Friday in Mexico.....and back to the USA

On the way back to San Diego, we stopped at Grace Babies Home near Tijuana, another of YUGO ministries.  Centerpoint partners with GBH, too.  It is amazing.  The facility is ready to accept babies (praying it will happen soon!) and it is such a welcoming, loving, CLEAN, well-thought-out place.  The room you see above (with SuperTucker trying to get in my picture) is the tiny baby area.  The Bible verses at the top of the wall are in every room in English and in Spanish.  You can look at their website to get a whole tour (Google Grace Babies Home Tijuana). 

This bathroom is connected to the toddler area and has the tiniest little potty you ever saw.  Along with the tiny sinks.  I couldn't get the boys to sit on the potties for me. :)

The wash/changing room.  Don't you love the steps up to the tub!?!?

All the quilts in the beds were handmade to blend with each other and the little knitted blankets were made to match the quilts.  Each of the rooms has it's own color scheme.  They also have cameras in the ceiling that go to a computer in the hall so caretakers can see whether someone is really getting ready to yell or just squirming around. :)

Pretty tiles on the floor of the children's home (across the street from the babies' home).

Back to the USA!  We visited Dog Beach on Sat. before our plane left.

Surfer dudes.

Team Centerpoint!

It was nice to see grass. :)

Thursday in Mexico

Team Clement in front of the completed house!!!

The platform you see Sully sitting on is the bed we built.  A mattress is set on top of it and the underneath can be used for storage.

Villagers.

The baby's room.  We painted an M for Mirian and the church bought a Moses Basket, full of clothes and blankets.

The "big" room.  The curtains separate the rooms.  There are 3 rooms in this house.  The box in the corner is a big box of food our team provided for the family.  We left lots of blankets and things, too.

The parents room. 

Our team made this for the family from all of our handprints.  Jehova Jire means God provides.

Our team took a picture of the family and had it blown up and framed for their new home.

Most of our team.

Roberto, our foreman extraordinaire is on the left.  Then is "our" family:  Esmerelda, baby Mirian and Ricardo.

Shopping at the market-a sombrero headband!

Ole!

cool door

another cool door

This is the courtyard of our "camp".   The door you see is the entrance to the coffee bar.  If you like coffee, which I do not, I am told this is REALLY great coffee.  They also sell Manzana Lift, which is an apple soda, made with cane sugar that is our family's fav.  Yumola.

The girls dorm, after we had packed up and moved our stuff out!  The beds are comfy and the temperature is perfect here.  No humidity, cool, breezy, ahhhh.

Ellie and one of her new friends, Lucy.

The gentleman to the right was at the gate almost every morning and afternoon, selling ponchos, blankets, purses, backpacks and rugs.  The ministry invited him to be there, they are picky about who gets to sell stuff to us.

Wednesday in Mexico

 This morning the ladies of our group (minus Tori, who returned to the jobsite) went to a different area to a feeding station.  The lady there feeds 40-60 kids/Moms every Mon, Wed and Fri.  This meal is breakfast and lunch to them. 

We got to play with the kids for a little while before they ate.  They love having their picture taken and then see it on my camera.

She made me take about 10 of her! :)

Wanted to bring this one home!

This is the room where they ate.  They all sat on the benches and we served them a bowl of beans with some lettuce on top, some hard tortillas and orange slices.  There were cookies, also.

This so looks like something you'd see on tv or on the internet.  Can't believe I was there watching her eat.

This little girl was beautiful.  Ellie says it looks like Josie. :)

Every time I would try to take this guy's picture he would hide under his jacket,  but he kept tapping me and signaling for me to try again.  He was pretty tickled when I caught him.

We passed out ribbons and flower clips.  This sweetie got both.  They all wanted the ribbons tied around their heads.

Ellie and Emma painted fingernails.  They were a big hit!

Back at the jobsite Teri got to hold this two month old baby boy.  So sweet.



Sullivan's day looked a lot like this.  He let all the little boys jump on him and they took full advantage of it.  This young man's name was something like,  "An-khel-a-vino" which translated means close to "Angel of wine."  Figure that one out.



We got to knock off work early (believe it or not, we are almost DONE with the house!)  and go get tacos at a local taco stand.  There are taco stands EVERYWHERE.  You get beef or pork.  No chicken. 

salsa pot

they cut the pork right off of this.  Scary.  I had beef.

Nearby fruit stand.  You can get you a pineapple and some toilet paper to go.

We got to go to the church service of the church that is supporting the family we are building for.  This guitar-playin Abuela (grandma) rocked the house!  It was loud and full of gusto!!

Tuesday in Mexico



We asked a lot of you to write down a Bible verse to put in the house as a blessing for the family we are building the house for.   Our team chose verses, too, and this morning we nailed them to the framework of the house.  We told the family we wanted them to know that this house was a blessing from the Lord.  I put the verses (in English and Spanish) into a scrapbook for them to keep and read.

This is Esmerelda, the Mom of the family, nailing up some verses.

Ellie took nailing the verses on very seriously.

This is Craig holding Mirian, the family's baby.  She's 9 months old.  And has ponytails!

Tucker the roofer.  By the way, I got on the roof and nailed on shingle paper.  Craig is very impressed with me.  I am Big, Strong, Queen of Jungle.

Ellie and her new friends made bracelets today for a long time.

The white box in the background of this picture is the "bathroom" for the family that our church bought.  Can you imagine?  It really is an outhouse.  It goes outside the house over a hole in the ground.  Really humbles us to think of living like this.  They're thrilled to have it, too.  The Dad, Ricardo, said yesterday that he would take the house just like it was he was so excited.  Wow.

Ellie and her bracelet crew.

Clement men on the roof.