You Learn Something Every Day

I have heard that little saying most of my life. Today, I learned something I never knew before.

I had a request for 25 bracelets from the store. We normally send our product with someone going to the US and have them mail it when they arrive. The main reason we do that, or so we thought, was to only have to pay US postage.

But, I do mail letters once in a while when it is going to be a while before anyone is leaving for the states and I thought I would mail the bracelets.

My friend needed these bracelets before the next person is going to the State. I packaged the bracelets in a brown envelope and put postage on it. I was fully prepared to pay a little extra than the postage that was on it in order to mail it.

What I learned today is that it is not possible to mail anything to the United Stated from Honduras unless it is documents (i.e letters, cards, bills, etc.). But I could FedEx it and he told me that was very expensive. I politely declined.

I was shocked, to say the least. It wasn't a big envelope. I felt sure I could have made it a little flatter, if that would have helped.

I am now looking for another way to get my bracelets to the States. And know that I need to be prepared to learn something every day.

Terri

Tall Corn

I lived in Illinois for three years. And recently visited Nebraska. This is corn country. They know how to raise corn in those states. No matter how well they do it up there, I have never seen corn as tall as it is in the garden at Casa de Esperanza. This is corn on steroids.

I had a couple of the bigger kids stand by the corn to show a perspective of how tall the corn really is. Dennis wanted to stand by the corn, also. Of course, I did not care. There is no one here tall enough to get some of that corn. They will need a chair or a ladder.

The corn here is more like field corn. I will take that freshly picked sweet corn off of Steve Tucker's farm any day.

Terri

Making A Difference One Child At A Time

Five years ago, as the construction of Casa de Esperanza was nearing completion, we chose this as our logo. It was based on the starfish story. The needs in Honduras are overwhelming and it would be easy to despair and think we are not making a difference. But we are making a difference to the seventeen that are here.

The population of Honduras is some where near seven million people. Of those, approximately 3.466 million are children. About half. That in itself is an amazing statistic. Of that 3.466 million, it is estimated that 200,000 are orphans, a child with neither parent. Parents have died of illnesses that were not treated due to a lack of money. Or, in many cases, the parents have emigrated north to Mexico or the U. S. in an attempt to better themselves to more adequately support their children. I am thankful I have never been in a position where I had to contemplate leaving my children parentless in order to make their lives better. It is hard for me to even grasp that concept.

The 200,000 orphans do not even include children that are living in extreme poverty or extreme abuse. Of our 17 children, only two are orphans, having no parents or family to care for them. The others have been removed from the home for abuse or poverty. Most of the country lives in poverty. The state cannot remove every child that lives in poverty. The state orphanages and all private children's homes would be overwhelmed. Only the most extreme cases are removed from the home. I could not even begin to guess how many more children are living in abuse and poverty that need to be removed from the home. The needs are daunting.

Here at Casa de Esperanza, our biggest need and problem is staffing. We have been looking for house parents for the new cottage since April. Please join us in prayer as we continue to seek for the right people to care for our children so that we can make a difference in the lifes of a few more children.

Terri

Winding Down

We have been in Searcy for the last two days. Taking care of business and sharing time with friends. We leave today for Oklahoma and leave for home from Oklahoma City tomorrow.

It has been a good trip, a productive trip. I always leave Texas feeling I haven't spent enough time with my mom. While I would never wish the surgeries on my mom, we had lots of rich, sweet time together. I am glad for that time.

I am winding down, preparing myself to be home. To get busy again. Of course, it is a different kind of busy. Lots of new things will be happening.

As far as the groups, the fall is never as busy as the summer, but we do have some groups coming. Next week, our friends from Walnut Creek, California are coming. This is always a fun group and we expect big things from this little group. Thanksgiving build week will happen again this year. As the rains continue in Honduras, houses, roads and bridges are being washed out daily. There is plenty to build and rebuild. So far, the build week has been another great week in Honduras. Then to continue a new tradition, the Jesus banquet will be held again this year. December 8 is the day many of the people that live and work in the dump will be fed at a sit-down banquet.

Please feel free to join any or all of these groups.

Terri

Tears

Yesterday was a day full of tears. I cry a lot. I guess most of you know that. I always cry when I say good-bye to my kids and grandgirls.

Camille left yesterday. I cried and cried. Thankfully, she did not cry. I cry more when she starts crying. Oh what fun we had. Grammy was not quite ready for it to end.

Then we drove to Hot Springs to see our good friends David and Gayla. We have known David and Gayla since we moved to Californin in 1992. We all became fast friends. Our kids were the same ages and became fast friends. It would be quite easy to take another stroll down memory lane. Gayla is in inpatient hospice. No one knows how much longer she will live on this earth, but not too much longer.

Gayla is a person who loves live and lived it to the fullest at all times. So full of fun and laughter and joy. It is very difficult to see someone in the condition Gayla is in. I don't think Gayla knew we were there, but we stayed with David and Kim a couple of hours. It was bittersweet fellowship.

We all prayed together before we left. And we all cried together. I know I will not see Gayla on this earth again. I know the tears I shed were my selfish tears. There is no doubt Gayla will soon be in heaven and she will be laughing and living life to the fullest once again. But I did shed those selfish tears. A lot of them. I cried most of the way back to Little Rock.

Terri

Cooking With Camille

Last week was Nathan's birthday. He was in Los Angeles. We were in Texas and my mom was barely out of the hospital. I called Nathan early to wish him happy birthday and promised we would do something special when we got to Little Rock.

Early this week, Camille and I began to make plans for a special birthday dinner for her daddy. She said she wanted the cake to have orange and blue on it. Interesting, to say the least. I could figure out the orange since Nathan's favorite team is Tennessee.

This morning Camille and I went to the grocery store to buy what we needed for this special birthday dinner. I had taken inventory at Nathan's house of not only groceries but necessary utensils as well. As I reached for a cake pan, Camille said lets make cupmakes. Since I had to buy a pan anyway, it didn't make any difference to me what me made. We put a muffin tin in the basket and went on to other things. By the time we got to the checkout, we had a full basket of goodies, including just a few special treats for Camille. What are Grammies for? Right?

After arriving home, we immediately began to work on the cupcakes. Camille helped every step of the way From putting the cupcake liners in to mixing the ingredients to filling the pan to licking the bowl and the beaters. After the cupcakes had cooked and cooled, we made icing, half of it was blue and half of it was orange. We frosted the cupcakes and then Camille worked for a long time getting the sprinkles on each cupcake. She then got 26 candles in 23 cupcakes.

We then started on supper. Camille helped with the potatoes and helped batter the meat. Grammy would not let her place the meat in the hot grease. We had a wonderful supper of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits and green beans and finished it off with orange and blue cupcakes and bluebell icecream.

Since there was not a red plate here, Camille and I decided for Nathan to have a different colored plate from the rest of us, indicating it was his special day.

Camille spent this entire day thinking of ways to make this day special for her daddy. Nathan came in and oohed and aahed over the cupcakes and all the ways Camille had worked to make this day special. Camille was pleased. And no matter what else happened today, being with Camille and then Nathan tonight, made this day special.

Three more days of this fun. Lucky us. Tomorrow Marc and Nathan are playing golf and we girls have some girl stuff planned.

Terri

Heading East

Today we left Borger. Tomorrow, between 3:30 and 4:00, we will be hugging on Camille. That brings a smile to Grammy's face just thinking about seeing that sweet girl. We will have a long, fun weekend with Nathan and Camille.

My mom saw both of her doctors yesterday and today. She had good reports from both doctors. I was leaving today so that I could see Camille tomorrow, but I left this afternoon feeling a lot more comfortable knowing she was doing well.

Tonight history was made in the Tindall household. Marc wanted to stop before I did. That never happens. I always want to stop before he is ready. I wanted to be that much closer to Memphis. He was the driver, therefore, we stopped when he wanted.

Terri