Medina Life | Amy Medina

Medina Life, January through March

On March 29, 2016

Lots of dress up days at HOPAC this term. This one: Crazy Hair Day. The Tanners were staying with us that week so Caleb and Imani got in on the craziness as well.

And here we have Sadness and Disgust.

Book week: Quicksilver, the Owl from Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears, and a Masai girl from We All Went On Safari.

When he’s not creating amazing costumes for our children, Gil is teaching in our theological training program.

One of the best parts of HOPAC is Service Emphasis Week, when the entire school goes out on service projects. These next few pictures are from Lily’s first grade class playing with the kids at a local pre-school.

Meanwhile, Johnny started his own long-desired pre-school classes twice a week. The most important part is the backpack, of course.

Grace played U11 basketball this term, and her amazing coach is there in the background.

On the day of the final tournament, HOPAC had enough players for two teams. They both won their brackets, which means they played each other in the final game. When the two teams started off the game with handshakes, they quickly turned to hugs. It was all pretty wonderful.

Sweating for Jesus on our church’s sports day. It just happened to be about 110 degrees that day. Yes, I did just about die. Thanks for asking.

Our friend Grace, who has been through our training program.

Our own Grace, winning the sack race.

Me not winning in musical chairs.

Reuniting with our Lotta, whom we hadn’t seen in about three years. She was my student in grades 5 & 6, then she was Gil’s student, and she even lived with us one year. We love her.

Reuniting with our friend Zahir, way back from our first term in Tanzania in 2001. We hadn’t seen him in about 13 years. We love him too.

Gil was invited to be the keynote speaker at a retreat over the Easter weekend.

This conference was for university students, with an organization Americans would know as InterVarsity. Gil got to teach about 80 university students for 3 days on the book of Habbakuk.

Since the kids were on spring break, we all headed to Morogoro with him (about 4 hours away inland) and enjoyed the slightly cooler weather there.

Term 2: Book Week Mice, Farms, and Medieval Princesses

By Amy Medina

On March 29, 2015

In Other

Another peek into the lives of our crazy kids at their amazing school.

Book Week

You can’t tell parents, “Take pictures of your kids reading in unusual places,” and not expect Gil to go all out.

Yes, we really do have a glow-in-the-dark bathroom….and they are reading in it.

Book Character Day: We’ve got Despereaux, King Peter, and Angelina Ballerina. We tried hard for Josiah to be Reepicheep, so that they would all be mice, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

Masai Day in First Grade

Kindergarten’s Trip to the Farm

Learning to milk a cow

Poetry Recital in Third Grade

Medieval Day in Third Grade

Football!

Gil coached after-school primary football this term, and Grace and Josiah both participated. He organized an intramural tournament at the culmination, and Grace’s team ended up defeating Josiah’s team. Oh, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!

GOAL!!!

Celebrating their victory!

Service Emphasis Week

SEW is one of the best things about HOPAC! This is Grace’s class (and some Big Kids) off to visit a local orphanage.

Sporting their SEW Week shirts

Enchanted? This incredible school still has staff openings for the next school year!

Six

By Amy Medina

On February 13, 2015

In Other

Milestones are important in adoption.

Last February, when Lily turned five, that meant she had lived with us for the same amount of time that she had lived in the orphanage.

So last week, when Lily turned six, that meant the scales have tipped in our direction. She’s now spent the majority of her years as a Medina. That’s a good feeling.

As amazing as her orphanage was, she still was without a family for two and a half years. We still feel the effects of that, and she is still struggling to overcome some of that learned behavior. But we see progress, and it’s always worth it.

Lily doesn’t do big crowds very well, so we celebrated with just one friend and her family. She also doesn’t do well with all eyes on her, as you can see below.

She’s a beautiful little girl, and she’s ours.

Tropical Christmas Season….in Pictures

By Amy Medina

On December 26, 2014

In Other

Just in case there’s any question as to what we are dealing with down here under the equator, here is the proof:

Please don’t be jealous of us. I’m not.

But here’s our Christmas season, sweat and all.

We don’t do Santa, but Josiah took it upon himself to put this together. Yes, there’s a pillow under his shirt and yes, that’s a sock hanging from his mouth.

This is what happens when you buy a box of Christmas lights, and the writing on the box is all in Portuguese. It’s not actually a string at all, but more like an octopus of lights. Eventually, we sort of just draped it on the tree.

HOPAC’s Annual Christmas Fair

This is Apollo, the incredibly talented and radiant deaf man who made our Christmas cards from banana leaves.

HOPAC’s annual Christmas production. The kindergarteners always steal the show.

First graders were Jamaican. You had to be there to get it.

HOPAC alumni visiting us….always such a joy to our hearts!

As a Christmas present this year, we took our workers and their families to the water park. Even though it’s just a few miles away and about $4 a person to enter, they had never been. It was such a joy to see the absolute delirious excitement on the kids’ faces!