We spent most of our last week in Cabo preparing for the early Christmas celebration we had in one of the barrios. Last Tuesday, after we we took the men in San Jose Lunch we went with Donna to buy all the food for the gift bags, plus some extra to take to families that day. We bought milk, sugar, and a bag of rice to go into each of the food bags. As we were leaving the store, Jen got a phone call saying the people were at the house ready to pick up the Acura and take it to San Diego....four weeks later it finally left Cabo! Jen left to take care of the car and I went with Donna to an outreach. We went to the barrio where Luis' family lives. We handed out food, clothes and some of the candy bags we had made to many different families. Luis' mom came up to tell us goodbye and that she had to go to work. When she left I walked over to her house to find four of the children home alone again. The 6 month old baby was laying on a bed. The other three children were sitting on another bed eating their candy and playing with toys. I sat and played with them until we had to leave. I wanted to load them all up and bring them home with me! That night Jen and I prepared the 80 bags of food and tied a Christmas prayer with ribbon on each one.
The men in San Jose waving good bye to us
Too freakin' cute
I'm so excited!!!
This little boy was in charge while his mom was at work
Our living room...these bags of food were everywhere
We were amazed when we got to the barrio on Thursday for the Christmas celebration and saw all the people that had shown up! We thought there might be 75 people there, and there ended up being over 200!
She loved her gift so much!
We handed out all the food bags, while the children took turns at the pinata, and then gave the children their candy bags and Christmas presents. The children were all so excited, and it was great seeing their faces as they opened their presents.
We had to say goodbye to many people we met over the last 9 weeks, but the hardest was saying goodbye to Mary and Donna. These women who have committed their lives to helping the people of Los Cabos, were a blessing to us during our time there.
We left Cabo on Saturday afternoon. We had many of the same issues at the airport with all of our luggage that we had when we left...only this time it was worse, and we had added Lila to the mix! We arrived in Tulsa that night with only a few delays on the way. My parents picked us up from the airport, and I don't think either of us were quite prepared for the cold, and still aren't! We went straight to Jen's house where her parents and dogs were waiting to welcome us home.
You can't tell from our smiling faces but it was a very sad day!!!
But I don't wanna get in the bag!
XOXO...Jen and Tal
