what makes a little girl smile

this is lizeth, she is eight years old. i met lizeth and her two younger sisters a few weeks ago on a trip to mexico. lizeth is a serious little girl. before coming to live at casa hogar de gozo she had a lot of responsibilities. her mom went to work very early in the morning and did not come home until very late at night, so lizeth was in charge of taking care of herself and her sisters most of the time. she made sure they were dressed and fed, if there was food to be had that day. recently the...

Read more

the behrs and the vikings

matthew and jacob have the distinct privilege of playing football for the francis howell vikings. i have the distinct privilege of showing up at their games and embarrassing them to no end. it is quite enjoyable. sometimes their teammates tease them, but i know they're just jealous that no one has brought a large sign with their name on it. i mean really...what's better than that? matthew . shelly . the sign jacob . shelly . the homecoming game i also took some matthew.jacob.gracie...

Read more

una semana en mexico

our small but mightily hilarious team of five just returned from a week in san pedro mexico. [which is outside hermosillo for those of you with stellar mexican geography skills.] there is an orphanage there called casa hogar de gozo which just opened two weeks before our arrival. right now there are seven children from three families living there, so we spent the week helping them make their new house a home. we painted all the interior rooms with fun, bright colors and gave the doors and windows...

Read more

the finale

yes it's true...the summer of fun is officially coming to an end. i realize it's a bit of a stretch to refer to the early days of october as part of summer, but that's the way it goes. it's been a fabulous few months. i spent a lot of time with people i love and i enjoyed them immensely. i often found myself talking with a friend and being a bit overwhelmed at how glad i am that we met. i have some fun, inspiring and lovable friends for sure! one thing i wanted to do this summer was to simply...

Read more