i'm baaack!

i know i've been away for a bit. looking today i saw about 10 blog posts that i started and never published 😳 i will look over them, edit and publish with the original date posted. first, i started tutoring a girl who leaves for seattle on thursday for her year of studying english and leadership. i spent pretty much every break i had for 3 months looking for things to teach her, organize worksheets, and teaching class. then, we had summer for 5 weeks, where i was working every day from either 8am-5pm, or 10am-10pm. it was a bit "pesado", which means heavy, to spend all day with all my boys, then sleeping a little (not enough) just to get right back up do the day over again. it was a great time to get to know my boys better, but my sleep and well-being was put on the back burner for a bit.

now school is back in full swing, which i will continue to write about soon (promise!!). first, i thought i'd publish the post i wrote last thursday:

i will never say i know the whole story of nuestros pequeños hermanos, but i can say that every time i learn something new, i pretty much get moved to tears. 

today, i learned about the great people padre wasson's parents william and mary were. i learned that they were passionate about helping people without homes. they would frequently have father wasson when he was a child, sleep on the couch so they could let someone get a good night's sleep in his bed. from a young age, he learned to think of others first- to help them; that by just giving them a bed, you can change their life. 

they then moved to a completely different country because their son had a sickness and the climate was better here in mexico. where he then became a priest. but from such a young age he learned about sacrifice, and what it does for you and others. we learn to be appreciative of things, that the world lacks appreciation on every level (just imagine how different we'd be if we started to say one compliment every time we talked to someone), that a lot of things in this world are trivial and materialistic.

we have so much, yet want more. i think if we all started donating more - money, our time, talents - to others, we would be all happier. it doesnt take a fancy car, the newest cell phone, 40 pairs of shoes (it IS possible to live with only 3 😱) to be happy. the simplicity of life without all that is fantastic - the amount of worries you have drastically decrease when you start putting others before you pretty consistently. 

today, i also heard a story about growing bamboo. that you plant the seeds, and year after year, you cultivate the land, and you dont see any growth until after 5 years. thats a loooong time to wait for a plant to sprout. they then related this to us and our kids here. that we have to teach these kids, to nurture them. we are their parents, and a lot of time may go by before we see the changes we're planting for them. but we have to be patient, because when they do sprout, they will be beautiful.

also, i realized i only have 4 months left here. i am a very emotional person, and i am pretty sure they will go by SO quickly. i feel like i have so much left to do - so many more experiences i want to be a part of with them. i love all of my boys (48 as of friday!!!), and trying to think of leaving them is so hard. i know i can come back and visit them, but it will be different. i wish i could take them all to my house and have 48 kids (not really, but kind of).