Tu Amor Hace Eco en Todo Mi Universo

So "Tu Amor Hace Eco en Todo Mi Universo" means "Your Love Echoes in All of My Universe". It is such a great song and I will post the lyrics in Spanish and English. My students had to plan a project to help someone, and they decided to do something for the preschoolers. They memorized the words to this song, made up motions, and painted a poster depicting each thing that the song says God is. They did such an amazing job! I tried to take a video of them singing, and sadly it didnt work! I'll have them sing it again and post it another time. This picture is of my 7 students and I in front of the pre-school classroom at Nate Saint Memorial School (where our pre-k kids go as well as some of the missionary kids). The poster behind us is the one they created. After the kids sang, they helped the pre-k kids paint stars and encouraged them to be leaders in the classroom (so cute). Before leaving they sang "Lean on Me" in partners. My kids are so precious!!!

Lyrics to the song in Spanish: (sorry I have to go to class... I will translate it in another post but pretty much it says God is EVERYTHING and He echoes in all of my universe!)
En la cruz se lavó todo lo que mi alma tanto cargó
Fuiste tú, mi Jesús quien pagó el precio de mi perdón
Y no hay palabra que quiera hablar
Ni hay canción que se me antoje cantar
Pues si no es para ti
No hay razón para poder existir
Coro
Eres el aire, la lluvia
La risa de los niños
La fuerza, la calma
La guía en el camino
Misterios, estrellas
Galaxias y sorpresas que llenan
Eres la noche, el día
La luz que me ilumina
Destino, pasado
Tesoro más preciado
La llave, la puerta
La voz que me alimenta y alienta
Tu amor hace eco en todo mi universo
Eres tú la razón por la cual perdido ya no estoy
Mi dolor se marchó por la fuerza de tu abrazo y calor
Y no hay palabra que quiera hablar
Ni hay canción que se me antoje cantar
Pues si no es para ti
No hay razón para poder existir

Our Newest Little One... Nanki

This is precious little baby Nanki. Nanki is the Ashuar word for "spear". He is 15 days old in this picture (taken 3 days ago) and I fell in love with him the moment I laid eyes on him. Every day after school all I want to do is go over to Patti Sue's and hold him. His parents brought him to her because they have six other kids and he needs some special medical attention that they can't provide. He was born with a club foot and a femor that didn't quite form correctly. So, Patti Sue is trying to find doctors who can operate on him when he is strong enough... and praying for the money for the operations. He is SUCH a good little baby... good eater and good sleeper. And even at a little over 2 weeks old you can already tell he is going to be quite the little heartbreaker! :) God is so good. I am so thankful for this little boy!

My little Gilmar

This is my little 4 year old crush, Gilmar. He is the quietest 4 year old I've ever met but has the cutest smile and HAIR( its really curly and just long enough to comb over) you'll ever see. He is Alejandro's (the baby I talk about in my newsletter) big brother. He also has an older sister, Ana, who is in kindergarten and an older brother, Javier, who is 8. Their dad still comes to visit them every once in a while but he cannot take care of them. They are a good-looking bunch of kids, not to mention smart and loving, and I am so glad that God is capturing their hearts at such a young age!

Haircut!

I said when I was 16 that I would never get bangs ever again..... well here I am 23 years old, living in Ecuador, and I got BANGS again. LOTS OF BANGS. Melissa cuts hair and she gave me my daring new layers and blunt bang look. I was ready to do something different with my hair. The next thing I am thinking about is dying it ... I wanted to go black but maybe just chocolate brown or dark red. It's not that I'm itching to change my hair color, but more that I want chemicals in my hair! (They say that lice don't like treated hair). What do you think???

Painting

Here are some more pictures of my kids painting in art class. (SEE POST BELOW).

My little Artists!

Our first couple of weeks, art class was taught by Miss Emily. Emily is Tandy's best friend. She lives in Dallas, TX and used to be a junior high art teacher. Now she is working as a full-time artist... and she is amazing. Emily was here in Shell for two weeks to help teach the kids about painting... how to mix colors, how to hold the brush, texture, etc. The kids were each given a blank square board. The first class was all about the background color. Then, in the second class they had to think of something they think is beautiful and then paint it. At first, the kids kind of freaked out. I could tell they were thinking, "How in the world do I start?!" But once they started, they flew with it. All of my kids are such the artists! And they loved it too. The best part is that their painitings will be hung on the walls for everyone to see in the brand new building on the new property for the orphanage. I am so proud :)

My "Homies"

So I haven't shared anything about my roommates yet! We actually call each other "homemates" instead of "roommates" or "housemates" because while we are here, we ARE each others' home. So my two homies are the two other teachers at Casa de Fe, Melissa and Dallas. They are pretty much AWESOME. Melissa is from Kansas City and taught my class last year at Casa de Fe. This year she is the kindergarten teacher. She enjoys cooking (and I enjoy her cooking), knitting, and having random dance parties with me in our pajamas. Dallas is from Tacoma, Washington and is the 1st-3rd grade teacher at Casa de Fe. We call her the "muscles of the house" because whenever there's a jungle size bug in our house (not so rare I'm afraid), she is the only one man enough to kill it. She is also currently surviving the military-man run aerobics classes with me. Oh yeah, and she loves movies. I figured I should share a picture too, so this is one we created ourselves one Friday night for school spirit purposes. In all seriousness, we really are each other's cheerleaders. I don't know what I'd do without 'em!