Last Saturday, September 15th, was Independence Day here in El Salvador (and in Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua). For the last two weeks, the kids have been coming home from school asking for blue and white balloons, paper, traditional dresses, white gloves and sashes to use in their schools' desfiles, or parades. 

CEFAS put on a great presentation, complete with the national anthem and traditional music and dancing:

On Saturday morning, the older kids had the opportunity to go to the parade at the stadium. The younger ones stayed closer to home and watched the local parade in Parque Balboa. Everyone was really excited, and very patient waiting for the parade to reach us.

Someone was really excited about his new shades and they came in handy. It was sunny!

Finally the parade started. It included a marching band and dancers from the local public school. The kids really seemed to like the drums and the beautiful traditional dress.

Even the little guys were all dressed and made-up for the occasion.

The parade ended on the soccer field where all the students and the band lined up for the national anthem.

Saturday evening, we had a party with a special dinner and a movie. The boys were incharge of decorations and did a wonderful job.

Everyone enjoyed the special food and treats.

All that sugar made some of the kids a little silly and we all had a few good laughs (see video).

Then we settled in for a movie and family bonding.

It was rough getting up Sunday morning; we stayed up pretty late! Sunday evening the festivities ended with one of the girls dressing up for church. Doesn't she look bonita?

Happy Independence Day, El Salvador! Feliz Dia de Independencia, El Salvador!

Club Activo 20-30 San Salvador #442 has been visiting us at Love & Hope Children's Home for the last few years, bringing food donations and putting on parties for the kids. Last Wednesday afternoon they visited us up in Los Planes with all the fixins' for a great party. The kids enjoyed games, prizes, dancing, piñatas and a clown. We ate the cake the club brought for us for the next two days; it was delicious (and big)!

Club Activo 20-30 also brought us a whole table of groceries and other household items. Some of them couldn't have come at a better time; we were fresh out of laundry detergent, and they brought us a giant bag! Thank you Club Activo 20-30 San Salvador #442 for your consistent support of Love & Hope Children's Home. We had so much fun!

El Salvador is home to two of the world's most powerful gangs: MS-13 and Barrio 18. Recently they formed truce, the direct result of which has been a lowered homicide rate. However, some are skeptical of the truce and wonder if it can really last. Linked below are two recent articles from The New York Times and CBS World News.

New York Times

CBS World News

Please pray for El Salvador. Pray that the young men and women living at Love & Hope Children's Home would lead their generation in peace.

We've got quite a few teeth missing at Love & Hope Children's Home. Check out some of these smiles:

Good thing kids look cute with missing teeth. Someday their smiles will be grown in and beautiful (see below)!

Last week, the people of El Milagro Community (Platanillo) in Quezaltepeque, El Salvador, received the deeds to their houses. Love & Hope has been involved in El Milagro since the people there were moved by the government from a different location in 2005. Since that time they have been fighting for the deeds to their houses- seven years!

Ninety families (some with kids in tow) were called up one-by-one to receive their deeds. The mayor of Quezaltepeque and other political figures attended the ceremony.

Rachel was also able to attend and celebrate with the resilient people that all of us at Love & Hope have come to care about so deeply. The people of El Milagro thanked Love & Hope for their support over the last seven years.   

A sign that our girls are growing up: they are being invited to the quinceañeras (15th birthday parties) of their friends. Last weekend, we went to the party of a close friend, who has also participated in the quinceañeras of our girls. The girls got all dressed up:

Afterward we went out for coffee, looked at magazines, talked about movies and browsed the bookstore. It was a fun girls' afternoon out!

During the first week of August, the entire country of El Salvador took a vacation. While many people headed to the beach or crowded the street right outside our doors on their way to La Puerta del Diablo, we tried to get out of the house yet away from the crowds (the best we could)!

We started off our fun week on Tuesday after school, taking cupcakes to Focus. Focus is a call center in San Salvador that fields calls for clients from around the world. Since the day we met them they have been a huge help and great friends. They've replaced several of our appliances and completed a number of projects for us around the house. Most recently, the agents at Focus raised money on our behalf. To say thank you, the kids walked around the call center, handing out cupcakes to the employees. Since Focus handles calls in three languages (English, Spanish and French), the cupcakes said "Thank You", "Gracias" and "Merci". E, our youngest, finished his long walk around the huge floor with an exasperated, “Huela!” Wow!

On Thursday we continued with a picnic and scavenger hunt at Parque Balboa, just down the road. We split the kids into two teams, gave them a list of items and a camera to document each item they found. Both teams traipsed enthusiastically all over the park taking pictures, talking to people when necessary and hurrying to get done the fastest.

Once the teams finished, their photos were scrutinized for completion and validity. In the end, one team received a prize for best Photos, while the other team won for finishing the fastest.

On Friday we were invited by a friend to come swimming in the pool at her apartment complex. We had so much fun playing together with our friend and her sons. Mandy even brought along an underwater camera to experiment with in the pool!

On Saturday we went to a free musical called “His Life,” put on by a group of Korean-Americans visiting El Salvador. After that we headed to Parque Bicentenario in San Salvador for lunch and playtime. The older boys brought their bikes and the rest of us had fun climbing on the playgrounds and playing tag.

Sunday evening we celebrated T's birthday. He seemed especially excited about a picture album he received from his special friend, Kelly.

Somewhere in the midst of all this activity, we also played hide-and-go-seek in the dark, had a fashion show, went out for pupusas, watched movies together and enjoyed some extra hours of sleep in the morning.

We concluded the week with a family dinner. Most of our kids went home to spend time with family for the week and we wanted to welcome them back in a special way. We pushed all the tables together, Rachel told everyone how wonderful it was to have them back, and then we enjoyed nachos with all the toppings. We even made brownies for dessert!

A few days ago, some of the kids were helping make tortillas for lunch. Tortillas are a Salvadoran staple and they are made with corn masa to be very thick. Our cook makes them by hand everyday for at least one meal, sometimes two!

Last week we welcomed our first team of the summer. The Work Team arrived ready to tackle some of the tough projects we had lined up for them. We were also visited by two teachers who are traveling through Central America this summer. They joined up with our team and used their spanish fluency to help us communicate throughout the week. 

On Sunday we headed out to the Platanillo Community to do Sunday School and serve a meal. The team helped setup the area and then it was on to singing, a Biblelesson, and coloring. 

Of course, we ended with a snack.

After working with the kids we served dinner in the main pavilion. 

On Monday we headed back out to Platanillo to begin building and installing solar lights. Inspired by the Liter of Light project, we used empty soda bottles, purified water, bleach, caulking and tin sheeting to create lights that would capture the sun and direct it into people's homes.The water refracts the sunlight in all directions, causing the bottle to act like a regular light bulb. This allows them to bring light to dark places without the need for electricity. After a quick instructional session, everyone jumped in a started building lights for their own homes. 

After a day of assembly, we let the caulking dry overnight and returned on Tuesday to start installing the lights in homes. Word had already spread and a few more folks showed up to make lights that morning. 

Each installation took about 30 minutes. Which can feel like a lot longer when you're perched on a hot tin roof! 

We also began a project to add a room to one of our kid's family's homes. It started with some demolition of an existing wall to clear out space. Then we moved in block, concrete, sand, and gravel to begin construction. With the team's help, we managed to complete these tasks in a fraction of the time it would have taken otherwise. The whole family pitched in too!

Construction is now well underway supported by the funds the team raised to complete the addition. 

At another home, we cleaned, painted, and provided a grill so one of our mothers could start her own tortilla business. This will allow her to start working toward financial independence.

In addition to these big projects, the team also spent a day knocking items off of our todo list at the home. They cleaned off and drained one of our flooded roofs, reorganized and updated all our files in the office, worked on our chicken coop, cleaned our garage and tool area, unloaded bags of donations, helped cycle clothes through the kids' wardrobes, brought hot water back to our showers, stopped our toilets from running, and tightened every loose screw they could find!

And a few of us still found time to get up early one morning to catch the sunrise at La Puerta.

We ended the week with a well-deserved night out at Pizza Hut with all the kids. Thanks, everyone! 

In the last two weeks, Love & Hope said goodbye to two very lovely, hardworking and faithful long-term missionaries that have been living here in El Salvador with us. Kelly and Amanda both celebrated their last evening with us by hosting pijamadas in the kitchen. The kids had so much fun pulling out all the mattresses onto the floor, watching movies, eating cake, and cuddling with these two very special gringas.

Kelly and Amanda worked in the area of administration during their time here at Love & Hope. Their initiative, organization, work ethic and vision for the ministry is woven into the procedures and routines here and our ministry is better because of their service and willingness to meet our needs.

Kelly and Amanda, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We are encouraged that we do not have to say goodbye forever. Come home soon to visit. We miss you!

Please take a minute to read about and consider supporting Kelly in her pursuit of adopting one of our very special children by clicking here.