Dance Class!

by erin

Kids everywhere love dance, and these kids are no different.

Fun music (Ecuadorian, Jessie Cook and Pirates of the Caribbean) and silly warm-up exercises make for a crazy time :0)

 

We taught the kids an Israeli circle dance called Baruch Adonai.

 

Part way through Dolly joined us. She loves music and it was fun to be able to include her in the dance class.

 

At the end of the dance we would all fall down and rest our feet

 

The girls were all fascinated with my dance shoes.

 

Maria helping Dubi put on my pointe shoes.

 

Julisa wanted to wear these all day long. They actually fit her! Its crazy how much the kids have grown up over the past year!

 

I think the thing that the kids enjoyed most about dance class was skipping across the floor together. It started out with two at a time…

…and grew to nine of us …by the end even some of the pre-schoolers joined in the fun

 

Alondra resting after an aerobic dance class

We are home!

by sara

We arrived home yesterday exhausted but happy to see our family. The last few days before we left Quito went well.

We spent Saturday packing and then saying goodbye to the Casa kids and all of the tias. It was really hard to leave the Casa that evening knowing that it was the last day in Shell.

Sunday morning we hopped on the bus and made the 5 hour ride to Quito. When we arrived we caught a taxi to the north end of town and checked in at our guest house. We stayed at “Angelica’s” which is more like a beautiful home than a guesthouse. We had stayed there on our way into Ecuador and it was good to see a familiar face.

We also saw one familiar face that we had not been expecting. It turned out that a friend from Colorado was also staying at Angelica’s! Don was in Quito visiting his Compassion sponsored children and without knowing it we were all booked the same guest house on the same days. As we chatted and caught up we also realized that we were booked on the same flight home on Tuesday!

Monday morning we slept in and had a good breakfast before heading to the Compassion office. Erin and I spent the day visiting with my sponsored child Elian and his big brother William. I will share more about the visit later, but suffice it to say we had a great time.

That evening we had dinner at our guesthouse and spent time relaxing and sharing visit stories with Don. At about 9pm one of the other Casa de Fe volunteers arrived. She was also flying out the next day, so we spent the evening sharing kid stories and repacking our suitcases.

After 2 ½ hours of sleep we woke up and headed with Don to the airport. We buzzed through check-in and immigration and were at the gate over an hour and a half before our flight was ready to take off. Our flight to Houston went well and after a short delay, we had a smooth flight to Denver.

It is hard to believe that we are home now. After 4 years of transitioning back home we should be experts, but it is always difficult. After we take the next few days to reacclimate to life here in the USA we will be working on some more posts about the precious children at Casa de Fe.

One-on-One Visits

This summer we have had kids over to our house pretty regularly. Sometimes they sleep over, sometimes it is just for a few hours to make a meal and play. With 50+ kids at Casa de Fe it can be overwhelming, and the kids do not always get the same attention that they would if they were with their families. Bringing them home is our way of getting to spend more time with the kids, and making sure they know that they are noticed individually.

Here are some photos of the visits we have been doing this summer.

  2 year old Esther loved to play and eat.

Tatiana and Boris got to help cook dinner, play games, and go to the park.

Sheyla and Nila came over and helped make pancakes for dinner

Rosita spent the night with us one last time before her adoptive family arrived in Shell. She and Erin have been buddies since the first year we came.

Ester and Sheyla came over together.

Boris and Edison had a blast. Edison was almost giddy!