Introducing...

...the newest (furry & fluffy) members of the family!

(All at CDA II, as Casa I is overrun with many and numerous babies, thankyouverymuch.)

First off, with us a couple of months now:

The Elderly Dog Rufus!

A stray who wouldn't leave us...

(also know as Volunteer Alexis's baby!!)

On February 11, The Cat arrived!

(Thanks to missionary friends Chris & Erin Sidmore for the donation.)

What a brave cat!

The tias report that with the mere sound of the cat's meow and prowl, they haven't seen a mouse in the house all week. Que bien! (Can't imagine her tangling with a snake, yikes...)

She also allows the kids to hold her, the most important in their eyes.

On February 14, the beautiful Lab Puppy was delivered!

I met this pup and his three siblings back in December the day after they were born, during a walk through of the house as we planned to move in. As promised, the Alaskan missionary family saved a male back for us - thanks!

See the pup?

Debates continue as to what he will be named...

This will be one much-handled doggy, that's for sure!

Let's just say that Casa de Amor II is fully taking advantage of the increased yard space, with plans for sheep (grass cutters) and chickens (fresh eggs) in the works!

Here's to country living...!!! :)

Another baby...BOY!!!

I always say I never know who or what a day will bring around here! Today was already full but I ended up spending a delightful couple of hours this afternoon picking up a baby. :)

A newborn to be exact, apparently born at home right on or before February 12, whose mother tried to suffocate him in the wee hours of the morning today. After that episode, the nurses brought the baby to stay with them, prepared sample packets of formula to give the baby (she hadn't been nursing him anyway), and reported events to the hospital's psychologist (who declares the mother mentally unstable and is requesting more tests) and social worker (who promptly called us)!

I was out making the school pick-up rounds, my new Wednesday job as the Hogar's minivan is otherwise occupied picking up the week's supply of food, when Rosa (our social worker) called me. She said "We say no, right?" I hesitated, as I always do in these situations. We are overrun with babies at the moment, many small babies, so I would've been quicker to say yes to a walking, talking 2 or 3 year old than a 3 DAY old. She read my thoughts and we decided to say no. Well, the dear elderly social worker of the city's main pediatric hospital would have none of it! The only correct answer was yes, and she furthermore threatened "If something happens to the baby tonight, it will be on your hands...!!" So Rosa said yes, then called me back. With the noise of the nine kids now filling my car with happy chatter, and music, of course, I didn't hear the calls to my cell (missed a call from the US too...sorry family!), so she finally tracked me down at Casa de Amor II as I was upstairs going through all the violins my sister left us years back.

Rosa gave me the rundown, so after dropping off two cakes for the afternoon's double first birthday at the Baby Home, I left for the hospital. After visiting my street patient, I went next door to find my new baby. :)

Right before going down the stairs, to the best part: the security guard! As I picked up my ID card, he gave me a double-take. Is that a baby you have in there?? I probably blushed - I wasn't trying to hide him, I just love my slings for the small babies, it's cold and wet today, and I was also holding papers and dealing with constant phone calls and messages. (I didn't answer all of the calls, but a nurse even suggested that I need a secretary - amen!)

I showed him the baby and he sort of freaked out, in a quiet Bolivian sort of way. But...did you have this baby when you came? Or did you HAVE HIM here? Here I couldn't help but join in with a grin: "Yes, I had him RIGHT NOW!" He just kept staring, and now a crowd was gathering to watch the exchange and try to gain a peak at my tiny baby all snug inside.

Finally the guard got over his shock at a gringa taking a newborn from the hospital with only a piece of paper and an immunization card, no mother in sight, and just filled out a paper making notes from my one paper... As he finally turned back my Bolivia ID card, I swore to him this is not the first time I've waltzed out of there with a baby. Gotta love my life. :)

I went straight to our authorities with my tiny warm sleeping bundle to get papers in order. After signing a couple more....he was ours!! :)

I realized during all of this that he didn't have a name, so I immediately gave him one we've had on the "waiting list" for a while, a good strong name that we've never had at Casa de Amor. In fact, Rosa asked for our last new baby a few weeks back to be given this particular name but it turned out he already had one.

It begins with an S and is from the Bible.... Shouldn't be too hard to guess.

Back in the warm, cheery Baby Home, for the tail end of two birthday parties (pictures, which others took for me, to follow)...

Tia Tomaza with the little beauty. (Little O, my stick-tight, was getting a little jealous so as soon as she saw the baby was out of my arms, she jumped into them.)

As many babies as we've gotten lately, this is our first "born in 2012" baby. I was kind of hoping the next would be a girl. I just counted it up, and 6 of our last 7 new ones have been boys! We haven't gotten a girl since Abi and Edgar came back to live with us in July last year, and before that was baby F as my birthday present in May. But actually I just checked, and there are now 8 boys and 7 girls at the Baby Home, so somehow they stay even...

Pray for special grace for the tias and volunteers as they add yet another little one into the round-the-clock routine here. I was told that he's a little jaundiced and last night had a slight fever, and to monitor that.

Also pray for his mother, who weighs on our hearts. According to what little information the hospital could garner, she lives with an alcoholic partner and 5 other children in a shack outside the city. We will be doing investigations ASAP.

News from France

Yesterday, we updated pictures of a former Casa de Amor II child!

And news, such as that he's top of his class and really BIG now - we barely recognize him!

I couldn't help but post this picture of him and his brother (also from Cochabamba), IN FRONT OF THE EIFFEL TOWER IN PARIS!!!!

Too cool... :)

new year, new houses

In January, Casa de Amor had two moves!

Casa de Amor II Move Day: a group effort!!

First, Casa de Amor II relocated back to a house we lived in years ago and loved. It's a little further out, but in the direction of most of the staff of the home, and the yard... Oh, the yard!!

The back of the house and the expansive yard...

Dining room - plenty large enough for both of our tables

View from the live-in volunteer bedroom

A mural in the little girls room, left by a missionary family who lived in this house several years ago

S. modeling by the brand new stair railing that makes the house safer (made possible due to Tia Katrina and her church family!!)

...and one more look from the second floor window at the YARD!

(Plans are in the works for chickens and sheep!)

Casa de Amor III also relocated to a more secure neighborhood, ironically the exact same one as where the triplets now live with their mother and "adopted family"!

View to the mountain with "El Cristo"

Elena is working her magic in the kids' rooms!!

She's still working on it, but just a few sneak-peeks...

Living room/dining room

Everyone is getting settled in nicel! Today summer break ends and classes are beginning again.

Even with the moves, all the kids are going back to the same schools where they were last year, with the exception of some of the younger ones in CDA II who are going for the first time, some to schools better equipped for their special needs. We appreciate your prayers for everyone! :)

Little boy!

Introducing the new little fellow D....who thinks he's big!

Seven years old, to be exact. And I guess 20 when he slams his little fist on the table and demands "GIVE ME A BEER!"

(He's 4!)

Yep, he came in all pink.

No, I do not know why, other than to say, "It's Bolivia".

Meeting the tias and children!
J (blind) meeting little D by touch!

This is our child number #120 and the first to ever arrive with money! The neighbor caring for him sent him off with 4 Bolivianos (equivalent to about 60 cents) and 4 small peaches.

We had a horrible scare on one of little D's first trips to the bathroom. This is probably not the place to go into details, but what I can say is he has an extreme infestation of parasites and worms that was causing something we had never thought of. We ran him to the ER but they sent us home with parasite meds and instructions on how to deal with this "side effect" when it happened again.

What we know so far of this little guy is that his father died when D was only a few months old(due to an overdose?) and now his mother is dying of terminal cancer in a hospital...we don't even know which.

According to him, he has an older sister. We don't know where she is.

D has relatives but they have migrated to Spain.

Now that we know his real age, something we were clueless on when he arrived, we realize he probably needs to live at Casa de Amor II to attend pre-kindergarten starting next month.

But since lots of investigation remains to be done, we still need to see...

Pray for D's adjustment to Casa de Amor and peace in his little heart, as he occasionally speaks of his mother to the tias.

Wordless Wednesday

:)

Three Years

Today is the three year mark of being forced to let go our baby twin Gabriela. We will never forget her, and it's precious to know that other friends of Casa de Amor never will, either!

Multiple-trip volunteer "kiwi Katrina" sent me a beautiful album today that she took over the weekend at Oakura Beach (North Island, NZ).

Thank you, Katrina!

And....It's a Boy!

Thanks to recent adoptions (see here and here), we have the joy of being able to say YES to some of the many calls we always receive about more children!

Yesterday we said yes to a 4 year old boy (still waiting for him).

Then we said wait about a special needs 5 year old, until some more children are adopted from CDA II.

Then today we got another call about a 2 month old...who turns out to be younger.

Turns out he was discovered alone in a motel room on New Year's Eve. The lady renting the room said she was going to run out for breakfast, but by 3pm had not returned and the daughter of the owner was alerted by the baby's lusty cries.

Baby A appears to be nearing one month old, same as our other new baby M. (So, both Christmas week babies?!)

Pictures of the welcoming crew...

Tia Rosi LOVES loves babies...

...and was actually the first of us to get her hands on him!

Here's a cool fact: Baby A actually arrived right on the heels of our newest volunteer, Genevieve! I had no sooner started down the stairs from the third floor office to meet her when the doorbell rang and the baby was here! Here she is helping give a bottle.

And here's our other new volunteer, just arrived yesterday - Iris from Holland!

Checking out the two newest babies side-by-side, Baby M (arrived 2 weeks ago today) and Baby A

Fun times! :)

another sweet adoption...

Our year has gotten off to a teriffic start with adoptions!!

On Sunday, a Dutch couple arrived to Bolivia, coming to the Baby Home on Wednesday morning after their first hearing to meet our dear siblings B (4 1/2 years old) & C (3)

First picture together!

B's first enthusiastic words, directed to his dad: "When are we going to go on the airplane?!"

C's first reaction was to be shy and not get too close, but she very quickly recovered as she observed her very outgoing brother interact with the couple

The new happy family, the adoption agency representative, and Tia Carmen, CDA's psychologist

Gifts!

Photographer for the special event: Elena!

Tour of the house! (Yes, the dad is somewhat of a giant for Bolivian houses!)

B showing his dad his bed...

Room delivery! Playing outside in the afternoon.

Although everything is going very well and it's wonderful to watch the new family interact, we need to keep all four in our prayers as they get to know one another and look forward to a new life all together!