Thursday at Dorie's

Another lovely day here at Dorie's is coming to a close, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to describe it! Lindsay and Mark worked all day on murals and wall decorations. In the isolation room, they painted a castle, and Mark used his hands to make little footprints along the walls. The difference in this room from Monday to today is almost unbelievable. Monday night, it looked like a prison cell, and today it looks like a room for kids to dream in! And tomorrow, when the trim is put back up and the furniture is moved in, Sophia will do just that!

In the afternoon, Mark and Lindsay decorated the Yellow Room in Casa 6, copying pictures from the girls' quits onto the walls. So far it looks great, wait until you see the pictures! It's so amazing to me that they can look at a picture on a blanket and transfer it to the wall with so little effort!

The BIG project here today was to repair the roof over the storage room in the administrative building. It slopes in the wrong direction, and there is actually a gutter INSIDE the room to collect the water and drain it through a pipe. Serious design flaw. Fortunately, we have a resident architect, Craig, who climbed around in there yesterday and figured out a solution. So today, Craig, Ed, and Ron spent the day fixing it. I can't even tell you what they did, other than smash some bricks, cut a lot of wood by hand, and use five tubes of something to seal the whole thing. There was some flashing involved, and we really hope that it's watertight now! The suggestion was made this evening to have Desi stand in there while we hold the hose on it, and see what happens! We'll let you know.....

I had the most fun of anyone, as usual! [Actually, I think there are a few people here who would argue that point, but I stand behind my statement!] Desi and I went to the neighborhood Costco-type store this morning and bought giant tubs of ice cream. I'm sure you can imagine what comes next - ICE CREAM SUNDAE PARTY! The 5-12 year olds came up to Casa 1 and spent the afternoon with me. They were happy when I brought out the bowls of ice cream. They were excited when they saw the sprinkles. But when I pulled the can of whipped cream out and Brayan's mouth hung open, I couldn't resist squirting it right in, and then they were ecstatic! Of course, then I had to squirt it in everyone's mouth, but hey, it was a party, right? After the ice cream, we hung around in the living room, some coloring, some talking, some looking at pictures of my family and home. It was an afternoon well spent.

Tonight after supper, a bunch of us invaded the Baby house, which I'm not so sure the Mamas loved, although the kids and we did! After we sufficiently riled them up, most of our team left, and I stayed to help get the babies to sleep. It's so peaceful and quiet, and the babies are so content, I could have stayed all night, but it was time to move out! Tomorrow the babies can have their whole house back, which will make the Mamas REALLY happy, and I will be very sad. I can't wait to hug my own kids, but I wish I could bring all of these kids with me. All I can say is, we'll be coming back here again, and hopefully soon, because there is no place on earth like Dorie's Promise Guatemala!