their character is forever

Many major events have occurred since my last post....

1. a Hurricane rocked us again and left me stranded at Casa Hogar Douglas for a night where I slept in baby Alex's bed

2. my attempts to celebrate my own birthday with the Douglas kids

3. I was hospitalized over night for a stomach bug, high fever and dehydration

If you'd like to read about part 1 (of 3) of my birthday celebration with the Douglas kiddies and the hurricane please visit Jessica's blog - she was there with me. She did a great job explaining what happened on the night the hurricane hit. It's worth reading.

I don't like celebrating my own birthdays - I don't usually make a big deal out of it other than making sure to watch the Gators beat Tennessee. This year though, I decided to make a big deal out of it - by lavishing the 67 kids who live at Casa Hogar Douglas with a steak taco dinner followed by some ice cream cones. They were pumped. But if you read Jessica's blog - you know what happened. My party fizzled. Hurricane hit. My steak didn't arrive. I was bummed but amazed at the same time at the outcome.

The Prep team for attempt #1 to eat my birthday dinner that failed. But good effort. The woman on the right - is related to the director - Javier and she cooked ALL day to make me 4 amazing chocolate cakes to share with the kids. I was incredibly honored.

Well next day rolls around - I'm scheduled to take care of the youngest boys dorm from 6 am to 8 pm. The wake up part was easy - I was in their room at 6 am when the alarm on my phone went off. I sent them all off to school no problems.

Lunch comes around - we are finally going to eat the billions of kilos of steak that I bought for the kids (part 2 of my bday celebration with the kids). I'm excited. The kids are rather excited. The bell rings for lunch and my boys decide it's time for throwing crying fits and to start fighting with each other. Marcos is literally screaming at me because I told him that he couldn't go to the dining hall if he refused to put his shoes and socks on (is that too much to ask?). Oziel leans in on Alex for the 2nd time that day to hit him and then bite him right in front of me. I had already talked very sternly to Oziel about this earlier. Few things at this point phase me with these boys but when they start biting each other and trying to slam skulls around - I get very very mad. They know when Caroline is around - absolutely NO biting. So obviously, Oziel was put in time out for 4 minutes. He immediately starts crying. He's tired. He's behaving HORRIBLY - much worse than probably I've ever seen. My group of 10 boys that day barely all made it into the dining hall. Remember - we are finally sitting down to my billions of dollars worth of steak. Yet, I am not happy. David starts throwing tortillas. Fernando insists on getting in my face so I can't eat my own food because then the attention isn't on him. I finally get everyone to calm down and sit down and eat their plates. Apparently, Alexis (age 6) looked at Oziel's (age 4) plate of tacos wrong and Oziel lost it. His anger fumed and he stood up in his chair and kicked Alexis in the face with his shoe on. So I picked Oziel up, took his plate and went straight outside with him. The rest of the dining hall of course is COMPLETELY CALM except for my sweet angels of the Lord. Oziel is screaming, "NOOOO CAROLINE!!! NOOOO!" He's crying. I'm not going to yell at him, I'm not going to scold him and give him a talking to in front of 67 other crazy kids. Yet he sure didn't want to eat his lunch outside on the picnic table alone. I told him he was not allowed back inside the dining hall because kicking people in the face inside the dining hall is absolutely not allowed. I leave him. He proceeds to scream and cry, "No Caroline! No Caroline! Outside No!"

I love Oziel as if he was my own child. I was disappointed. He and I get along beautifully. But he's not allowed to bite people. Or kick them in the face. I've been talking to the boys a lot these past few weeks about what it means to be "macho" or "manly." Being "macho" means that if someone hits you or says something mean to you, you have control. You don't hit them back. You tell them not to do that or say that. We say that it's "girly" to hit people because it shows that you have no control.

After everyone else finished lunch, I went outside for Oziel and brought him back inside with his plate so he could sit on my lap and talk about what happened while he finished his tacos. I proceeded to tell him that (part 3 of my bday celebration) after dinner that night we were going to eat ice cream cones because I wanted to share with everyone for my birthday. He is more than thrilled. They never and I mean NEVER get ice cream. But I told him that if he hit or bit one more - ONE more- person that day, he wasnt going to get an ice cream cone. He immediately burst out crying saying, "why caroline did you say I can't have ice cream?!!?" So we talked about it for a good 20 minutes - around and around the thought processes until he could grasp all of it.

He took a good hour and half nap after that - he naps like once a month. Go figure.

The bell for dinner rings. We are all lined up in front of the dining hall waiting for the prayer so we can go inside to eat. My boys know that if they finish their dinner plate, they'll get an ice cream cone. We'd talked about it all day. So naturally, my 10 boys were doing the ants in their pants dance and couldn't stand still to save their lives. Fernando (age 7) walks over to Oziel and slaps him playfully in the face with excitement about ice cream a good 6 times. Oziel starts fuming and huffing and puffing. I was holding his 3 year old younger brother at the time but yelled at him from 15 feet away, "OZIEL DON'T HIT HIM!!!!!! YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU HIT HIM!!!!" and he stopped to look at me for a second or two and didn't hit Fernando. I ran over and celebrated that like the gators just won ANOTHER national championship. That's why I spend endless hours with these boys. Oziel's character, what kind of a man he will be when he grows up is a massive concern of mine. I want them to know right from wrong. I want them to have self control. I want them to feel secure. These boys struggle with everything - especially beating up on one another - they take their frustrations out on whoever is closest. It's brutal. But it doesnt have to be like that.

We ate dinner. It was AWESOME (part 3 of my bday celebration). They mixed the left over steak with potatoes and it was amazingly tasty. The ice cream cones were a hit. Everyone loved it. And I was thrilled. I finally had something HUGE to celebrate. I even got seconds on the ice cream. Oziel didn't hit Fernando - Praise the Lord.

Isai and Jose - loving it

My little grandpa man - David - the baby model

Oziel EARNED that ice cream