How privileged I am to be a part of this remarkable project! As a Committee Team Member and volunteer for the Xo-Love Project/Bright Eyes Foundation, my life will never be the same. Giving, teaching, loving, holding, listening, crying, laughing, and so much more took place with these beautiful children and their families in the Mayan villages of Mexico. I look forward to another year of dedication as a volunteer as I strive to fulfill our goals, one child at a time. The strengths of so many will result in not only completed projects, but also with lives being changed, enhanced, and global friendships formed. Together, we can make a difference, one child at a time. Thank you so much for your generous contributions and for being such great supportive neighbors and friends. I have attached some pictures of our project. May God bless you!

Hello to all of our Xo-Love supporters! We just returned from our most recent trip to Mexico which was Nov.19-24th with great success! We had a group of 12 people on our trip. It was amazing. The Mayan village that we are helping has 12 families so thats around 65 people. The village is about 2 1/2 hours away from Cancun way out in the Jungle, but half the fun is getting there! ( just ask Jeremy Reynolds).

On the first day we took out painting supplies,and layed out blankets on the dirt floor and painted with the kids. We were awestruck to find out how many great painters there was with hardly no direction at all. It was great to see them paint what was important to them. These beautiful paintings will be put up for auction at the Xocai L2E event in Las Vegas Jan.2-5 2009 to raise money for the village. One of first things they felt they needed in their village was clean drinking water, so we will be working towards that.

The next day we took out donations from our wonderful supporters that we had collected from. We had bags of clothes, shoes, blankets, personal hygiene items, toys etc. We also went to Wal-mart and Costco and made a food package for each family. Now its important to note that all these things were not just handouts. We personally believe in working as partners with the villages. In a previous trip we had visited the village and explained to them that if they would do something for us, then we would do something for them. We made a deal. If they colored us a picture, or wrote a story, poem, did a craft then in return we would bring them back a new pair of tennis shoes.

When we returned they all had their project completed and they were absolutely thrilled to have their new shoes. The last day we had a big fiesta in the village, we brought out the food and the ladies in the village cooked for us. The kids showed us how to climb down a 30 ft drop off on a tree with notches in it to show us the cenote that they swim in. They climbed like little monkeys one right after the other. Luckily Doc had brought a rope just in case some of us couldn't get back up. It was so much fun.

I just want to let everyone know how blessed we feel when doing these projects. What a neat thing it is to be making long term relationships with these wonderful people. We have so many great and upcoming trips planned for volunteers to come and share this experience. It is life-changing and I hope everyone gets the chance to come and experience the changes that we can make together! XO-LOVE !

- Doc Warren and Shellie Warren

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