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Jennifer has started crawling now! I will put up a video of her newest accomplishment soon!

Sorry, I don't know how to flip it around! You will have to turn your head sideways.

I have decided to stay with For His Children for another year. Over the past couple months I have had countless conversations with friends and strangers about how it’s so right for me to here. I truly feel like God has made it clear that this is where I need to be at least for another year. My job description involves leading international groups and volunteers, the child sponsorship program, as well as fundraising for FHC. I will be doing some traveling in the States throughout the year and speaking at different churches/organizations. I am excited for this opportunity and all of the interesting people I will meet. I will be coming home to NY mid-August and will be in that area for a little over a month. I am excited to spend time with my family and visit some friends. This summer is going to fly by as I have five different teams I am leading as well as many interns. Just in the month of June, we’ve had 12 full-time international interns comes. I organize their schedules and help them plan trips to visit some interesting places in Ecuador. Throughout this summer we will have interns from the US, Canada, Germany, and Denmark. Each intern brings something unique to the orphanage. This week I will have some high school students from Pennsylvania coming for 1 week to help with different work projects and they will do different activities with the kids. It is busy but I really love the work I’m doing here.

Roles

One of the little baby boys who I brought home from the hospital almost 2 months ago, was in the hospital for a while because they found a mass in his throat and he was having trouble breathing. He had a trach inserted and came home a few weeks ago. He has to be in his own room so that he doesn’t get any infections from the other kids. I laughed to myself the other day as I had scrubs on, complete with a mask and gloves, and was suctioning his trach. Am I qualified for this, probably not! I love all the different roles I get to be in during the day here. Sometimes I’m psychologist; I worked with a family who came with their adopted children who are now teenagers just to visit their birth country. In the course of their visit, we located their birth mother. I worked with preparing the teenagers for this visit. Sometimes I’m social worker; a few weeks ago I went to investigate where a birth family who abandoned their children was living. Sometimes I’m tour guide; leading individuals and groups around the country. Sometimes I’m physical therapist doing different activities and exercises with the kids. Every day is different that contains new experiences.

Some more fun recipes....

we made some lips with apples,peanut butter, and marshmallows for the teeth

Cooking class continues to be a highpoint for the kids during the week. Every time I see the toddlers throughout the week, they will say, “Tia Jennifer, are we cooking tonight?” After two years of trying out fun recipes we have pretended to eat every insect imaginable and have used food dye, sprinkles, and lot of chocolate to make our recipes more interesting.

Our cooking class has evolved into not only cooking but about 10 minutes of singing too. The 13 kids range in age from 2-6. Some favorites that they have learned this year in English are the peel banana songs, the ants go marching, and the wheels on the bus. The kids are so cute during this time and their attention span is amazing. They stay focused during the whole class. As soon as they see me outside the house coming in for the class (many times with 1 or 2 other volunteers) they start yelling “Tia Jennifer is here!” It’s a highpoint of my week too.