L-I-F-E

As I sit here right now I do not want to write (or even think about) what I am about to tell you. Life...life has a funny way of showing us things. This time since we have been back in Pimampiro we have worked on our website, presentations and emailing and talking to as many people as we can about our project. We spend as much time with the people as we can...but we are focused on this house...this dream of a self-sustaining place where we can take care of children. How can we make this a reality...the answer is money. Money, something that I wish that didnt make such an impact on life. It doesnt here...everyday life here has nothing to do with money. It costs pennies to live here, we (Liz and I) are happy and relieved to be in a culture that doesnt put so much worth in what you have or what you are going to buy. We have been wearing the same clothes (one backpack full), shoes, etc. for the past 4 months...yea it gets old but its not important. We still have only three mattresses on the floor, a kitchen table, and 6 plastic chairs...our living room and two other bedrooms are empty. Yea, it would be nice to have some things hanging on the walls or a couch but our focus is these people.

After saying all of this we are going to have to come home...we dont have enough money to stay here. This kills me having to admit this, but our savings are running low and its not easy to fundraise from here. Saying this, the plan is for us to come home as planned the end of this month and work as much as we can....save as much as we can, set up as many meetings as we can, and tell as many people as we can about our project here. We are trusting that this process will take 3-4 months and then we will be right back here fufilling our dream once again. Leaving here is not going to be easy...the people here have captured our hearts but we know that when we return we will be right where we left off.

Now that i got that out of the way...Larry was here last weekend! Larry is the director of Solidarity in Action, the organization that we worked with in Lima...and he is interested in doing a program up here with us! He works with university students and does volunteer projects...we will see what comes of this.

Stefanie is here with us! She was a part of the trip in Lima with SIA and then another trip in Guayaquil and then she decided she wanted to spend the rest of her summer here with us! She will be working on projects with the elderly people and with the kids...all those details are still being worked out but we are happy to have her here with us!

I think that we finally got our visas worked out!! Did we write about our issues? Our current visas run out on June 21 and our flights are on June 28...thats a problem. If we overstay our visas then we have to pay $200 when we leave the country and we cannot reenter the country for 9 months afterwards. We have only been to Quito (4-5 hour bus ride) 22 times and been to a million offices and talked to a million different people...but we think we got it taken care of...finally! After lies, money, and paperwork...we are waiting...and hoping that there are no more issues. After we get this then we will be able to stay here for a year!! and..the best part is that we can get an Ecuadorian ID card!!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, check out our blog, and if you have any fundraiser ideas we are open for any and all help!

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
Mother Teresa