About a week ago, when all the kids started back at school here in Monterrey, Sammy (fellow Back2Back staff member) and I took over one of the dorms at Casa Hogar Douglas after several caregivers decided to leave. We were honestly a bit surprised by their departure but I truly feel blessed and lucky and I'm grateful to get to be the full-time caregiver for these 7 boys.
The last time I was the full-time caregiver of a dorm at this same orphanage - it was 2 years ago, I barely spoke Spanish, I didn't know the kids well, nor their daily schedule, I was clueless about their school uniforms, and I had 14 boys ages 2 to 9 instead of just 7 boys, and on top of that I was in charge of doing the laundry for all 70 kids that lived there at the time. This time around things are A LOT different. For the past 2 years, I've spent almost every single day at Casa Hogar Douglas either giving caregivers a day off by taking care of their kids from sun up till sun down, reading with the boys, doing homework, tutoring kids, giving boys haircuts, or caring for certain sibling sets on the weekends. After all that, I know each of these boys backwards and forwards before ever moving in. So the transition has been relatively smooth.
To top it all off - God has provided a way for me to have Saturdays off so that I can watch NCAA football from the time College Gameday starts until the west coast games are over - talk about beautiful!!!
We are all doing well. The boys so far have done their homework every single day which was not the case last year. They have been reading and doing extra math for me every single day - even on the weekends. And I've had to explain to each of them probably 5 times by now why it's important that they read and do more than just the bare minimum and remind them that I love them and only because I care about their futures - and because I believe in their abilities and refuse to let anything limit what type of career they could have one day simply because they attended one of the worst public schools in the entire state - that ALL THAT is WHY they have to read for 15 minutes. One day, they will "get it." That day is not now but that's not going to stop me from forcing them to develop to their full potential.
The dorm is SUPER clean and so are the boys. Amen and Amen.
1 comment:
your blog blesses me..even when you write about the things that you do, it is a blessing that shows Jesus. Thank you. Jesus is the details of your life. Thank you.
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