Tony and Laura Lewry

I just wanted to share this photo. The children haven't had their new teacher long but last week I needed to get the kids to write their names for a gift to one of the house mums for her birthday. The photo is of Gabriel (7) who was excited to be able to write his name by himself for the first time without help. Thank you to everyone who  has expressed an interest in supporting the Charity to employ a teacher. You are making a huge difference. Money has started to come in but we are still some way off our target to permanently employ a teacher.  If you would like to help too please contact us.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" Nelson Mandela The children who have just recently entered the With Open Arms shelter have all come from homes where they have been neglected or worse.   They have not had the chance to go to school regularly and are far behind where they should be academically. Some cannot identify numbers or letters.   If we put them into a normal classroom with children their own age they wouldn't be able to join in any of the work. There is no special help for them and they would continue to get further and further behind and spend their days frustrated and sad not being able to understand. We have an opportunity to change their future. We have an opportunity to help them learn to read and write. Can you help? We need £3000 for a 6 month term to hire specialist teacher to educate these precious children. If you would like to give a donation please email us using the email tonyandlauralewry@gma...

It was a little intense. I had planned this wonderful watermelon themed Big Brazilian first Birthday bash for Clara. Then I got the news that my surgery would be a couple of weeks before it. It was wonderful though and we loved seeing friends come and play and celebrate Clara with us! Here are some of our favourite photos.

Tess is very much like her father. Full of life, inquisitive,  outgoing, lots of personality, passionate, determined... which is sometimes quite challenging in   the form of a two year old.   But yesterday I was such a proud mama when I came across this scene. You see, Tess has had to do a lot of learning very quickly in the last few weeks.  Her world, as well as ours, has changed dramatically. Her once very peaceful, tropical, haven of a home has been invaded by 12 very loud, demanding and sometimes unkind, hurt and vulnerable children. She has had to learn how to control her feelings, how to have appropriate physical boundaries (yes even at the tender age of two)   but most of all she’s had to learn how to share . Her toys, her space, the trampoline, and as Tony is working long hours, and we sometimes see him whilst he is on shift with the kids, she’s had to learn how to share her precious daddy. Shes doing really well but...

Many of you may know that our friend, and the director of the charity we now work with, Michael Seelig is seriously ill in hospital. His Kidneys have stopped working. He is undergoing Dialysis to try and restart the kidneys and will have a biopsy to see if they can see what is happening. This is a hard time for the Seelig family. Gabriella, his wife, has had Chikungunya virus recently and not had great health. The Charity is due to start signing contracts and begin taking in children in the next few weeks. Please pray that Michael completely recovers from this. Please pray that his family will be at peace. Please pray for all the practical things that Michael is overseeing as the director of the charity. Please pray for strength that we would be able to support the family, continue with everything that needs doing and not feel overwhelmed by this situation. Thank you.

Yes I know I spelled it wrong, but we had a great day anyway!! I was so tired after the mountain of baking that at 11pm the night before the big day, spelling was beyond me! (: Tess is 2! We had a lovely day in our newly grassed garden playing and eating lots of cake. We are so blessed to have friends here that we can call family. Tess is growing into a fun,animal loving, strong, chatterbox. Her favorite food is any kind of fruit, yogurt, porridge and pancakes!  She has a good imagination and likes to make tea and coffee for mum and dad, yesterday she had a fox round for tea and she is very good at floating (swimming!). She still loves books and you can often hear her recounting Monkey Puzzle "come come come! It's time I took you home to mum!" or the Gruffalo.. "silly old fox.. don't you know?!" she calls her nappies "whackers" and elephants "eletrunks". We are so blessed.