Was so excited to bake today. Tomorrow is Jacky's birthday. She is a Mom from Los Pinos who has been helping a lot since Marlin got pregnant. For a week she has been making it known to everyone that Wednesday is her birthday. I can't start buying gifts for everyone, and gifts are not as common for birthdays or even Christmas as they are in the US. So I figured that baking something for her would be a treat. Plus I still am trying to bake for the family that helped me buy my car. My stove is fixed, but it is not working well. For the chocolate eclairs I need to cook them at 400 degrees for a half hour. My stove has decided it only likes to go to 350 degrees and cook on one side. Eclairs a a little delicate. I rotated the pan once and covered the side of the oven with a towel to insulate the heat. We'll see how these turn out.
Marlin was in a great mood this morning. I gave her a huge hug as soon as I saw her. I was so grateful to be hugging her out of happiness instead of sadness.
She explained to me what happened at the hospital yesterday in more detail today. She was waiting in a long line of people to see the doctor. Every other pregnant lady came and went - even those after her. But the doctor spent a half and hour and could not find her baby's heartbeat. She said she was pretty calm because she could feel God's presence with her. Finally the second doctor came and found the heartbeat right away. He said Mommy and baby are both healthy. She was tired after a 14 hour day, but happy.
Tomorrow is the day we will take her monthly picture. Yesterday I thought how horrible it would be if we couldn't take the picture of her belly on the 22nd day of this month. Today, for the first time, Marlin seems to be looking forward to her monthly picture. I am sure she will still ask me not to share the photo as it is not part of this culture to do so.
For me, the best part of the day was to pull into a church FULL of kids. The soccer "field" was full and the church above was full. We have had about 25 kids every morning and about 15 every afternoon. Today we had 63 just in the morning!!!! Marlin and Jacky cooked. I was alone with the kids. We had a great time. I figured with this number, and since some were new, we would do an activity rather than reading from the children's bible. The kids love to learn English. So first we sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in Spanish. Then, after we had done it as fast as we could and added a jump at the end, we sang it in English. It was a hit. Even the older kids liked it. Then 63 kids, ages 2-15, closed their eyes and prayed. They were respectful and on task the whole time. Finally, they ate. Dishes were washed, teeth were brushed, -everyone had fun and everything went smoothly.
I have been wanting to wash my car for over a week. It gets filthy in just one day from driving on the dirt road to my house, so I don't expect to keep it clean. But it was embarrassing to drive that car to church last weekend because it was so dirty! So after everyone left I asked Don Juan if there was enough water for me to wash my car. He said sure. He washed one side and the inside, all while I was working on the other side. It felt great to have a shiny, clean car if only for a little while. When I got into my driveway tonight and pulled in to shut the gate I grabbed a towel and tried to wipe off some of the dirt from the road. That was an idea from my landlord's son. It helped a tiny bit.
I called Lourdes when I got home to tell her about the 70 kids that came to the Breakfast Program today. She was excited too. I told her now I want to pray that they keep coming! I loved those days when we had 100 kids every day. Today they are walking with Moms, Dads, and in big groups for safety. Almost 10 of the kids are new. I am working hard to make them feel welcome and telling them I hope they will come back. I can't wait until the day that I can write about feeding 100 kids again. Lourdes and I discussed it and decided that as long as we have any kids coming, we will never close the doors of the Breakfast Program. Even if we feed only a few (spiritually and physically), those few are important. I have been wondering for a while if this was God's way to prepare me and help me build a little confidence with a smaller group before He sent the huge groups. But I am ready for them now! Bring it on!!
