Lucky to Have You

I have been told, on more than one occasion, by friends and family, ¨Those kids are lucky to have you.¨ Although this is very kind for people to say, I have found something else to ring much more true: I am very lucky and BLESSED to have these kids. If I look back on my life one year ago, I don´t think I could imagine the happiness and fulfillment I feel now.

This morning, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to check chores. Every day, our kids get up around 4:45 to 5 a.m. to shower, eat breakfast, and do chores before leaving for school at 6:30. Everyone does their part; it is like a well-oiled machine. As I sat outside in the dark, I looked around and took a moment to count my blessings: Here I was in the middle of Mexico, with a cool breeze blowing on my face, being greeted by hugs and smiles (and maybe a few tired yawns). Instead of stressing about my next deadline or preparing for a client meeting, I was concerned with making sure each child had a hug and left with a smile on his or her face.

I think I like the change. No...I am amazed by it.

I know I have always had the pull to volunteer abroad. Just ask Amy, one of my best friends who studied abroad with me in Spain. After college, I tried to drag her back abroad, only to be greeted with her applying to grad school. Not knowing what else to do, I applied as well for Mizzou´s 4+1 program and took another year for school. It ended up being one of the best decisions I have made, but the idea that I needed to go back abroad and do something for others still tugged at my heart. It was as if I couldn´t shake it; it followed me every place I went.

Three years into the working world, this desire still persisted. If I had really taken time to slow down and evaluate (don´t laugh, Mom), I would have realized this was probably God telling me this was His will. I am coming to realize that He does put the drive and desire to do something good in our hearts. And, if we follow Him, we will be met with peace.

We will also, if lucky, be met with sleepy grins, hugs, ¨buenos dias,¨ and maybe even an ¨I love you!¨

Mexico: The Good, The Bad...And The Very Ugly

It is time, again, for a Mexico Top 10 List.

This list is brought to you courtesy of the Mexican Army, the cook at NPH, and The Club.

1. You know you are safe from drug lords when you see a caravan of Mexican military personnel riding on a truck with AK-47s in one hand and a Popsicle in the other.

2. Ketchup: It is apparently a great condiment on pasta with cream sauce. Thank you, Doña!

3. Another Mexican culinary delight? After a dinner of Costco cheesecake, we had a dessert of shredded carrots with salt, lime, and hot sauce. (The kids flocked to it like roaches to our sink.)

4. Apparently your car will not get stolen here if you use The Club. Yes, the '80s are still kicking here.

5. Some people here think you can "catch" diabetes...

6. Teachers can dress as the like. This may or may not include tight white leggings (you know, the ones with lace on the bottom) and a top that looks like you are going out for a night on the town. True story.

7. People are not very aware of carbs here. Case in point: Friday lunch. Rice, beans, and fried potatoes. One kid got a baguette and made a sandwich of rice, beans, and fried potato.

8. Sometimes I see more cockroaches than I do kids. Is that a problem? My cockroach-killing skills, however, have drastically improved.

9. I have been seeing "punto de reunion" (reunion point) signs painted around town. I kept thinking, "Wow, before we had cell phones, they must have been really concerned about people being able to find each other." Um...turns out those signs signify where to go in an earth quake. Yup, that's right. My IQ is quickly dwindling here.

10. They close the office for Mother's Day. That's right! Any excuse for time off!

Mañana, Mañana

A lot has happened in the last month-and-a-half...so much for my once-a-week posts! I need to get rid of my Mexican ¨mañana, mañana¨ attitude.

1. In mid-March, one of my former editors and co-workers from Delta Sky magazine, Jason Oliver Nixon, and his partner, John, came to Mexico City. He was so kind and invited me out to an amazing dinner in D.F. I was in heaven: lobster enchiladas, cactus leaf salad, yum! Thank you, Jason and John!



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2. In late March, my friend Diana came to visit for a week. My first visitor! It was amazing to see her, especially since I have not seen her in more than a year (she taught English in Korea the past year). We toured around Cuernavaca, and she got the hang of taking the Ruta (bus) while I was at work. At night, Diana helped me with work—we took the kids to running club, hung out with them, etc.

Diana and me on my roof.

The last weekend she was here, we went to Acapulco to meet up with her family, who has a time share there. What a fun time! Amazing sun, beach, etc. Thank you, Kruppstadts!!

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3. We celebrated Easter with the kids in Miacatlán. We bussed all of our high schoolers to the home where the younger kids are, and we spent Holy Thursday through Saturday there. (I stayed for Easter Mass and the egg hunt so that I could document them for my job.) I have to say that this was one of the most special Easters I have ever had.

We woke up at 6 a.m. Easter Sunday for a sunrise Mass out in our garden. (The bad news is that it really felt like 5 a.m. because daylight savings time began in Mexico that day.) The altar was decorated with all the tropical flowers you can imagine, and streamers were hung above it. Candles were the only source of light we had that early in the morning. It was so beautiful seeing all these little faces looking in awe as Father Phil performed mass. My favorite part? All the voices belting out the songs. It was incredible.

After Mass, there was a special treat: chocolate donuts and chocolate eggs. Let´s say the kids were definitely hyped up enough before the house-wide Easter egg hunt. Imagine 600 children running around to find the prized eggs. It was hilarious.

A group of boys finds a few eggs.


One of our kinders and his chocolate donut.

Father Phil celebrates a sunrise Mass.

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4. Due to the Easter holiday, our kids had two weeks off of school! We teamed up with our women´s director, Vecry, to plan a dance competition for the girls. The prize? A night at the movies. This might not seem too exciting to some of you, but most of our girls have never been to the movies AT NIGHT! There were two nights of competition, and the winning team was a group who performed hip hop. It is pretty interesting seeing Mexican teenagers try their hand at hip-hop moves!


The Mexican hip-hop queens!

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5. In early April, I had the chance to visit Taxco, which is the silver capital of Mexico. I went with three other friends, Erika, Jeremy, and Martin. I am pretty sure we did every touristy thing you can do there in less than five hours! We took a ride up the mountain, we saw the huge Jesus statue, we shopped for silver, we toured the church, and we ate like locals in the zólcalo. It was amazing...and tiring.

The central plaza in Taxco.


We fit 16.2 people (there was a baby) into this "city bus."


How many white VW taxis do you see?

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6. Two weeks ago, our kids had puente (vacation) on a Friday, so Naomi and I went with the Life Teen group to Los Columpios (the swings). This is an outdoor ¨park¨ of sorts that has a lot of swings (think tire swings, etc.) as well as camping. We set up spot at a shelter and played team games all day. The big treat was lunch: Costco burgers!!

I asked one of my girls, one who tends to be very angry and not very talkative, if she would take pictures for me. Generally, when I try to take pictures of the kids, they will not let me. But give a camera to their friends? Oy, vey! I got 200 amazing pictures, and a new friend out of this girl. It was amazing. I guess give a little trust before you expect it in return? Lesson learned.


Multi-legged race!


Karen and a columpio.

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7. This past weekend, we had our volunteer retreat at Xochimilco, which is on the western side of Mexico City. There used to be an lake there, which is now a series of canals. So, much like you would do in Venice, we boarded a gondola-type boat and relaxed for the day.

Mexican "gondolas."

It is very rare for all of the volunteers to be able to do something together...normally someone has to work! So, that made this day all the more fun!

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8. Construction on our new library is done! I am so excited. I am working on now shelving all of the books and coming up with a system to check them out. Book club is coming along, slowly but surely. We have had more girls tell us this (Memoirs of a Geisha) is the first book that they have read for fun!

More to come later, and I promise to be better about posting. Hope all is well with everyone!

Beyoncé, Soccer, and a New Library

One of my favorite things about being at NPH is the relationships I am building with the kids. When I first arrived, it took the teenagers some time to warm up to me, which is normal. Now, thankfully, it is becoming a different story.

Case in Point: Last night, before I had to put the girls to bed, Sonia and Maru (Sonia is on the left in this photo, Maru on the right), two of the girls I am closest with, taught me the Beyoncé Single Ladies dance. They LOVE this dance and decided that I should learn it because...well, I guess because I was laughing so hard when they showed me that they knew the entire thing. I asked them how many times they had watched the music video to learn it, and they couldn´t even count the number it was so many. I haven´t laughed so hard in a long time.

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This past Monday was puente, which means a holiday here. The kids were home, so Sophie, Naomi, and I broke out Rummikube, which the kids love to play. Then, after lunch, the women´s director, Veckry (pronounced Beckry), decided to hold a soccer tournament. For those of you who know me well, I have never played soccer in my life. Tennis, golf, and running are my sports. However, for the second time since I have been here, I took the ¨field,¨ which is really a cement court, to play on a team with the other caregivers, volunteers, and directors. The good news is that we won! The bad news is that though I am agressive, my foot-ball coordination is horrible. I think I better stick with sports in which hand-eye coordination are pertinent.


This is Veckry with her two children, Andrea and Sammy.

That night, we had a BBQ, which is a huge treat here. Father Phil and the kids cooked Costco burgers, which, I have to say, after not having had red meat in a long time, tasted amazing!


The grillmasters.

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It is official! I am getting my new library! The building of the wall is beginning today, and I received my new books for book club. I am very excited. I realize I have a ton of work before me: cateloging all of our books, designing a system to check them out, and getting kids motivated to read. However, I am very excited that NPH is motivated to get these kids reading as well, as is evidenced by the rapid pace at which this project is moving. Here is a photo of what the library looks like now (I had to remove some books for construction). Note that right now it is not really a room at all (as you can see from this photo). We are also getting new book shelves. My newest idea for this is to have a design competition. In our house in Miacatlán, where the younger kids are, there are murals in the library. I think I might have a competition for kids to design murals, based on the NPH core values, as well as the theme of reading, and those who win will have their murals in the library (we will paint as a team this summer).

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On a very sad note, by former Editor in Chief, Brian Anderson, passed away this week from a rare form of Leukemia. He was such an amazing man, leader, and boss. I am so thankful I had the opportunity to work with him while I did. He gave me my first job and always encouraged me to aim for new heights. You will be missed, Brian!

Descanso? I´m Confused...

Every other week, we get a weekend break, which means we work 12 days in a row, many of them 12-hour days, with a few breaks, of course. I worked two weekends in a row, however, so that equals 19 days. This past weekend, I had my second ¨descanso¨ (which means break) since coming here in January. Let´s just say having a lot of free time was very...confusing.

As many of you know, I tend to be someone who likes to be, um, busy. I like to have things to do. (Unless you take into account naps, in which case, I am a champ!) So, this past weekend, I really had a lot of downtime, which is a good thing, but it was hard to grasp. The good news is that I showed up at work very rested, and I realized how much I missed the kids.

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When working on weekends, I really have time to bond with the kids that I do not get when they are in school. I made some amazing new friends, including Maru, Sonia, Anaid, Blanca, and Liz. All are amazing girls, and I feel like they are already very close friends. Hugs abound, as do jokes, and I am now being confided in about friend problems, boy problems, etc. It is amazing. Everytime I get to see them, they run up to me and give me huge hugs. I feel like they are becoming some of MY closest friends.

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One girl here reminds me a lot of my friend Susan from college, due to her humor, appearance, and love of books. (Susan, I hope you are reading this!) Her name is Silvia, and she and I have bonded over books. I helped her pick out a new book, Emma, and we have been inseperable since. One night, when I was up in the dorms hanging out, she brought over a photo album that a former volunteer had made for her. What makes this extrordinary is that many of these kids really have nothing to show of their lives when they were younger (no photos, etc.). Silvia had approximately 20 photos from her life, and the volunteer had put them into an album for her. She went through each photo with me and told me about each one. She then came upon one where she had 3 copies of it. She took the extras out, and handed one to me. (I thought she was just trying to show it to me.) She then told me she wanted me to have it. (Gulp...) Wow. I told her I couldn´t take it, but she insisted. It was such a HUGE gift.

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I went to Miacatlán last week for a dinner the volunteers put on for the new kids who come to NPH. At the dinner, there were approximately 15 new children who had come recently, many of them part of larger families that had come. I think one of the things that really strikes me is how protective the older kids are over the younger ones...the older siblings are like little adults. It is hard to see. These kids should be kids, they should have a childhood, which is what NPH hopes to provide. But you see the responsibility they feel in their faces. The younger kids, meanwhile, are carefree. Here are a few pics from that evening.


This family came to NPH two days before I did, so we bonded over that.


This family of four spans the ages of 14 to 6.

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Finally (I promise, this is the last graph!), I have to tell my roommates that they are amazing. Sophie (on the right in this photo) and Naomi (left), thank you for being there for me always. Thank you for always turning off the stove when I forget that I have eggs boiling; thank you for putting up with my numerous naps; thank you for not killing me when I want to chat about our days even though we are all tired; and thank you for knowing how much I love Diet Coke and nail polish!

Candy Dreams and Curly Hair

This blog is dedicated to all of the amazing things the kids do that crack me up.

Due to the fact that we had our work weekend this past weekend, things have been crazy. Sophie, Naomi, and I have been working 12-hour days. We do get breaks, which help, but it can be tiring. Though we are not in the fast-paced corporate world, I think it is the constant work and the new lifestyle that are straining.

Fortunately, there are quite a few things that pick me up. Here are a few of my favorites from the past week:

1. One of our kids was trying to tell us ¨sweet dreams¨ before he went to bed the other night. The problem is that the word for ¨sweet¨ and ¨candy¨ are the same here—¨dulce.¨ So, what he ended up telling us was, ¨Candy dreams!¨ It was definitely a great moment.

2. The same pequeño, when telling me what he was for Halloween this past year, told me he was Spongy Bob...not Sponge Bob...Square Pants.

3. A few of the girls are finally getting comfortable with me. How can I tell? The jokes. One came up to me saying she had chili in her eye, which, of course, made me worried. When she saw that, she and all her friends started laughing and then gave me a big hug. Bad news? Losing time off my life due to worry. Good news? I am starting to be accepted here.

4. Aparently when you change your hair here, it is a big deal. I have been wearing my hair straight or in a ponytail most of the time. On Sunday, however, we had to be up at 7 a.m. for chores and ready for mass. I opted for a few more minutes of sleep rather than dry my hair, so it, of course, was curly. The comments were unexpected. Fortunately, they were good. One kid even came up and put his hand on my hair in disbelief.


On the flip side, there are things here that upset me and make me realize how fortunate we all are and how thankful I am that I came here.

1. When I was hanging out with the kinder kids (ages 3 to 5) a few weeks ago, one little boy had a manilla envelope on his bed. He brought it over to me and told me these were his cards. Inside the envelope were birthday and Christmas cards he had received from his ¨padrinos,¨ people who are his sponsors. It made me tear up. This little boy did not let this envelope out of his sight; these were the people who wrote to him and told them they loved him. Though he has his caregivers and siblings at NPH, these people were his alone. It broke my heart.

2. While working on the newsletter this past week, I was searching through photos of our kids. Some of the photos I happened on were of the kids with their families when they were first brought to NPH. The sorrow, anger, and fear on their faces, as well as those of the grandparents, uncles/aunts, or parents who couldn´t take care of them, was awful. I know they are in a better place now, but it is so hard to see that. It is very sobering as well.

I think one of the most amazing things to me is that I never see these kids as ¨orphans.¨ They have become my family. They are the ones who give me hugs, who tell me that I look tired when I am, and who ask me to look over their homework at night. They, for the most part, are normal teenagers. However, it is things such as the photos or the little boy with his cards that remind me that these kids do come from tough backgrounds, but they are still kids who just want to be loved and have a place to call home.

Probably one of the most surprising things to me is that in a matter of weeks, I have become a protective mom/friend over these kids. If they go to a volleyball match or Girl Scouts outside the house, I am very concerned with how they are perceived and how they will do. I want them to be perceived as normal. I remember my dad, who was an orphan himself, telling me the worst part of living in the orphanage was that other kids knew he was an orphan. I don´t want my kids to have to feel that way.

If any of you would ever consider being a ¨padrino¨or godparent (sponsoring a child), I think it is only $300 a year. I know that might seem like a lot, but it means a lot to each child.

Miss you all!

Girl Scouts, Running, and Coco

When I first started this blog, I thought writing once a week would be sufficient. Wrong-o. So much happens in a week, but I'll do my best to recap.

This Wednesday, we went to see the girls get pinned at guías, which is their form of Girl Scouts. I have to say that I wasn't super pumped to go (I went to guías last Saturday, and it was like pulling teeth to get some of the girls there), but it was an amazing site. The girls were on their best behavior, and you could see the pride in their faces when they received their pins. There were a lot of guides from all over the world in attendance due to an international conference; they were the women who pinned the girls. After the ceremony, our girls were running around asking for photos with their leader and the other guides. It was in this moment that I realized that in many ways we serve the roll of the proud parent. We are the ones there to cheer them on, take pictures with their friends, give them hugs, and congratulate them. It was extremely humbling and exhilarating; this is why I am here.

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Today I went to Miacatlan to visit the little kids and get a bit of work done for the library. I went on a run with a few of the volunteers, Julia and Joey, and we happened to run by a guy on a horse, a rooster running in a yard, and a woman making totillas by hand. Just another day in paradise!

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Finally, we have a new addition to our apartment. OK, that is somewhat misleading. One of the directors has a new puppy, and since he was going out of town this weekend, we offered to watch her. She did not have a name yet, so we decided to name her Coco! Hope it sticks :)

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I am loving Mexico and so glad I am here. We have our break this weekend after working 12 days in a row, so I am going to catch up on sleep and relax. I feel so blessed to be here and am so humbled to be part of the kids' lives.