jour·ney [júrnee]process of development: a gradual passing from one state to another regarded as more advanced, e.g. from innocence to mature awareness
Jennifer lost her first tooth today. Well, really we pulled it for her. She was very brave and didn't even cry. Jennifer seemed very uninterested in the tooth when I showed it to her. I was so excited and said "look Jennifer your tooth...it's so little and cute! Can you believe that came out of your mouth?" You know the normal types of things that you say to kids when they lose their first tooth. She glanced at it and ran off to
play. I tried to show her off to people but she didn't really seem to care that she had lost a tooth. Which for Jenn Jenn is a funny, since she is always wanting to show everyone what she has done. I guess she didn't feel like she had accomplished anything when little white thing fell out of her mouth. I was so excited for her. And even though she wasn't impressed with her tooth falling out she does enjoy sticking her tongue through the new hole in her teeth.
After making it to the Mission House, and through the night we had a long day ahead of us. By 7:45 in the morning all the kids were up and feed. What we were going to do now? For a while they just ran around in the court yard, a couple collapsed into tears. So we made a plan. We had to do something with the kids. We decided to take them to the zoo! We gathered them all together, put on their shoes, and the Mission Housed packed us snacks. Then we headed out to Picacho, a park with a zoo just minutes from the Mission House. The kids loved seeing the animals. It was a small zoo but had crocodiles, monkeys, pigs, peacocks, jaguar, raccoons, bunnies, among other animals. After seeing all the animals, we
had a snack, then walked down through the rest o
f the park. There is a great view of the city from Picacho. There is also a very large statue of Jesus there that we went to see. The park was beautiful, and it gave us something to do with the kids for the day. I was so glad that we were able to take them to Picacho. After Picacho we headed back to the Mission House for lunch. After lunch we went back to the Ranch. Then I went to sleep. I was exhausted! It was a very eventful two days.
As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago we had fires cross over onto Ranch property. Here is a picture taken I believe from the pond while cleaning up brush. During dry season, it is not uncommon to see lots of fires, but for us it became scary as they made there way to the Ranch. Everyone pitched into help clear out brush and make fire breaks. After putting in some time cleaning brush we organized an evacuation. All the small kids and ministry girls were taken off the Ranch. Since a lot of the house parents were on their time off some of the teachers (including me) went up to the Mission House to take care of the kids. The van I drove started it's hour and a half journey off the Ranch up to the Mission House around 8:30 at night. Putting us our final destination after 10:00. Which wouldn't have been a problem if we weren't taking care of small children the next day in a confined house. The kids got to sleep around 11:00. The mission house was great pitching in and giving us all a place to sleep and meals to 
eat at just a moments notice. I'm told that they got light rain that night at the Ranch which was an answer to prayer. The next day we were able to return to the Ranch as the fires were under control. People stayed up late keeping an eye on the fires. Shortly there after we got a good rain at the Ranch taking care of the last of the fire. Thank you for all your prayers. God certainly took care of us at the Ranch. While the fires were on Ranch property they never made it down to the houses, and didn't leave us with any real damages.
Jennifer lost her first tooth today. Well, really we pulled it for her. She was very brave and didn't even cry. Jennifer seemed very uninterested in the tooth when I showed it to her. I was so excited and said "look Jennifer your tooth...it's so little and cute! Can you believe that came out of your mouth?" You know the normal types of things that you say to kids when they lose their first tooth. She glanced at it and ran off to
play. I tried to show her off to people but she didn't really seem to care that she had lost a tooth. Which for Jenn Jenn is a funny, since she is always wanting to show everyone what she has done. I guess she didn't feel like she had accomplished anything when little white thing fell out of her mouth. I was so excited for her. And even though she wasn't impressed with her tooth falling out she does enjoy sticking her tongue through the new hole in her teeth.
