Grace

It is the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentence.

Lyssa quoted this verse to me a few weeks ago and it has stayed a constant refrain in my ears ever since.  I am so thankful that the Lord has not treated me as I deserve, but rather, He has loved me, been patient, and overwhelmed me with His kindness.

What does this look like in the midst of working with stubborn teenagers?  Of teaching them how to be moms?  Or parenting my own children?

I want them to get grace, to fully understand it.  I also want them to know that there are consequences for their actions and fist-fights will not be tolerated.  Where is the line?

I have reached a point over the past two weeks where I humbly have to say that I don't know.

Last week as we painted the girls' house, they worked right alongside us painting their easter-egg colored rooms :)  When given a choice they all picked pinks, purples, and greens!  But it turned out pretty.  Anyway, the Lord gave me some really sweet moments to put the paintbrush down and just talk with them.

I think the main thing I kept coming back to with them was that the Lord has been so patient with us and they do not seem to be patient for one another at all.  One wrong move and the other three jump on you.  Everything is taken defensively and they stand posed with hands up ready to throw punches.  They know each other well enough now to hit hard in all the sensitive places of insecurity and doubt to the others.  And its impossible that they all have the last word, but they want to...

Isn't that just like us?  And I include myself in that.  I am much quicker to be defensive then gracious.  I am much quicker to think the worst about someone rather than the best.  And so we just started talking about grace.

God gives us an example of forgiveness when its undeserved, or patience even when its long past time for us to learn.  He sees that we need a Savior and so He came.

Please pray as I try to teach these girls about grace... pray that God will open their ears to hear and their eyes to see His goodness.  Pray that it will change them.

Peace Church is Here!

I only have a second because I need to be running out the door soon :)

But... I just wanted to share that my home church is here on a week-long mission trip!  YAY!  That includes my dad and my grandma.  And my mom has been here for over 3 weeks now visiting and helping me out, which is a mission trip all in its own rite.

There is a group painting the house at Puerta de Esperanza and the girls have been working right along with them to get it done.  It is so good for the girls to contribute and have some ownership and it has led to lots of conversations about independence because painting is not necessarily a girls' job in this country, but just talking about how they can do things for themselves, they do not have to wait on a man to provide for and take care of them.  Also just spending so much time working alongside of them has led to great conversations for me.  We have been having some struggles with two of the girls, but this week I have just talked a lot about grace, about Jesus, about forgiveness and mercy.  I don't know what the Lord is doing or will do, but I am trusting in HIM.  Please pray for Him to open these two girls' hearts to really walk in relationship with Him and therefore be transformed by Him to be able to love each other well.

More of the Peace team is working in La Fe with the Troxells and Lyssa doing kid's club, some construction, medical clinic, home visits, etc.  I got to stop by yesterday during kid's club and snap a few pictures to share.  They are doing great.

Nan got to celebrate B's birthday with us on Sunday night and spent lots of time snuggling babies.

Today the group will be split again and I think we are actually going to finish painting the house, which is awesome!  So we'll be on to new and different tasks tomorrow.  Please pray for sweet interactions, good conversations, and for Jesus to be seen more and more every day in each of us.

Pray for my kids as this week has rocked their schedule and they are doing things like hanging in La Fe with kids club and having dinner at the dorms with the team every night.  Nicolle has not been feeling good and she starts school tomorrow at 7am.  But overall they are troopers, doing great, and loving having nana darcie, papi bruce, and nan here to visit :)

Also this is Lyssa's last week and we are devestated and trying to process saying goodbye to her as well as being busy.  She is a part of our family and we are going to be so sad when she leaves.  So pray for that as well.

Overall... today I am thankful for Peace, thankful for the support they give me by being here, thankful for Jesus and sweet conversations with the girls, thankful for my kids and that they are healthy, well, and learning more about the Lord every day, thankful for my family, thankful for my husband who fixes ACs and puts screens on windows, and thankful that all of this crazy life belongs to Jesus and He knows it and walks with us every step of the way!

Sweet Prayers

I've had a hard weekend... some bad news and a lot of sadness.  And for me sadness leads to doubting too much of the time.  Doubting if we are being the parents God wants us to be, if I am doing my job well, worrying about what the future will bring.  But in the midst of it God has given us some really sweet moments.

Sunday morning Nicolle prayed in church in English for the first time!  There was a big summer team there and she just popped right out with a sweet prayer of thankfulness.  And Angel prayed in English in family devotions a few times this week for the first time.  Both of my kids said all of Psalm 23 in English and John 6:44.  And halfway through gringo church Angel leaned over and told me he wanted to hang out with us in the afternoon instead of going back to his mom's house.  The Lord knew I needed my kiddos around yesterday.

There are a thousand things we are doing wrong.  We are not and will never be perfect parents.  I need to swallow that and move on.  And the truth is that our kids need Jesus a lot more than they need us.  So to hear them pray and know Scripture just brings joy to my heart.

Psalm 126:3 "The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy!"

He has done and will continue to do great things for us!  And we trust Him, thank Him, and are filled with joy :)

Just Life

Sometimes there just isn't much to say except that we are just living life around here.  We are playing and doing school and working and learning how to be a family together.  J and W are loving playing together these days and thankfully they both let Nicolle boss them around a little bit.  She loves to go with me to PDE when I'm doing school with Juli or just to play with the babies for awhile.  I'm so thankful for such a flexible daughter.

We are working on making a big switch in the girls' store.  I want to be able to give the store over to the two oldest girls, so we are just waiting for the information we need to be able to make the store into a Coop.  Until then the girls are enjoying a week off and are resting at home.

C had a big abcess on her leg this week so we are so thankful for our medical team that is here right now who helped her yesterday by draining it.  She was miserable while it happened, but ultimately, definitely going to feel better.  C is also in final exams for the summer section of school and will have a few weeks off before starting again at the end of August.

My mom is here and its been great!  I have been sick with bronchitis, so she has been helping me at home, but also helping me at PDE.  She did preschool with J yesterday and made the cutest "About Me" book that we laminated to be a keepsake for J's mom.  It inspired me to try to do it for the kids every year so their moms can have it to look back on.

Yesterday during Bible Study with B I was just overwhelmed at how much more I want to teach them.  She has finished her book on basic steps of Christianity and so we just started reading through Philippians.  She didn't know it was a letter written to a church, she didn't know that Paul was a church planter.  She has read that book many times in church in her childhood, but never had a clue what it was about!  I am thankful for the teaching that I have had and challenged to pass it along to these girls.  We just had such a sweet time reading straight from Scripture and talking about how it applies to her life and my life.  What does it grace and mercy mean in marriage?  How does it affect her future with a man?  What does it mean that God has promised to complete the work He began in her?

We've been having trouble with our two youngest teens.  They just cannot seem to get along.  It is the first time that I have had two girls in the house actually fight, like leave a bruise.  They are so similar and can't see it.  If they could stop being frustrated for 5 seconds, I think they would be best friends.  But they are both easily angered and very defensive.  They trust no one and think the worst of each other.  They have hard, similar, pasts.  So pray for them.  This Thursday they are moving into the same bedroom in an effort to help them learn how to live together.  They have both shed many tears over this turn of events.  But I am praying for a change of heart and that the Lord will bind their hearts together.

We have a connection at church that has mentioned the possibility of scholarships for the kids to eventually go to bi-lingual preschool.  I am looking into that more, but just so thankful that the Lord is using local resources to remind me that He provides.

We still need monthly sponsors.  This week I have two new sponsors!  THANK YOU THANK YOU!  Please keep putting the word out there, be it $10/month of $300/month, it is a much needed blessing.  You can set it up here and our number is #92413.

 Thanks for all your prayers and support and for reading! :)

Photo Shoot and updates

Thanks to Kate Defuniak's awesome photography skills we now have new PDE pictures :)

 Its been a long time since I wrote a good blog, and I'm not sure how much I can write to catch up, but I'll try for an update.

First of all, THANK you to my grandma and all the other ladies in Cary who hosted a big yard sale for Puerta de Esperanza and raised almost $3000!!!  We were down to bare bones money-wise and this came at the perfect time for us.  Thank you thank you.

We are still looking for monthly sponsors... if it is $10 or $1000 or any number in between, it buys us something that we can at the moment not affort.  So if you're interested, please contact me at ssinnes@gmail.com.

The girls and babies are doing pretty well overall... there are always issues and little things to work through.  There are obedience problems and family issues and they keep us on our toes.  Sometimes I don't know how much to write or share because I want to guard their privacy... but lets suffice it to say that they are growing and learning, but its like raising any teenagers, there are bumps in the road.

We are making some changes in the store and have actually shut down for a few days.  We feel like the girls have spent the last year learning the skills they need to be able to run the store themselves, so we are officially closing down and allowing them to open it back up as a coop between themselves.  It gives them a lot more freedom, they pay less taxes, etc.  We're thinking it is a good change.  So, hopefully within two weeks they will be up and running on their own.  They will still be accepting donations for clothes and stuff, so send them on!  We just got some cleats donated and the sold about half of them the first day.

K is doing well in school.  She has days where she is very unmotivated and just forgets the purpose behind it.  We are slowly working through multiplication tables and when she doesn't understand, it is so frustrating for everyone involved because language limits our ability to explain in various ways.  But yesterday school went so well that Jennifer took her out for ice cream!  Many thanks to Jennifer and Mandy for being the teachers over the last month and a half, I haven't really played much of a role there.

J is happy to be painting and playing playdough and learning letters, numbers, and animals.  She will turn three on Saturday, I can't believe it!

C is back in university and about to finish up her first full year because she started in August of last year.  She could not be a happier student.  She loves her studies, does them on her own for the most part, and is so sad to ever miss a class.  This last term I was tutoring her in calculus, in Spanish.  Talk about challenging.  I was struggling to remember since I haven't tutored that in awhile, and then to do it in Spanish.  Sheesh.  Preparing me for when my own kids get there I guess.

Y continues to work at the salon and is earning money now.  She did an internship at first, but now gets paid a small percentage.  So she is at the bottom, but moving up.  And I am so proud of her.

B loves working at the store and wants to run her own business.  A large part of letting them switch to the Coop is because of her.  She has a good mind for business and is willing to work hard.  She has good ideas and will probably be better at it than I am because she knows what does and doesn't work here.

Overall, I am thankful to the Lord for all that He is doing and the people that He has brought into our path.  He clearly put these girls all in the home together at just the right time.  It is hard because some have never lived with other girls before, have a hard time understanding being sisters to each other and loving and supporting each other.  But they are working on it and we are praying every day for them to love each other sacrifically and understand love, mercy, and grace in a way that allows them to show it to the others around them.

Please pray for our girls as they learn and grow.  And pray for the Lord to provide financially for our ministry so that we can keep working with them.