Archive for semillas de amor children’s village
Thank You to our Wisconsin Work Team
Posted by: | CommentsA huge thank you to Pam and Rich Garman for arranging the work team, hosting their visit to Guatemala and working alongside all the team members. This is the second year that our Wisconsin work team has visited, and for many this was the second year on the team as well. What a treat for us. This year our work team built an amazing play set for the kids, painted, built an arbor, installed our drinking fountain and did lots of maintenence work. Needless to say that my “honey-do” list was long for this team and I am so grateful to everyone who came and worked. Our kids love the new play set and I am thrilled with everything that that was done for us. The work teams are made up of people who work long hours and then spend their vacations and money giving back. We were fortunate that they gave back to us, at Semillas de Amor.
About the foot lockers. When I was asked by Pam and Rich, several months, ago for our wish list of projects, on my list of priorities were foot lockers for our oldest kids. Children raised in institutional settings do not have their own bedrooms and rarely have a place to keep their personal items. This can be very difficult for children because anything that belongs to them is generally used by everyone. I feel that it is very important for kids to have their own personal space, a place that is theirs. Craig designed amazing foot lockers for the kids, and then he and Rich built 17 footlockers for our kids. When the foot lockers went into the kids’ bedrooms the children began to dig under their mattresses, in the pillow cases, under the pillows for their things they had safely put away and put them in their own locker. All the kids were informed of the new rule regarding the foot lockers, no touching anyone else’s locker or risk losing yours. Privacy is somewhat of a novel concept in institutional settings, although only a few of the foot lockers have been seized. What a difference these foot lockers have made in the children’s lives. A space of their own. Thank you Rich and Craig!
A huge thank you to our Wisconsin Team, Mary, Jack, Barb, Rick, Ann, Tim, Kathy, Kathy, Dave, Nancy and Craig, Rich, Pam, Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Guatemala Mission, Lisa and Jason, Scott and Julie, Lisa, Connie, Tom, Helen, and Todd. See you in 2011!!!!
50 New Clucking Residents Arrive at Semillas de Amor
Posted by: | CommentsThey have been a long time coming but our egg laying chickens arrived today! Futuro de los Niños built our gorgeous safety fenced chicken coop (El Coop), adding running water, electricity and all the food and water feeders and today the Mazariegos/Girón family, with donations from their friends, family and co-workers, brought our gorgeous new ladies who will be providing lots of eggs for our kids. Our 50 hens are ready to lay so we hope to have eggs over the weekend. The kids, as well as all of us adults, were so excited that the chickens are finally here. We have food to feed them for the next few months and the hens will be dining on leftovers from our garden as well. Truly these girls are living the life of luxury, floors made of cedar shavings, nesting bins filled with pine needles, lots of food and water feeders and a very large outdoor area for them to hang out. I just love the fact that this was a joint effort, for the kids, by three wonderful families, that don’t know each other, one Guatemalan family and two families from the United States and what has brought them together is the love of the children at Semillas de Amor. In the next few months we will add to our hen population, perhaps bring in a rooster or two, purchase more feed and accessories with money donated by the Sebastian family who sold hand made Easter cards to raise money for our chickens. I am thrilled with the chickens but equally as important is the collaboration by so many people to make this happen. We are grateful.
A Thank You Video From The Kids!
Las Gallinas from Nancy Bailey on Vimeo.
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Happy Mother’s Day!!!!
Posted by: | CommentsI hope you will join all of us at Semillas de Amor in celebrating mother’s day. Friday we had a big celebration, live music by pianist Gaby Bailey, dancing, singing, food, and so much fun. The celebration brought tears to my eyes as I received a long stem red rose from each of the children. One of the dances the kids each had a letter that spelled out GRACIAS MAMAS and then when they turned around again the sign read GRACIAS MAMA NANCY. I can’t even put into words how special the day was. The difficulty of this work is equally as joyous and I feel blessed.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there and a very happy mother’s day to all the moms who are waiting for their children to come home from Guatemala. We truly hope they will be home soon.
This is a rather long video of our mother’s day celebration. I didn’t have the heart to edit anything out. This day was very special for me in may ways. I have had dreams of a music program, not only for our children at Semillas, but children living in Parramos. I was surprised with Gaby playing piano at the celebration. She played several songs, which were wonderful, but just seeing her, under a tree, playing piano brought tears to my eyes. The beginning of our music program. Enjoy the video and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY 2010 from Nancy Bailey on Vimeo.