We have much to be thankful for....sometimes we need reminders of that though.  Here in the Philippines we are dealing with the news that over 50 people were brutally killed just because they were supporting the "wrong" political party....just one story of thousands all over the world of the depravity of man. What have we done with this world that God created for us?   BUT.....Thanksgiving is a time to dwell on what we have to be thankful for. 

     I am thankful that I have a God who promises me eternal life and a God whom I know is even more saddened and angered at all the injustice and wrong in the world than I am.  I am also thankful that I have a place where I can experience the good that life has to offer.  God has blessed,  is blessing and will bless CSC  ( look back a couple of blogs to see why I know that! )  I try to be thankful  every day but Thanksgiving Day is a good time to consider all  the blessings that we have.  I am so thankful for my family back in the USA, I am thankful for good health and for a lifetime of wonderful memories and the confidence that there are many more good memories to come.  I am thankful that I have a job that I can share with 70 amazing kids.  Kids who needed a bit of help and God enabled us to be here for them.  It is a blessing to be in the right place at the right time.  I thank God for the ability to be here to experience what He has for me to experience.   Today was a wonderful reminder of that.  We all gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving mid afternoon at school. We had a program explaining to the kids just what Thanksgiving is and why we celebrate it.   We had actors and  silly games.  THe results of a turkey coloring contest were announced...the four winners of the contest were invited to join the American Staff at our Thanksgiving dinner.  It was so fun to share our Thanksgiving meal with them.   We had turkey, mashed potatos,  dressing, sweet potatos,  deviled eggs,  green bean hotdish,  homemade bread, pumpkin pie, cranberries and more.  Many of the things that the four kids tasted tonight were new taste sensations for them.  What fun to experience "firsts" with our kids!  Turkey, mashed potatos,  sweet potatos and deviled eggs were the most popular....olives were an overwhelming NO! and cranberries and pumpkin pie were just "okay".  The kids smiled the whole evening.  I am thankful for our kids and that they now have something to smile about - not just  a Thanksgiving meal - but they have a future and they know they have a God that cares about them.   Enjoy what God has given you.   Here are a few photos and smiles to add to your Thanksgiving!

 

 

 

 

      We celebrate every CSC KIDS birthday at CSC.  That is a lot of birthdays; sometimes we have 2 or 3 birthdays a week!  Our kids don't have much that is THEIRS.   They have their names ( so I try to remember to use their names when I talk to them ) and they have their birthdays.  The big event is always in the evening of their birthday. The older kids get to pick the menu at their party.   All the American staff members show up.   The birthday kid gets to invite two kids from the other house and many times a teacher gets invited too.  We sing Happy Birthday songs accompanied by the House fathers on their guitars...usually at least a couple different birthday songs ( I will mention here that we did not hire our house fathers because of their musical talent......).  We have a special prayer for the birthday child (usually one of us Staff members gets that honor ). Then we all eat together -  always quite a busy and loud time!  The kids get to go up to the  birthday banquet table and get their own food...(vegetables don't usually go too fast on birthday nights.....!)  Then we unveil the special birthday cake with THEIR OWN NAME on it !   It is always fun to watch the one-year olds mess up their birthday cake ( we figure that their adoptive parents will appreciate the photos some day ). The kids get to choose the ice cream flavor they want - Ube is a favorite - purple ice cream made from Ube, it's like a sweet potato.  It is good ice cream!  After that comes the kids most favorite time - opening their gift.  Our kids are appreciative of whatever they get it seems.  After opening their gifts they usually want to go up to their room and find a special place to keep each thing and to share their "bounty" with their friends. 

       Recently we celebrated Ginda's 23rd birthday.   Ginda came to live with us when she was only 10 days old.  We have celebrated 23 birthdays with Ginda!  Ginda has cerebral palsy, she is wheelchair bound and cannot speak, but she can express joy...and she does that well.   Ginda knew it was HER day, she even got to wear the ear rings that she had chosen on a recent shopping trip.  What a blessing it is to celebrate birthdays with our kids!   It is THEIR day and they know it.

 

I was sitting here in my office thinking that I really needed to do a Blog update and wondering what to write about.  The kids are of course  "blog worthy subjects" and  there were a few of them right outside my window; playing basketball, ping pong, picking up the  greenboard that blew over twice in a little gusts of wind and trying not to get too wet  ( a few trying to get wet ) in the little sprinkles of rain that blew in every once in awhile.  But, I was also thinking about our financial situation;  knowing that we need some big money to come in to meet our budget and to keep going with our plans for growth. We just opened our beautiful new Duterte home and hope to have  all 3  of our Homes up and running early in 2010.  But...finances are tight right now.  Is this a time that we should be looking at growth?  Should we be satisfied with our status quo? The needs we could meet are certainly evident all around us.  I know in my heart that God will provide - simply because he always has.  But...as I was thinking about that and wondering why I  would  ever doubt God about our finances I heard the kids start yelling outside.   I thought maybe the greenboard blew over again and hurt someone.  But as I looked outside the kids were excitedly pointing over to the newly opened  Duterte home.  When I moved so that i could see what they were looking at I was both amazed and chastised at the same time.   There was a beautiful rainbow....and one end of it ended right on the Duterte Home roof from my vantage point.  I came to some immediate conclusions in my mind.   I will let each of you come to your own.

If you look closely you can see that it was actually  a double rainbow....the other rainbow ending on the roof of our new infirmary building! God is good. This beautiful display lasted only a couple of minutes and ( I think ) was only seen by me and the few kids that were outside.  I am happy to share it though!

    We have a special time every weekday for the toddlers.   We have it in the morning right after the older kids go school, the toddler's get to take over the compound.   It is a fun time!   We do things like nature walks, finger painting, water play or coloring most days, but today we tried something new.  TODDLER BOWLING!  We learned that there is only one rule to Toddler Bowling - and that is that the bowling pin is used to hit the bowling ball !  (To be honest it resembles golfing...but we don't think our toddlers are ready for golf.)  Toddler Bowling is a very popular game for us now...I am sure it will be played often.  We may have to get a patent on the game I think.  The toddlers were still going strong when the game was "over" so we brought out our basins for water play.  We knew we were asking for trouble because these are the same basins that we use for water play when we have the toddlers in their swim suits!   But it was a great time - check out the photos!  We'll be working on that patent.