Prayer

Jeff and I have both been in tears this morning.  Something touched our hearts so deeply that if we were alone at the time, we probably would have been sobbing.

I was making breakfast (Jeff didn't have to work today b/c there was a water main break in his building and they shut off the water) and my phone jingled with an email message from my friend Tara.  I have mentioned her before - she took our family pictures last fall and has become a great friend and she and her family traveled with us to the DR.

She sent an email asking permission to publish something about Siahna on her blog.  You can read it here.  I hope it changes your view on how you approach the Father in prayer.

Dominican Republic - Day 3

Our third day in the DR was a Sunday so it was a day of rest, fun and church with our Dominican friends.

We took a 10 minute walk from our house to a beach.

We had fun taking underwater pictures.

Siahna loves the sandbox at home (we are moving in a week and that is one thing that's a must to take with us so I have been putting sand into buckets so we can transport the sandbox), so she was very content to just sit on the beach and play.

While we were swimming, a church came and did water baptisms and sang.  That was cool to watch.

Church was in the afternoon and it is loud and hot there and typically over 2 hours, although they did shorten the service for us gringos.  We thought for sure the noise would bother Siahna, but she was "singing" at the top of her lungs and dancing and it was emotional to watch her praise God.  Maybe our church is to tame for her and we need to find something more pentecostal!

Dominican Republic - Day 2

Our first full day was spent touring the community.  It was amazing to see what all had changed since last year when we were there.  This is the view from the house we stayed in with the ocean in the background.

Case had to get in some pool time before heading to the community.

This building was just being started last year when we arrived.  We did not help with construction but we did see walls going in a year ago.  So great to see the final product and be able to tour it.  The downstairs of the building is a medical office where a doctor comes to the community 2x a week to see patients.  The upstairs is partly used by women learning to sew to make an income and the other half is lived in by Sandra (the woman that we work with while there).

The medical office.

Women learning to sew from one instructor.

Siahna likes music and came across a tamborine.

This gym was in construction a year ago and was finished this year.  This is the top of the second school.

A street outside the church.

This house was our construction project.  Our job was to add the floor of the second story.  The home will eventually be used to train first time moms how to be a mom and the second story will house single moms and their children who have nowhere else to live.

This is our team from Denver.

This used to be the very first, only school building in this community.  It is now abandoned.

This is the gym/store for the Americans to shop in.

This is our translator and Case's good friend, Tony.

A classroom in the new school building.  Their class sizes are the same as ours (around 25) and you can see there is not a lot of space to house 25 kids.

Another classroom.

The library.

And, of course, fresh bananas straight from being cut off the tree!

Dominican Republic - Day 1

Our flight from DIA didn't leave until 11:15pm.  We had a 4 hour flight to Miami and then a 5 hour layover.  Another 2 hour flight got us to the DR and then we had a very hot 2 hour bus ride to our "hotel."

This little one did pretty well considering she only slept about 3.5 hours in 2 days.

This one used the 5 hour layover wisely.

This is outside the DR airport waiting for the bus to pick us up.

We made it!

We met Tony the Tiger last year and he and Case the Cheetah had a special bond.  Tony picked us up at the airport (he's our translator for the week and speaks 4 languages) and headed straight for Case.  It was pretty special to see Tony head straight for Case and pick him up and hug him.

This is how you load luggage the Dominican way!

Thankfully, 18 of us and our luggage fit on the bus.

Puerto Plata here we come!

First thing the kids did was to jump in the pool to cool off once we got to our house.  I think we made Siahna's goggles too tight!

Her hair is even curlier in the DR!

Our first day in the DR was rest and relaxation.  We had a lot of sleep to catch up on and settling in to do.  It sure felt good to be back!

Dominican Republic - Part 1

I didn't take a lot of pictures in the DR with my phone this year and I haven't downloaded the ones from the camera yet, but here's a sneak peak from what I have and from ones I stole from Facebook from my photographer friend Tara.  Who, by the way, is pretty handy to have around on a trip so that you have professional pictures when you get home.

We had a great week in the DR.  Tara and I did two days of teacher training which I think went really, really well.  These ladies make $60-70 per month as a teacher and some spend all that on transportation just to get to work each day, so they have to have multiple jobs.  But, they love kids and they love teaching so it's worth it to them.

The other thing we did was to help add a second floor to a home that will be used for single mom's to live in.  We helped get the floor ready to pour concrete and by the time we left, walls were going up (these pictures are on the camera so I will share them later). 

I have to say, the people in this community are amazing.  They have nothing compared to how we live, but I have never felt such love and acceptance like I do when I'm there.  They invite you into their home, they rush out and buy a liter of soda even though it costs a days wages.  I love being there.

Our flight from DIA did not leave until 11:15pm.  Siahna was still going strong at midnight, but did sleep from Denver to Miami (3.5 hours) and then was up.  She did finally crash on my lap at lunch time in the DR for about 30 minutes.  It's hard traveling overnight with kids.

We had a 5 hour layover in Miami and Case crashed on the floor.

This is the view from the home we stayed in (ocean in the back).

At dinner one night, some people ordered fish and it came body and all.  Some of the kids thought it would be a good idea to eat the fish eyeball (including my son) since it's considered a delicacy in places.  So disgusting, but he did it.

Picture courtesy of Tara: these girls latched on to Siahna last year and the minute they saw us this year, they never put Siahna down.  "Sisi, Sisi," they would say all day as they passed her around from girl to girl.

Picture courtesy of Tara: this is our team from Denver standing in front of the single mother's home, although you can't see much of the home.  More pictures to come.

Picture courtesy of Tara: I love the color.  These are homes.  Can you imagine if you lived in one of these?  It's very humbling to see how they live, especially as we are preparing to move to a bigger house because ours is too small.

Picture courtesy of Tara: this is me inside the home we were working on.  The entire first floor was filled with broken concrete blocks that we had to shovel into buckets, and pass the buckets out the window down a line of people to dump into a trash pile.  It took hours and hours to clean up the floor.

Picture courtesy of Tara: I absolutely love this picture of Jeff holding a little boy's hand.

Picture courtesy of Tara: This is Sandra - the lady we work with in the DR.  There truly is no one like her.  It's hard to say goodbye.  I will find a better picture of her later.

Shiloh's Married!

Shiloh got married June 7 and it was a super fun weekend.  They rented some cabins for an entire weekend so friends and family got to hang out (and work, work, work to get ready for the wedding) and enjoy being together for 3-4 days.  These are some of my favorite pics from the weekend.

Practice makes perfect!

Mom & Dad

Case's new thing is to take selfies.

Rehearsal bouquets (tissue paper).  I can't find a picture of our real bouquets, but they are super cute made out of buttons.  Pretty clever.

These boys sure do have fun together.  I wish we lived closer.

Alright, maybe I like selfies too!

Look, Siahna's smiling!

Corinne likes to "take care" of Siahna.  That means she's older and can boss her around.  But, she's really good with Siahna and is a good cousin to have around.

And she will pose for any camera, any time.

One of the best parts of the weekend was having my best friend there.  I forgot how much we laugh and how funny Holly is.

Getting ready.

They're married.

Photo bomb!

Dancing.

Silly faces.

All of the bridesmaids (there were 9 of us).

So cute!