Well, I think it's been about a week.

I took an extra trip down to the orphanage this weekend for a couple reasons. 1. I needed to show the boys that took the money last time that it won't stop me from going down there or lessen my love for them. 2. I wanted to be there for Adrian because he was supposed to find out if his mom was alive or not. 3. I like to take trips by myself because I can do what I want and I don't have the worry of the other people. I take it on myself and hope that everyone is having a good time and comfortable, etc.

First though... I have to give an update from Amadeo last week. After church, most people had left, so I started picking on Joshua G. I haven't had time to play with him lately. I was kind of wrestling with him. Well, after I was done, he went over to Noah C. and said, "I just got beat up by a girl." That girl was me. He's 6! It was really hard...Anyway, I told Noah that I have beat him up too. He declined at first, and then proceeded to tell a story of when I was living with them. I still remember it too. Here's how he told it. "I was walking and reading my book. I was on chapter 3, and then you tripped me." So funny.

Now... onto the orphanage.

I decided to leave on Saturday morning because other Americans had the guest quarters, so I would either have to sleep in a hotel or in my car. I opted for my car, so I could save some money. Either option didn't have a microwave or anything, so it didn't effect what I'd be eating. It took me 3 hrs and 15 min. to get down there... So awesome! Oh, and I didn't speed at all (or at least I slowed down as soon as I caught myself - which was really fast!).

The kids know my car by now, so they were at my car door before I even turned it off. By this time, it was 9:40, so they were all awake. I had a few goals on this trip that I wanted to get done that I mentioned earlier. The only one I didn't mention was that I wanted to spend some time with Jesus (the boy I sponsor), because I realized when I left my last trip that I hardly spent any time with him.

I accomplished all of those things. By the end of Saturday night, all the boys were good. Angel took the longest, but his reasoning was different. He gets in a funk when his family visits. They spent about 5 hours there on Saturday afternoon (his parents and his 2 sisters, grandparents, aunt & uncle). Mexico just recently made a law that families have to visit kids every 90 days to maintain their rights. It's been right over that since I last saw them in late July. I don't know if they came in between. After he processed all of that, he was back to his normal self.

Adrian didn't find anything out about his mother, but he found out he has a grandma. He didn't know that before. She's about 4-5 hours away, and she has no way of visiting him or taking care of him. She's pretty old. She visited him one time when he was 6. He remembers someone visiting him, but she never told him she was his grandma. He said, "at least I have a grandma and she's a good one." I don't know what part of that would constitute her being a good one, but at least she is in his eyes.

Jesus, he's all good... I played Sequence, Connect 4, and Bingo with him. I spent lots of time with him and we laughed so much! He'll be in more stories later...

There were two different groups of Americans that came down. Colene's group, who left about 3, and then Christopher and Margie and their group, they got there about 5. When all of the kids saw that they were staying in the guest quarters, they asked me where I was sleeping. Jesus asked me, so I told him I was sleeping in my car. He busted out laughing. He then would bring other kids over one at a time and have them ask me, then when I would tell them, they would bust out laughing again. It was cute. I went to dinner at a taco stand with the Americans and Giselle and Gabriel, and when we got back... Jesus and others immediately came to the car. He asked again, in front of Giselle and Gabriel where I was sleeping. I answered in front of them. Giselle then offered that I could sleep in their house for free. I told her thanks, but I would be fine. I kind of wanted to sleep in my car, because I wanted that challenge. I'm weird, I know. Anyway, later on in the night, Giselle told me in front of the other Americans again that I can sleep in their house. They then offered that I could sleep in the kitchen in guest quarters and that they had an extra mattress. Wahoo! I took that option. It all worked out in the end.

Sunday was one of the boy's birthday, Juroh, and so Giselle (Manuel & Gaby's daughter) said that she was going to go in and sing Happy Birthday to him at midnight. Margie and I wanted to go with, so we stayed up and went over to the boys hall just before midnight. Giselle didn't come at first, and there were lots of boys that were awake, so we all just woke him up and sang to him. For a good 20 minutes after that, I was in Macario, Hector, Mario, Jesus Guadalupe (Keith's boy), and Antonio's room. They were so incredibly hyper and I could not get them to calm down and go to bed. Macario kept talking in voices that should have been in horror movies. Angel would come over and do them too. They were talking to each other back and forth in them. Jesus Guadalupe kept on farting. He seriously must have farted at least 15 times. Him and Mario share a bed and were plugging their noses because they couldn't breath and I went over to them and pulled the blanket over their faces to really make it bad. Mexican blankets have to be the worst for that sort of thing... They just kept on talking and being goofy. It was seriously so so so much fun. That was probably my favorite memory from that trip. Giselle ended out coming later and then we sang songs to him again. Juroh cried. It was cute. We finally left at 1, but they were all still going strong.

The 10-12 year old boys were on a baseball team, and they played a game on Sunday morning. Abraham got 2 home runs! Ramon pitched and did 2 strike outs in a row, and did really well. He pitches super fast and is actually really good. They won, 16-13! That was another good present for Juroh, who was also on the team.

The Americans had an eye doctor that came this trip. This is a good time of year for them, a dentist group came in October. They have been looked at a lot. Only a handful of the kids needed glasses. The optometrist got all of their glasses from the Lion's Club, and a lot of the kids didn't like their classes. Ruby refused to wear hers. Angel's took up half of his face. Jesus, Angel, and I were walking, and Angel was wearing glasses. I asked him who's glasses they were (because they were so big, I didn't think they were his). He answered his, and I told him that he was still handsome with them. Jesus started busted out laughing. I couldn't help but laugh. They are seriously so bad, they remind me of glasses that kids would get from an adult just to be silly.

Juanito, Angel (a different one from the one previously talked about), and Manuel's mom comes every Sunday and she brings their other brother Jose with her. She always greets me and has Jose greet me with a kiss as well. This is the first time that I tried to leave before she did. I said goodbye to her and her 4 boys at the same time. Yet, I ended out not being able to leave because of adults that have blocked my car in since they were getting their eyes checked. So, this is the first time I was there when she left. Juanito started bawling, and it was so hard. I held him while he watched her leave the premises. All I could say was, "it's okay. She will be here next Sunday." She has no idea what she's doing to him only seeing him once a week. Yet, I'm glad at least that I could be there for him, since he had never met the other American's before.

Wow... I could go on... but I really should stop. I had no idea that I would write this much. Maybe I shouldn't go a week without blogging about kids again... Obviously, it could be kind of dangerous. :)