A New Friend

This morning we woke up to this little kitty right outside our back door. The girls, Hannah and Rylee, were so excited! And Lily was even more excited! However, we decided to move the cat down to the pool area...maybe then it will find a different happy home :)

In the Teens!

Rylee is officially a teenager now! She turned 13 February 8. To celebrate, I took Rylee to the Shangri la hotel to spend the night. Chris, and our new good friend Lindsay, joined us for dinner at Shangri la's wonderful seafood buffet. Rylee's actual birthday was during Outdoor Ed, so we celebrated early, since Rylee would be gone. After spending the night at the hotel, Rylee and I came home on Saturday and Rylee planned our day. We cooked, opened gifts and played cards. I think Rylee had a great day!

Laying out at Shangri la's beautiful pool :)
Lobster dinner!
Rylee had Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough frosted Brownies for dessert.

Jomar's Excitement

After Jomar's experience so far at the dentist, I expected him to be completely terrified about going back to the dentist. His last visit was to have a tooth pulled that had caused a horrible infection in his mouth. Well, unfortunately, he still needs a lot of work and needs to go back to the dentist a few more time because he has so many cavities.

So this Tuesday, I picked up him and Pauline to go to the dentist. Jomar's first words to me were, "Tita Carol! Tita Carol! Thank you!" I said, "You're welcome Jomar, do you know we are going to the dentist today?" He said, "YES!"

We arrived at the dentist and Pauline went first. At this point, I still wasn't sure if Jomar understood he had more work to be done, and the work was filling cavities. Pauline was scared and didn't let Dr. Diane do much, but we began with cleaning and Pauline will need to go back quite a few more times to get use to being there to let Dr. Diane work on her. She has many cavities and a broken off tooth that needs to be pulled.

After Pauline was finished, we had to go back to the waiting room before Jomar could go. I was talking to Pauline and after what seemed like 2 minutes, Jomar was not with me. I went back to the dental chair room and asked Dr. Diane, "Did Jomar come back here?" She said, "Yes, he is in the dental chair already. He's excited!" We were both surprised!

As you can see, Jomar is in the chair, happy and holding Dr. Diane's mirror so he can watch everything she does to clean his mouth, drill a cavity and fill it. What a precious boy he is!


Since Pauline was so scared, Dr. Diane let Pauline watch Jomar's cavity filling and explained to her everything she was doing. We are hoping Pauline will let work be done in her mouth this coming week as both Jomar and Pauline go back to the dentist.
Pauline helped hold Dr. Diane's tools as they worked. :)

God's Word

Chris and Eddie were able to give away Filipino bibles to the kids in prison. They handed out 29 bible so far. They gave to all of the kids and the social workers. Thank you to all of you who helped raise money for us to buy the bibles!

Bravery

This Tuesday, I took Joan back to the dentist for her last check up. She is cavity free now and doesn't need to go back for about 4 months. Yay Joan!
Jomar also went to the dentist with us to have a tooth pulled. Last week, his cheek started to swell with infection from a bad tooth. Dentist Diane saw him last Thursday to prescribe an antibiotic for him. Without the antibiotic to kill the infection before the pulling, the novocaine wouldn't work to kill the pain.

I was very nervous about this appointment. With Jomar's physically abusive background, he tends to be a quiet child and I was afraid if he felt pain he wouldn't say anything and shut down on us. He was very brave! And Dentist Diane was wonderful. She talked to Jomar the whole time and told him what she was doing and told him if he felt any pain to raise his hand. After the tooth was out, Jomar sat with me for a few minutes and then squatted against the wall and wouldn't talk to us or look at us for about 5 minutes. Then he quickly emotionally came back to us, picked a toy out of Dentist Diane's toy box and I took him to McDonald's for ice cream. I praise the Lord for protecting this boy and for providing a great Dentist to take care of him.

Hot Pink

Yesterday, I drove by the YMC and sure enough there is Imon standing out front... in the rain. I stopped to say hi and saw someone had painted his toe nails hot pink! For the most part, this culture views homosexuality as "okay". I have heard many stories of little boys acting feminine, so their moms dress them as if they are a girl and treat them like a girl. There are many young boys and men that dress as girls, wear make-up, and fix their hair like a girl. It is very sad.

So, back to Imon, I decided to take him home, wash him up, feed him, and take the toe nail polish off his nails. I told him, "You are a boy! Painting nails is for girls. If anyone tries to paint your nails, say NO!" I think he understood...I hope he understood. He is only 3 or maybe 4 now, but I think he is learning more English.

Time Flies!

Wow how time flies! We enjoyed 5 weeks of Christmas break with my mom here. It's been so long since I've been on the computer, other than quick checks of email, I almost forgot what it looked like :) We tried to make the most of the time with my mom, so I put the computer on hold. But I'm happy to be back and getting into a routine again.

So much has happened since I last blogged, I just don't know where to begin, so I plan to put together a little video of our Christmas break :)

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!