My boys
"Sierra???" I was standing upstairs in the clinic when I heard Elizabeth's voice floating up from downstairs. It didn't sound like the typical Friday night bandaid request; it sounded urgent. "Yes?" I shouted. "Milenca's not breathing!" My heart started pounding 100 miles an hour. Simultaneously, the thud of Carlo's boots reached the top of the stairs and he burst into the clinic. "How can I help?" he yelled. "Grab the epi pen!" I called over my shoulder as I threw him the medicine box key and took off down the stairs and across the muddy field. I was going over everything I could need to do as I was running. Do cpr? Administer epi? Perform the Heimlich? As I reached the top step in the Dalias' house, I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw Milenca sitting upright, breathing. She wasn't ok, she was having a pretty bad panic attack, but she was definitely breathing! I grabbed an empty goldfish box and held it up to her mouth to slow her carbon dioxide output. Emilianne, her house parent, and I, were able to get her calmed down and breathing normally again soon.
Surprisingly, that's the first panic attack we've had all year. There are a lot of new girls in that house, some of which come from families of witch doctors. We suspected some of them had started telling stories and scaring the other girls. As campus drifted off to sleep that night, the student missionaries gathered in a circle and prayed over the house and each girl living in it, along with asking for wisdom as to how to take care of these precious children best.
Sabbath morning dawned bright and early with another panic attack. I brought Milenca to the clinic and calmed her down. We skipped Sabbath school and made pancakes, sang songs, and talked a bit about what had happened. She felt better by church and we enjoyed a nice service with Lisiane preaching.
Afterward, the sm's gathered and made baked ziti! Definitely something that tasted like home! Rogelio, one of our two-year-olds, also said my name for the first time on Sabbath. "Cheeeecherrrr Siella!!" was the greeting I received from him as I went to give medicines. He's getting so big!
Vespers was a little long for Emil!
Sunday and Monday flew by pretty typically. We spent such fun time with the little boys outside and playing with water. Treson and I have been assigned the job of supervising recess, so I get to spend some time with them during the school day too!
Valentín and Emil
Diego feeling quite cool at recess
On Tuesday, Treson, Carlo, Elizabeth, Josy, and I had our day off. We girls went to town early and enjoyed a slow morning. Carlo joined us for a little while and then went home to be with Treson, who was feeling a little under the weather. Little did we know that as we were relaxing, chaos was ensuing on campus. Our older boys' house, the Guerreros, is a handful and they just got new house parents in January. Something was the last straw that Tuesday morning and house parents quit amongst lots of yelling and frantic packing. This left 11 pre-teen and teenage boys parentless. So, Zoro, Carlo, and Treson immediately started packing up their new house and moved into the Guerreros'. They've become the semi-permanent house parents now and the boys love them. They're doing an amazing job!
I spent most of Wednesday cooking for the boys' new house. I made gallons of soy milk, lots of granola, and breakfast patties! It was fun. I also continued to treat new pink eye and ear infection patients, as a couple viruses have been traveling around campus for the last few weeks.
In the evening, the sm's gathered to have a meeting. Partway through, Joy, Melissa's sister walked up. "Hey, if any of you can help with a wedding this next Monday, let me know. Maria Esther is getting married then." Now I had been told about this wedding a couple months ago and been asked to help plan it, but I had been told it was a long way off still! I told Joy I'd be happy to help. “Great! 'Cause I don’t know a thing about weddings,” she responded. I started texting her later that evening to get a feel of what we needed to do and soon began to realize that I was now the coordinator for the wedding. The wedding was in FIVE DAYS!! Thankfully I had created a pretty complete Pinterest board when I was told about the wedding in January, so I started looking at what we could use from there. We had next to no money to spend on the wedding, so we had to get creative. I ran around on Thursday talking to everyone about the wedding and delegating jobs. Melissa was able to get ahold of a lady in La Paz who could bring us some flowers, Hermana Emi was willing to cook, Elizabeth would make brownies, Joy would order a cake from town, Maria Esther had dresses figured out for everyone, I was making the program, Melissa’s dad would preach, Josy would sing, Carlo and I would sing, the Lilas girls would pick greenery and string carnations, the list continued endlessly.
In the meantime, I took two boys to the dentist. They both got root canals and were sent home with their teeth needing to be packed every 12 hours, a very new concept for me. I was amazed at how deep the holes were and it was a challenge cleaning and getting cotton all the way into them each day. It was a fun learning curve though!
Andrés and me in our new van!!
I woke up early Friday morning already thinking about the wedding once again. Carlo and I were picking a song still, and Mrs. Biaggi (my academy choir teacher's wife) kindly translated one that we liked. Then I proceeded to pick décor for the church and make a schedule for Sunday and Monday. I worked frantically until sunset, when all became peaceful. Sabbath was a blessed rest from the heat and from work. It cooled down for a little which made for some really nice naps! Josie, Raul, and I made pretzels for supper at the Harding house. We ended up having a flour fight halfway through and by the time the kids arrived, the three of us had very white hair! After sunset, I started working again. At 1 a.m. I finally decided to call it a night.
100ish pretzels!
The next morning, I was at the Leones bright and early. After Carlo and I made pancakes for breakfast, the flowers arrived! Maddy started putting them together and all the houses worked on their projects. Carlo and I practiced our song over and over until little Jose stuck his head out onto the porch and asked, “Why are you guys singing soooo much today?”
The boys an Carlo after breakfast
I ran the rehearsal at 5 p.m., and it went well! The bride and groom were shy but excited. After the house parents returned for the evening, Maddy, Lisiane, Josy, and I walked into the church to start decorating.
In the middle of all of this, the power and water stopped working. The guys worked on fixing it, but soon we were alerted that while the electricity was working again, the water pump was broken and we wouldn’t have water until at least tomorrow. Of all the days to not have water, the day before a wedding was not it! We continued on as best we could, and by 1 a.m. we were staring blankly at bouquets all over the place, sleepily managing to tie the last decorations. It had turned out beautiful!
The Dalias made 130 rice sachets for the send-off out of a thrifted curtain I found in town.
Maddy made beautiful bouquets!!
I made baguettes for the bride's morning charcuterie board
The Lilas collected wild flowers and greenery
Monday morning came before we knew it and so did a downpour of rain. As everyone stood outside in their swimsuits showering in the downpour, Maddy and I waded through the mud to the nearby tiny store and picked up the ingredients for the juice that would go with the bride’s morning charcuterie board. As soon as we were packed, Maddy, Katie-Jane, Emilianne, and I went over to Joy’s house to start preparing the bride. I soon came back and finished decorating the arch after the Guerreros and Zoro went and picked a ton of vines from a highway ditch in the rain.
Katie-Jane and Emilianne doing the bride and her daughters' hair
Maddy helping with hair. She also did nails and makeup!
All ready!
2 p.m., 3 p.m., 4 p.m., time had flown! Guests started showing up and soon the church was full! The bride arrived with her kids, who were the wedding party. As the flower girl prepared to walk down the aisle, Maddy and I looked down to realize that she didn’t have any flowers in her basket! “Where are the flowers?” “I couldn’t find them in the fridge!” was Joy’s response. I glanced to my right and there were two giant gladiolas on the program table. Maddy and I each grabbed one and tore those flowers in the her basket within a few seconds! Soon the bride was down the aisle, the couple was married, and Treson was taking their pictures!
As I was transferring all the bouquets to the reception, I realized that I was pretty hungry. I tried to think of the last meal I had eaten. Not lunch, no breakfast, no supper the day before… I hadn’t eaten a meal in 30 hours! Thankfully, I was able to eat as soon as everyone was seated and enjoying themselves. It’s always a toss-up how things will turn out when a reception includes 100 children under 18, but it went really well! Katie-Jane caught the bouquet, Melissa spoke, the couple cut the cake very well, and we all threw rice at the happy couple as they walked to their house!
The entrance table borrowed from someone's kitchen
The bride's bouquet
The arch and stage with strings of carnations that the Lilas house made
Flowers for each pew
Emilianne painted gorgeous welcome signs and I found this cute construction ladder!
We made it!
The cake and Elizabeth's delicious brownies!
The older kids jumped in quickly and started cleaning, which was so helpful. Josie, Maddy, and I headed to the church to take down the setup. We finally finished around 10 p.m.
I grabbed my nursing supplies and started making house rounds. When I got to the Guerreros, I realized that everyone needed groceries! Treson blessedly offered to help me distribute them and we finished silently dropping groceries off at peoples’ houses around 11:30.
It was an absolutely insane week! It was also one of my favorites! I have always thought being a wedding planner would be fun and it was such a great adventure! I was so grateful that everyone jumped in and gave their all to help with every aspect. It’s so important for these kids to see a celebration of the way God intended marriage to be. They all come with such broken views of how a family should be. I hope we were able to show them a little about the blessing God gave us in his plan for families.