I wanted to also give you all an update on sweet Calvin. He is our little angel who is suffering from some pretty severe bottle rot. Look at this sweet little face:
Elise Strickland has been a crusader of sorts on this one and has helped make a way to get him free dental care. There is also a group of faculty members who has offered to help pay for medications and treatment. Calvin is a lucky little boy! This week Elise and I went with him and his mother Junie to the dentist. And let me tell you, he was a trooper! There were kids having to be literally drug from the waiting room into the back to get teeth pulled. We could hear them screaming from outside! Yikes! Poor Calvin was so nervous and very quiet. We couldn't even coax a smile out of him. AND, come to find out, the day we took him to the dentist was also his birthday. Bummer! So I realized that I had a little recorder (aka-a plastic flute/clarinet thingy...can you tell I'm a music teacher??) in my backpack. So I took it out and gave it to him and FINALLY got a smile out of him. Yay! So for a minute his mind was off the impending dentist. Though the screaming kids were still distracting at times:
Nicely distracted and semi-at-ease...
Screeching bloody murder screams from inside the office are heard...Calvin and Elise both are a little disturbed... o_0
When the hygienist called his name he took a deep breath and walked in that office, Mommy in tow, like a total champ. Thankfully they weren't able to do any of the scary stuff that day. The dentist told Junie that the teeth need to be loose before they can pull them. He also has a few teeth in the back that need some fillings. So for now, it's just a waiting game. In the meantime, since he's officially 7, he should be starting school in September. Junie has asked us for help in getting Calvin and Shernia some school uniforms (hopefully we will be setting up a fund soon for those of you who are not in Dominica...we want you to be able to contribute too!). Also, her littlest Stacey, is in need of a uniform so that she can start preschool in September. At this point, the only thing standing in between these beautiful children and an education is the right clothes and some shoes and socks. We will keep you posted on the progress there!
Thank you so much for the prayers (they are most definitely felt!) and the support. This has been a wild and crazy semester with LOTS of progress and LOTS of love for our cause here at in.Light.in. God is moving and the lives of these children and their families are being touched. Our cups are runnin' over y'all! Stay posted for Calvin updates and pictures from our end of the semester in.Light.in field day next week!
Love and Light,
Summer 2013 in.Light.in Team
PS-We sent sweet Calvin home with that recorder as a birthday present. I'm pretty sure everyone in Portsmouth within earshot of that recorder is LOVING us right now... ;)
How do we help with the uniforms? We'd like to do that.
ReplyDeleteGood morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Dominica? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Dominica in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez