Our littlest baby is now sleeping for 3 hour stretches at night. He is a very good baby: eats, sleeps and looks around. Marisol likes to pick his clothes and diapers. She wants to see his poop, but then runs off saying gross.

the 3 1/2 year old boy is still have a hard time adjusting. He is delayed in every area and can not understand that he will not see the only person he has known as Mami again. It appears that everything was done for him and he has no idea how to dress, eat with fork or spoon, drink from a cup or hold a conversation. He is content to swing for hours and begins to cry for Mama when every he does not get what he wants or has to be in the house. Luckily we have had longer stretches without rain the last couple of days so he and Marisol could play outdoors.

It has been in the low 60's the last 3 nights and the breeze during the day in nice and cool. All laundry is washed in a cement tub out back and hug around the yard to dry. Intermittent rain makes getting clean laundry very difficult. There is a washer and dryer in the home, but no one knows how to hook them up. When the number of children grows there will be daily laundry and hand washing will be out of the question. We do not want the staff to be responsible for ours and are looking for someone we can hire for that. In the mean time we are out of clothes.

We do not yet have a place to live but continue to look. Marisol realllly needs some only family time. Her emotions are up and down and sometimes she just wants Mami or Papi. We are hoping to have someone cover this weekend so we can take a break and take 2 buses to San Martin Jilotepeque, Chimaltenango, where we lived last summer, and see how all of are Friends are doing, and how much damage there was from mudslides. We will be dropped at a very busy highway intersection, where we will wait and run when a bus going our direction comes through. Then when we reach Chimaltenango we run to catch one of only 2 buses that heads on up the mountain each day to San Martin. Then we will get a room at the only hotel in town and hope it is a weekend that they have water, hot is out of the question.

We celebrated another staff birthday today. The children loved it! Here they sing Sapo Verde to you, Sapo Verde to you. Translated Green Frog to you. Followed be a traditional Spanish song. The kids sing it over and over on the swings, and laugh and clap when we sing it. We gathered for tostadas with a red sauce and grated cheese or refried black beans, followed by cake.

We have received an abundance of material donations and it is all greatly appreciated, but it will be of little use if we can not pay the rent and salaries. It would mean so much if anyone could donate any small amount or even a monthly donation. It is greatly needed and would further the work the the children's home, www.godblessthechildren.org. Below is the information for donations. You can mail it to the Bank or take the info to any Bank of America bank to deposit money in their account:
Bank of America, N.A.
New York, New York 10001 USA

ABA: 026009593
SWIFT: BOFAUS3N

To be deposited to the account No. 1901734945
In the name of:
Banco G & T Continental
6a Avenida 9-08 zona 9
Guatemala, Centro America
Contact: Lorena Luna
Phone: 001-502-23386801 or 001-502-23386868
SWIFT: GTCOGTGC
For further credit to:55-2800008-1
In the name of: Cinthya Vallefo Morales


A Friend has put out a plea for the donation of a camera to replace the one Marisol broke, and may have found someone who will send us one. You may joke about snail mail, but we are talking 3-4 weeks at least, so sorry about the lack of pictures.

John is feeding our tiniest baby as we speak, so I can finish up this blog. I will update you all when we return from San Martin Jilotepaque as to how the people are doing and the adventures along the way.

I better go help John with the children. Love to everyone,