A season of goodbyes

Wow, this last 2 weeks has been crazy. In the last 13 days I've seen 5 of our 11 volunteers leave Lily to go back home, and we'll lose another on Saturday. That's right, we'll be down to 5. Carissa left on the 3rd, Katie on the 9th, Aislinn on the 12th, Jonny on the 15th (the Big 3 in House 21 have been broken up, tear), Sarah today (the 16th), and Lani will leave Saturday. It has definitely been hard to say goodbye to people. We developed such a family of volunteers here and had so much fun together that it's hard to imagine it ever being the same with the next group. Praise the Lord though that he provides and that we will have a new crop coming in January. It's weird to think that the people that showed me the ropes will all be gone and I'll be one of the vets showing the new kids around. Anyway, the last few weeks have been filled up with just trying to hang out with all the volunteers and really cherish our last times together. They are definitely friends for life and I'll miss them all.

Oh yeah, and the craziest part is that this big drop in numbers comes right before the staff holiday party. All the paid staff will be off tomorrow, the 17th, and us volunteers will have to watch all the kids ourselves... that means all 19 house moms, the nursery teacher and the managers are gone, leaving us with about 100 kids (some go to homes for christmas, so our numbers are down) including babies! It's going to be a handful. Somewhat thankfully I got the job of going to the hospital all day to get medicine. It will be really boring, but it gets me away from this craziness I guess, although I do feel bad about leaving the other volunteers to do it. Please pray for them!

Seriously, the thought of taking care of all the kids seems so much worse now that I've experienced the last few weeks of them being on summer holiday from school. When all the kids are around all day it is hectic here. I mean, there are 114 kids in total , which means they pretty much run this place. I really do worry sometimes about the kids (and us) because it seems like there are too many here for us to meet there needs. I've mentioned before how I think many of them should probably be seeing counselors, but beyond that, we just dont have the time or resources to administer proper discipline or teaching for the kids we have, and I think you can see that manifesting in the way the kids behave. Its sad too because it seems like some of the more poorly behaved kids are starting to influence the better kids, as the former seem to run this place. I hope this perception is wrong. Please pray that we can find a way to reach these kids and put them on the right path, and that we can maintain control here. What's tough is that there is so much need in this world, that it seems to be the right thing to continue to grow projects like Lily, however there is so much more to raising these kids than just filling their stomachs. Without proper care, love and guidance, I'm afraid these kids wont be much better off in the long run. I could go on for a while, but I'll leave it at that. Pray.

Oh yeah, the Christmas parties have started... these kids are spoiled compared to the kids in the community around them. Many of the parties consist of groups coming in for just a few hours, feeding the kids and handing them small gifts or sweets. I've already become numb to it and I haven't been here long. It just doesn't seem too fruitful, but the kids have fun, although I worry that everytime they see someone they don't recognize they just expect that person to give them something... not a good mentality. One of the Christmas parties though was last tuesday and involved us taking EVERYONE about 30 minutes away to a big all day party. There wasn't enough room for all the volunteers to go in our vehicles so only the ones who had to drive went. I was picked to drive which I was not happy about at first, cause I would have liked the mellow day off to recoup, but then when I got there I had so much fun. There was a petting zoo, bounce house (which was complete trouble), face painting, pony riding and just hanging out in this park. Santa also came and the kids got there big gift of the season, which tended to be watches, make up, soccer cleats, and even a few RC cars and skateboards. The day after wasn't as much fun as I heard my name yelled about a thousand times by kids wanting me to set their watches or fix the toys they'd already broke. But yeah, overall it was a fun day simply because the kids were having fun and were absolutely adorable. I'll hopefully post some of the pictures soon, but for now I'll leave you with this one on the left... aren't those kids adorable? I love them.

Well, I'll leave you with that and I hope to blog more soon. Here's hoping you are all enjoying the Christmas lead up. It's weird cause there seems to be about no focus on Christmas here... we did the nativity play a week and a half ago, but yet the church we go to still doesn't have any Christmas decorations up, hasn't really talked about the holiday, and certainly doesn't do Advent... weird. At least House 21 (my house) and House 10 (Lauren, Palmer and Rosa) have a little Christmas decoration contest going on... House 21 rules!!! Peace out.