Life... Updated.

I am legit the worst at blogging ever. In my defence, however, this year has been absolutely manic and doesn't appear to be becoming any less so. So here we are. They say a picture's worth a thousand words, so this will be primarily pictures, in order to up my word count.

First off, school.

I taught Kindergarten for less than two months this year, before I ended up in First Grade, in an accelerated class. It has been quite the experience for us all, and is the reason for about 60-70% of the mania. However, we're kind of more settled now, and we're struggling through, and they're adorable, so I forgive their madness every day when I look at those cute little faces.

School has been through some MAJOR issues this year. Legal, mostly. It's been a rollercoaster in every way. We have had little to no idea what's happening from one day to the next, but God has proven Himself faithful over and over, and for that we are consistently grateful.

Due to the manicness of school this year, I have like no photos at all. Apologies for that. Here is what I do have...

We had hundredth day of school with the other first grade class - 40 kids is a lot.

We had Bolivian First Day of School in February, 6 months after we started school.

So that's a thing...

Part 2, Hogar de Amor/Sunshine House/whatever we're calling it these days...

The children are, as always, the lights of my life. They are sassy, not always obedient, but they are cuddly and learning more about Jesus every. single. day. And for that I am always grateful.

After everything falling apart in the summer, I was convinced I was coming back out to no kids. However, an amazing group of Bolivians, who I adore and trust implicitly, took over. And so our oldest kids have mostly stayed together. 7 months on from the takeover, things have not been, and don't appear to be about to become smooth, but people are working so hard, and the kids are doing so much better emotionally. I adore being a part of a Bolivian-run ministry in Bolivia - I have absolutely no legal standing and no say, and that's exactly how it should be. The Bolivians get it far better than I do, and I'm happy being their cheerleader and support. Seriously, the new board = my favourites.

New laws mean we can no longer post pictures with faces, so here is a collection of recent(ish) faceless photos:

Two weeks off school and Hannah needed to teach again, so she made the kids suffer.

This one got to spend almost a week in hospital after slamming his finger in a door and managing to get cellulitis - which I thought was that thing where your legs go wobbly and weird.

The little travieso had a CT scan.

The anaesthesia meant he was quietest he's ever been in his entire life.

Only in Bolivia - Christmas tree made of urine cups, reused? Who knows?

Praying before his meal - every word he says at the minute sounds like kaka (poo),

so it's a good job that God understands what he's saying.

This is usually my Friday afternoon, I'm too tired to interact with the kids,

so I put them all in swings and let them swing alone.

Ninja Turtle in the House!

It's been a hard day.

If you accidentally break a window, you will clean the play room for a week.

The similarities between the little travieso and Olaf are really quite startling.

He's quite the gymnast too.

The twins and la beba in their grow bags.

#adorable

An impression of how the tia feels when potty training 4 at once.

#facepalm

They love each other sometimes.

This one turned 5 - he got a diplodocus.

It appears the Spanish for diplodocus is "cuello largo" - "long neck".

Learning to swing himself. We'll call that progress.

Dinosaurs are even guarding the toilet. I told you.

O. is in the process of reinsertion.

We love seeing the interactions between his dad and him, and we're excited for when they can be together all the time.

Tia Sarin, one of our wonderful tias, and I, were leaving in the middle of a rain storm -

she decided she needed a makeshift poncho.

III) Comunidad Cristiana Belen

Potentially my favourite part of the week, I wrote this post about church about a year ago. Since then our Sunday mornings have changed - we now take all the kids, plus the tias, plus one of the kids dads, plus an assorted collection of volunteers - it's a good thing we have a trufi.

The kids love it, and that's only about 50% because they get to ride in the "auto!" every week. They are improving their behaviour, most weeks. They look mostly adorable, except for the odd time when the fur-lined crocs make it past the checks. All the little troublemakers will happily go to their sunday school classes with little to no protesting, and the tias only fall asleep 30% of the time.

Every week we sing a song at church that says - "How wonderful it is to have a family in God"

Truer words have never been spoken.

D) Other things...

Claudia got married! It was adorable. I have some photos. Here they are.

#photobomb

Mum annoyed me for hours to send more photos, so #selfie.

Men.

Confused men. And half of Max.

Rodrigo (Clau's husband) arranged for them to have a first dance outside, and even for fireworks to go off as they kissed. I mean, aww.

Keith is here, which is fun. Especially since sometimes he cooks, and he's good at sharing.

At the ice-cream shop I'm about to rave about.

Feeding el travieso.

There's a new mall here - it has a shop that makes ice-cream there and then on a cold plate. I recommend the nutella/banana one. It's like heaven.

We are having mice issues in the house. There was one in the toaster. I shall not be eating more toast, ever.

And that is my news for now, I can't think of anything else. I will aim to write a Christmas update soon (read: before next Christmas...)