Thursday March 6th ~ Jim and Katie's Texas and Mexico Trip 2015

Wow...talk about a change in temperature...in the 40's this morning. Heat on in the trailer, but yesterday our air conditioning didn't work, so we had to call someone out who arrived this morning.
They discovered it was a capacitor in the air conditioning unit, so after their departure we were $120 lighter in the wallet but the air is now working for the day it decides to warm up again.

We packed up the things we wanted to take to Mexico. We had clothes from Bob one of the sponsors who I used to work with, and Sister Maureen will give them out to who needs them most. We had a box with school supplies etc. from Arlene who sponsors Dayla. We had some articles from Martha who works with Katie, for Esmerelda, and we had money orders for Sister Maureen for the kids annual school tuition for seven kids in all, three of them being ours.

We met Sister Maureen at her residence in Progreso on the American side at 2PM. We transfered the items we had to her red truck and off we went to Mexico.

The guard at the border just waved us through, which was good seeing as we had a brand new TV in the back, which Katie and I got for Erika and the kids. They have not had TV for 2 months, and this was courtesy of Harrah's Casino, who were kind enough to give us some money from their machines in Council Bluffs.

For those who are reading the blog for the first time, we refer to Livario, Erika, and the kids as "our" family, because it is like that. They are at the moment living in a house in what was supposed to be a gated community. The owner/developer had great plans for it, the streets are paved, electricity is in, and there are about 5 houses currently. Trouble is his daughters got killed, so he went to the USA and apparently has no intent to ever return. So the many lots remain vacant.

There was one house that Erika and the kids had been in before, but one day a black truck showed up with two cartel members and told them to get out. They did. The next shack they occupied, the owner showed up one day and said he wasn't going to rent it to them anymore and wanted it back. He gave them a couple of days to get out. Where were they to go? So they went back to the house they had been kicked out of before, with the permission of the secretary of the man who owns the complex, They are still there, although there were bullet holes in all the windows and it needed cleaning badly.

So temporarily this is their home. Who knows for how long? We tried to find them a house or a lot last year, but ran out of time. Sad part is...the last place they were in which was a typical type shack, is now totally empty and wrecked. So they had to get out for no reason.

Erika was happy that she will get to watch some TV now with the kids

this is what Karelly wrote on Facebook..

"grasias a jim y a katie. por darle. una sorpresa a mi mama. grasias los quiero. los amo. grasias. por todos su. regalos mi mama feliz. con t.v. los quiero

Thanks to jim and katie. For giving. A surprise my mom. Thanks love you. I love you. Thanks. For all his. Gifts my mom happy. With the want t.v.

We noticed on Tuesday that little Eric had runner on that virtually had no soles and were too big for him, so...

Erik gets a new pair of shoes

Sister Maureen looking at Karelly's report card which as usual is excellent!

Our little Livy

We spent some fun time with the family then we were off with Sister Maureen on her rounds. Next we stopped at Vicky's house, she was the first girl we sponsored. Her mom lives across the street and they run a little store. Vickey and her siblings, two brothers and a sister, were living in a real shack. They tore it down, and a man by the name of Al who works with Sr. Maureen, and with some help from his friends tore down the old one and built them a new one

There are two big bedrooms upstairs, one for the boys and the other for the girls. This is one of the best houses in the area and a huge improvement for Vicky and her family. It took several months to build.