Today, the hour came and went for Hora Feliz. Only one child showed up. We were quite confused, as they usually come hours early and stand out front yelling our names until we open the doors. I walked down to a few houses, and the mothers told me our church had come and gotten the kids this morning for the yearly boxes. (I should explain that here, all non-Catholic churches "look the same" to Catholics, so what she meant is that some non-Catholic church was doing something for children today. They use the word "evangelical" where we'd say Protestants.)

About an hour later, the children came walking back home, each of them with a red shoebox in hand. SAMARATIN'S PURSE! How cool. Most of the boxes had notes inside, in English, so I had the privilege of translating little letters written by kids from far away, written to these little people they'd never meet. If you don't know about the program, Samaritan's Purse collects shoeboxes full of school supplies, socks, gloves, hard candy, toothbrushes, etc.--whatever you can fit inside--around Christmas time, and distributes them to third-world countries. It takes about 5 months for them to arrive here, apparently.

The smiles on their faces were just priceless. It was so neat for us to be a part of seeing the other side of this project. For years we assembled shoeboxes and tucked inside a note and a picture of our family, with little goodies. But to see the actual children receiving these boxes and oohing and aahing over every little thing inside just made our day. What a neat program! (Pictures below....)

Ken and Saul took to the kitchen again for a night of homemade pizza for 50 friends and family. We were celebrating Ken's 40th birthday! :) It was a spectacular party, with music, pizza, UNO, cake, and a lot of hanging out.

Ken's family helped me get a photo show together by emailing some pictures of him as a baby/child/teen, which made for a bit of entertainment for our Paraguayan friends. They'd never seen Ken with his fro, or bald, or as "Little Kenny."

When it came time for Ken to blow out the candles, Caroline wanted to play along for his birthday song. Our friend Ceci accompanied her on the guitar, and the guests sang the Spanish version of "Happy Birthday." I shot a quick video (click below to see it) of the song and the guests who happened to be in the salon at the time we sang it. We had a great time celebrating the completion of the first third of Ken's life!

It seems I've taken a mini-respite from the blog, as it's been a wild week. We've been to a trillion doctor's visits lately (that's another blog for another day), and Nana (my mom) and Grandpa Tommy flew in for a quick visit this past Thursday. Their luggage flew in Saturday. ;) Friday night, we had about 50 friends over and celebrated Ken's 40th birthday (again, another blog...). While he was blowing out the candles and I was taking the video, my brother called to tell me that our dad had been in a serious motorcycle accident and was being flown to the nearest trauma center. No one quite knew where he was, or even what city (he was on a trip). Needless to say, it's been a roller coaster ride here the past few days.

I just hung up with a phone conversation with my dad (thank God for skype), and he is recovering in a hospital in Charlotte. He has a lot of injuries, but the doctor says he has been stabilized and none are life-threatening. His face and head took a lot of damage, so talking to him is a little difficult. He is coherent, though, and I could understand basically everything he said. We are all thanking God that he is miraculously alive. The more I hear of the story, and of his injuries, the more we know that it is another instance of the hand of God holding back Death. He has done this many times for my Daddy.

Thank you for the continued prayers for his recovery, and for the prayers and encouragement for us, as well. I know this is part of the job, to be away when important things happen back at home, but it doesn't make me any more comfortable about it at times like this. It is always good to know that God is omnipresent and omnipotent, the Great Physician.

This week we were honored to be a part of the birth of a new little missionary. Our friends, Sara and Shaun Morton from Serving Paraguay (Itaugua) and their little girl Abi, welcomed William Samuel to the world. What a precious little fella he already is, and how thrilling to be a part of his first days "out in the open."

Baby Sammy was born in the capital, so we did a bit of driving the last few days. This weekend is also Paraguay's Independence Day and Mothers Day. The normal traffic light vendors selling fruit, bread, cough drops, cell phone cases, windshield wipers, etc., were replaced by those selling flags, pin-on ribbons in the national colors (red, white, blue), and flowers for Mama. We even caught a guy dressed up in patriotic garb at one redlight, juggling a fiery baton. It made for some interesting car time.

The girls and one of the young ladies from the community sewed patriotic ribbons for the 84 students of the elementary school, which they delivered in time for the children in Arazaty to celebrate Independence Day. Rather than all the fireworks displays we are accustomed to, here there is a morning parade. Each school is represented, with their children marching military-style in their uniforms. Paraguay is almost the underdog of South America, as it's a tiny little country with not much force. But they have survived some horrendous wars from much, much larger opponents, and come through near-annihilation. Their pride and patriotism is not without reason.

So happy birthday Sammy, and happy birthday, Paraguay!

A really neat thing happened this past week. As always, a little background info first... We live in a neighborhood with a lot of children. We've tried to make the most of this and take in stride the difficulties that come from that, while attempting to minister to these precious little folks. Usually it works out fine, but at times, we "rock the boat," usually by accident.

The only family that has actually made a fuss (they weren't sure what "Hora Feliz" was all about, and thought we were brainwashing their child, I think... ??), is actually an extended family that lives around the corner. There are a slew of really small kids/babies, and a few moms (maybe they're sisters to each other?), and the grandmother. I think there's a man in the mix somewhere, but I'm not sure if he's a father or a brother. Anyway, the children are absolutely precious and we fell in love with them right away. We always try to speak to the adults and greet/befriend them, but usually we are met with coldness.

Just this past week, the grandmother of that same family stopped by the house, as the cold weather blew in. There were about 10 kids playing on the porch and I thought she'd come to gather her brood. She came right up to me, though, and said in Spanish (she normally only talks to me in Guarani, so I was THRILLED to know she could speak Spanish), "My grandson doesn't have a backpack for school or tennis shoes, and we don't have much money. I told him we can't buy those things. He said I should come talk to y'all because y'all help him." Oh, how she broke my heart. She knows that I know they stirred up trouble and tried to turn the neighborhood against us. She knows I tried to "win her over" and they gave me the cold shoulder each time. So I imagine that the need must really be great for her to swallow those things and come to ask for help anyway. No way we can ignore that.

Background info #2. Monthly support has been at an all-time low the past couple months. I usually don't share financial things on the blog, or in the newsletters, because it makes me uncomfortable. But I read something this week about Paul, the first missionary, and how he was specific with his situations in his correspondence. So here goes... I figured it'd take about $20 to get the things Juancho needed (hefty boy-proof tennis shoes, several pairs of socks, and a good solid backpack), but this month, it's just not there. I couldn't justify taking food off my children's plates to do a good deed, no matter how good it seems. So I prayed. God loves Juancho even more than we do, and God wants him to have warm shoes, too. The words to "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" kept coming to mind.

Not too much later, my telephone rang, and a friend said her friend needed some internet help. The net is still new to lots of folks here, so we end up doing this from time to time, but usually not with perfect strangers. Ken went on this "house call," and the end result was that he helped this man (with a very costly hobby) order something he'd been planning to buy from somewhere else, and Ken saved the man a WHOLE LOT of money. He INSISTED on giving Ken about the equivalent of $20 for his help, so
guess who got some new shoes and a cute backpack? Thank you, Lord. You're always right on time.

As I type this, I am participating in a woman's conference. I won a free ticket from a blog giveaway, and my dear husband is managing the house for these three days so that I can curl up in the bed and participate. This is an online conference, using the coolest technology to connect me with women all over the world, and speakers who are able to display powerpoint slides on my screen, as well as live video of themselves giving their presentations. Off to one side is a little area where all the ladies participating can type in their comments and participate in the discussions.

The kids are downstairs helping Ken with a few carefully preplanned projects, Hollie is completing a challenge, and I'm soaking up every second of this conference planned for renewal, refreshing, and spurring us gals on to greatness. This is sponsored by A Woman Inspired. Check them out for other online conferences, including past ones they've archived for mp3 downloads and discussion forums. What a great Mothers Day gift for me (thanks, Ken, for arranging this time for me), and a pleasure to be able to take advantage of technology in this way!