Talk about an emotional night

Birthday Girl!

And finally I'm caught back up to today.  Sorry about the blogs in spurts.  Sometimes it just works out that way.  First off I want to say thanks to all of you who posted about theme days.  I truly love getting comments on my blogs and that was really what that was all about.  I am going to try and incorporate some of those ideas into my future posts and please post any other ideas you have.

Cupcakes!!

Today was exhausting but a good day for sure.  I left the house at 9 to go grocery shopping and pick up a birthday present for Leticia who I thought was turning 4, turns out she was turning 2!, but more on that later.  I guess I had lost my mind trying to shop on a Saturday.  I didn't pull back into the house until 1:30!!! That didn't leave me much time to make cupcakes for Leticia's birthday party.  So I raced around to get the cupcakes made and iced.  And I made WAY to much icing.  Like a hilarious amount of icing.  I did a double batch of cake mix for the cupcakes so I thought I must need a double batch of icing, WRONG!  We're going to have icing for a while. 

Copious amounts of icing.

So we ended up leaving here really late and forgetting to buy tortillas.  So once we were settled Darwin went to pick up the tortillas and I stayed behind to get things rolling.  Soon Brian came up and starting helping me hand out water.  Brian is the kid from Jovenes that's started coming by.  On Wednesday he had tried to start a couple of fights so he was "punished" meaning he had to apologize or not get food for a couple of days.  He was very quiet and didn't try to get any food.  So Darwin came back and Brian walked off and we went on with the night.  After a while it became evident that we were low on numbers and were going to have plenty of food so we told everyone they could have seconds.  I called Brian over to give him a plate of food because he had been so helpful.  As I handed him his plate I said "Brian, look at me." From there I had planned to talk to him about not fighting and being responsible, but as he glanced at me there were tears running down his sweet face.  Oh my goodness, it's times like that that my job is so incredibly hard.  I just put my arm around him and kissed him on the head and told him it would be okay.  We stood there like that for awhile, him with tears dripping off the end of his nose and me trying my hardest not to join him.  He's such a sweet kid and he's really stuck in the middle of wanting to be a boy and needing to be a man to survive.  It's so hard to watch.  Darwin sat down with him and talked to him for a long time and then before I left we talked some more about looking to God when things get hard.  Please say some extras prayers for Brian tonight and for me.  I really want to bring him home, he's 15, and he needs someone.  But I don't think it would be prudent and I don't feel like it's where God is leading me right now.  Prayer for safety and strength.

From there we went to La Chimbomba and Leticia's birthday party.  That was so much fun.  She was a little overwhelmed by it all and the 4T clothes that I bought her aren't going to fit her for another year but we had fun and I am going to return the clothes for the right size.  I have no idea how I got it into my head she was turning 4.  I think I might be going senile early :). 

Darwin was doing the photography and the flash was a little intense.

She had some trouble with the ribbons.

But loved the cupcakes!!

She had some help getting the icing all over her face.  She was actually a really neat eater.

She liked her stuffed frog a lot but her favorite "present" was the crayon box I used as wrapping for one of the shirts I got her.  Somehow we didn't end up with a picture of that.

While they don't exactly look enthused here everyone had a great time and stayed around for the "party" until we left.  Everyone was also really really impressed with my quilt.  Mom, tell Judy her quilt was a hit. 

I also spent some time cleaning wounds tonight.  Javier and several other homeless people were beaten up by the police the other night and I'm still working on getting everyone cleaned up.  Javier was hit so hard in the face with a rock that 4 of his teeth are cracked and went through his cheek.  The police here are very corrupt and often have drunken late night boxing sessions on the homeless.  It's something that has been happening for years and it's so sad.  The homeless guys just accept it and really I don't know what can be done to change it but it's heartbreaking.  I hand out bandaids and triple antibiotic ointment like candy.  Triple antibiotic ointment and gauze are great things to send down if you're looking for a way to help. 

All in all it was a good night at the end of a long day.  I'm pretty tired but happy to have gotten caught up on my blogs.  Thanks so much for reading.  I love you guys.