Tuesday, December 22, 2015

A Christmas outing with the big kids!

Tonight we had a very special outing planned for our big kids! We took them to their swimming lessons (remember, it's summer here!) and then all went to the Prado to look at the Christmas lights! We took the kids last year, and a few weeks ago when 3 of the youngest big kids stayed with Sarah and I, we took them again. This time though, it really was just the older ones! I take the older girls with me to church every week but never go anywhere with the older boys, and it's also rare that we all take them out together. These outings are especially fun for the kids!

 There are so many kids at swimming lessons. I don't know how the teachers keep up with all of them! Our kids are split up amongst the different classes (based on ability level), and it's quite funny to watch them. Kids you maybe wouldn't expect to excel at swimming are doing really great and others just can't quite get the hang of it!

 C. isn't old enough for swimming lessons yet, but Kirsten wanted to bring him to the Prado so he sat in the waiting room with Danyelle and I.

 Amber recently got her license here and was able to drive the hogar trufi tonight. Tío David was worried about no parking on the Prado, but our new house is just a block away with a big driveway, so we parked at our house and walked over.

 Quick snack of cheese empanadas before seeing the lights!

They were excited there was a tv at the restaurant.

 B. waiting on her empanada.

S. also waiting... While it was cold and rainy all afternoon, I don't know that those big puffy coats were really necessary!

Just an extra story I want to tell you... While looking at the lights, we saw a lady begging with her little boy. The child was probably about 3 years old and in a wheelchair. She was spooning something (maybe soup) into his mouth and he was wrapped up in several blankets in the wheelchair and a sign was wrapped around the chair asking for money to help care for him. I'm ashamed to say that like most people, we walked past them without really looking. All of a sudden we realized we were missing our older girls (Jhosi, Abi, Shyrlen and Anita) and when we turned around, realized they were stopped standing next to the family watching the mother feed her little boy. We tried to get them to come along and they refused. I gave them a few bolivianos to give them but they still didn't want to walk away. They just didn't know what to do. They determined that the little boy was blind and couldn't walk (I'm sure he had other things but those were the two things they kept saying), and whenever they (Jhosi more so than the others, but all of them really) see blind children,  they are really very affected by it. I know they think of our little Jhosi who is blind (big Jhosi has a real soft spot for little Jhosi) and feel really bad for the person. Their emotions seemed to play off of each other tonight however, and before long, the girls were in tears over it. They didn't really want to talk about it, but did want to pray for the little boy and his mom. We talked about how we can thank God that he has a mother who loves him and wants to help him but maybe can't work to pay for his care and we can ask God to heal him. It was sad but sweet.

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