My trip

I am home from school today.  My stomach has been unhappy with me since Saturday night in Cozumel.  I am blaming it on the amazing tacos I had.  I've had rumbles since that dinner.  I am not too sick to teach.  However, I am vulnerable enough that I want a decent bathroom and that phrase does not exist at my school.

Moving along.  

I am currently uploading Ashley's and my pictures from the weekend in Cozumel.  They should be on the slideshow section by the end of the day assuming my very slow connection holds.

The trip was amazing, as usual.  It was different this year, but all in all it was great.  

Over the course of four years, I have visited Ciudad de Ángeles (click on the words to go to their website) five times.  I have become really close friends with Ana, one of the dorm moms.  She is 27 and single and so much fun and funny.  She was one of the very first moms in the home.  She and Alejandra are the only two original moms left.  I didn't get to spend as much time with Ana as I usually do because she ended up being with the youngest group of kids and I was with the oldest group.  

The way the dorm moms work at Ciudad is that there is a 24-hour mom (or mom and dad) that is in each of the three houses all the time.  There are 8-hour moms who come in to help with cooking, cleaning, etc, so the 24-hour moms have time to breathe.  They were having some issues with burnout in the beginning, when all moms were 24-hour moms, so they have adapted and this system seems to be working.

They have rented houses on the island and kept the children in family units.  All siblings stay together.  Houses are co-ed.  Each house feels like a family, and the whole group feels like one big family.  About two years ago, they purchased a great big area of land on the outskirts of town to build a central location.  My Lipscomb trips combined with the Harpeth Hills trips have allowed me to see amazing growth of this project.  They are now living in three mostly-completed houses on the land.  We worked on a playground (castle) and clearing the land while we were there.  We took the kids (appropriately called angels) to the movies, putt-putt, or bowling based on their age groups.  We made Mexican Rice Krispy Treats and delivered them to the Police Station to say thanks for their service.  We attended church and took the dorm parents out to an appreciation dinner.  The dorm parents always hit home for me.  They're mostly our age or younger and have dedicated their lives to raising these children.  There are 3 married couples, but the rest are single girls.  I think it's so admirable.

Last weekend, they got a new family of four siblings.  They had been there a week when we got there, and it was so neat to see the new ones finding their place.  

It was good to see Yuri (and take her her things) and catch up on Nashville news.

Ashley brought me a Tennessean article about Jim Schwartz and Kyle Vanden Bausch (VDB).  She also shopped for me so I could have some things down here that I felt I was missing.  She brought things for me as well as took things home for me so I could downsize my closet and room.

I was sad, of course, to leave.  I hate goodbyes.  I was sad to leave Ana.  I was sad to leave Americans.  I was sad to leave Ashley.  I'm fine now, but I hate leaving!