August 19, 2011

Birthday Fun!!

Posted by Justin

1 comment

Ashley and I had been thinking of starting to have the kids over when it was their birthday, just as a way to celebrate and get away from the busyness that living with many other kids can cause. Since we’re at the transition house now we thought we’d start with Julio, as his birthday was quickly approaching and we had promised him that he could spend the night one day. Since Gerson’s birthday was the next week we thought we’d just lump them together and have them both over. It was sooooo fun!!!

First we asked them what type of food they would want to eat and they both agreed on Chinese, this was NOOOOO problem for Ashley and I as we had been craving it! We decided to go to this new place that had been suggested to us. SPECIAL NOTE: For some reason almost all Chinese restaurant here are super nice inside. It’s really weird. Usually there’s not many people inside but the dine-in experience is super nice for a fast-foody type thing. So, we went to this new place and it was no different. Immaculate is how I would describe this place. Julio just couldn’t get over how nice this place was and kept telling us over and over how he had never eaten in a place so nice. They asked us if all restaurants in the states were like this and we told them that it was much nicer than most Chinese places in the states. I won’t get too detailed with the food but let me just say it’s our new favorite for comida china!

Afterwards we just went back to the house as they were desperately wanting to play video games! Haha So the rest of the night consisted of playing FIFA (soccer) and Kinect games on the Xbox, and we finished it off by watching Cars in Spanish. The next day we woke up and had Chinese leftovers for desayuno. We played many more video games and with Messi until the time came to go to the movies. We LOVE going to the movies here because it is so cheap. About $2.50 per ticket and the theaters are just as nice (if not nicer) than in the states. We went and saw Cars 2 in 3D, which of course just BLEW their minds!!! For the first 10 minutes Julio just couldn’t stop laughing.

We had so much fun having the kids over and I know it made a positive impact on them as well. We got to know so much more about these kids and their stories. Most of the kids just call us Joosteen and Ashtly (spelling intentional) but since then we’ve been called mom and dad by the boys we had over. We can’t wait for more birthdays so that we can get to know all of the children on a more personal level and to show them even more how much God loves and cares for them.