In the middle of the second movie of the night, which the boys so pleaded to watch, I woke up and looked around the room to see 12 sleeping little boys. Only Isar the youngest remained awake. Curled up with me on the couch were Chucho and Geovanni 3, and sprawled about the floor and other furniture laid the others. As I tip toed around the living room putting extra blankets on the boys my heart just broke, these boys need moms, they need someone who truly loves them, who will let them curl up in their arms and just be little boys. They are the most loving children, craving affection all day long. I constantly have a child wrapped around me or kissing my cheek and its not just the littlest ones, 11 year old Jose is constantly hugging and kissing me and telling me he loves me.

As I write this its approaching midnight and I am relieved that I made it through the day and it was actually a really good day, I would not have expected that by how it began. Immediately when I woke up this morning I was in a bad mood. I felt completely exhausted as though I had gotten no sleep whatsoever . When I slipped into the boys room to wake them up I found them already awake and already fighting and tattling on each other. There wasn't an ounce of patience in me and I ended up locking myself in the bathroom pretending not to hear them knocking on my door every five minutes to ask if they could do a puzzle before school. Once the boys and I were all ready we headed to the Comedor to eat. This week I am on dishes so breakfasts are very crazy for me. I arrive early and get the table set and boys all served then must begin the dishes. The boys aren't supposed to serve themselves so every couple of minutes I'd run back to the table to tend to the boys and then return to the kitchen. Doing the dishes can be very time consuming with the 3 people it requires so when I found myself alone doing the dishes I was about ready to break down and cry. The dishes piled up around me and my partners were nowhere to be found. And if I didn't have enough work on my hands after I ran all the dishes through the dish washer they came out dirty so I had to wash them all by hand. When my partners finally arrived a half an hour late I couldn't hide that I was upset. I hate to be angry with people and so I try my hardest to separate the action from the person and not treat them any differently but even though I promised her I really wasn't angry at her, I also couldn't be fake and pretend I was in a good mood. After dishes we had to rush into devotions late and through out the entire time, and during the prayer meeting as well all I could think about was how excited I was to go back to bed while the boys were at school. You can imagine my expression when right after the prayer meeting I was informed that I had to watch all the nursery kids for the morning. Oh how badly I wished I had the ability to be fake but on the spot I almost burst into tears. As I thought about the day before me I actually did shed a tear or two. I had to watch the little kids for the next 4 and a half hours until my own boys came home, I'd have to tend to their needs all evening and then of course tonight is family night which means I have to keep them entertained all night as well and they probably wouldn't go to bed until about 11. Oh how was I going through the day when I wasn't sure I'd make it through the next 20 minutes. At this moment Philippians 2:14 -16 came to my mind

"Do all thngs without grumbling or questioning that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.." It was then that the conviction kicked in. Just the day before we talked about how each day we have the choice of having a good day or bad day, its our decision to let the circumstances of the day control us or not. Luckily this was the turning point in my day and from that point on I really did enjoy every minute of the day. The kids played during the morning then we went and had a snack and afterwards I bathed them all and put them down for naps. While they were napping I had a few spare minute to do another drawing (my therapy these days) and shortly after my boys arrived. On Fridays the kids get home between 1 and 1:30 so we had time to get all the chores done before lunch. After lunch we all worked on homework and afterwards I sent them to bathe. After dinner family night began. I don't know how but by some miracle I actually had the energy to run around and play with the boys. We played Sardines outside and soon my 10 boys turned into 22 boys and girls. We played for quite sometime before we moved onto the scavenger hunt that I had set up. We were on our last clue that let out by the bunny cage when I heard screaming. I ran to my boys rolling my eyes expecting it to be yet again another fight but instead I was greeted by 7 year old Hector running into my arms with blood pouring down his face. He had fallen into the rocks and his nose was gushing blood. Sadly to say this was the 3^rd injury we had this week that consisted of many tears and a lot of blood and required an icepack and Tylenol. Once we got him all cleaned up and "nurse Jill" (my friend who I always grab to help me with my broken children) checked him out we decided to tone down the night and put in a movie. So that brings us to now, 18 hours, 26 children, and one bloody mess later. God is good and will always give us the strength we need to do what He has called us to do.

                                                       

                                                             little beat up but not too bad...

Geovanni #3..he was the second injury notice we had to shave part of his head