News about the orphanage

As you know, Greg and I have been spending some of our time here in Mazatlan helping out at the orphanage.

Just two nights ago, 3 more children arrived. It's an interesting story of how these children came to the orphanage. At one of the local grocery stores, the President of the orphanage was shopping and a lady approached her telling her that her children didn't have a place to sleep. We think Christina (the President of the orphanage) is probably well known here in Maz and this mother recognized her and knew she could probably help. Christina told her she would take her children to the orphanage. The children are, a little boy 3 and his sisters 5 and 7 years old. They came to the orphanage hungry, tired, with lice in their hair and in need of clean clothes. Their hair was cut, they were cleaned up and the orphanage is making arrangements to get them into school. Here is a picture of the children. The children at the orphanage love to have their picture taken so they looked pretty happy in this shot. It is a sad story but wonderful that they have a place to at least be safe off the streets, a bed to sleep in, with regular meals and the opportunity to go to school.

Another young girl, age 15, has arrived and she is pregnant. She is about 3 months along and won't be allowed to stay at the orphanage much longer as there is another facility in Maz that helps with issues like this. They have put her, sort of, in charge of this little baby boy (in the picture below) 1 year 2 months old, to help her start getting used to caring for a baby. Unfortunately, I could see, in the time I spent with her, that she is quite impatient with this little boy and this temperament could certainly be a problem with her own baby. She is just sooooo very young and, hopefully, she will get some counseling before the baby arrives. The baby may end up back at the orphanage, which would certainly be the best thing for the baby with the age of this mother. You just never know how these things are handled. Again, it is just wonderful there's a place, here in Maz, a young girl like this can go to get away from, what we understand to be, horrible circumstances at home. The picture below is of this young girl and the baby she is caring for.

Here is a picture of Greg lending a hand, setting up a crib for the little baby above.

We are just so happy all of our grandchildren are so well cared for by wonderful parents that love them so much. We know they're in safe, happy homes which is such a blessing. We know raising children comes with many challenges but each and every one of you are doing a great job and we thank you for that and love you all.