Our day today was anything but boring...

We began with a regular schedule. Breakfast at 7am. Leave at 8. On the work site and building by 930...well, give or take some minutes due to hikes and crazy hills! We finished our LAST TWO HOUSES of the trip! This work site was amazing for our team. We were building a home for a Mom, Dad, and their 4 children...one 15 yr old girl, a 6 yr old girl (who had down syndrome) and a 1 yr old baby boy. When we arrived to the site, the first thing we saw was the 15 yr old and the 6 yr old girls beginning to pile up all the concrete for their father and the other workers who were there to help so they could begin to mix it as soon as we were ready. Lilia (the 6 yr old girl) had the biggest smile on her face the minute we walked up to the site. That smile stayed on her face the entire time we were with her. She helped us drill a door and window together, she followed us all around the site, and most of all, kept a smile on everyones face throughout the morning. To see her smile, and laugh, and be so incredibly happy to just be around everyone was so sweet.

The baby boy was named Danny. Oh my goodness he was PRECIOUS. He was a little shy and not so sure about letting me hold him at first...but don't worry, he warmed up to me and I was finally able to hold him and play with him (Jeff on the other hand...wasn't so lucky)! Seeing the moms faces while we were playing with the children was great. They lit up and were smiling from ear to ear seeing their kids laughing and messing around with us. We had a BLAST :)

After we finished the last two houses, the dedicating began. We started dedicating at the sites we had just finished, then went on to the 4 houses we did on Tuesday. What an amazing experience. These families are SO grateful. At dedication we give them the lock to the outside of the house, as well as a basket full of household needs such as rice, beans, sugar, salt, dish washing soap, toys, wash cloths, etc. To see these families faces when they open up the baskets is the greatest thing in the world! It was incredible to hear them pray and give glory to God for all that he has done! Although we couldn't understand all of the words, the spirit of the Lord was all around, and you could feel it...how amazing is that!?

After dedicating, it was time to go do food distributions. 100 tickets were given out to families, and they each received one bag for everything to go in. We had shoes, clothes, food, and some other smaller things. Gary told us tonight in the discussion that one lady came up to get her bag, and had folded her ticket up as small as she could, had put it into a zip lock plastic bag, and did NOT wanna give it up. This gave me an idea of how important this was to all of those families and children. We gave them a supply of food for a month...just a month, I mean, how many times a month do we go to the grocery store and fill up our carts of food? I'm thinking much more than once a month. It was an incredible experience to give these families a months worth of food, and shoes to put on their feet.

From there we went to a special needs orphanage, where we ate pizza and ice cream with about 12 special need kids. They were some of the happiest kids I have ever seen! We were welcomed by one of the boys who gave us all a few high fives and a huge smile. They were all laughing, smiling, screaming, and clapping as we all kept walking towards the backyard for dinner. We all ate dinner and had ice cream together, while loving on these kids at the same time.

After the orphanage, we came back to have a discussion at the house and then played some really fun and easyyyy games. Just ask Dewayne, hes really good at all of them.

Needless to say it was a long, but great day! Hope everyone is doing great in Wilmington/wherever you are! Talk to you guys soon! Miss you all! :)

hasta manana... :)

Abbey Lew