos, preforming a drama in the children's church service, painting every girl in the home's nails, and hosting a Christmas Bar-B-Que for the kids. One of their days was also spent painting the playground of a Church of God school in the capital and visiting the homes of the students from the school that live in an impoverished community surrounding a landfill.

Thank you to every team member. Each of you blessed us in a unique way and worked hard during your time here. You are all welcome in Paraguay at any time!

Lysandry, Nilda, and Lujan enjoying Twister- one of the special gifts from the team!

If you or your school or church are interested in visiting Paraguay on a missions/service trip, please contact us at mortonmissions@gmail.com.

Birthdays- Meet more of the kids!

Wow. It has been a long time since my last blog. Four of the kids have celebrated their birthdays since the last post.

Lysandry turned 13. She lives in House 3 and is the eldest of five siblings in the home. She is our little sassy one. In school, even in English class, she learns very quickly. For her, studying involves looking over her notes once and she will have every letter correct on the exam. She and Nilda (from House 1) are best friends and they are both finishing up the 6th grade. (The school year here runs from February to November.) Lysandry is a beautiful young lady with the curliest hair you have ever seen.

Lysandry cutting her birthday cake.

On November 1st, Nayeli and Junior both celebrated their birthdays. On the 5th was their sister, Lujan's, birthday. Nayeli turned 8, Junior 9, and Lujan 11. The three siblings are extremely smart and do very well in school. Nayeli is Abi's best friend and is in the first grade. She is the informer of the group and likes to relay every detail of everyone's behavior to me each day. She is a very affectionate and loving child. Junior is in the second grade and is also a loving child. He is extremely competitive when it comes to sports and even though he is smaller than most of the kids, he always holds his own. Lujan is a precious little girl, even though she acts like she is already a young lady. She, like Lysandry, does her schoolwork with no problems. She is very small for her age, barely bigger than Nayeli. She is in the forth grade.

Nayeli and Junior with their birthday cakes.

Lujan in her new birthday outfit.

Kimberly.

We were so excited Sunday when Lorena and Alejandra's grandma arrived with Kimberly. The first day she was a little unsure of her surroundings, but by Monday, she was settling in and blending right in with the family of House 1. Cristina, previously the baby of the house also had a difficult day Sunday, crying almost the whole evening over losing her position as the baby of the house. However, by Monday night, Cristina and Kimberly were playing together like best friends. Abi is also excited to have a friend her very own age. Kimberly is only a few months younger than Abi (they are both three years old).

Kimberly in her new dress!

The next two pictures are from the past weekend.

Game night at our house last Friday- puzzles for the little ones and Uno for the older kids.

Sunday was very hot- so Shaun created a sprinkler with a coke bottle tied in a tree.

Spring is here!

Spring has arrived in Paraguay with a blur of blooming trees and plants. I must say that it is beautiful. The apacho trees that bloomed in giant pink blossoms were breathtaking. Now there are white and yellow blossoms on many of the trees and countless vines, bushes, and flowers showing their springtime color.

Pink Blooms of the Lapacho

In addition, spring brings new life. We have had two calves born in the last two weeks and eight baby rabbits.

Rubia's new baby bull

One of the precious, new, little bunnies

The two newest girls, Lorena and Alejandra are doing very well and settling in nicely. We are still waiting for their youngest sister, Kimberly to arrive. Continue to keep her in your prayers.

Cristina, Alejandra, Lorena, Rocio, Nayeli, and Abi playing at the park.

If you have not checked out our video link located on the right side of the blog, please do. It shows the facility here and explains a little about what is going on in our children's homes.

Growing Again!!

Today was a special day as two new girls arrived in the children's home. With Mario and Suni moving to House 10 with their two children and transitioning to working solely with the farm and garden, spaces were then available in House 1 with Delia and Rafael (who are doing a fantastic job with their new position as house parents).

We had received inquiries and calls about receiving several more children, but the sisters that came today had been waiting with their paperwork ready since April. They are also cousins of Gloria and nieces of Talia, two of our girls in House 3. Lorena is 10 years old and Alejandra is 8. The girls had been living with their grandmother who was having a difficult time caring for them and working. The girls were very excited when they arrived today. They are looking forward to living here, learning English, and being close to their aunt and cousin.

Abi, Lorena, and Alejandra- already friends.

Lorena and Alejandra are now settling in to House 1 where they will be sharing a room with Nayeli and Lujan. They also have a 3 year old sister, Kimberly, who will hopefully be coming to the home as well. Her paperwork had not yet been completed and thus she was not able to stay today. Please pray that her paperwork would be completed quickly with the judge and that she would be able to come to the home so that she will not be apart from her sisters for more time than necessary and so that she will be in a safer and more stable environment.

Meet Andres and a Need.

Two blogs back, I posted about Andres' surgery to repair a hernia. He is completely recovered now and doing great. He celebrated his 9th birthday on August 18th. Andres lives in House 3 and has four brothers and sisters that are also here in the home. He is a pretty quiet child, but is always the first person to give you a hug when you enter the room. Andres is in the second grade.

Andres with his cake.

Also celebrating a birthday this past week, was Shaun. He turned 29. Sadly his birthday was a rainy day with a hail storm. In the evening, however, each of the kids came to our house to sing to him and to either present him with small gifts or in one case to give him a rehearsed speech about "coming without a gift, but coming because the children wanted him to know how special of a person he is to them." Kevin, delivering the speech, paused in the middle and looked up at his "tia" to ask how the speech was supposed to go. It was all very sweet.

Shaun with Lujan.

On another note, I am posting a picture of the recently repaired street lights on our property. Several months ago, we became aware that there were several very dangerous issues with the electricity at the children's home. The estimates for repairing the problems ran anywhere from just over $1500 all the way up to $3000 for the necessary repairs. We had this project in our minds as a priority when one day Mario from house 1 came to tell us that his plant in his front yard shocked him. We went with a meter to check out the problem and the plants and bricks around the house's meter box were holding 200 volts of electricity. After this discovery, we called the electrician and asked him to please come and start the work- that we could not afford to wait- for the sake of the children's safety. These repairs, including replacing several power polls, repairing transformers, replacing street lights, tightening existing wires, and trimming all trees interfering with the electric lines have now been completed (for just over $1500). Our property is now much safer for the children- and much brighter at night. If you are interested in donating to this electric project (or future electric projects dealing with each house's wiring), please contact us at mortonmissions@gmail.com.

The street in front of the homes at night- with the repaired street lights.