I feel like I'm wearing a chearleader costume and my pompoms are rifles that are shooting everyone down.

Is this how a trainer should feel?

I'm looking forward to a fresh week. Last Sunday, I got back from Mexico after I was there for 9 days. Monday morning, bright and early, I was supposed to be at work at 5:30, but I got there at 6:30 (It would have helped if I knew I was supposed to be there then) Anyhow, Monday night we worked until 7, Tuesday was 5:30-8:30, Wednesday was 6:30-5 (Oh how thankful I was for Prims!), Thursday was 5:30-7:30, and then Friday was 6:30-4:30. So, I ended out working 61.5 hours for Insight and then I went straight over to the twins to work another 8 hours with them. To say the least, I haven't really had time to process anything.

This past week was the last of a six week commitment to work with the developers on our new system. We rolled the first group of 150 people out onto our new system. We walked around and answered any questions when they didn't understand the functionality and then created defects for our developers when it was just straight up broken.

I'm now back to my normal job which is really kind of weird. In three more weeks, I will have to do the same thing I did last week. Then two weeks later, then two weeks after that, and then again two weeks after that. It's kind of funky because I'll literally be doing completely different jobs from week to week. It's good though, it gives me more knowledge of how everything works. I may have to go to Chicago and/or Montreal to help train the people up there. They don't usually tell you until a week or days beforehand. I think I'll be one of their top picks though if they decide to add people onto the team that goes. We'll see.

Well, I'm off to start a casual normal work week for me. Working only 40 hours seems like a dream after an almost 70 hour work week between my two jobs. :)

Here's the video that I was talking about. If you would like to see it in WMP, then you can click here instead.

Be prepared, you just might cry. My dad did.

Also, the intent of this video is to get Giselle's college sponsored. They have other videos that they are making as well, but they don't have them translated yet. It still gives you a good idea of how it is down there.

I'm back, and I have so much to talk about... There was a lot that happened that I couldn't exactly write about with one of them sitting next to me.

This trip was crazy. I said in my last post that I have never talked to them so much about their families. I have also never talked to them so much about adoption. I've never wanted to talk to them about it, because I have no intentions of adopting any of them. It's not out of lack of love or even a lack of wanting them to be my own kids... It's because I would want 60 of them, and there's no point of doing that.

There was a group that came down last weekend and made a video to help get sponsors, people to adopt, and raise support. I will post the video and/or link to it later. One family wants to adopt 5 of the kids there. From talking to the oldest girl in that family, it caused other kids to ask me questions about it to. One of the older boys asked if I am going to adopt Jesus Humberto, the one I sponsor. I told him no because he has a mom. Then he said, how about Chanipa (Juan Ramon), I then told him that I love lots of the kids, but I could never choose 1 or 2, I would want to adopt them all. It's an uncomfortable subject for me, but it was kind of interesting too.

Another situation that is kind of similar to this is when I was just standing on the basketball court. One of the new boys (Jose Isaac) came over to me and was hugging me. Another boy came over to me and started to hug me too. Jose Isaac then pushed the other kid away and said "You have a mom". He then started calling me Mom for the rest of the night.

Hola, I'm currently in Mexico in a computer class with some of the kids, and I'm using a Spanish keyboard, but surprisingly, I'm getting used to it. I think that Jared and I have become "soccer moms" during our week stay here. We currently have an hour before we pick up Ramon and an hour and a half before we pick up Yesenia, Lupita, and Johanna from school. It's awesome though, and we are both glad to do it whenever we can. Through this, I have learned my way around this city far more than I would have ever thought...

Here's a few updates:

There are several new kids, and they are super cute. Some of them actually speak English at 5 and 6 years of age.
They are not in need of beans, rice, oatmeal, or apple sauce. They have an abundance. Our project throughout this week (that we still aren't completely finished with) is the kitchen panty. CdE has been around for 21 years, and I don't know if it's ever been cleaned. I have found cans of rice from 1991 in there! It's absolutely insane.
If I see another cockroach, I think I'm going to scream. Scratch that, I already have screamed from being sick of seeing them. There are lots of them that have been killed and dried in the paint to be later removed.
Oil paint and paint thinner are toxic in a small pantry. It's actually a pretty good size room, but with that much paint, it's deadly. Jared, Roxanna, and I all got high from being in there. I snapped right out of it though when the kids were scared of Jared because he couldn't walk straight and his speech was slurred. He thought he was walking completely normal...

I honestly feel like I haven't been able to spend that much time with the kids because of the project and everything else, but I'm stoked that tomorrow and Sunday will be project free days.

I have never ever realized how much I say "Oh my gosh" until this trip. You know how you don't realize something until someone repeats it every time you say it... It will forever be "ohmygosh" now. You must say it as fast as humanly possible in an accent.

Please pray for these kids. I have never talked about their families with them as much as I have on this trip. They know their families, and they love them and miss them. They cry about it often. It's the hardest thing ever to see a little boy curled up inside of an enclosed slide just crying... but at least I am able to share with him that only God can help him and his family. Only God loves him far more than we ever could.

Well, I think that's about it for now. Love you all. See you soon.

This past weekend was totally busy. Friday night, I watched my little cousins from 6 p.m. - 3 a.m. We played with Instant-Snow, freeze dance, random fun things, and I even got to teach and play Trouble and Kerplunk with my cousin. She got them for Christmas, and it's just so sad to me that she hasn't got to play them yet.

Saturday morning, bright and early at 10 a.m I went over to Jonathan's. I watched him until 4 p.m. and then I went to the twins from 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. During the course of the two days, I babysat for 20 hours. Let's remind you nice folks that that is outside of my time working at Insight on Friday. Between everything, I worked 27 1/2 hours between the two days.

Saturday afternoon, Mandy called and told me that I got to teach this weekend's lesson to the kids at Amadeo. She told me that the lesson was on helping the poor, and I got so excited. I think most people would see it as a sure fit for me because of everything at CdE, but that's not why. Most people would think that being around a 9 yr. old boy that has autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and a seizure disorder and feeding him processed food would make me hit my "low" point for the weekend, yet it wasn't. It was spending time with my rich little cousin on Friday night. I got there, and I saw her sitting on the minicouch in her play room watching Sponge Bob with her back perfectly straight, her legs at 90 degree angles, and with her arms crossed in her lap. This is her life, this is how she has become. It broke my heart. She is so grown up, that she barely enjoys being a kid. Seeing her a few hours later (under my immature influence), playing with the fake snow, realizing it was okay for her 1 1/2 year old sister to spill on the counter and play with the snow outside of the bowl.... to putting it in her hair and having a great time was more than I could have ever wanted or dreamed. She was a kid. For at least 40 minutes. And she's only 5 1/2 years old.

Sunday morning at Amadeo was awesome. The lesson went really well. I didn't really have to teach at all, the kids did all of that for me. I remember learning in bible college how to do "small group discussions" and that was the approach I took. I asked lots of questions, and I was amazed at their answers. I couldn't believe that Derek thought about how being sad could be a type of poor or that Noah would think of the lost as a type of poor. Teaching on the financially poor, poor in heart, and poor in spirit was amazing to see how the kids responded. They had so many great ideas of how to help these 3 distinctively different types of people. They thought of everything from giving them bibles, having them over, giving them a home (if you have 5), giving them more money than is comfortable, making them food, and praying for them.

The next part of my day was to go to the going away party for my cousin. I am so proud of this kid. He is 22 years old. He was a star quarterback in high school football, played for NAU, and now he wants to be an Army Ranger like Pat Tillman. I'm not completely gung ho, but I will support him in anything he does because he's my cousin and I love him. He leaves Wednesday, and he'll be gone for 22 weeks and 4 days for boot camp for then he is then home for a month. After that, he'll be gone for another 7 months in Army Ranger training, and so it will be over a year before he can get deployed. This is how I'm trying to cope. I can't imagine what Beka is going through. This is the first time that it is really hitting home for me. On top of that, his younger brother wants to go into the Air Force, and he's in the process of joining as well. He is just waiting for his ticket to clear up. If you could please lift up my cousin Eric in your prayers, I would greatly appreciate it. He is not a Christian.

Immediately after leaving there, I checked my voicemail, and sure enough, after being dilated to 5 for over a week, my friend Jen had her 4th child yesterday at 3 a.m. She had a beautiful little girl named Brooklyn Madeline on her birthday. They will now get to share it together forever. It was a much needed uplift after my cousins party and seeing my family trashed. It was funny at parts, don't get me wrong, but having my niece go to her first kegger at age 3 isn't exactly a proud moment for me or my family.

Well, I love you all... That's all for now.