Who are the people in your neighborhood?

As we meet our neighbors in the community we would like to take you with us. Since you weren't with us today, let me introduce you to Belqui. Belqui has lived in Bobita for about ten years. Her husband runs the local "grocery" store in town. The last three years she has been the caretaker for the boys home at the orphanage. Needless to say she is one of the strongest women I've every known. She was able to handle all the roughhousing and discipline issues by herself while still keeping a graceful smile. She has resigned her position with the Children's Home so she can spend more time with her husband and work at the store. This is sad for us and for the kids but, thankfully she is just down the road. She invited us to lunch today and it was wonderful!

Man's Best Friend or Security System?

How about both!  Introducing our dog Uluru.  He isn't technically our dog.  The Wallaces were watching him for their daughter Shawnean and she agreed to let us have him while we are here in the Dominican!  

He is an Australian Blue Heeler, I think he tries to herd us into the house sometimes.  We have already become great friends with him and he is a great security system.  Everywhere I go he follows me and guards the door, ready to let me know if someone is coming up to the house.  A special thank you to the Wallaces and Shawnean for letting Ulu be a part of our family too!

Well Number One

Yesterday we started drilling our first well.  Since this is the first time for the rig to be used here we wanted to drill somewhere close to home just incase we forgot something or something went awry. Thankfully everything went smoothly and everyone stayed safe.  The people that we are drilling by are extremely excited to have clean water close to their home.  Please continue to keep safety for us in your prayers.  

Where there is no veterinarian....

On the way home from church yesterday I came upon one of our neighbors horses.  For any of you that have seen our video, the horse belongs to Christopher's family.  He was bleeding from the head, apparently there was an accident with a machete.  I went home and called my dad, who was formally a veterinarian.  We got the horse in between two trucks so it couldn't kick us and I started to clean out the wound.  Thankfully, Tim knew a guy up the road that is a vet-tech.  He was able to come down to the camp and put in a few stitches. He was still alive this morning so, hopefully he'll make it.  You can image what a huge burden it would be for this family to lose their horse.  

Fridays with Yania & Rosmery

This Friday I got to hang-out with Yania and Rosmery, they are the oldest girls at the children's home. They are both thirteen years old and a lot of fun.  I'm hoping to make this a weekly tradition. This week I showed them how to make jewelry.  I think it went over well.  They learned very quickly, each made three pairs or earrings and two bracelets.  Please e-mail me if you have any fun craft ideas or would like to send some supplies, believe it or not we don't have a Hobby Lobby around here.

Snickers Candy Bar + Beach = Perfect Valentine's Day

To celebrate Valentine's weekend we were able to visit our beautiful local beach.  Rich also went to the grocery store that is about an hour away from our house and bought me a Snickers! Before, I may not have thought much of a candy bar for a gift... it was better than I remembered!  We had a great weekend and hope all of you enjoyed your Valentine's Day.

Thank you!

Bruce and Barbara Goodwin, my parents, were able to come in last week for a few days to help us with our staff retreat.  Mom was able to help us look at each of our strengths and then see how we can work together as a team.  Dad helped us learn how to stay healthy spiritually and looked at some conflict management techniques.  It was a great weekend with a lot of helpful information. 

On a personal note, it was so nice to have family come in to the DR so early!  It was such a blessing to have them here!  It was also nice that they were able to bring in two suitcases of things we hadn't thought to bring or forgotten.  This was priceless considering we don't have a mail system here.  It was like Christmas all over!  Who knew getting paper towels and allergy medicine could be so exciting!  We hated to see them go but, were so thankful they could come! We love you guys! Thanks again and again!