Speaking Spanish for a Week

Quick Update: I’m at Gabriel House for just a week with my mom, and my friend MacKenzie. We’ve been here for only a couple of days but we have managed to pack a lot of play time, taco eating, and crazy Mexico driving in a short time. And since I’m back, I figured the blog should probably make a short reappearance.

I haven’t been gone for THAT long, only 10 months to be exact. And yet, in those 10 months these kids have been changing like crazy. Of course, there are some things that will never change. The boys will still laugh about that one time I ate a candy so spicy I cried, Pili will never understand the concept of personal space, and Uziel will always be cute. I don’t think I’ll ever win a game of checkers, but I AM trying.

But guys…

Luis’ English is so good. In August of last year he didn’t speak English hardly at all. But his Spanglish now is on point.

Lupita is also speaking English to me, which I could never get her to do before. It makes communication a lot easier, because her English is so much better than my sorry attempts at Spanish.

Teddy’s talking about what he wants to study in college. College, guys.

Uziel is still adorable, but a freaking tornado. You can’t look away for one second or he’s climbing into his highchair unassisted or carrying around something he shouldn’t be playing with, or running out the gate. It’s exhausting.

Jaime. I don’t know if the Lord has granted me some supernatural understanding or if Jaime has just learned how to talk since last year. Last I checked, he knew 8 words: si, no, agua, caliente, uno, dos, tres, and Maddie. Now he’s talking about “other colors” and telling me to run faster (as I sprint with his wheelchair through the dirt roads) and every time he calls someone’s name it’s crystal clear. He’s been asking for my phone and telling Emiliano to eat and letting me know when he needs to be changed. I have never been able to communicate so well with him, and it’s so awesome.

I’ll try to write up at least one more update while I’m here. Until then, I’m back with my children and my heart is overflowing. 

(I got home on the 21st of August but have been gone for the past week, so this is late)

Did you guys deserve a blog post? Probably. Did I have time to write a blog post? Yeah. Did I have things to put in a blog post? Definitely. Did I write a blog post? Ha.

But I’ll catch y’all up now, while I’m on the last leg of my journey home! I’m so excited to be back! But I’m also just really glad I could spend some time with my kids. I have about 2 weeks to cover, so here goes:

So. Confession time. This trip was real hard, guys. It was real lonely, tiring, and joyless for the first week or so. And I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why I wasn’t as ecstatic to be there as I have been in previous trips and it was just really really hard. But God is good, and he answered prayers and taught me to trust him and to pull myself up by the bootstraps. So maybe it wasn’t the best trip I’ve ever been on, but I learned a lot and that’s more valuable than having a good time. And let’s be honest…with these kids, of course I had at least SOME fun. Now that we’re done covering my pathetic feelings and behavior, we can move on to the times that reminded me why I go to Mexico as often as possible.

One thing that I learned while down at the Gabriel House is that the little things matter. It’s the little moments that give me unmatchable joy, remind me of God’s never-ending love, and send me head-over-heels in love with these kids. It’s when I take Raul’s hand to lead him inside and he gives me one of his elusive hugs. It’s sitting on Victor’s bed and feeding him while I call him “guapo” and he calls me “pepita”. It’s Luis repeating things I say in English. It’s Jaime giving me a kiss on each cheek every morning, and thanking me for them. It’s Marcos catching scorpions with me while we’re both shaking with fear. It’s Teddy making me go to TimBukTu with him because the “yellow store has more things than the green store” when all I needed was milk and toilet paper. It’s Betsy and Kimberly and Sonia smiling when they see me. It’s cuddling Javier and Roberto to get the cutest smiles in the world. It’s Usiel holding out his arms to be picked up. It’s Antonio schooling me at checkers. It’s coloring with the crew while we all sing Spanish worship songs. It’s putting new batteries in Sergio’s toy and getting a huge smile. It’s Ne Ne and Pili forcing hugs on me. It’s hearing Ely laugh. It’s holding Miguel and telling him that though he hurts and his body doesn’t work right, he is perfect in my eyes, and perfect in God’s eyes.

And it was great. It really was. Thank you all so much for the financial support, the prayers, and giving me something that I miss so much when I leave. That is incredible all by itself. I love you all. And I’m way tired so I’m overly emotional. But until next time, please prayer for love and healing and joy in my kids.

It’s saying goodbye and being able to tell them “Don’t worry. I’ll come back. I’ll always come back.”

Well I'm back in Mexico. I could get into the boring details regarding how long I'll be here and what the weather's like and how great the tacos are, but I'll opt for story time tonight!!

STORY ONE: DELAYED GRATIFICATION

Once upon a time, there was this really awesome girl named Maddie who went to Mexico for three weeks in August 2014. For two of those weeks, her "job" was to spend time with the most physically restricted kids at GH. One of these girls was named Sonia, and Maddie spent most of her time working with Sonia.

And guys, it was SO hard. Like you don't even know. I would talk to her, and I know she understands both English and Spanish, and no matter what I said, there was no reaction. I spent hours with her, listening to music, talking, painting her nails, doing her hair, looking at pictures, the works...and nothing seemed to get through. ONE time I had the immense pleasure of seeing her laugh. 15 seconds out of days. And it was so hard.

But then...I walk in ONE YEAR LATER and say hi, and this huge smile spreads across her face! And now every. single. morning. I say hi and her face lights up and all those empty hours turn out to be full. All those tears of frustration turn to laughter. And it reminds me why I'm here.

And I think we'll live happily every after.

STORY TWO: 10 LITTLE MONKEYS JUMPING ON A BED

One little Usi on the trampoline. I jump and jump and jump with him.

An Usi and a Jaime on the trampoline. I jump and jump and jump with them.

An Usi, Jaime, Pili on the trampoline. I jump and jump and jump with them.

Luis joins on the trampoline. I jump and jump and jump with them.

Here comes Antonio to the trampoline. I jump and jump and jump with them.

Come on up, Checho, to the trampoline. I jump and jump and jump with them.

AND THEN I DIE OF EXHAUSTION. THE END.

Stay cool, blog-readers, stay cool.

    Oh hey look, a blog post.

      I know the good ol' blog has been just chock-full of fun stories, crazy adventures, and sappy posts about my kids. Sorry about that. I'm mostly sorry because it's not like I even have an excuse...I could write a post every evening, I've just been putting off for basically my entire trip. Speaking of which, I leave in 3 days! I got Monday and Tuesday, then Wednesday I give a billion hugs and kisses and maybe cry a little, then it's back home for more hugs (Unfortunately, social kissing is less acceptable in the States) and maybe a few teeny tears of happiness when I see them trees!

Since I can't really recap the last 2 weeks, I'll just touch down on a couple highlights and lowlights :)

HIGHLIGHT: Burger King

      The last night my family was here we took Marcos, Sergio, Luis, and Emanuel to get tacos for dinner. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, all 3 of the taco stands I had been to (And therefore the only taco stands I trusted to not give us Montezuma's Revenge) were closed, so we high-tailed it to the next best place: Burger King. It was all good with the kids, though, because it had one of those big play structures inside for their enjoyment. I'd say a good time was had all around, Sergio ate 2 and a half burgers, Marcos broke rules and ran up the slide, Emanuel was so happy and loud in the play structure I though he was crying, and Luis loved crawling through the tunnels! It took him (And by 'him' I mean 'us') a little while to get up there...basically me tossing him up on those little diagonal stairs that go up to the top. But once he was up there, he was set. It was handy to have Mike and Pete around to run through the maze with them while we sat back and ate our food.

HIGH/LOWLIGHT: Adios, Family

     So my family left the next morning, leaving me all on my own. That was the low part. The high part was that when they left, Mike cried. There's 7 people who now understand the reason why 3 of the last 6 months of my life have been lived in a little town called Maneadero.

LOWLIGHT: Vomit

     The stomach flu has been meandering its way throughout the house, so that
s been super fun. I got a slight case of it  last week, but after 20 hours of sleep, TV, and lots of fluids, I was good to go.

HIGHLIGHT: Death by Cuteness

     No really, these kids are so cute it's almost scary. Here's 5000 words:

My beautiful friend, Ely

Mom and her baby, Javier

Marcos and Mike using the self-timer

Nice smile, Ne-Ne <3

 Emanuel. This kid, friends. I can't get enough of                                                                                       him, and I'll certainly never get over him.

That's all, Folks!

LA PLAYA

After going to church with the boys today, my family decided to take the rest of the day off. We came back 

to the cabana and helped Mark film a Frisbee trick shot video, which took about an hour because he kept 

missing. To be fair, it was rather windy. We then went to Maneadero’s single tourist attraction: La Bufadora. Translation: The Blowhole. It’s basically about a mile of people yelling at you in both Spanish and English, “We have hammocks here!”, “My pina colada is the best around!”, “Excuse me, would you like to look around my shop?” Once you’re done with all that fun stuff, the blowhole is actually pretty cool. We climbed up on the rocks to get a good view, and the spray helped to cool us off. When we got back to the cabana we headed down to the beach! I debated putting a swim suit on, and I’m really glad I did because as soon as we got down there we were in the water. I love the Oregon coast but man, the ocean here! It’s warm, the sand glitters, you can go out foreeevveeer and the water’s only up to your waist, and you get pretty good at body surfing! It wasn’t long until all the boys, my dad, and I had been properly dunked under the waves. Just as I started out on my mission to find out how far I could walk before I would drown, my family called me back in so we could head down the coast a ways and investigate the large groups of people we saw. Remember this spring when I told you about the hot springs under the beach and how, “in theory”, you could dig your own personal hot tub? Well, theory became reality today! It was amazing. The sand was steaming. STEAMING. Mike, Pete, and I found a shallow pool and tried to dig it out a little. I guess we looked pretty pathetic (or white and pretty?), ‘cause some nice Mexican boys dug a big pool close by and then offered it to us. We thanked them and hopped in! I felt like one of the Japanese macaques that sit in the hot springs when it’s all snowy around them. It was really fantastic till my dad made us get out so we could go back to the house. Somehow we managed to have a full day even when we WEREN’T at the house…that said, I’m really excited to go back tomorrow!

Days 1-3. Viernes.

Being back at the Gabriel House makes me wonder why I ever left. I mean, sure, maybe I can’t drink the water or go places alone. Maybe each “conversation” I have makes me feel like I’m drowning in a very fast, strong river. A river of Spanish. But that’s OK, ‘cause when I walk through the gate each morning I get 3 kids yelling my name, a couple of hugs that knock the wind out of me, and at least 5 smiling faces. What more could I ask for?

                So I’ve been here for 2 ½ days, family in tow. I’ll be honest, the first afternoon kinda freaked me out (Mike’s sitting here reading this over my shoulder and just said “Because WE were all freaked out”). I guess that’s true. It’s a little hard to walk into a house full of 30 handicapped kids where no one speaks English. Especially after a busy day of traveling that started at 5 am. Remembering my first day, the only reason I did well at all was because we had Hillary giving us tasks to keep us busy. It is a little difficult to learn how to communicate with these kids. Some use sign language that they made up. Some understand English but don’t talk at all. And all communicate by hugs. Thankfully, yesterday the fam did better, and today was fantastic! They already have their favorite activities and favorite kids. My mom has latched onto Javier and is either holding him or at least sitting by him pretty much all day.  Jose loves having an older guy around, so my dad’s been spending a lot of time with him, walking and trying to understand his signs.  And the boys have been playing a lot with Uziel (Although I guess that’s true for all of us) and our newest little guy, Emanuel. So it’s been good and I can’t wait to go back tomorrow!

                “What more could I ask for?” That question actually has an answer, and it’s not “nothing”. I ask for fluency in Spanish and more than just 3 weeks to spend here. How about a lifetime? A lifetime of Louis calling me over and expecting me to understand his Spanish. A lifetime of Jaime wheeling himself around bumping into things in an attempt to find me. A lifetime of Uziel making his little baby-dinosaur noises. Heck, I’ll even take a lifetime of 5-kid dogpiles on me. 

The Adventure Continues...

Hey!

So, I know I haven't written on the ol' blog in a very, very long time. Sorry about that. If it's any consolation I tried to, I really did. I had 5 "Mexico Re-cap" attempts, but they all nosedived or shriveled in their own way, leaving this blog empty for a good 3 or so months. But I'm back to share some exciting news!!

*drumroll*

I'M GOING BACK TO MEXICO!

Tomorrow, actually. And I'm packing up my family so I can take them down with me! They'll be down there with me for a week, and then I'll stay for an additional 2. 

So yeah. With that invigorating announcement, I'll write more when I have time. And internet. And exciting things have happened.

peace out.