I LOVE MY JOB!!! I have had the most amazing and encouraging week.  I absolutely love fighting on behalf of the orphan child.  Sometimes your heart breaks, other times your skin breaks, but there is always joy in what we do here and goodness i felt it this week.  I got to lead a group by myself in projects and grilling out for Casa Hogar Douglas one day.  A woman brought over 100 brand new PJ's without even knowing that one of the homes had recently asked for new PJs.  
To the right is a 16 year old girl named Milagros who lives in one of the squatters villages where back2back serves with a sweet woman named Meme.  On this day, we led a group of americans to work on the soup kitchen where Meme leads worship, a devotion and feeds several hundred people twice a week.  She was born extremely premature.  The doctors didn't think she was alive.  But she was and today is a living, walking, talking, signing miracle.  She can not hear but is healthy otherwise. Through financial support from an american family she is able to go to a sign language school here.   "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."  - Isaiah 40:29  She is so intelligent and proud to share with people what God has done in her life. 
We had a birthday party at Casa Hogar Imperio De Amor this week.  Mom check out that spongebob pinata!!  Today as SUCH an AWESOME day!!  I was soo encouraged and I had a great "spanish day" -- aka I was really thankful for so many great conversations in spanish today.  I love my job and I love what we get to do everyday. 
Whenever there is cake at a birthday party in mexico- you put the icing on your face to celebrate.  These two boys just kept laughing and laughing.  They are so full of joy and I loved eating my chocolate cup cake and laughing with them.
Beautiful children!  And these kids are so gosh darn sweet.  Don't you just want to hang out with them? So many of these children come from the absolute worst of home situations but God is doing a huge and obvious work in their hearts to restore their innocence.  Did I mention that I'm obsessed with my job?
On the left is me with baby Rene.  He fell asleep on the bus on the way back from Walmart.  An American group came down who wanted to purchase brand new shoes and toys for each kid at 2 of the orphanages we serve.  I have absolutely no words to try to describe shopping with 45 kids for brand new shoes and toys.  And i had baby Rene and two 7 year old girls!! It was insane.  And then we got to do again with another children's home later that afternoon.  I was brought to tears when children from the 2nd home just kept telling each of us over and over and over again, "Thank you!" in english.  They were so unbelievably thankful that someone made it possible for them to go to a store and pick out some new shoes-  probably the most genuine thank you's i've ever witnessed.  
Back2Back dedicated it's brand new medical clinic this past week.  We are now ready to have short term medical and dental teams serve with us.  The clinic is a beautiful 2 story building with state of the art examination, surgical, dental and emergency care rooms.  Our dream is to one day have a team of full time medical staff who live in the 2nd floor of the clinic to meet the everyday medical and dental needs of the orphans.  This week, a medical team was able to provide examinations for every child at each of the homes we serve.  This team also went out to one of the squatters villages where we serve and saw over 170 patients.
To the left is doctor Lisa who will be moving to India soon with her husband to lay the foundation for Back2Back India. While the medical team did their thing, I led a team of americans with Pastor Jose Angel to deliver food to 80 families in need.  We had the opportunity to talk with each family and pray for their specific needs.  One middle aged woman asked if we could pray for her brother who lives in the states and maybe send a letter to him for her (mexico has no postal system).  We returned later in the day to pick up her letter which was just a paper with his name and phone number in the states.  I was very confused and talked with her and tried to translate what she desired to tell her brother to one of the americans who would be making the phone call upon his return to the states.  After several minutes, one of the american men with me remembered that he had his phone in his pocket.  He handed it to the woman who then tried calling her brother who is in the states.  She hadnt spoken with him for almost 4 years and hadn't seen him for almost 7 years.  We were literally in the middle of nowhere mexico and this man's blackberry worked and the phone number was correct AND the brother answered the phone.  The sweet woman broke down immediately in tears and could hardly talk.  She kept telling her brother to call his mom because she is old and she missed him. It was such an emotional moment- even pastor Angel cried.
To the right is Miguel, a pre-medical student at the most prestigious university in all of Latin America.  Miguel grew up at Casa Hogar Douglas and is a student in Back2Back's Hope program.  He worked with the pharmacists all day to dispense drugs to the patients.  He's absolutely brilliant and the newspaper just informed us that is one of the top 5 students in his entire program at the Tec!  God is in the business of making all things new and I love to think about Miguel's hope for promising future. 

"In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart! I have overcome the world." -- Jesus, John 16:33