Happy Mother's Day-- soon to be

Happy Mother's Day 2008!

We also are celebrating today as we just found out that we are expecting!!! It would have been so fun to sit down with each of you and tell you personally but I guess that's part of living in another country.

Last week I had my first doctor's appointment. I am 7-8 weeks pregnant and due on Christmas Day! We are so excited!

Thanks for sharing the joy in this very exciting time with us!

Building trip May 08

Charles with Mayte's nephews who helped mix cement!

















Digging the trench for the drainage.






















The ground was really hard. Marco loosening up the ground!















Helping wash the many dishes after the amazing lunches that Mayte and Tina made each day for us!














The building team (David Hughes, Ed Shaffer, Roger and Emily Shafer, David Griffin and Charles and Jackie Kindle) with Mayte on left and her mom, Tina on right.












The guys taking a road trip in the back of a pick up to some water falls.





















Job well done!! Walls that were built for the bathroom and Kitchen. A pretty good advance if you ask me!

Building Kitchen/ Bathroom for Tina- Xalapa

The most challenging part of this trip was the projext in Xalapa, Veracruz. 3 hours from Puebla! I lived in Xalapa for 4 years doing campus minsitry. It was like going "home" for me. While I was in Xalapa, I lived with Mayte who is a very special friend of mine here in Mexico. Over the years I have come to feel like part of her family. I was there when her dad passed away a few years ago and have kept in touch with her family even after moving away from Xalapa.

Mayte's family is very hard working and humble. They have always been so generous to me and everyone that comes into their home. I have always tried to do what I could to help out their family in any way and when the building team wanted to come back, I just knew it would be such a blessing for them to have them come!

Tina has a two room home. One room for her kitchen, dining room and living room. The other room has three beds and a section partitioned off for the toilet and bathing area. They did not have running water in the bathroom and Tina would wash the dishes outside under a tin roof off from the house. Every morning she would get up to heat up water to bathe with.

As she is getting older, I have heard her express how nice it would be to have a working bathroom and a seperate kitchen. That is exactly what I presented to the building trip and what we began to work on.

Thanks to all the generous donations of people in Ohio, this project was able to be started! Look at what we were able to get done!!

Painting and Building Relationships- Puebla

The team spent 5 days in Puebla continuing to build relationship with people at our church. Pastor Alberto was so glad to see Charles, Jackie and Dave again. He appreciated the hours of painting to have the kitchen redone and the outside walls that mark the property done. Dave also came up with several designs for the restoration of the mens and women's bathrooms that the church would like to see accomplished in the near future.

Charles shared the message for the second time Sunday Morning at Maranatha Church. (he shared last August too!) This time I, Kim, translated for him! After the service we headed over to the neighbor's house for a church picnic. It was a great time of fellowship!

Boys at Orphanage

Before leaving the boys at the orphanage sang us a song and we got a group picture!

Ohio Building Trip May 08- Orphanage

We had a great time preparing to go to the orphanage. Claudia and I went and visited a few weeks before the group arrived and the director shared that the most urgent needs for the 37 boys ranging from 3 or 4 to about 20 were basic hygiene products such as soap, deodarant, shampoo and toothbrushes and toothpasate. We were able to give each boy their own care package with each of these items with YOUR help!!! We were so amazed by the generous donations and gifts for the boys. We wish that you could have been there to see their excitement and to just meet them.

What was obvious to me was that these boys need love and attention. One boy, about 5 years old, hung on to whoever was around him. He would hug you and watch you and hold your hand. You could tell that he just wanted to be loved and appreciated.