Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Heard Around the House #13

 The kids' 2 bedrooms are going to be finished in the next couple of twelve months. The boys sleep in what will be my parents room when they move here (Yay!) and Eden sleeps in our closet. We were discussing who would sleep in which room. Silas felt bad for Eden because she would be alone in her room. (I predict she will end up sleeping in the boys' room for the first couple of months.)
Dada - "Well Eden isn't a twin."
Jonah - "Yeah, me and Silas are twins, he takes care of me and I take care of him."
Beautiful definition of twins!
Eden is VERY independent. Much more than even the boys are now. It started with her pushing us away so she could do it herself and she would yell "Got it!" Now it has evolved into her saying, "I do it!!!" She gets so disgusted with me if I try to help her... with her shoes, getting into the car, filling up her water cup, anything really. She always wants to help ME though, so I don't feel completely rejected!
{We were trying to make cupcakes that looked like the ones in Eden's book.}
{"No Mama, I'm an angel I would never eat another cupcake if you told me not to!"}
Eden wouldn't let us help her potty train either. I explained it to her and she did not like the idea at all at first. She fussed at me when I put cute little pink panties on her. Then I said big girls use a potty and that only big girls could help me in the kitchen. (That is our thing. She sits on the counter and helps me with nearly every meal.) That rule broke my heart, but it only took a couple days. Soon she started asking for panties. The first time she used the potty (she wouldn't use it with either one of us in there helping her... HARD-HEADED!)
I was in the laundry room and I heard her start to cry, not a painful cry, but an angry one. Then she yelled, "Mama, bop!" Sure enough she had bopped in the potty and she was not happy about that being what she was expected to do now. Then she said, "Candy?!" Soon after that she started waking up, taking off her diaper and putting on panties herself. She goes on her own now and gets her own candy afterwards. She doesn't use diapers for naptime but I'm waiting till she gets her big girl bed until we try all night. Killin me! She is a year ahead of when the boys were finally potty trained. I'm grateful about how ridiculously easy this was compared to them, but I am SO sad that she is so big.
Jonah came up to me the other day very serious and kind of whispered - "Mama, I'm growing right now." I guess sometimes you can feel it, lol! 
{Like feeding a bunch of monkeys}
Silas doesn't have a lot of patience with Jonah in the mornings. He really wants to play, but his internal clock is about 2 hours ahead of Jonah. Even if Jonah wakes up with everyone else, that doesn't mean he is functional yet. Silas was just fussing at him for every little thing one morning.
Mama - "Silas, you worry about Silas."
Silas - "Mama, if I worry about Silas then that means that I don't believe in God."
{Silas' depiction of our family... I love Dada's big head! Silas and Dada are also carrying backpacks.}
The kids were squished in the back of the pickup the other day and Silas was stating that he didn't have room to sit. 
Jonah - "Just deal with it!"
MaG was thinking about flying here and picking up the grandkids to spend a week in the States with her and G. I was worried about Eden missing us. Very excited about the idea, Jonah and Silas immediately started reassuring me that they would all be ok and not miss us. Silas took it a little far and said -"Mama, I won't miss you AT ALL!" That got Mama really upset. Jonah caught on immediately and was very diplomatic about the whole thing. Finally he was tired of me and Silas going back and forth and said very frustratedly - "Come on Silas! Just say you will miss Mama!"
Jonah came into our room one morning to snuggle. His head was on my tummy and he must have heard something. He looked up at me and said, "Mama, God is talking to your heart. I don't know what He is saying, but He is saying something."
{Snuggling on the bed with a pile of books!}
One night after our night-night routine, Jonah got all worked up about something. He was crying and getting more worked up by the second. I went into their room and said very seriously - "You need to stop this Boobooing!" I meant to say boohooing, but once it left my mouth, Jonah immediately started cracking up laughing! Now whenever anyone is having a bad attitude, which we all suffer from once in a while, we say, "Stop your Boobooing" and it helps lighten the mood.
{We love board games in this house!}
Lucha, Jimmy's boxer keeps tearing up the rat screen on our back door trying to get inside the house whenever she hears fireworks. (Which happens multiple times a day here.) Jimmy has fixed it dozens of times. One night he was really upset with her and saying he was going to do anything from putting her down, to taking her out into a field and just letting her go. Silas was upset about it. It was his turn to pray that night as part of their night-night routine. He prayed, "God, please help Lucha be good and please help Dada fix his attitude!"
{Popsicle too!}
I was sitting in the living room having a very serious conversation with Silas. I was thinking, this is great, he is really getting what I am trying to explain to him. Then he leans over and whispers with a grin in my ear, "Mama, I just tooted on the couch two times."
{Silas' first sight word... thank you, Dada!}
Eden AND Silas were on the bed one morning with us and Silas said, "Shhhh, I hear something!" Eden looked at me and whispered, "Bad guys." I think she plays pretend with her brothers a lot! 
{Dada got us pop for movie night!}
Jimmy was sharing with the kids a verse from Proverbs. He was explaining was a hypocrite was. He gave them all superhero mask and then explained that who you are is what you are when you take your mask off.
Dada - "Silas, right now you look like iron man. Take your mask off. Now, who are you really?"
Silas - "Batman".
{How Jonah brushes his teeth!}
Out of nowhere one day.
Silas - "Mama, I love you more than catching... I don't really like catching at all." (Nice!)
Mama - "Catching what?"
Silas - "You know, catching balls, catching fish." 
{So thankful for these guys!}
Silas is very serious about pie... any type of pie. Dada promised Silas a piece of pumpkin pie after church one night, so he had been waiting a while only to find this:

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Not At All What I Pictured

Out of the 4 students at the farm, Ro has the most education. H has the same amount Ro did at his age, but he is younger. Knowing that going in, I probably had the least amount of mercy and the highest expectations for him in my class. He did really well, but I kind of expected it or assumed he really didn't have to try as hard as the others. Maybe I missed an opportunity to celebrate with him on his achievements. His confidence led me to assume lots of things. I pictured his house, his family, his life story...

Well, this past week his family came to visit him. When they arrived, they were so excited to see their son, that they couldn't even speak for the tears. They are very supportive of their son being at the institute. While Ro was in class, his mom and sister went right to cleaning his house and doing his laundry. Moms are the same all over the world! They were here only a couple days, but I was able to learn so much more about Ro.
Neither one of Ro's parents can read. That in and of itself is a very large barrier to overcome. We learn so much as children being read to by our parents, things that lay the foundation for all of our future learning. Illiterate parents tend to either not place as high of a value on higher education, or don't know how to make it available to their kids. How would they provide the support system they need to succeed. How would illiterate parents go about helping their kids with their schoolwork? Illiterate people learn in different ways. They file things away in their minds differently, thus recalling them differently when it is time to relate to something new in order to learn more. I have no idea how Ro got to where he is at other than the sheer determination of his parents. 
Education in Guatemala is free, other than basic school supplies until you finish an equivalent to (in years) Jr High. That is where kids usually get lost. Either they don't see the value to pay to continue their education, they live in such rural areas that there aren't jobs for their parents to get to be able to pay for higher education, or they aren't counseled to choose the right school where there will be a job for them afterwards where they live. 

[Here in Sr High you choose your general field like we would do in college. In our area for $40 a month you can be a teacher, nurse or accountant. Only those three schools are offered. Then if you want to do something else you go to college with that as your foundation- so an accountant would go on to study business or law.]

It is the fathers whose sole income is their corn fields, rather than having an outside stable job that have the hardest time. Again, the ruralness of where people live limits their opportunities to have jobs. Ro's dad works at a palm plantation. That means he travels from his rural home to work in a larger town. He provided the means for Ro to get a higher education and then rallied behind him!

I didn't realize Ro's background before. I pictured him as a privileged city boy (because he is educated) and that wasn't the case at all! With the help of his father he removed obstacles that usually take more than one generation to overcome. I was humbled to see his real story. Because of what his father sacrificed his son will be a very well prepared pastor one day, influencing the next generation for Christ! 

CUTE ITEM OF THE DAY: Sparky's girlfriend gave birth to 8 piglets this past week at the institute farm! Our herd is growing!
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