Friday, February 20, 2009

Our visits with Gabriela

As many of you know, we co-sponsor a student on Isla with JoanneinCT her husband, Tim. We have been involved in the program for about 2 years and have been sponsoring Gaby about 1 1/2 yrs. We met her last year in Jan. for the 1st time & she was extremely shy--to be expected! we have been emailing all year long & we all were looking forward to seeing each other this year. We decided to surprise her ( she knew we were on Isla) & went to the class at LGES she is taking 4 nights a week (7:45-8:45). She walked in & spotted us & ran over & gave us both big hugs--melts your heart! We stayed for class-- this is an adult class & all were working hard ---even us! She is the one in the bright pink hoodie. Later in the week we got together with Gaby, her Mom & little sister & Tom & Maggie Washa for breakfast. She presented us with this portrait she had had a friend of hers do of her--it's from a photo that was taken on a trip to one of the water parks that she had gotten from school from winning a competition in literature, I think. I will be framing & hanging in our house.

Here's a photo of all of us at breakfast. I know she gets alot out of this, but we get some much also. It does my heart good to see someone being able to achieve so many goals she might not have been able to otherwise.






5 comments:

Life's a Beach! said...

Lovely post Ann! It warms my heart to read about it!

Ann said...

Thanks, Becky!

Moongrl722 said...

Gabriela is such a cutie. I'm so glad you got to spend more time with her and her family. Great pics!

Islagringo said...

You deserve all the kisses and hugs and you can get!

Anonymous said...

I missed meeting my new student Alejandra who is going to university in Merida. Maggie tried to arrange a meeting between Christmas and New Years. However we just were never able to connect. I wanted to meet Alejandra and her family when Lisa from Denver was still on the island since she is one of my co-sponsors. It is harder to meet Alejandra because she lives in Merida. I am back on the island the end of April but she probably won’t be there at all during that time.