Tremendous Thursday - our last full day of work

It's hard to believe that our time in Colima is almost over.  It's gone by so quickly and although we're very proud of the work we accomplished, we are so very aware right now of how much more work there is to do every day in the lives of these kiddos and how much of our hearts we will leave behind in Colima when we depart on Saturday.

Still, we leave with grateful hearts knowing that these kiddos are in the best of hands. And we're glad to have been able to do a little to make their home more comfortable and maybe even a little more loving and fun.

Today was our last full day of work and we were able to finish up almost all of our projects - hooray!

We fixed the water tanks on top of Casa Matriz so that the water stops running once the tank is full.

We pondered some shelves in a storage closet that seemed to have issues...

...determined that wood is definitely not supposed to look like this on the inside...

...and had lots of helpful hands ready to assist in the building of new shelves! (the helpful part is debatable, but at least we had some company while working!)

The new shelves are fab and we hope they will last a long time.

We completely finished painting the beds and closets in both of the Senorita rooms (that's the home for the older teenage girls).  The beds look so cheery and bright with their new coats of paint and we were proud to be able to provide for these young woman as they enter adulthood.

We did lots (and lots and lots) of mending in Casa Leonel (the sibling home).  We fixed zippers in uniforms, hemmed pants, shortened shirts, and did anything else they needed us to do.  It's amazing how the piles of clothes to mend come out of the woodwork once you demonstrate a willingness to sew!

We finished painting the upstairs of Casa Cuna (the baby house) and it looks great!

The kids in Casa Cuna were very excited to show off all of their new clothes today.  Thanks to everybody who donated clothes for this trip, your donations are so very much appreciated down here, as you can tell by these big smiles.

Somebody was very excited about her puppy shirt and just had to show it off.

The soccer ball donations were also a huge hit with the older crowd.  Thanks so much to everybody who donated the balls, clothes, craft supplies, and cash to bless these kids - you have done very good work down here in Colima and brought lots of smiles to these kiddos' faces.

We still had all of our craft and activity times today and, as usual, the kids were very energetic and very appreciative of all of our efforts.

We finished up the day with a tour of the school that the kids in Hogar de Amor attend.  This is a private school run by the same church that runs the Hogar de Amor - Grupo Amor.  The facility is brand new and simply beautiful - these kids are so, so blessed to be under the care of Grupo Amor and it was amazing to see the school they attend.

The school is well-respected by the community and is one of the most sought-after private schools in Colima.  The funds from the private school go to pay for the cost of having the orphans attend as well.

Here's our whole tired, happy crew outside of the kids' school.

And here is the best use of old tires I have ever seen!  A tire tower, tire wall, tire tube to crawl through, tire skipping stones, and tire climbing net.  No wonder everybody wants to send their kids to this school!

This evening we got to sponsor a tamale party at Casa Leonel and let me tell you - that house knows how to party!

The pinatas are, of course, the focal point of the evening.  We had - count em - three giant pinatas to enjoy this evening including this magnificent representation of the mighty Thor.

The food was wonderful, but everybody knew that the dinner was really just the pre-game show for the pinatas. As expected, breaking the pinatas was energetic, a little dangerous, and definitely frantic once the candy was unleashed.

These two are clearly birds of a feather when it comes to candy collection - I'm surprised their shirts didn't burst with the weight of all that loot!

Our party was cut short by a torrential thunderstorm, which was a shame but definitely didn't dampen our enjoyment of the evening or our memories of Casa Leonel and each of the homes of Grupo Amor.  This is such a special place.

Tomorrow we're going to take some time to explore the area around Colima and take in a few sights of the city.  As our trip winds down, here are a few prayer requests:

• Please start praying now for easy travel back to the U.S. and boringly simple logistics for the remainder of our trip. Our trip has been so smooth and we are so grateful for easy travel - please pray that the remainder of our travels are so easy!
• We are all healthy and doing well physically (except for the fatigue of all that work!).  Thanks so much for praying for our health.
• Please pray that the seeds planted in us and the things that God is doing in each member of the team as a result of this trip have lifelong (and eternal!) impact.
• Pray that the work that we did during our short time in Colima would continue to bless the kids and their caregivers and remind them of our love and, more importantly, God's unfailing and unending love for them.