Child #80 Arrives!

Eighty children through our doors in 4 years, that is, with 36 currently under our roofs! It sure took long enough for this one to arrive, and now he's practically our Christmas present!

He's actually a transfer from another Baby Home, something we rarely do (although every time I can think of, the transfers always take place the month of December, now that I think of it...). However, it's a unique story. A few weeks after Newborn C arrived to us (in August), her grandmother tracked her down to visit and in the course of interviewing her, she informed us that C had a brother a mere 16 months older. He has lived practically all his life in another home in Cochabamba, but to be able to process their papers for adoption, obviously they need to be within the same organization. We immediately said we'd bring him to us rather than send her to live with him, and as it turns out, the other home was so worried we'd force them to take the baby they would barely talk to us about any transfer.

To make a long story short, after over three months of working on this, everyone finally got their act together and Toddler B joined his Baby Sister C yesterday evening at the Baby Home!! (And as more needless trivia, their mother's name starts with A.) He was very quiet and sad until this evening, when I took this picture of him having a great time playing with another toddler:

What a cutie! Tomorrow while everyone is dressed up for Christmas I'll get a better picture of him with his sister. Better done before we shave his head (lice).

It was a new feeling to introduce one sibling to another and see them in the same room together for the first time in their lives! Not that either is old enough to take it all in, but I was there at the moment. {grin} (The baby in pink is his 4 month old sister.)

So, that's the news on the new one! Just a few other tidbits from a very full day (seemed like 2 in 1!): Twins E & E are out of "isolation" and are nearly cough-free, yeah! The cough has passed through the Baby Home but is not too bad at this point. (Pray for my "medical" helper Katrina who seems to be down with the same thing.) I was blessed to arrive to HDA III this afternoon and find that the Christmas gifts they were preparing for all the kids were not ready yet but because they were busy washing and feeding a street mother and her 5 young children AND washing their clothes (and the baby has a horrific, nasty skin infection). One of our lawyers came by and donated clothing from her almost-2-year-old-twins (also boy and girl). Had a very nice chat tonight with adoption reps as I delivered them a Christmas card with my Dad...then we finally got to my family's by almost 9pm. It is STILL raining tonight, we are nearly flooding away here.

Can't wait till tomorrow to take lots of Christmas pictures of my babies and kiddos!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!