Birthday & Babies

While every week is memorable with my two "jobs", this last week was really over the top. On Tuesday was my birthday and every day since Thursday there's been something somewhere for Mother's Day.

A few of the highlights on my birthday...

The day started off with an early morning serenade outside my door, complete with guitar and representatives from three of the homes!

Then we went to the dining room where a breakfast feast had been laid out. Savannah outdid herself on the cake, yet again! She explained that the kids wanted to make me a cake like the movie “Cars”, which I think is pretty appropriate since they adore my car and I practically live out of it, hehe, but Savannah voted them down and did a logo cake.



Around 8:30, there was a phone call. The social worker took it in the entry way then popped her head around the corner and said “Jennifer, you have a birthday present. The other baby [from a women's shelter] has been born, should I say yes?” I thought she was joking, only that she doesn’t joke! And so a beautifully perfect newborn arrived...

Cheers to the new baby!
...with freshly squeezed orange juice... :)

At 11:51am I was reading the papers with baby F in my arms, reading that she was born at 11:50am the day before, May 23, weighing nearly 7 pounds.

She was 24 hours and 1 minute “old”!!

But before her arrival, I had already run to the juvenile detention center and the hospital, where I was just supposed to leave the third sample of one of my former bridge kids. However, they didn't even need the last sample to confirm what I've suspected a month now: positive for TB.

In the afternoon, I picked up one of our newer babies, G, who was released from his 3 day stay at the hospital for unexplainable diarrhea and vomiting.

Admiring the two babies! Baby G, approximately 3 months old and recovering from burns, and baby F, 1 day "new"!

That evening I was told to await a visit from the "world's most handsome little man" and was surprised by this little fellow, Gabriel, and multiple gifts! Gabriel was adopted last year by one of our caregivers.

Then it was off to the Coronilla (an infamous hill in our city known for its street community) where about 25 were waiting patiently for me to arrive to a carefully prepared birthday party.

Once I had approximately two pounds of confetti on my head, after each one greeted me personally, there was a huge heart shaped cake. And singing. And coke. And gifts. And lots and LOTS of pictures! All by candle light!

It was quite the event. :)

About one third of those present...

Life here is very full, with both my babies and my big kids, and I can't imagine being anywhere else, doing anything else.