Work Team and Operation Rescue

These past two weeks, we have started back into several things that I really enjoy; work teams and going to Operation Rescue!!  I'll start with work teams...

On the 17th, our first work team of the year arrived.  It was a small team, only 12 people, from PA.  They were working at a small orphanage across the city, painting rooms, pouring a cement slab and playing with kids.  My dad, Abby, Risa and I went across and worked with them every day, and we also went to Antigua with them, so we got to interact with them a lot!!  After each day, our entire family was usually in bed by 9:00, I forgot how exhausting work teams were!!  It was a fun team to be with and we were able to get all the work done!! 

Getting the cement all evened out

Gotta love our re-vamped cement mixer!

Also did some deliveries with the team

Playing with Lucy (the puppy) out at the orphanage

More Lucy

Look at that, I actually worked!

I even painted!!

Took a bunch of kids from another orphanage to a park and ordered pizza.  They loved it!

The team

Workin' hard or hardly working?

More painting!

Kids time at another home

I had to get in on the kids fun too!!  =)

Also, this past week we went back to Operation Rescue for the first time of the school year.  It was so much fun to see all the kids again and have many of them recognize us and willingly come in for a hug!!  One of the "traditions" at OR is to greet each of the children as they enter the building.  I went ahead and got in the "greeting line" when all of a sudden someone was hugging me.  One of the little girls that we had met last year (and who had had a VERY hard Christmas break) had attached herself to me.  What can you do but simply hug them back and enjoy being with them again?  So that's exactly what I did!  She stayed with me the entire time the other students were coming in, every now and then squeezing me a little harder, but overall just staying close.  We greeted each of the 150 kids that entered the building and then got ready to serve the breakfast. 

= )

This little guy had lived on the streets, he recently moved into a house, but still has a hard life!

"Little kids" table!

Her father was killed in December, she goes to school with her siblings and 5 cousins.

As we were getting the tables all cleaned up, on of the little girls looked at me and simply said "You came back!"  I asked her if that was ok, and she just smiled and nodded her head yes.  It is often hard to see these kids and know that they have probably already been through so much more than I have, but it is those comments, the kids hugs and their smiles that show that it really is all worth it!!


So, now that work teams are back in session, Operation Rescue is back on the schedule, the weekly clinic is in full swing and school is moving along quickly, we are staying very busy!!  I really do love this time of year though, there is something about the craziness that really is a lot of fun!!!  If the rest of the year is anything like this first month has been, I have a feeling it's going to be a great year!!  =)