Our household is getting bigger...

We've outgrown our dinner table.  So we've set up a plastic one beside it.  It's funny...we're never quite sure who's coming for lunch.  There's a group of guys (and now a young mom to be) that have been showing up to eat with us.  They're all guys we know from various places...some from the boy's home...some are family members (or friends of family members).  They're all studying and most of them are barely making ends meet.  By the time they pay for their books, bus fare and other odds and ends, most of them don't have money to buy lunch.  Often they end up leaving their houses early in the morning, skipping lunch and then eating when they get home, at nine or ten at night.  Obviously that's not a good set up. 

So I've been saying that one more at the table isn't a big deal.  =)  And it's not.  Maribel keeps saying we need a bigger house, and that's getting to be more and more true.  At any rate, it's been fun getting to know some of these guys better.  Of course they all come with their own unique issues and problems...but that keeps life interesting.  We're now nine in the house and another eight or nine who hang out with us.  They don't all show up every day (probably a good thing) but we usually have two or three guests each day for lunch.  Some of them have asked if they can move in, but we just don't have the room.  I help these guys financially here and there as well, but I have to be careful with that.  If I open that door too wide, we'd get over run pretty quickly.

Anyhow, pray for these guys.  They're a good bunch, and we enjoy having them around.  Only about half of them are Christians, but I've been talking with them here and there, and encouraging them to come to church with us.  Slowly but surely...

One of the guys hanging out here is Jose Manuel, Andres' younger brother.  He's still at the boy's home where most of the guys used to be, but I think he finds it difficult there.  He's showing up here three or more times a week now.  It was his birthday last week, so we decided to surprise him with a cake.  The boy's home doesn't celebrate individual birthdays, so this was his first Birthday party! 

Maribel bringing out the cake...

Cocoliso (his nickname) with his cake...

Blowing out the candle.  It came free with the cake...  =)

I was trying to get him to take a bite out of the cake,

but sadly he didn't fall for it...