Families Helping Families

Over the Christmas break Dan and I went with (part of) the Parker Family to Rocky Point Mexico to participate in a humanitarian project building houses as part of "Families Helping Families"

The premise behind the organization which is patterned after Habitat for Humanity- is that you can't get a loan in Mexico- and we all know we would never be able to save enough money to be able to pay cash for a house. So families can qualify for a house by a) having a job 2) working a certain number of hours on helping to build the houses and 3) paying back the foundation over the next x number of years.

That's how it all looks on paper- but what actually goes on is totally different. You can see in the slide show above the innocent sweet faces of the children that live in the cardboard makeshift house next to where we are building. One of the boys Angel asked if he could have the house we were building because he liked it better than the one he was living in- and then he wrote his name in the cement front porch.

American families give up their Christmas presents and time off from school and work to spend 8+ hours a day laying block, working with messy cement, making new friends, and working together on what will become someones dream home. We eat at road side taco stands and offer our new mexican friends pizza through the barbed wire fence. Families brought with them old clothes and small toys to give away to the children and families they met. We forgot about ourselves for a couple of days and were able to change the lives of 3 families (yes there was a large enough group that we actually built 3 houses)

The first year we went to Mexico to build was in 2005. I didn't get to spend much time on the house because I was in the Condo with my little kids. I honestly didn't love the experience and didn't really understand why my parents insisted on going back year after year. Well this year I caught the bug- I actually got to work (really hard) every day and I truly felt like I was making a difference. So next year we will let Ash & John go and we'll watch their kids. And when our kids are a little bigger we'll take them too so that they can see how blessed they are, and what a great experience it is to help other people.

And speaking of blessed- although this is a lesson that I want to teach my kids, maybe it is really just a lesson that I need to be reminded of first. It is easy to always want more stuff- to fill our large houses with. But watching the mexican kids happy as can be riding their old 1980's bikes and wearing clothes you and I donated to the DI humbled me beyond belief- my kids will wear their shoes a little longer this year, and I will be happier with my old jeans. And I will spend more time helping that glow in my children's faces to be brighter!

want to come next year?? it will change your life!!