This Is What It's All About

Last month we had the privilege of seeing three of our boys graduate - two from college and one from high school.  All of the teens in the Hope Program come from orphanages and have chosen to continue their studies after free public school ends after 9th grade.  By helping these students obtain a degree and by helping them acquire important life skills along the way, this will hopefully help break the cycle of poverty and bad decisions that would put future generations in the orphanages.
Unfortunately, one of the boys, Marcos, decided to leave the Hope Program with just a high school diploma.  Saul and Omar received bachelor degrees in law and computer studies, respectively.  It has been fun these past few weeks helping them prepare for life in the "real world" - resumes, job interviews, house rental, making lists of furniture and other home items that they need.  They will be moving out of our home in less than a month, and it will be exciting to see what they will achieve!  We are very proud of them!

Saul, Omar and Marcos - proud graduates!

What Are We Doing??

We are now living in Monterrey, Mexico and working with Back2Back Ministries as house parents in the Hope Program.  We are sharing a home with and parenting six boys ages 17 to 21.  And yes, there are days when we ask each other "What are we doing???", but for the most part things have been going very well.  We are enjoying being able to invest in the lives of these young men.  In the past two months, we have learned a lot about psychology, justice vs. mercy, patience, tripling recipes, hair gel and video games.  Check out http://www.back2backministries.org/index.php/internationalMinistry/mexicoPrograms/ to learn more about Back2Back and the Hope Program.

Left to right: Eduardo, Leo, Omar, Ana, Ruben, Edgar, Marcos and Saul.

Entering the Blog World...

Today we are taking that scary first step into the world of blogs....
We decided that with the change of ministry it would be a good time to also try another message of communication with our friends and loved ones, so we'll see how it goes!!