August Happenings!

While school and tutoring basically consume my week, a lot has been happening on the weekends... I take pictures and then don't blog about it until the pictures start to pile up! Wish I could post all the cute pics we take of the kids, but these will have to do for now :)

As many of you have already heard, Casa de Amor changed names and administration over the past couple months. We're now known as the Sunshine House! Click here to visit our website and here to "like" us on Facebook... I've taken over child sponsorship, so please let me know if that's something you would like to be a part of... and send us your email so we can keep in touch!

 At the beginning of August, I fostered a dog for a week, thinking I would adopt her at the end of the week. Sofi was the sweetest little dog when I was home, but when left alone, she had severe separation anxiety. She tried to claw and chew through doors and I was so worried leaving her home alone every day. She was physically hurting herself in attempting to not be alone. One day I came home and she had clawed the wall trying to escape. It was at that point I could no longer ignore what was going on. It was getting worse by the day. Unfortunately I had to return her to the rescue group. She needs a family that has someone home during the day.

 Just a couple days after returning Sofi, I got a call by the director of the rescue group asking if I wanted to foster Princesa (left) and then adopt her if I wanted. I agreed and brought her home. She was such a great little dog! A couple days later, I received a call from another volunteer with the rescue group telling me about Miel (right). I ended up bringing her home for a test week too. Right now, I have both dogs. Princesa is no longer the nice, easy dog she once was (she isn't a huge fan of having Miel around), and Miel is a puppy in every sense of the word. She's super sweet and I'm planning on adopting her this coming week!

 J. turned two a couple weeks ago so we had to celebrate! I wish I could post pictures of a video I took of him and his big sister A... He "bit" his cake (really we just smeared some frosting on his face after helping him bite it) and A. couldn't stop laughing when she saw him! She was almost in tears she was laughing so hard!

 One Sunday afternoon consisted of organizing almost 3 full houses of furniture. Some of it was being taken away that night so we had to decide what needed to stay and what needed to go. It was quite the task! Big thanks to Savannah and the tías who did most of the work :)

 One of my students came over to me the other morning and handed me an envelope. When I opened it, I saw this note he had made me! It says "I love you Miss Hannah" and I'm assuming he wrote "Mm" because that's the letter we were practicing... My kids are too sweet!

 I've started tutoring four days a week after school. I brought these letter tiles back from the States with me, and they've become a big hit with my little student... One day before leaving, he asked if he could write a word "in English" that I could translate for him. He used every tile to write this massive jumble of letters... Any guesses on that translation?!

 It's always a good night when our "old" friends get together!

Tía Silvia will never fully trust us in the kitchen, no matter how long we've been here. The other night after dinner, Savannah washed the dishes. Tía Silvia hung out in the kitchen with us, but insisted she wasn't going to work as she had already finished her work for the day. Not long after Savannah left the kitchen, Silvia went over to the sink and rewashed some of the dishes!

This picture isn't mine and I wasn't even there to take my own pictures, but this one is too cute not to post... Savannah set up a Sunshine House Olympics this week! Each child and tía got a shirt with their own country on it and she set up all sorts of fun games for them to play outside!

***Make sure you come back tomorrow to read about a very special event happening at the Sunshine House this weekend!