Last few days of my trip

 
Today a few of the girls were putting on play fingernails and painting them.

Unfortunately they wouldn't let me join in.

These kiddos did let me play legos with them.

Some of the other kids made bracelets today with a family that is here from Canada.

It's awesome to just hangout with these smiling kids.

The girl in this picture showed up on Tuesday. She asked me how to say "hola" in English so I taught her to say "hello". She's a quick learner and said it clearly to me each time she saw me.

She is very animated and has incredible facial expressions. 

She's gonna be a problem when the team from our church show up in April.

They're all gonna fall in love with her!

Sometimes this place is pretty chaotic.

Here you can see how packed the kitchen gets sometimes.

I was finally able to visit one of my favorite places here. 

It's a little shop that fills a cup with fresh strawberries and cream.

It's the best, and it's even better with friends!

One of the days my friend stopped and bought me a "coconut drink".

You can see that one of the guys just cut the top off a coconut and is pouring it in the cooler.

Now that's fresh! It was awesome!

There was also an event on Valentines Day at the kid's school where the community brought food and household supplies. Each class group built a bridge as high as they could from the donations in a competition.

It took two trucks and a car to get all the donations back to the orphanage.

It's so good to see the generosity of so many people. 

As I wrap up here in Mexico, there are a few things that are very obvious to me.

First, I'm so grateful for so many incredible people that have committed part of their life and others that have committed their whole life to caring for these children (and even some of the parents).

It's an incredibly difficult, but I'm sure gratifying, calling.

I resonate with the saying that goes something like:

If you want something, give that thing away...

If you want happiness, make someone happy.

If you want love, give someone love.

If you want peace, be peaceful to others.

I’ve found that if you make yourself usable, by God, He will use you. When you allow yourself to be a blessing to others, God will bless you also.

We were made to be a conduit, not a dam.

We must bless others with the blessings that we receive from God.

We cannot keep these blessings for ourselves and think they’re all for our benefit.

Allow God to use you to bless others.

Only then, will your life feel satisfied.