Day 2 of....adaptation

That's the nicest way I could think of to summarize the chaos that was today. Well maybe not chaos, but definitely NOISE. I had to be at House II most of the workday due to some previously scheduled meetings, then run errands, but when I finally was able to get back, I jumped right in until bedtime. If I wasn't holding two babies at once....then I was holding three. =) Or holding one of the new ones and driving 8 others and 2 volunteers around (we took the toddlers out for a spin in my car to hunt for cows and other interesting sights for a few minutes).
The poor new babies are most likely having withdrawals from all the toxins they have been exposed to all their lives, from conception on. They are cranky, screamy, mean, picky (about food and formula)........and yet desperate to be held, loved, and cuddled. If anyone reading this remembers when Yandi came from off the street.....it's him times THREE. Or Camila, who still has quite the attitude but was very difficult her first weeks in the homes (in a nutshell: "rules, cribs, spoons, doors, manners, WHY?!").

I just have a minute because tomorrow is another super packed day from start to finish (what a surprise) and I am a bit worn out, cuz you know how I said last night at about this time (midnight) that the new girl's bed for the night was that mattress? Well one ended up on my mattress, the most fragile and sickly looking of the three. It was a tense night. I remembered that the last time I slept with a baby was with a frightenly sick Gabriel on the day his sister passed away, just 3 1/2 weeks ago. Then the baby I was sleeping with, the one we chose to be "Carmen" (one of the names we had on paper), slept restlessly due to missing her mother or someone and a terrible cough. I wondered about the quality of her breathing and why in the world her heart was beating so fast even while she was in a deep sleep. I had to hold her in my arms or be touching her at all times for her to sleep, but her heart beating so hard and her labored breathing kept me awake and concerned most of the night. She would wake up at least hourly clawing the air and searching for someone to cling to....which was me of course, as I tried to shield my face when she coughed (surely it's not TB!!).

I had to wonder at the strangeness of sleeping in the Coronilla one night (the most "hardcore" street people in very outdoor, extreme conditions and situations of violence, abuse, addiction, sickness, disease, etc.) and the next night in my comfortable clean bed?! In my beautiful room, in our spacious and sunny home, in our loving family. Nearly unbelievable, and yet it happened! And at the same time, our hearts break for the mothers who, even if they are mentally ill or addicts and alcoholics, are missing their babies today.

Picture: The three girls today. If Tia Rosi looks rough, it was because not long before she was sobbing her eyes out while trying to hold and rock all three babies at once. She couldn't stop herself enough to explain to me what was wrong, but I simply asked "Are you thinking about their mothers?" and she shook her head yes as she wiped tears away--off her own face and the babies. She is easily our most sensitive caregiver at the Baby Home and has a particularly special love for our smallest and weakest. She is also a mother of a toddler girl close to these girls' age.

For those who read Spanish, a couple articles and one picture of the street people "round up" yesterday. So sad, and yet the future of these kids was only the street. Hard to know what the proper response is. Taking the adults to jail and the kids to homes was obviously a reaction to some recent murders and violent robberies by the street people, to scare them into "cleaning up their act", but we all know they will return to their ways sooner rather than later.

Separan a 6 niños de madres adictas
(the better article, although the correct number is 7 children removed)

Detienen a consumidores de clefa

Pray for Brandon, 3 years old. I'm having to move him to House II ASAP to help us make room in the Baby Home for these three unexpected additions. Today I took him with me for my meetings and we were all very pleased at how very well he did, yeah! I'll take him every day this week and then we'll move him over permanently on Friday. Well until he has an adoptive family...someday!!