My birthday :)

This week has been a really hard week. The employees here all have off for the month of December, so the volunteers have to leave their normal jobs and be caregivers to the kids until after Christmas. This isn't the first time that the volunteers have had to cover for vacations, but I've managed to wiggle my way out of it up until now. I had already agreed to cover for one of the nurses in the clinic for December, but Erika asked if I could help with the Especiales for a week before I started my clinic shifts.

I'll admit that I wasn't looking forward to it. I love the kids, but the hours are long. The Tios work 48 hours straight, and that's a lot of time to spend with 14 special needs kids. I have patience, but I was worried about how they'd hold up. Luckily I was working with some of the other volunteers, so we helped keep each other sane :) And we actually had a really good time with the kids, despite the hours (which for us were only 10 hours a day, still rough but much better than the alternative!)

Here I am with our baby Brendy. So adorable!

The sections are having a Christmas-themed pinata contest! Here we are starting ours

All the kids had a good time. Leo's always happy though :)

Between my shifts of being a Tio, I also had my birthday! It was exactly the kind of birthday I wanted, super low-key with brownies, a home cooked dinner and an X-Files marathon :) It also happened to be my VERY LAST Kermes!! Hooray! These things are great in theory, but they take up so much time and energy. I'm glad we're done. The theme of this one was Christmas, and yours truly had the best job of all: being Papa Noel (aka Santa Claus).

Here I am prepping for my role. I used flour to make my beard white. I was worried it wouldn't work, but I think we pulled it off :) Btw, my lungs were full of paste after inhaling flour from my mustache all day.

Finished product

Hangin with my elves

The kids got a kick out of it, even the older ones. I've given up trying to guess what the kids will like, they always surprise me

One of my favorite parts of the night was when I was walking home to change out of my outfit. I was standing in front of my house trying to find my keys when I heard kids shouting. I looked over and all the kids from the neighborhood that bumps up to NPH were screaming and running towards me. The older ones were grabbing the babies and carrying them down to the hill towards us screaming "Santa!! Santa!!" I wish I had candy or something to throw towards them but I had to make do with a few Ho-Ho-Hos and Feliz Navidad ninos!! It was really cute though.

And I have to share this adorable thing that one of the kids gave me. There's a girl I've gotten close to named Maria. She's been living in the clinic for the last few months and is a really sweet kid. I taught her to play solitaire and we watch movies together when I have a night shift there. Anyway, before she left to visit her family for vacation, she handed me a box and told me not to open it until my birthday. I thought she had made me a friendship bracelet because I had seen her working on one during the day. Well, I kept my word and I finally opened this box after having it sit on my desk for over a month. Look at this amazing paper craft she made! It's made out of tiny scraps of paper she folded and glued together. Amazing!!

There was a little note inside the box that says: "Do you want to be my Godfather (the people who support the kids and send them letters checking in)? Mark the box, yes or no. ADORABLE!! It's like second grade all over!! As is customary, I added a third box labeled "maybe". Just kidding ;) How do you say no to something like that? These kids are awesome.