everybody has a story: wait...what just happened?

whaaaaaaaaaaaat is going on? weekend off, Hurricane Isaac, internet out, and Madelon goes into town to work. let's start there.

Working at the local McDonald's trying to get work done, as Hurricane Isaac left us with no internet, I have my headphones in, music playing, focused, and typing away. As I'm working, I see out of the corner of my eye that a Dominican Man is approaching me. Thinking I was just going to get creeped on, I pretended nothing was happening. Well, when he gets to the table, he starts talking to me in English. Perfect English. The conversations goes as follows,

"So what are you doing here?"
I work at an orphanage working with special projects and fundraising.
"Oh really? I really admire people like you, coming down here and helping. It's not easy, it's hard to leave your family and to make the commitment you do"
Thank you, I really appreciate that. That is very nice.
"Where are you from? The States?"
Yeah, I'm from Minnesota.
"Huh. That's cool. I was in the States for 25 years."
Oh, really! Doing what exactly?
"I was a Major League Baseball Player"
(Madelon's thoughts: um. what.)
Really?? That's awesome! What's your name?
"Julio Franco, and yours?"
Madelon Morin, it's great to meet you!
"It's great to meet you Madelon. Look, I have a friend in the government, and if it's okay with you, I would like to ask them to see if we can help you out in any way, through food."
Wow! That would be great. Just the fact that your even offering to just ask, means a lot.
"No problem."

Leaves.

Of course right when he left I googled him. Found out that he is kind of a big deal, no?

Well, while I was writing this yesterday, guess who shows up? The one and only Julio Cesar Franco and his body guards. I'm sitting at my table again, headphones in, and he comes up to me pulls up a chair and asks how things are going. I tell him, things are going well, I was going to call you to invite you to our home, to see what we are about, blah blah blah.
"When?"
Well, whenever you can! Whenever you are free.
"Let me talk to my friends and see what we can work out."
Avriel returns from running an errand, I tell her that she should really meet him, I'll introduce you.
We go up to their table, Julio, this is my friend, Avriel. She works at the orphanage with me.
"It's great to meet you, Avriel." (And we had somewhat of the same conversation on Friday)
Talking, Talking, Talking
"Are you guys heading out?"
Yes, we are, but let me know when would work for a visit.
Looks at his friends, "What are we doing right now? Can we come right now? Do you guys want a ride?"
So the next thing we know, Avriel and I hope in his big a** hummer and we roll up to the orphanage, meet with my boss, the National Director of the home, and have a long meeting about how Julio wants to get involved and help us out. His body guards are instantly on the phone with people in the government, education ministry, and THEN he says, let me talk to my friends, to see what they can do, I play golf with Tiger Woods a lot and I am really good friends with Michael Jordan (um. what.) and maybe they will want to get involved. So the rest of the time, we gave him a tour of the home, he met some of our kids, and seemed genuinely interested. So, we will see where it goes from here, but this whole thing is just kind of like, um..wait, what just happened? Very cool, but also excited to see what this brings to NPH. and it all started at the local McDonald's.... how about that?

Aside from that, I am sure everyone knows about Isaac. He, now he was just a gem, wasn't he? I hope everyone is safe in the States. We just got a lottt of rain and unreal wind, but all the kids are safe and that's what's most important.

Last Friday, 5 of my boys and I made Macaroni and Cheese. Not homemade, but Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, hello they are young and kids love that artificial, yellow, noodles or whatever. Anyway, they were SUPER confused were the cheese was coming from, because cheese is cheese, you see cheese, you eat cheese, cheese is not in a packet. So, when we poured in the cheese the kids where in awe on how it the magic happened. Anyway, they were licking their plates because they loved it. I mean, what kid doesn't?

Finally, I was helping some of the older kids with their homework last week, English homework, right. So, get this, the assignment was a word search, but you have to figure out the word first in order to search for it. So, the assignment gave a definition of the word, one of the definitions was something to keep you warm- first word that pops into mind? Blanket, right? NOPE. Duvet. DUVET. I mean, what? That is the DUMBEST word to learn maybe...EVER? 2. Something to hold while you are sleeping. Teddy Bear, maybe? WRONGGGGGG. cuddly toy. CUDDLY TOY. who learns that word? Who needs to learn that word? Are you kidding? DUMB. Whatever, it was fun nonetheless. And the older kid I was working with got a good laugh out of my reaction to the vocabulary they were learning. BAHA

Here are some pictures to sum up the past two weeks! Hope everyone had a safe labor day and happy first day of school to many!!!