Mish mish

Man, it’s just too warm here. The last few days there’s been no spotting of wind blowing through the lack of trees….Lord, please bring us some cold weather. But!! we did receive a couple of fans the other day and it has literally changed our lives.

The stepping stones program started last week and it has been very interesting. These special needs kids are in dire need of love and attention, but when you have 23 of them in a room all looking at you and wanting the same thing, it gets a little overwhelming. Plus they only speak Arabic so I am quick to return the awkward stare and then it just gets weird. I think that’s been the hardest part, not knowing the language very well, I mean knowing the word “tomorrow in apricots” in Arabic doesn't get me far with them, just another look. The children range from very low functioning to high functioning so it makes for some interesting classes and challenges. For example, we have this girl named Hiba who’s parents thought that she was mentally gone or rebellious the first 10 years of her life, when the only problem was that she was hearing impaired…so she is very high functioning.

This is Hiba

Then we have this girl Yazmine……..she’s crazy. She doesn’t have an off switch and it always feels like there are 5 of her. Say we are doing an activity and you just saw her, the next thing you know some kid is jumping off of the table, throwing things at the wall and then going through your purse in a matter of 30 seconds, guess who it is…… Yazmine!!!!! So we need 2 of us just to keep an eye on her.

This is Yazmine…….You should have seen how long it took us to get her to sit still to take a picture

Then there is this one boy, oh how he makes my heart…..attack the rest of my body. we were outside the other day playing follow the leader, and all of a sudden his just starts running, have you ever seen Forest Gump? yeah a little like that, he ran outside the gate, into the street and then boom…don’t worry he didn’t get hit he just disappeared. We later found him in the Olive trees! He also hits anyone who comes close to him so i make sure to wear my armor.

Here he is!!!!! 

So its a struggle to find a balance between the two but all that to say i am enjoying the randomness of this job. It’s growing me in patience, courage and love. I know that the Lord has placed me here for a purpose and day to day I am beginning to rest in that. I can see the kids changing too, which is what fuels me to keep going, they are learning to stand in lines, wait turns and to work together. They are still crazy though. And more then ever we could still use your prayers