Christmas Day at the children's home!

Carlin got here last night. His flight was delayed and as a result, we did not sleep much. This morning Bea and I woke up early to wrap presents for the Mision Betel kids and go drop them off. This was their first time unwrapping gifts. Check it out!

Christmas dinner at the children's home

Approximately 50 people showed up to the Mision Betel Christmas dinner at the children's home. We had invited a total of 60 ... we were very happy with the turnout.

Mision Betel Director, Ruben Gomez recognized everyone who had helped make this past year possible.

Jeudy and Josefina (in the orange and in the pink) is the couple that is helping to raise the kids.

We even had live music.

Bea was asked to sing Christmas songs in "correct" English, because our guests' attempts at a merengue version of "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" was actually kind of sad ---actually, it was hilarious -- All in good fun! :)

And Madelyn had her cake ... it was a great night!

Setting up for Christmas dinner at the children's home

First of all, we are sorry for not being able to post over the last few days ...Things have been extremely hectic. Below is a summary of the last few days:

Most of the day on the 22nd we spent running around town buying groceries, cooking, and baking for Christmas dinner at the children's home. We decided to have the dinner on the 23rd so that we could invite many of the individuals/organizations that have contributed to Mision Betel this past year. Below are a few pictures of the dinner and everything leading up to it.

Mom made a mouth-watering quiche ( I forgot to take an 'after' picture, but trust me on the 'mouth-watering' part)

It was also Madelyn's birthday so we baked her a cake -- complete with pink braids!

The kids helped peel stickers off the apples and set the tables.

In between all of it we found time to take a little break (they love brushing people's hair).

After we finished helping out with the food and decorations we had to help get the little kids ready ... In the end everything and everyone looked very nice.

Day THREE

Yesterday was an action-packed day. Teachers were due to give out final quarterly grades to their students, so we were at the school until 1 p.m. or so. Immediately after, the teachers and members of the the school administration had their Christmas luncheon and gift exchange. A certificate was also awarded to the "most improved" teacher -she was really touched. Here are a few pictures:

We also stopped by the children's home for a little while to check out their pantry and see what they needed. We'll probably be going to Pricemart (DR's Costco) today to do groceries. With time we would love to have the resources to fill up the pantry and be able to distribute groceries to needy families nearby at least once a month. We also got to spend a little time with the kids again - they rock!

And lastly, the boxes of toys came in!!!! We were so happy to start unpacking and sorting them. When finished, we counted approximately 200 gifts, including very nice "gift sets" for the older kids (that's usually a challenge). So that was day three ... we'll see what today has in store for us soon.

Day THREE ...details to come

Today was a very long day.... The boxes of toys got here and Bea and I just finished unpacking them, combining some of them, and sorting all 200 of them by gender and age. We are beat! We promise to tell you all about it tomorrow. Good night!

Day TWO

Today we went to a Christmas outreach at a local church where needy families were invited and blessed with "una comprita" (eggs, whole chickens, rice, beans, cooking oil, tomato paste, etc,) and toys for the kids. Thank God we were able to bring toys with us, because the kids really did not have many toys aside from the gift bags we put together yesterday.

Bea and I even got to spend quality time with the kids from the children's home .. :)