First Baptist Church McKinney, Texas

Last week we had the joy of welcoming a 16 member team from the Mitchell Family's home church!

For those not aware, the Mitchell family runs our Casa de Amor III, currently with 5 children ages 2 to 6. This team came specifically to encourage and bless them in the work that they do here in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with some days spent at our other homes.

Here are some pics from their busy 5 1/2 days here!

In the bus (Jenn, far right, is a member of the same church but has been serving with us all year as a long-term volunteer)

Feeding the babies lunch...

...before diving in themselves! I asked if the chicken store shut down after they came through. :)

Tackling the Baby Home's deposito (storage room), not a task for the faint-of-heart!!

Modeling Time! :)
(At far left is Rene, another current volunteer)

They also worked hard at Casa de Amor II on Saturday, playing with the kids...

...painting both inside...

...and outside (even though this is our house most "in the country", it was awash in graffiti)...

...and doing craft projects and acting out Bible stories! The kids loved all the visitors and extra attention.

Thank you guys, for your continued support of Casa de Amor's ministry in Bolivia!

this is what happens...

...when you ask Casa de Amor for babies!!

Within six days, two babies!

The story of baby BOY G (yes, it's a boy! he was in donated, very pink clothes when I picked him up)...

On April 5, 2 month old G and his mother were admitted to the hospital* with severe burns suffered in a kitchen gas tank explosion. His mother was burned on 60% of her body and G on 9% (his face and thigh). He was operated on three times and received two blood tranfusions.

He's been well enough to leave the hospital since the end of April but they weren't sure where to send him.

Then...... On Saturday, May 14, his mother died from complications. His father, an alcoholic, never visited, so he was declared partially orphaned and abandoned and taken to government offices today. Which is when our social worker called me (out and about) and asked what to do. See, we've had some bad skin things the past couple weeks possible due to this new baby so although we have room, it didn't seem the wisest thing to bring a baby into our scabies infested house.

Sooo.... I called Casa de Amor IV! They agreed to take Baby G in until next week when we're sure we're over all this skin stuff.

I was blessed to be with him all day long as I ran other errands and took him to the doctor, and never once heard him cry! In spite of all the trauma he's been through, he seems to be a sweet, laid back baby, but still pray for his recovery (he also has a bad diaper rash, possibly caused by all his medications) and the VanderWerf family as they kind of have twins suddenly. :)


*And possibly his half-sister, but the government doesn't know where she is (??) so tomorrow we start the search!

new baby, new home!

While receiving a beautiful newborn to our Casa de Amor family is always headline news, this tiny one...

...made double the news by being the very first to enter our Casa de Amor IV! Yes, you read right! Casa de Amor children are now living, growing, and being loved in FOUR homes scattered throughout our beloved Cochabamba.

While the model is certainly more "foster family", for legal purposes it's just another one of our "hogares" (children homes), with the same administration and support staff as the other homes.

Mama Cara getting her first peek!

The VanderWerf family has three lovely daughters. Pray for them as they adjust to their new role as Casa de Amor foster parents!




More on the baby: baby girl C was born on May 11 by cesearean and was in the arms of her substitute family by the afternoon of May 12. Before judging why this baby would be abandoned, understand that the mother is 16 years old, and the father is the stepfather of the mother... Her own mother left the home last year, whereabouts unknown. A hard situation, to say the least. The birth mother plans to go on to study cake making and decorating to be able to get a job and be on her own.

Doing some paperwork right after leaving the hospital with my new charge: we were color-coordinated, ha!

January 11...

~A baby I’ve been visiting at a bridge turned 3 weeks old.

~I’ve been back in Bolivia 3 weeks (Can’t believe that 3 weeks and a day ago I was in Tennessee, in the winter! Another life!)

~Baby F turned 4 months old, wow! (Yeah, I agree it would have been super if I’d had a chance to take pictures of her. It’s on the list...)

~Gabriel was a day away from turning 1 year and 4 months, although I have my hunch that he and his sister were also born on September 11.

~It was the 3 year anniversary of street fighting and bloodshed in our peaceful city, as opposing political/social groups clashed. Much of the blood ran on our prettiest avenue, where I had been literally a couple hours before. “Enero Negro” (black January) 2007 was a very sobering month that changed the political and racial scene in our city forever.


It was a full, busy Monday too! Rosa (social worker) and I started the day at court and ended it at child social services.

Actually technically I started it by following up with a Friday meeting with our physical therapist. This year we have asked her and another staff member to change from full time to part time. There were various reasons. Of course saving money is a nice one, as we want to be wise with sacrificial donations. The crazy thing is, even with reducing staff this year in several ways, we still end up paying roughly the same each month thanks to continual government ordered increases and the fact that most of our staff has been with me years now (a great thing, really) and that means they get extra benefits.

So for the court hearing, we had high hopes that Gabriel would go to live with Caregiver Luz yesterday. The hearing had already been postponed and everyone was anxious. In the hearing with the judge (which was almost changed again because child social services’ lawyer wasn’t showing, unfortunately all too common), all was found to be in order, all 4 parties were in favor, but………one piece of paper was missing and thus Gabriel returned home with us instead of his waiting adoptive mother. Because of the timing of when his twin sister died last year with a big national vote coming up, we were unable to obtain the official, signed, stamped, sealed death certificate. Social services promised us they would take up the charge. Then those people changed out. We insisted again. Then those people changed out. We insisted more. And so on and so on until yesterday, Gabriel did not go home with a doting mother and three siblings because of one piece of paper. What to do? That's life here so we try not to dwell on it

As an aside, due to all the recent judge changes, it was the first time we’ve had a hearing in the actual “Palacio de Justicia” instead of the crumbling old court building (literally unsafe for habitation!) or a nearby office building. We were in lawyer land as we navigated the huge building full of court rooms and judge offices. I had a chuckle when I saw a window all decorated up for Christmas exclaiming (in Spanish) “Merry Christmas from the correctional jail court!” How nice.

I met with several staff members and volunteers to straighten out which specialist appointments happened while I was gone, and which did not and why. Then we talked about which babies/children we should get new medical certificates/reports for just because they are close to being assigned and we could be asked any day for all new papers. Then I started making appointments and coordinating with the houses and THEN completely overhauled my master “doctor check up” list. Organization, organization, organization!

I emailed my sister an updated kid list because she said she was “missing a kid” in her head after the recent changes, and that she’s glad that at least I know how many we have! :)

My accountant and I had a meeting with the owner of our new house for Casa de Amor II (yeah!). The important point here is that his daughter and grandson (an extremely noisy, wiggly child) also came. And almost everything we had decided on just 2 and 3 days before had changed. Funny how that happens. When we were simply talking about the house, every answer was a “yes, of course!” but now that we were ready to sign a contract, it was like “wellll, we discussed that over the weekend and changed our mind”. Sigh. Reminds me of a time or two when I’ve hired one person and found they were another person entirely once the 3 month trial period was up!

And then we were in social services until way past their closing, trudging through our 27 page Foster Family Program proposal, with a lawyer with a completely pie-in-the-sky vision of how things "should" work. After 10 months of this, I still get the feeling that they think I’m proposing some new and unusual punishment, when in fact even other developing countries in the world use this model!

I’m discovering that this lawyer's favorite thing to say is, in a calculated way while staring deep into your eyes like she’s trying to figure out why you’re such an idiot, “We just really need to keep thinking through all of the details of this very slowly and very well, now don’t we?”

If the lady only knew how I live, eat, sleep, and breathe this work, my life passion, whereas she clocks out Monday through Friday and goes to a quiet house….. Just because SHE can’t wrap her mind around it, doesn’t mean that we haven’t spent 10 months researching this and presenting dozens of well-thought-out documents to them so that they can collect dust in her office and get lost!! Sorry. Gotta vent somewhere. They just have the strangest capacity to overlook any benefit to children, or child rights, over their need to have full control and say in EVERYTHING. I just don’t get it.


As I’m writing this in Outlook, we’re having a major windstorm and thus little-to-non-existent internet. Who knows when it will post! Have I said “such is life in Bolivia” yet?!

Prayer & Fasting Day

Today in Bolivia at Casa de Amor Children’s Homes, we are entering into a special day of prayer and fasting on behalf of our precious children.

For those who would like to join with us, we are focusing on the following points:

1) The continual paperwork crisis in government offices (child welfare, Child Defense, and the court) including lost papers and files; delays of months or even years to process basic components of a child’s file; dire lack of coordination between government offices and even from one desk to another; ridiculous mistreatment of all who they serve; constant change out of employees; new employees who often have very little experience with the work we do, the laws, child development, what challenges our children or staff face…..and I could go on and on!

We pray for efficiency, honest hard work, and a true love of children for all working in the government offices!

2) Cochabamba desperately needs a new judge! To properly handle the case load for minors, three judges would be ideal. Since last year, we have limped along with just ONE seriously overworked judge but she resigned last week. It is complicated, but because of Bolivia’s new constitution and many changes at every level of government it’s not clear when a new judge might be elected.

Pray for the proper judge(s) to step up to the challenge and handle all the child cases ASAP.

3) Casa de Amor’s Foster Family program has been in the paperwork stage since March 2009, but the challenges listed above coupled with poor understanding and acceptance of the benefits of foster families (versus institutions) has made it a long uphill journey. Of course without a judge, it might prove impossible to transfer children into foster families.

Pray for the speedy passage of our pioneer foster family program and the successful recruitment of several Christian foster families.

4) Currently six children from Casa de Amor II are in the process of returning to either their mother or father. We are very happy for them and pray that the family members will not grow weary during the long process of regaining custody.

We pray that the entire process would go smoothly, that the families would be able to sustain themselves economically, that God would heal the hurts caused by years of neglect, abandonment, and other injustices. Also pray for the emotional stability of the children being “left behind”. And of course, for a JUDGE to be able to process the appeals.


If you pray for just one thing, pray that EACH CHILD WOULD HAVE A LOVING FAMILY!

Thank you so much for standing with us!


“And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.” Psalm 9:10

"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me, declares the Lord." Jeremiah 22:16

“And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” Malachi 4:6

“I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.” Psalm 140:12

{Just a note that this might be my last post for a while as things are crazy busy here and I will be traveling next week.}

specific prayer needs

Interuppting our regularly scheduled programming....

My heart is weighed down with many prayer requests that I think need to be shared so that we can bear them TOGETHER. Thank you!

To start off, a huge praise: about an hour ago, I got two emails within 4 minutes of each other letting me know of large donations on the way! What very timely donations - thanks to everyone! God provides!


Foster Families
Two weeks ago we had our last meeting in social services regarding signing on our Foster Family program, the first of it's kind in Cochabamba and possibly Bolivia. However we were told to come back today, and now tomorrow... Please pray that the meeting DOES take place tomorrow at 10am and that the results are favorable.

Update Sept. 9: Today we quickly saw through their scheme of having us come back today. As of today, two of the primary lawyers we've been working with (and convincing) to start our foster family program have been moved to different positions! That means that brand new people are at their desks today who know ZERO about us or what we are trying to accomplish. Can anyone say yell FRUSTRATING??? We were told to come back in a week. I would be pulling my hair out (what's left anyway) except that the new lady we met today actually seems reasonable and much more pro-family than the former. What to do but keep praying and persevering?!


Casa de Amor II
This week we are making big decisions regarding exciting changes CDA II. Please pray for us to have time as an administrative/legal/accounting team to discuss various options and also for much WISDOM. I just spent my morning at this house and I love those kids so much. Most of them have lived with us since they were babies. We just want the best for them no matter how challenging it is.

The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. James 3:17


Casa de Amor III
The Alseths need financial provision!! Part of the donations I just learned of are for them which is GREAT news, but they have two big deadlines this week and it is still not completely covered.



"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me, declares the Lord." (Jeremiah 22:16)

"He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done." (Proverbs 19:17)

"He who gives to the poor will lack nothing." (Prov. 28:27)


Baby Home
Yesterday morning at 3:45am, the two night caregivers woke me because they were concerned about A., one of the new twins. For sure, only my sleepiness saved me from panic as this is the first time the tias have woken me since the morning we lost baby Joel.

A. had woken up at 3am and they thought his breathing was too labored, but he looked normal/normal temperature to me and they promised to wake me again if something changed for the worse. He has always been more sickly than his brother but we've made changes to his diet, given him extra supplements, etc., and he seems to be doing better but is still the first to get sick.

That morning when Rosa and Maria came in (CDA office staff), both were concerned about the babies and particularly A. because of dreams they had had the previous night. This is not the first time that Maria has felt some sort of spiritual battle over A.'s life. Now, we all realize we could just be paranoid since we've already lost a twin this year, but I don't want to take their perceptions lightly since they are very tuned into the Holy Spirit, as proven in the past.



"With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” Psalm 91:16


Personal
If I may be so bold as to add a personal request or two here... Now that I have my tickets purchased for my big furlough (an unprecedented 2 1/2 months back in the US of A!), my mind wanders there ridiculously often! I WANT to stay focused on the work here till the last moment and they NEED me to be here, mind, body, and spirit. There will be plenty of family and fun time when I go, but it's still over a month away and I have more to do than ever to prepare.

I also feel a need like never before to be as "fit" personally as possible as I lead this ministry and all those involved: keeping my things organized so they're not a distraction, planning ahead, eating for maximum health, exercising, letting the Lord fill me, etc. I need abundant grace and wisdom, pressed down and overflowing!!


"This is God's Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God: 'Call to me and I will answer you. I'll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own." (Jeremiah 33:2-3, The Message)

"And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." (Psalm 9:10)


Thank you so much for lifting us up!!

Casa de Amor programs

Those who work in the Christian children-at-risk community will recognize the name Phyllis Kilbourn, founder of Rainbows of Hope and author of the book "Children-At-Risk: A New Commitment", among others.

My Australian friend Janette Pepall, founder of Children with Hope, has resigned from her full time volunteer position of Director of Training and is now training, writing, advising, etc. Currently she is working on a training module for a Crisis Care Training manual that Phyllis Kilbourn is putting together, and she chose us as one of three groups to be presented in the "Successful Model of Care" section.

I asked volunteer/child sponsorship coordinator Denise to jump start me in the filling out of the form, then I finished it up. It turned out to be 4 1/2 pages at the end, plus a couple dozens photos.

For question #10, which asked us to list the "Programs in Organization", it was fun to see how many we really do have now:

1) Casa de Amor I (ages 0-3)

2) Casa de Amor II (ages 3-12; eventually to be turned into the foster family model)

3) Casa de Amor III (ages 0-6)

4) Family Strengthening Program
working closely with family members and child(ren) to facilitate a successful transition back to family life

5) New! Child Sponsorship Program
our goal is to have 3 sponsors per child, most committing to send $25 USD/month and prayer covering

And coming soon...

6) Foster Family Program
recruiting, training, and supervising Christian families to care for children in their home during duration of stay at Casa de Amor


I realize that number of "programs" is NOT the key to success or anything we want to have as a goal, per se, and thus I've never really paid attention to it until I was preparing this info for Janette.

One proof of that is in this blog. Our focus is great care of the kids and our staff, and it shows in the pictures, success stories, and busy days full of ministry!

hope deferred

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12

That's where I'm at tonight, a little heart sick.

We still do not have the foster family papers in our hands, once again coming out empty handed.

Once again, the lawyer at child welfare is asking for just a little bit of patience

and another report.

And then they will for sure this time approve our foster family program!

More paperwork that will easily consume our week, when we already had other important meetings and administrative tasks to tend to, in all three homes.

It's all so frustrating, it's enough to make us give up in despair, if we didn't believe so strongly in this being the right thing for our kids and for our ministry, at this time.

Lord, grant us peace and patience - and supernatural concentration and time to write the report detailing our 4 1/2 years of activities and accomplishments!

It was also really hard for me to find out today that the psychologist and social worker who recently took up half our morning talking about the Twins E & E's case have now quit...without turning in their reports and tracking down the mother first (even though they promised us they would).

That means we have to go through all that again, catching up new people on their long windy story, so that their papers can be processed for adoption.

It's such a constant battle, with constant frustration, annoyances, and hopes deferred,

time

and time

and time again.

But it's all worth it, right?

Thanks for your prayers!

a little update from here...

Here being a Cochabamba cafe that has wi-fi...ohh, so cool. And faster than ours at the Baby Home. Somehow yesterday in the process of losing power and getting it back, our modem was fried and the phone company cannot help us with a quick solution. We shall see how long the volunteers survive without facebook....or maybe they'll have to pursue alternatives like me, LOL.

And here I thought I could have a couple hours of peace and quiet, when what do I find but a huge birthday party going on 10 feet from me, clown, sound system, screaming children and all! I should mention that Bolivian birthday parties, or actually parties in general, go on for hours on end. What can I do but laugh?!

I can't wait till I have a chance to sleep long and hard, like these little guys during a recent nap...

(ha HA Denise & Molly, I have a cute picture of them that you don't)

It's been quite the 8 days! Some of the B family has flown, and two remain. We have a lovely new room (post coming soon) at the Baby Home and lots of blessed kids and staff!

Yesterday was fun because it was so full. Take the afternoon as example: I had appointments or places to be at 4:30, 5:30, 6, 7, and 7:30. Rather miraculously, all went well up until the last appointment (the only non-work related), and I didn’t start off until 7:30. I had grabbed a bottle of carbonated water out of the fridge on my way as a treat, but as I stepped back in my car my cell phone rang…and I got work calls/made work calls the entire way to praise team rehearsal. I had to laugh….and drink the not-so-cold-anymore "agua con gas" on my way home.

Also yesterday, we were supposed to take another crucial, exciting step in the accreditation of our foster family program. But at SEDEGES, the computers were still being taken apart and repaired, the director had to take a sudden trip, and the other group we were going to review our contract with is having to present more reports and clarify some aspects of their program with SEDEGES before being allowed to sign. Now the big day is moved down for a third time, to Monday.

SO.......we continue to have "un poquiiiito de paciencia" as the SEDEGES lawyer begged. Believe me sir, I'm one of the most patient people on earth by now, thanks to having to work with the likes of YOU every day of my life for the past 5 years!!!!! Actually this guy has been fairly helpful (other than continuing to ask us basic questions about foster families as he peers over our file that has ALL the answers to ANY question he could ever have). Some matters are just out of his hands. But we are so close I can almost taste the victory!!

And now as I get back to emails before they kick me out, I'll add a part of one that made me chuckle out loud, from a [single female] friend I've traveled with to Russia and Bolivia, now a pediatrician:

I wonder all the time how you are doing. It's hard for me to tell from the website or newsletters if you are now living in Bolivia full time and its your whole life, or if you spend some time back home doing college courses or having time for dating etc.

You said it best. It's my life! And very full time, yes! Time for dating, no! College courses would be neat, if I actually had an assistant to share the load with.


PS - Although I was bummed to not be able to call my family last night and talk, I've gotten so much done last night/today without the distraction of emails flooding in, checking blogs, websites, etc.: cleared off many of the papers on my desk, reviewed a volunteer application, read more of "Searching for God Knows What", created new files, studied the family law code and SEDEGES' 2008 report (Bolivian child social services), recorded and filed July receipts, finally had a chance to meet with the administrator about some issues that have been brought to my attention at CDA I & III, and she caught me up on her meeting with CDA II's childcare supervisor. It's been great, although not to be soon repeated, I hope...!

Foster Family Program Pioneers!

Ohhh it sounds so glamorous and special to say we are "pioneering" something here. Which we are. But don't be fooled! Really it's just lots of hard work. Plus delays, set backs, research, meetings, constant educating of government personnel, and…patience in abundance!

Ever since the founding of Casa de Amor in 2002, I've had the dream of partnering with Christian families to provide a better model of care for the many children-in-need in this area. But every time we brought up this grand idea with our authorities here, they laughed at us. We even opened CDA III after one of those occasions, just making it an official home although the model is more like a foster family.

But we persisted. In March, we were going through a hard time with our oldest boy, 10 years old. Maybe the move of CDA II at the end of January shook him up, maybe the remembrance of seeing and experiencing many things he shouldn’t have when younger. Wanting to protect the other children and yet not give up on him, finding a Christian family to take him in at least a year or even long term seemed the best solution.

Amazingly, in talking this over with child welfare services, they gave us the green light to proceed in finding a foster family for C! Long story short, with LOTS of prayer, fasting, and encouragement from the staff, C. is doing much better and we feel he can continue at the home with his sisters for now.

But we took off and ran with the first positive word we’ve heard in 5 years that YES we could delegate our children to families!

With adoptions taking longer than ever and more babies (many with special needs) entering the system daily, it just makes sense. Besides that, it’s drastically less expensive and less administratively time consuming for the foster family model. I realize that to expand it much, we’ll need special staff to just supervise the foster families, but we’re talking maybe one or two people…whereas we have 20 staff amongst the three homes currently.

It’s been a very invigorating couple of months as we have met multiple times with Infante, the one group in Bolivia authorized to work in foster care, child protection services, and of course together as an administrative team to study the whole issue from inside and out. We’ve even helped put on a course for government officials and other homes interested in the model, to educate and inform them of what the law says in regards to foster families and how the model works...and benefits the kids. I've loved all of it, learning all the nitty gritty details! It's been incredibly interesting.

In April, we also interviewed and evaluated the first family that wants to join our program, to be with a baby of ours they’ve fallen in love with. Honestly, I knew it would be a long, rocky road, and tried to prepare them for that, I didn't expect it to unfold this way. Whereas this is my life, and day in and day out for 5 years I have dealt with the unending bureaucracy and inefficiency as we push through dozens of cases of kids at a time, the first foster family is not used to this and is finding it very hard to understand. I can see from their point of view, in just wanting the best for the baby, and yet I’m all too familiar with the many roadblocks at every turn these days (in a country increasingly heading away from adoptions) and it’s very draining to constantly try to reconcile the two.

Currently, we’ve basically been told that as a children's home, there is no precedent for this in Bolivia and thus we need to have a special agreement with child welfare services to allow one of our children to live out from under our roof—just to make sure everyone’s back is covered. This was disappointing news since the law clearly states that foster families are allowed AND we are being trained by the one group here authorized to work this way.

It could take the rest of the year to get this agreement pushed through various government offices. We are looking into other options so that at least one baby can be in a better environment. I’ve been waiting for this “one” to go through so that we could begin sharing the vision in local churches, but all the set backs have made it difficult.

Still, we are excited about the potential of this program and just need patience and wisdom as we work through the details. We are committed to laying a strong foundation for the future!

Pray, pray, pray! This will be an awesome victory for providing the best care possible to children in need in Bolivia.