Father Knows Best....sometimes

Well, well, well…

Where do I begin this little update about Sarita and me playing mama and papa last week. As many of you know, at least if you read our blog site and/or emails, we took care of 6 orphans last week as their “adoptive parents,” pastor C and his wife, had an opportunity to travel to another state here in Mexico for some vacation and work. I say work but actually pastor C was asked to preach a few times at a very large conference in Durango Mexico, about a 25 hour drive from here.

We begin our duties last Monday the 7th of August at about 10am and we finished watching the kids around noon on Saturday the 12th. That is when pastor C’s brother came and picked up the children to take them to San Cristobal to watch them until yesterday the 15th when pastor C and his family returned.

When we arrived on Monday, we met the first couple that had been watching the kids for the first week. We received our marching orders and then relieved them of their duties so that they could go back home, as they live in San Cristobal as well. We needed instruction on many things such as: how does the washing machine work as many of the options are broke on this particular washing machine (we know how the dryer works…you take these little wooden things in one hand and your clothes in the other and you attach your clothes with the little wooden things on a rope that runs across the length of your backyard…and if it doesn’t rain you have dry clothes), what kinds of foods the kids eat and when, the daily routine, the strengths and weaknesses of each child and the chores that they need to do, etc. We also found out that one of the kids, Estela was sick and in bed. She had been sick for a few days with a high temperature but thankfully the doctor was coming this same day to check out all the kids.

In my last email about the kids I told you their ages but I might have been a little off. Nachita and Alehandro are 5, Ricardo and Maki are 6, Manuel is 8, and Estela is 10. Estela and Manuel and Maki are brothers and sisters, Ricardo and Alehandro are brothers and Nachia is Estela’s, Manuel’s and Maki’s neice. Many of these kids have been abused and some of their parents are in prison for a very long time. Most of these kids are from indigenous communities (meaning they are native Mexicans) so they speak 2 languages (at least the older ones can speak 2 languages because they still remember their primary language).

After our little orientation, Alvaro and his family left, which left us alone with the kids. As you might expect, Sarita jumped right into action, but as for me, well I was still trying to remember which kids do what and what goes where and how does this thing work…in other words I was still a little shell shocked at all the information that we had just received. I mean come on…45 minutes ago I was not a daddy, but now all of a sudden I had 3 or 4 kids running around me talking to me about a hundred miles an hour in Spanish, and I presume, asking me to help them or play with them or show them how to do something. Just for your information, trying to understand Spanish from a child is way different than trying to understand what a grown up is saying. Why you might ask. Because adults try to help you out a little because they understand that you don’t speak their language so they speak a little slower and more clear and often times they use words that are more common and not slang…and so they listen to what you are trying to say and help you with the words. Well not the case with 5 and 6 year olds. They obviously think… “hey if this guy is taking care of us, he must know our language so I am just going to speak normal and let it rip”…actually they probably don’t think about any of this but rather are just trying to get their point across as quickly as possible.

I remember one of the first conversations with the kids which was with Maki. He came up to me and said something which I did not understand at all…and when I mean at all, I mean that I didn’t even catch one word of what he was saying. So of course I asked him to repeat himself; which he did. And guess what? I still didn’t have a clue what he was saying. So I asked him again to repeat himself and he did but alas, I did not know what this little 6 year old wanted so I just said… “go ask Sarita”, so off he went and I can honestly say that I have no idea if he ever spoke to Sarita and got his question taken care of, for as soon as he left there was another little one to take his place in front of me speaking a hundred miles an hour in a language that I don’t understand. Anyway, you get the picture. By the end of the week we could understand them a little better, especially Sarita as she got more practice than I did (I wonder why J), but we still didn’t understand most of what they were saying. Now that is not all bad because many times these little ones acted just like our 22 nieces and nephews do at home as there was always someone coming up to me to tell me what another child was doing or had done…you know…they were tattle-taleing.

In reality, by the end of the week, our favorite phrase when one of the kids came up to us to tell us something was, “no hay problemas, esta bien” meaning basically that there are no problems and it is all good. Sarita and I laughed many times after the little one turned around and walked away for we wondered what in the world these kids were thinking as they had probably come up to us and told us that one of the other kids had just done something really bad and we had just told them that it was no problem and that everything was just fine!!!! Now lest anyone think that we just totally left these kids on their own, we didn’t. When we saw blood, or when we saw one kid’s hand full of the other kid’s hair, or when we saw one kid dangling the other kid off the balcony by his feet, then we stepped in and broke up the fight but if these things weren’t taking place then it was survival of the fittest. Just joking of course, but truly, we knew when there was a real problem or not and we could tell in their tone or their actions if there was a real incident that needed our attention. So actually everything was all good.

Unfortunately, Sarita and I found out that when one kid gets sick in a family, the rest are soon to follow in the footsteps of the first sickly one. By day 2, we had 2 sick ones on our hands and by day 3 we had 3 sick ones. But on day 4 we were back down to 2 sick ones but then on day 5 we were back up to 3 sick ones. Got that? In easy to understand language, we had to deal with a bunch of sick little ones all week long. One night Sarita went in and slept with one of the little ones and then the next night I did the same as this seemed a lot easier to me than to have to get up about 10 times in one night to go see why they were crying and sometimes screaming. And even one night we decided to bring Nachita into our room to sleep because she was waking up every 30 or 45 minutes screaming about pain in her throat and head. So we made a little pallet next to the bed (which was on my side of the bed) and every time she woke up I would just reach over and pat her head and talk to her for a moment and she would stop crying and go back to sleep for a few more minutes. All in all, the sickness was not that bad (maybe because I wasn’t the one that was sick) and the kids seemed to react to the medicine within a couple of days.

The Lord was so faithful and good to us as He made it so that we had a little help with the kids during the day. A group came down from Texas/Oklahoma to help paint the inside of the house (orphanage) and do some cleanup as well. They also helped us get the floor and support posts set for a tree house on the new property that will one day be used for the construction of a larger orphanage. They came for about 5 or 6 hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. There were about 15 of these helpers and they did exactly that…they helped us out tremendously. They played with the kids and they helped teach the kids and they helped us clean the house so it was great that they came…and to think, it could have been any week that they showed up but in the providence of God, it wasn’t just any week, it was the week that we were playing “parents” so it was the best week for us. There was also another few people that came 4 days last week to play with the kids. There was a women that had come from the States to stay in San Cristobal for 2 months to learn some Spanish and get to know the area. She had found out about these kids in the orphanage, so she decided to come to Teopisca for about 2 hours each day to play with them and bake cookies with them etc. She brought a big bag of toys and stickers and other fun things so she was a big help too.

There were many fun times, but one of the funniest times had to be bath time…or actually shower time. The orphanage does not have any hot water (because they do not have enough money to purchase the propane to heat the water) so they usually take bucket showers during the middle of the day after the sun has heated up the tank on top of the house…but it still isn’t hot enough for my liking. Anyway, Sarita and I thought that it would be good to use hot water on the kids since many of them were sick at any one time, so we loaded up our truck and took them over to our house to take showers. Saraita, washed the 2 girls and I had the privilege of bathing the 4 boys. The kids might have been sick, but when they felt that hot water, and of course saw the new scenery of our house, they were not too sick any longer…at least for an hour or so. I am not sure how the girls reacted to the shower and hot water, but it was almost impossible for me to control those 4 boys. They just kept running around in the shower from one side to the other and they kept picking up the small Tupperware container that I was using to wash their hair more thoroughly and pouring it all over themselves and each other. They just thought that this was the most fun thing they had ever done! Praise the Lord that no one got any soap in the eyes and that we didn’t have any major accidents.

One other funny thing that happened was at the expense of Alehandro. He did not want to listen to me nor look at me when I tried to talk with him. I asked him 3 or 4 times to look at me and he would not so I put him in the corner of the room and told him to look at the wall. Several times, I saw that he was not obeying me and instead was turned around and one time he was even playing with the other kids. So I took him to another room of the house and put him on a bench and told him that he had to sit there for an hour and stare at the wall. Well, that was not to his liking either, so he got up and decided to play with some toys. At this point I was not sure what to do as this was not my kid and I did not feel right about spanking somebody else’s kid. Although, before pastor C left, he gave us a small switch that he said we should use if the kids decided they wanted to disobey…he obviously know more about the disposition of these kids than we do. So I decided that it was time for a possible spanking so I went and got the switch from the kitchen and brought it back into the room where Alehandro was at and told him to take off his pants. As you might expect, he did not listen so I put my hands on his pants to take them off and you would have thought that I had just tried to kill the kid as I have never heard such crying noises come out of a child before. He started saying something which I could not understand, but I understood enough to know that he was ready to obey me. So I put the little switch down and sat him on my lap and told him to stop crying and I talked with him for about 7 or 8 minutes about his behavior (not using that word of course because that is a big word for me) and told him that God was not happy with how he was acting and disobeying me and I told him that I would not give him a spanking if he obeyed me in the future. He told me that he understood me and that he was sorry and that he would obey me in the future. So I said ok, but you have to sit here for 1 hour. Well, that worked because he sat right there without looking around or doing anything but looking down or looking at the wall. So I decided that after 40 minutes he had been good enough so that I could let him play with the other kids…and besides I didn’t figure that at 5 years old he knew the difference between 1 hour and 40 minutes. Before I let him go, I told him that I loved him but that he needed to obey all adults, not just me. I gave him a big hug and patted him on the backside and told him to go play.

The next day, I heard Sarita tell Alehandro to do something and he put his head down just like he did with me the day before. He would not look at her and he would not do what she said. So I stopped doing what I was doing and looked at him and said, “Alehandro, do you remember yesterday and what happened when you did not obey me” Well, it was as if a light went on in his head for his eyes got real big and he immediately turned around and did exactly what Sarita had just told him to do. Sarita looked at me and I looked at Sarita and we just smiled and laughed. He obviously did remember the day before and he did not hesitate to obey once he remembered. I don’t know why we thought that was so incredible as there are two verses in the bible say, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 and the other is in Proverbs 22:15 which says, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him.” I know that there are people out there that probably don’t agree with spanking their kids or other forms of discipline, but after playing “daddy” for only a week, I realized that these two verses are true. All I had to do was to show Alehandro the “rod of correction” (a simple small switch) and it drove that foolish behavior from him very quickly. Anyway, I didn’t write this email to make anyone mad because I mentioned spanking so I am just going to stop talking about the subject!!!!

All in all, we had a great time, and we learned a few things about being parents. But we have lots to learn and I am afraid that we are not going to learn most of the things we need to know until we actually have a child so I guess that we will just have to wait and see.

OK, now for Sarita’s commentary.

Well what a great week we had. I told a friend that it was the best week that I have had here in Teiopica. It is true that many times I had no clue what the kids were saying, but like Lance said we could tell by the tone of their voice what they needed, Or what they wanted and during the week I picked up on some more words like the word HIT. I think I learned that word first. I think you can guess why.

I think the funniest thing was teaching the kids the song Holy holy holy, in English what a fun thing to hear these little ones singing this hymn all day long.

I think that the saddest thing for me was not being able to understand everything and being able to have small talk with the kids. I also wish I could have really told them about how there sins even though they were little displeased God, and how God sees the everything that we do. How our own ways seem right in our own eyes, but the truth is that our own ways displease God. I was reminded that as a grown up I might not hit someone when they make me mad, but I can think all manner of evil against them. And to God it is still the same, sin is sin to God. God’s word says “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. James 2:10 ” This is sobering to me. Yet there is no way that I can keep the whole law. And that is why I am so thankful for God’ grace and mercy.

I think that Lance made a great daddy for the week. He helped me out so much always backing up what I said. Yet how much Greater is our heavenly Father who lovingly cares, disciples, laughs, cries, knows, and hears his children. God is the best Father.

We are so thankful to God for this week of leaning more of Him and his Fatherly love.

Grace and peace to you all,

Lance and Sarita

Here we are taking the kids to the central part here in town; we had some form of tostados made with ham, pineapple, and bananna..actually Sarita and I had sandwiches and chips (Cheetos...my favorite). Maki was sick and had just taken some medicine and one of the photos shows him crashed out.

The kids thought that this was the greatest...I was making some shelves for pastor C and family and I had all my tools out and they just loved playing with many of them. Check out Manuel with my glooves on, think he needs a smaller pair.

Bath time, nap time, dinner time and play time with Amos!!!

































































Can you say TIMEOUT!!!

Ricardo and Manuel, Ricardo looking cool, Manuel being Manuel, 2 photos of Maki (he looks cute doesn´t he but don´t let that smile fool you as he is the trouble maker!!!), 2 photos of Alehandro, Estela and Nachita.

Nachita sweeping with a small broom (Sarita worked her so hard she fell asleep while eating dinner), Alehandro and Ricardo doing dishes, Maki joining in, Sarita teaching the crew how to wash dishes, Manuel and Estela taking over the dishwashing duties, Alehandro doing his own thing with his broom (a little unorthodox but it works) and Maki folding clothes.

Manuel kept having bloody noses so i kept putting toilet paper in his nose. After this particular one, i thought that it would make him feel better if we all looked alike so as you can see there is a white little dot in all of our noses. They all thought this was great...especially Manuel.




























well that is all for now, please keep emailing and checking our blog site.


we love you all,


lance and sarita