A lot has been happening at Casa Hogar La Familia over the past few weeks. The best news is that Juan Francisco’s and Silvia’s son, Aleksei and his fiancé, Johana, were married in April in Colima. A large group representing La Familia made the 12-hour drive to Colima to attend the wedding.
The sad news is that Juan Francisco’s father recently passed away. His health had been failing for sometime. Then in April, Juan Francisco’s mom also passed away. She had moved into the home with her daughter when her husband died. Her health was such that she was unable to live many more weeks. Please keep Juan Francisco and his family in your prayers.
Lighthouse UMC in Fort Worth, a long-time supporter of La Familia, raised the funds to enable the directors and staff to put on a huge “Taco Party” for the children. A professional cook was recruited to bring in his team and prepare the tacos for everyone in the casa.
The children had not had haircuts for several weeks and asked Silvia if she would give them all haircuts so they would be as handsome as possible for the party. Silvia gladly accommodated their request. Karen and her team made the decorations for the party, Damaly and her team made the dessert (Karlotta) and Silvia and her team made the fresh mango drink to go with the meal. Aleksei and Johana, who were at La Familia for a visit, were in charge of preparing all of the games for the children to play.
The party began at 5:00 PM with lots of games. Following the games, the tacos were served followed by homemade ice cream, the Karlottas and the mangonadas. At the end of the evening, the children gave Joan, who celebrated her birthday, birthday cards and also cards of congratulations to Aleksei and Johnna, their newly married brother and sister.
The party ended at midnight and the very tired children were really ready for bed. The children send many thanks to Lighthouse UMC for a delightful evening full of delicious food and great fellowship.
Thanks to Altech, a Mexican-based donor from the town of Ciudad Serdan, the casa has been outfitted with solar panels to help reduce the casa’s cost of electricity. They have an electrician coming to the casa on Saturday, May 1, to complete all of the electrical connections.
In April, also, Jasmin Urbina was finally able to walk across the stage at the University of Colima and receive her diploma that makes her La Familia’s first resident to graduate as a Registered Nurse. Now Jasmin must make one of the biggest decisions of her life: to enter medical school or stick with nursing.
We pray that we will soon feel safe traveling to Mexico to participate in mission trips to serve our friends at La Familia and the Quecholac / Palmarito communities.
On behalf of Embrace the Dream Foundation, we cannot thank each of you enough for your unselfish commitment to this casa hogar and these children. Were it not for you, 33 children would miss the love and opportunity they each receive at La Familia.
With the pandemic forcing 33 children to attempt to attend classes via the Internet, the death of Juan Francisco’s parents, Juan Francisco actually contracting the virus himself and Aleksie’s and Johana’s wedding taking place in Colima, it has just not been possible to synch all of the photos with the newsletter, so we are sending the newsletter and the photographs separately.
It is my hope that all of you will be able to figure it all out.
Embrace the Dream Foundation
Bill Lee, President