New addition!

Yesterday we got a surprise! In the afternoon we got a call about a one year old. The social worker said no. They kept begging, so she consulted with me. I said the tias would probably say no. So the social worker said no again. She was told it was temporary, two weeks. The social worker still said no, however reluctantly.

Then the social worker left, social services called back, and yep, you guessed it: I said yes.

After a long exchange, mind you!! Apparently when there was no home for the baby, a lawyer at social services was told to look through past inspections of homes, and in doing that they "discovered" that Hogar de Amor Baby Home supposedly had two open spots. Wow!! How interesting that I didn't know that Hogar de Amor Baby Home has two open spots, and I work here. (Not to mention I also live here.)

If anything, our papers say we should have up to a dozen and we actually have thirteen. I explained that the numbers do not matter to us as administration, but rather the workload, and that we have some special needs babies right now and that's why we're full.

How can anyone look at this picture of not even ALL of our babies (taken last night) and say it's too few?!


But they insisted it was just for two weeks, pointing out that they were now 8 minutes away from closing time and the day before a holiday (Happy Aymara New Year!), and the baby had been waiting in their offices all afternoon.

What would YOU do?!

And so this little cutey arrived...

She's kept our ears perked up in periods since her arrival with her strong healthy screams. :)

Getting hair fixed after a good warm bath

All of our oldest little girls look startingly alike (the newest is in the middle). They move a lot so even though this picture is blurry, it was the best.

Please pray for little R's future! In spite of the insistence by those desperate to place her that it's just for "two weeks", I strongly doubt it. Her mother allegedly sold her to another couple, although we have no idea when or of the circumstances. Neighbors reported the deed and the mother was detained. This is the second such case of the week here in Cochabamba and I know from reading news that the mother of the other baby did not end up going to jail, but we have no details on the mother of little R - not even name! Investigating her case will be our homework in upcoming days.