The teachers are working hard and the children are playing hard because next Monday school begins.

We hired a new social worker like the government asked me too.

I want to thank everyone who faithfully gave in 2019. We had another prosperous year of paying all of our bills, helping with 11 kidney transplants, building 6 churches, etc. And we fed & clothed 300 children. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I do ask that you pray for my health. Dottie seems to be 25 years younger than me. Ha!

here is a stoppage coming from the dialysis building & water is everywhere. The men are working hard to find where it is stopped.

10/13/2003. Steve and I went to the city to do a few chores but in reality we just needed time to visit. So much is going on here at Casa and Steve is helping to build 3 other orphanages so we rarely get to talk. While in the city I was notified by customs that we had 47 cases of diapers at the port. So we immediately drove the 4 hours to the port and were told that it would cost a ridiculous amount of money to get them. So we drove back to Guatemala City and went to the First Lady and assured me I could get them without the taxes.

10/14. I left the house at 4am & drove to the port where I was able to get the diapers without taxes. When I returned home we had gotten two girls. The 12 year old was from a village named Chicamel and was the victim of physical abuse by her step father. The other girl is 15 and was the victim of sexual abuse by her father. She is from a village called Panache. Many of the children we receive from these far away villages speak only a dialect and very little Spanish.

10/15. I picked up Silvio’s report card and he is still the number one student in pre-med. He is assisting at the morgue performing autopsies. When Michelle was born and taken home by the mother the grandfather refused her because she was hydrocephalic. He took her back to the hospital, threw her into the arms of a policeman and said, “I do not want a monster in my home”.

We received her at the age of 3 months and now she is 9 years old. Today she had her first seizure. Dottie and I adopted her and now she is in her twenties and has seizures nearly every day. She is so special to Dottie. I believe that is the result of Dottie giving birth to 3 retarded children who all died. Dottie has the largest heart of anyone I know.