A day with Román

It was Monday morning. I was tired. But nonetheless, I was ready to begin another week at CICS teaching my little ones.

I had heard Sunday that Miguel, because of being sick yet again, poor guy, would not be coming so I was planning on only having two kids.

A little later I found out from Matthias that Jairo wouldn't be coming either because he was sick as well! He, along with Beatriz, had gotten picked up in Las Delicias where he had stayed for the weekend and had traveled with Nata for that part of the Monday morning school route.

Great! Only having Joel would really enable me to focus on brushing up some concepts that he had been struggling with. Plus it would make for a slightly less frazzling Monday morning.

Only to have the van pull in with none of my yippies inside! Turned out Joel was sick too! I wasn't sure what to do. This had never happened to me ever.

I'm sure you think you know the next part of this story. "He went and slept the whole forenoon", you're probably thinking. Not quite...

Since I had been hanging around Román that morning I decided to sing with him just for the morning devotions. I enjoy being with Román, even though his constant disobedience can be very trying.

This morning he was in a particularly weird mood, as he followed me around constantly hugging me. He refused to acknowledge his normal teachers, Mary and Paty.

"¿Me amás a mí, Román?", asked Mary. ["Do you love me?"]

"¡No!", he replied curtly. ["No!"]

"¿A Samuel?", she prodded. ["Do you love Samuel?"]

"¡Chí!", he stated emphatically. ["Yes!"]

"¿Querés ir con él para la escuela?" ["Do you want to go with him for school?"]

"¡Chí!" ["Yes!"]

"¿Seguro?" ["Sure?"]

"¡Chí!" ["Yes!"]

Even though Román can say very few words, besides "sí" (he pronounces it "chí") and "no", he made it very clear that he only wanted to be with me, all the while with a huge, goofy grin on his face. I'm sure he didn't actually think that, since he loves being with his teachers normally, but this morning, for whatever reason, he decided to be ornery.

We decided to give him his wish...

And so I was his teacher for the rest of the day, since I had no one to teach anyway. Then Mary could go and teach Zulma how to sew. Worked out great!

The first hour was a lot of fun with Róman. We sang. We practiced animal signs. We looked at books. We colored. We practiced writing even though he didn't want to. We practiced obeying. We finger painted. We kneaded play-dough. We tossed a ball. But then I started running out of ideas of things to do...

By the time school was over, I was exhausted! I enjoyed the new experience, but let's just say I now have an even greater respect for Mary, Paty, and all of you out there who teach little ones! With my little-ish kids I can at least catch a little break sometimes while they're working, but not so with smaller ones. You might not have much class preparation beforehand, but then you have a lot of work in class!

Take a moment to thank the people who teach your children, big or little. They do a lot of work that probably even you don't know about!

Some prayer requests for all of you prayer warriors and supporters! I appreciate y'all and I'd like to thank each of you personally, but this big, huge "THANKS!!" is pretty much the best I can do I'm afraid.

• Joel, Jairo, Miguel, and others that have been feeling sick these last couple days. Pray for health for them and for all of us.
• Silvia. Long story short, she got expelled and won't come back until some decisions get made about her future here at CICS. For more details, read the last couple posts on Melody's blog. Pray that God would work a miracle in Silvia's heart. 
• Us staff. We constantly have issues to work through and we plead for God's wisdom and grace to help us through each day, all the while glorifying and working for Him.