June Newsletter

 

CASA De ESPERANZA

Making a difference, one child at a time

P.O. Box 9222

Columbus, MS 39705

cdehonduras.org/casa.acklenavenue.com

Amigos de Casa,

I hope you are staying cool this hot summer. We are, once again, in the rainy season with very cool nights and warming some in the day.

The kids have finished the second partial of this school year and we are waiting on grades. There are always some that surprise with good grades and always some that need to spend more time studying.

In May, Fernando was tested again in Teleton and passed. There was a simple graduation ceremony. Reina, because of her age, is also finishing at Teleton. Her graduation will be July 12. We are looking for another program in which to place her. Nicole has visited a couple of places and still has two more to visit; one of those sounds promising. Yair has been placed in more classes at Teleton for speech therapy and motor skills. One of them meets every day. How thankful we are to have an employee that does these Teleton appointments.

Teleton and/or IHNFA has requested vision tests for Josue and Olman and hearing tests for Josue and Yair. As we are seeking the places to have this done for such young children, please join us in prayer that all is well with vision and hearing.

Josue is in physical therapy and a class for motor skills. He is not walking on his own yet and is not talking, but daily improvements are being made. He has been sick. He is so little and frail. Any little sickness causes us to worry about him. Please continue to pray for this little guy.

Through a series of events and new laws, we have had to have pictures made of the children who had not seen their parents in six months or more. Those pictures were then posted in the paper. After all these years, Rosy and Sisi's parents surfaced. IHNFA called and wanted Karen to allow the parents to visit even if it was not regular visitation day. I am not sure how anyone else felt, but I was extremely apprehensive about this visit. Both of the girls, especially Sisi, were happy to see the parents. Both of the girls made it clear to us that they did not want to leave here. We did not need to worry about that 

happening. The parents live in Yoro, a ways from here. The mother made no promises to return and the dad said he would be back for visitation each month. I hope and pray that he comes back. Sisi has spent many hours crying and wondering why her mother never came to see her. Now the mother has been once. I am not sure what this will do to Sisi. It might be a good thing for her and it might not be.

And speaking of Rosy, we are trying to get Rosy into town once a month to go to the deaf church. We believe the kids spiritual well-being is as important as their educational and physical well-being. Since Rosy is completely deaf, sitting in church is not giving her any spiritual instruction. I loved watching her as she signed the songs with a big smile on her face.

The new Honduras Hope mission house has opened. All Honduras Hope missions teams, and hopefully other teams, will be housed there. The income from this mission house will sustain the new campus of Casa de Esperanza that we hope to open in early 2014. This campus will house girls that are a bit older.

At the mission house, a new store for Casa de Esperanza was built. It is bigger. It has more light. It has windows, meaning it has some air circulation. Bigger and better means more product, which we hope means more income with which to support these children. Without the income from the store, it would be very difficult to give the level of care we give, especially to those children that have special physical or educational needs.

Our desire is to be able to teach all of the kids on both campuses to do something before they leave here. Brayan, Jackson and Ana are learning to work in the store. They are working hard. Brayan is learning in all areas well. Jackson is waiting on customers and making change well. Ana is not quite so good with making change yet, but she can clean and stock and haul and help arrange the items on the shelf. I am proud of all three of them.

The groups mean a lot of visitors coming to Casa. The children have already been treated to two outings, a movie and pizza. Outings are fun for us.

In addition to the outings, we get some work done that needs to be done, saving us both time and money. For one group, our friends from Columbus, Mississippi, the work involved building something for the kids, a brand new play area.

Initally, the group had some setbacks and some “welcome to Honduras” moments. But the new playground was finished just in time for a week out of school. It is being enjoyed by everyone. Thank you, Columbus.

Your partnership through prayer, encouragement, and financial support is very important to us. Don't stop praying.

If you have questions or concerns about Casa de Esperanza, please email me at terriltindall@yahoo.com. And, please feel free to share this newsletter.

Sincerely,

Terri