This day began so sadly as Tony & Quique found Ginger, our Doberman, dead. The vet said she was carrying 10 puppies. Dottie, Tony, Quique, Mynor & myself buried her on the back property. Of all Dottie’s dogs over the years Ginger was more special than any of them.  

The Louisiana team left and most of them were family members of Dr. Don Hines. When they viewed the plaque we have of Dr. Hines it was more tears & emotions for all of us.

The New York team had both volleyball and soccer tournaments with the boys & the girls & then gave them pizza. In the afternoon they took the university students for lunch and dinner in Anigua until 10pm.

Josue’ will leave Sunday morning for the USA for 18 days.

Estefany had surgery to replace the catheter. Remember the last surgery a month ago she quit breathing so we have everyone praying.

7/1/2003. Carlos had a rough day as he had to have a meeting with all of the teachers and some were very rude. In fact, his meeting lasted 3 hours. We received a child but all of our beds are filled. I went to Chimaltenango and bought a set of bunk beds. 

7/2. The Ministerio Publico came & wanted to know what qualifications did we have for receiving children. Our 3 positive areas were abused, abandoned or orphaned age birth to 17. The children we cannot take are gang members and abusive children. The police actually brought us two 16 year olds with handcuffs. So we cannot take children that pose a danger to other children. Carlos is writing guidelines & will make the rounds to the 11 different judges throughout Guatemala so they will understand. He and I did go to the city and finished shopping for the furnishings for the office. He also began the search for a bilingual secretary. The first two he found was one who worked at the UN but was not a Christian. The second works for a major corporation but wants a Christian environment. He hired her so she will be able to write all of our guidelines, etc. in both English & Spanish.

7/3. The government announced that the first 6 months of this year there was an average of 12 murders. That is more than what is happening between Palestine and Israel. They also said that 351 children were violently killed last year. Dottie and I bought the bathroom fixtures for the office so we are nearing completion of the office.