Spaghetti Face

Pictures of Gaby's Birthday

1. A new guitar.

2. Hot dogs (with corn, garlic, parsley and mayonaise...Brandon's choice or tomato, onion, peppers and mayonaise)

3. All you can eat - ice cream!

4. The group of 12, 13, and 14 year olds.

Hope

My friend, Mariela, just came back from Cuba. Five years ago she grabbed two bags, a bunch of courage and left, what was left, of her “home”. Her mother died when she was about 4 and she was raised by her dad and three older sisters. (One of her sisters is married to Oscar’s brother.) An older (18 year old) brother was killed by a car…about 15 years ago. Her older sister, who she called “mom”, became sick with cancer. Treatments in Argentina and a healing faith are keeping her alive right now. Then, her second sister came down with the same type of cancer. She had several operations in Argentina and she came back to her family in Paraguay. Here, they changed her medicine and her body or stomach is not receiving it. Trials hit hard on this family!
We went to see Mariela and her sister, yesterday. Mariela wasn’t there. She takes care of Amalia during the night shift. Amalia’s face and black, curly hair are still beautiful, but her body was just bones. She must weigh only about 60 lbs. She is 35 and has two little boys. She’s a nurse and worked 10 years at this same hospital…now she was the patient.
We read scripture together and prayed and tried to understand. We couldn’t make things any better. We couldn’t heal her or kiss her problem away. Day after day on this hospital bed, her only hope is God. She has a wonderful, positive attitude and even has a sense of humor. She ended up teaching ME the meaning of hope…Romans 15:13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Saturday News

Today we woke up at 9 am! That is sooooo late! We were out late last night at Bañado. We were invited to show a movie called "scars". It was about abortion. It was very good, but very long. An excellent choice of movie for that area of town where 11 year olds go into prostitution for perfumes and deodorant. There are so many risky abortions done, there, and teenage, single mothers. Thirty-five to forty year old GRANDMOTHERS have daycares at their homes for their own grandkids. We didn't get home until almost 11 pm. Then, we had to eat dinner, yes, that late!
I still don't have Gaby's pictures downloaded...keep waiting, sorry.
Today I woke up with a call from my friend who went to Cuba for 5 years on a scholarship. She just got in to Paraguay yesterday and went straight to the hospital to be with her dying sister all night. I was excited to hear from her, but sad about her sister and what she came home to find.
I spent the rest of the afternoon, today, catching up on reading my favorite blogs, commenting, and playing around on the computer while the house is quiet and no one needs "mamá".
In a little bit we are off to church for youth activities. Tomorrow is a full day, too.

A Quick Post...

Before my computer was zapped, I wanted to post this. While I clean up and download pictures of Gaby's party, I will entertain you with this...

Dad and my aunts sometimes talk about the green house days. Dad is amazed at the plants here in Paraguay that grow all year long…and...outdoors! Mom had a plant, once, that she got as a gift. She had to peel the outside and cut it, then, just stick it into a flower pot. It grew and had beautiful leaves. I think I saw it's flower just once. Since then, I learned that here in Paraguay they call it Jazmin Mango. It grows humungous! There are white, peach, red and light yellow ones. Our peach-colored Jazmin Mango was almost destroyed in last week's storm. But, we cut the ends off and stuck the broken branches all around our house.
Another beautiful plant (flower) is the Passion Flower (by the way-Paraguay’s national flower). There are several different kinds of plants, leaves, flowers and fruit, but they are all equally beautiful and edible. People here in Paraguay even use this beautiful flower all chopped up in "terere" water. It is used as a natural sedative in teas. Dad often talked about it's beauty.
We found this one, a wild passion flower, in San Pedro.

Back to Blogging...

Hey all, I am back...I mean, the computer is back! Yea! I'll be back to blogging.
Today is Gaby's birthday. I cooked all morning. We invited lots of people! This will be interesting! We told Gaby that it is his LAST, BIG, birthday party. Anyway, we are grateful that we are able to have a party and share our blessing with others. Gaby is 14 today.
They are announcing bad storms again for today. Hopefully our outdoor activities won't be rained out.
I am still a little bit busy for tonight's activities. Can I send you pictures tomorrow???

Still at a Cyber...

We have word about our computer. It doesn't seem too bad of a fix, but it also won't be ready until next wednesday. Sooooo, we continue with the "computer fast". Which is actually really great, because I am reading three different books and love them all.
In Search of the Source by Neil Anderson
Shepherding Your Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
The Five Love Languages of Teenagers by Gary Chapman (don't laugh, Ellen)
Plus, I have had a bad lower back for the past few days, so this rest from the computer has been good.
All day long I think of many things to write and wish I had my trusty little friend to take notes, but, I will wait.
We did clean up with the three trees that fell down. Edson is fine. Brandon and Gaby are huge! Oscar and I are running around for school activities, etc.
Oh...I did think of something I wanted to write.
The other day Brandon put on a CD to listen to. As we were listening, I was cooking in the kitchen and started singing some of the songs. He came over and looked at me very funny and said...Mom, do you know these songs? I said, Yes, of course, they are over 20 years old! He was listening to and old album of Petra. He said...Did you LIKE petra, then? I said, Yes and I also got in trouble for listening to it! It was ROCK MUSIC. That was bad!
Okay, I can deal with Petra, again. As long as he likes it, we'll keep listening to it and I will sing along! It's better than other stuff!