Septic Tank Project

Another project that our family worked on was for a family just down the street from the orphanage.  It was  a family of four who lived in a tiny plywood house about 12 foot square.   Our group put in a new cement pad, so that they could have a floor to add on to their house.  We also had an electrician come and wire the house.  They only had one bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling.   We also dug a big 8 foot deep hole for a septic tank, and poured footings and supplied the cinder block for the wall lining.   This was a cute, hard working family, who hadn't asked for any help, but were gracious in receiving it.   I have to admit that I had a few concerns about whether we were actually helping or not.   While the family only had one bare light bulb, they had actually had their electricity disconnected because they couldn't pay for that.   We also left them with a giant septic hole in their front yard, and no clear plan of how they could finish it and they have a little toddler who I am afraid of falling in the hole. 

Our family also had bring the ground around their new addition pad down 8 inches so that when it rained it wouldn't direct the water into their house.  It was hard, hot work but provided a good discus

sion with the kids about what they need to do to prepare themselves so that they would be more qualified for less manual jobs.  

 The Ice Cream man came by, so we took an ice cream break!

Painting Project

Our first project that our family worked on was painting one of the boys dorm buildings.  The building was blue and yellow, and we had to scrape off some bad spots and then give it a fresh coat of blue and yellow paint.   The building was interesting because it was attached to the building next to it, so you had to hike around the next building and down a hill to get to the back of the building we needed to paint.   There was a lot of what looked like junk behind the building, but it was the teenage boys recycling project, so we couldn't throw it away, but had to move it away from the building so we could paint.   Grandpa Flynn did the moving since he really dislikes painting.  Grandpa Flynn did a lot of clean up around the orphanage.  They have a river bed by the orphanage that was dry, but full of junk that he cleaned out.

Raven helped paint the steps blue.  We were a bit dismayed to come back the next day and see that the kids had already started peeling the paint off the steps again!

Our family worked with the Brown family on this project.  Dr. Wayne & Liz Brown and their daughters Tani, Melissa and McKenzie.   We realized that we used to be in the same ward in Orem 12 years ago!  Since we left the ward, Dr. Brown went to medical school in Vermont and they now live in Fillmore UT.  Raven and McKenzie had a lot of fun playing together during this week.

Mexican Humanitarian Adventure

We have been home for 3 weeks now, but have been busy with the remodel and trying to get back to our school routine, that I haven't been able to record our trip yet.  This years summer vacation was a huma

nitarian trip that we took to Mexico with Family to Family Humanitarian Expeditions.   Our party consisted of our family of 5, plus my mom and David's parents.  We met the rest of the group in the San Diego airport and then drove into Mexico in 15 passenger vans.  There were 39 people in our expedition.   Our base camp was Door of Faith Orphanage.  They have a website at www.dofo.org .   This is one of the largest of the 100 orphanages in Baja California alone.   The orphange consists of many building, most of them being 'dorms' that the kids live in.  There were 114 orphans there when when arrived and 119 when we left.   Most of them aren't exactly orphans.  This is actually Mexico's foster care system.  Most of the kids are there due to neglect or abuse or the inability of their families to care for them.  The majority of the kids are not able to be adopted.  Once a child comes to the orphanage, they can pretty much plan to be there until they are grown.

The directors of this orphanage have done a great job trying to make this place 

as 'homey' as possible.  The kids are divided into dorms based on age and gender.  Each dorm have parents who live there.  They are a married couple and sometimes have their own ch

ildren as well.  The parents are responsible for their hygiene care, bedtimes, getting them ready for school etc.  They don't have to do laundry or meals, as there is a kitchen and laundry staff that does that for the whole orphanage.   There were many kids here with their siblings.  The average family group size had 4 kids, but there was one family here with 8!    The orphanage is painted very cheerfully and colorfully with lots of murals.  

The Door of Faith Orphanage takes in kids from birth through high school.  They got 4 new babies while we were there that week.   Their oldest resident is a 23 year old young man who has lived there since he was 4 months old.   He is currently in college.  DOFO makes education a priority and makes sure all the kids get to school through high school and will pay for college as well if the student wants to continue after that.  One of the dorm fathers is a neat man in a wheel chair who grew up in the orphanage from an early (angry) teen.  DOFO has a soccer team, and he is the coach.  We put together a group to play against them, and we were quite humiliated apparently, since I didn't go to the game.

Condition of the Top Floor

Nathan's Room
Nathan's Mural.  We might build a loft above the door and bookshelf
Master Bedroom

Master Bath
Kids Bath
Raven's Room
London's Room
The top floor is devoid of all our belongings and anything that isn't nailed or glued down at the moment.  Getting all 3 kids bedrooms cleaned out in 48 hours is a minor miracle!  

Home Condition Update

Kitchen
Family Room
"Stuff" in school room
Living Room
Dining Room
Our home improvement project is coming along.  We are mostly done with electric and plumbing, except for installing a few fixtures.  We have tile in the kids bath and laundry and marble in the master bath.  The entry / dining tile is also done.  We get our cabinets delivered tomorrow and installation starts on Monday.  We are getting our fireplace mantel installed on friday.  We have had to take everything out of all the rooms on the top floor and most of the main floor.  The exception is the school room which is currently holding a lot of said stuff.  We have sold or donated a lot of our possessions.   The house is being painted this week.  I have been very happy with the work and with all of the people who are making this happen!

More remodel pictures

Home Makeover!

We are in the middle of our extreme-enough home makeover!  We have gutted our main floor, as well as the bathrooms and laundry on the top floor.   We've had a bunch of issues that are being fixed with this remodel that I am really happy about.  All of our plumbing and electrical will work, including better lighting and door bell.  We have gained a foot of head room in our kitchen and 3 inches in the rest of the family / dining area.   We have raised the floor in the formal living room 3 inches, so it is level with the other floors.  We have a new front door and a new roof.

I have posted some before and current pictures of our progress.