We love our triplets!

Happy happy HAPPY birthday to our very happy triplets!

Sharing some of our every day joy with our beautiful threesome:

A Special Baby Home Christmas

For all you die-hard fans, here are yet more group pictures, behind-the-scene footage, and even a blooper section of Christmas (Eve) 2009 at the Baby Home!

Disclaimer: I have approximately 275 pictures from this day alone! (Those here have taken all day to upload, thanks to our stone age speed internet, which has been off more than on today.)



Let the festivities begin...

After a special Christmas meal, the magical change from regular clothes to their new handmade matching outfits:

The 21 adorable matching, embroidered outfits are thanks to volunteer Savannah's grandmother and friend who made and sent these! I can't even imagine how much effort went in to doing this, and then making sure they got here in time....incredible!

It went quickly as many hands (and excited kids) made for light work!

Then, it was everyone to their places for the annual stair picture.


(My video of this torturous endearing event is not uploading, due to aforementioned terrible internet. Will try again another day!)

Packing them in...

I don't know whose idea it was, but I think the 4 x 5 + baby arrangement is brilliant! So organized, ahh. (Sometimes, you just have to take organization where you can get it!)

Definitely a favorite Christmas picture, and only ONE baby crying (he was a wee bit tired this day and thus slightly anti-social)

Then we moved onto the presents! Earlier that day, as I recalled the chaos of last year, Maria and I started planning and rearranging the dining room...

We have learned that you can't expect over a dozen toddlers to burst into a room full of presents and candy and other surprises and come out unscathed! So with a little bit of planning, everything went much smoother and I wasn't just constantly shouting orders over the din of children like last year. The staff pitched in much more to balance out the work. Very helpful!

But before presents....another group picture. Those outfits just deserve it!

I agree with my sister - looks like a private school! Oh so cute.

A picture with Savannah, who made the outfits possible

Present time!!

This year gifts was done a whole new way, and it practically made my 10 week trip away worth it just to see how my staff took the initiative to make sure that our kids had a happy Christmas even on a tight budget. After the mother of one of our babies (adopted in January) offered to obtain gifts for 10 of the children through her friends, they had the idea to prepare these for all 42 children...

...with pictures, data on the child, even a drawing, then disperse them throughout the city. Adoption representatives, lawyers, adoptive parents, pastors, and friends from our churches took at least one. Many took three. Even our former accountant got in on the giving, choosing our youngest and buying her a pink bassinet! The gifts were very generous and thoughtful. I was so blessed to see Bolivians sharing with our children, and over and over we saw how blessed THEY were to be giving, and how very willingly and joyfully they did it.

After the gift giving, we had a Happy Birthday Jesus party! Because even though I get a little worn out with the constant birthday parties and cake, the kids do not. Once I realized they knew full well that Christmas is Jesus' birthday, I decided to add in a special snack time after the gifts.

The three layer brownie-chocolate cake by Katrina and Savannah was fabulous!!

A special day indeed - the older kids got to play with/hold their new toys while eating.

All in all, thanks to the many many people who participated, a huge success I'd say!

The kids agree!

BLOOPER SECTION

No day, even Christmas Eve, is exempt from a few memorable messes. =)

Working on the explosive, falling, cracking "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake! No worries girls - even if it did seem to have life of its own as I cut it, this masterpiece totally proved that messier IS tastier!!

Twin Girl E's favorite pose of the day. I have multiple like this. I'll just post one. You're welcome.

NO idea.

Twin Girl E again, caught red-handed in Jesus' cake while the rest played with their presents. (The scary thing is, she didn't act guilty at all. Probably didn't help that a crowd of us was laughing about it and snapping her picture as she continued to calmly pick off M & Ms.)

This is where you can be very glad that smell does not come through pictures. Twin Boy P had a top rate diaper explosion as I carried both down the stairs for the group picture. I could smell something going on but didn't know which it was......until someone squealed and I realized the deed was done! It was quickly all over my jeans, arm, hand, shirt (Katrina threw me down a new white shirt since there was an impasse of children at the moment), the floor, kids who were getting in it, and of course his outfit. Luckily the twin boys have similar outfits to the Christmas ones, so the group picture could proceed after the delay. At my earliest possible convenience, I threw on some fragrance but still smelled the rest of our happy afternoon.

So there you have it! Our joyful happy Christmas Even in the Baby Home! =)

Scared, A Novel on the Edge of the World

What do you think of when you think of Africa?

Me? I get overwhelmed. The numbers are just too big to wrap my head around. But with my passion for helping helpless children, I think it's just as well it's the only continent I have yet to visit!

On Sunday evening I began reading Scared and Tuesday night I finished it, even though Monday and Tuesday were very full, long work days. It was so adventure-filled I couldn't help but read it fast!

And now when I think of Africa, I'll think of Adanna.

"father's daughter"

This book gave a face to the great pain and suffering of Africa by telling the story of one child. It's all overwhelming until we realize that yes, we can make a difference in the life of one....and then another, and another. Casa de Amor began with one baby boy and now over 90 children have been loved and welcomed here.

Find and read this book!!!

I was excited to read that this is the first of a series and that the next one (they just voted on a title here) is based in Russia!! Not surprising; we first met the author Tom Davis on our trips to Russia with Children's HopeChest, an organization he now leads.

D's song

Almost-2-year-old D. often sings this little song she made up. As you'll hear, the others love singing it with her. Sometimes she starts singing from her crib and all join in!

Sorry for the poor lighting (it was night and our lightbulbs leave much to be desired), but I think you can make out the kids...

The sound in my head

By last night this sound was so stuck in my head.

Baby E, or "little clinger", in her main mode: LOUD and protesting!!

Yesterday was even worse, which is hard to believe. Major withdrawal symptoms, perhaps? New babies, particularly toddlers, often bond with me or other volunteers quickly but not usually to this extreme. This little live wire is a cutie, but when two or three of the new ones immediately scream and want my full attention every time they see me (see below--they are all sitting on my lap/legs) along with several other babies.........nuts. No wonder I have a pulled muscle in my right arm and my neck and shoulders ache terribly.

We're also having quite the time dealing with the many many medications. As a rough guess, about 10 babies are currently being treated for parasites (new arrivals) or coughs (most of the youngest set plus the twins). Yesterday I made an unexpected trip to the doctor with two babies (alone, fun!) partially because we're coming up on a 4 day holiday weekend here (Carnival). I was so relieved I dropped everything and did that because little Angel, almost 2 months old, was heading towards pneumonia. We're closely monitoring him and hopefully he's on the right meds now.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: January and February are dreadful months for us, due to the ever changing weather.

Tia Sarin, valiantly administring the nightly dose of meds!
All the papers posted on the doors are charts to show who gets what at what time, how much, for how many days, etc. Volunteer Katrina helps me keep all this organized.

My Little Dancer

A couple nights ago I brought Baby B, 15 months old now, up to the office to be with me and for extra stimulation. He was fine and happily entertained himself for about an hour, but then, when I turned on Brooke Fraser, LOUD, he went nuts!! Before I had tried to get his attention by calling his name and talking to him loudly, but he didn't pay any special attention to me. But he came alive with the music! I've heard the caregivers say that but hadn't seen it myself since his hearing aids. Finally, my first proof that they are helping!!

(That's our medical assistant Katrina at the filing cabinet, putting away various lab results in kid files.)

And then the last thing that happened before I left the office yesterday for church rehearsal:

Childcare superviser Tia (aunt) Adelaida sulks into the office. "Tia Jenny? I have some really bad news. Some really really bad news."

I notice she's nearly shaking and obviously nervous about continuing. This is my best tia here, so I can't imagine what's gone so wrong.

"Well......uh......it's really NOT good news." (I have the point by now.)

"One of B's hearing aids is... Broken."

I dropped the pen I was writing with, picked my jaw off the floor, and tried to not scream. Those are worth around $1000 each, although of course ours cost us much less from Starkey Foundation, that's even more pressure to me (how could we request a replacement?). I begged my eyes to see that it was just the mold and not the expensive part. IT'S JUST THE MOLD!! YEAH!!

But then I have to break the news to the audiologist at Audiocien, who made those for us for free.

"Buenas tardes, Don Miguel? Um......this is Jennifer from Hogar de Amor. Do you remember me? Of course you remember me. Well, uh, we have a little problem here."

(Why is it odd he doesn't seem surprised?)

"Well, uh, it's that......... ourbabyBsomehowgothishearingaidoutandanother(teething)babyBITitandnowthemoldisin,well,twopieces."

He didn't yell at me. Just said we'd have to take a look at it the next day since it was already late. SHEW.

Ironically this happens on the same day I probably spent a good hour total on organizing B's care better, particularly in regard to the usage and safety of both hearing aids. (Lately there have been problems losing them although there's a central place to put them, him ripping them out, the tape we use hurting his skin, sores in his ears maybe from putting them in wrong, the volume getting changed accidentally, tias forgetting to put them back in after his naps, etc., etc. At least I'm completely in charge of checking the batteries and changing them out every couple of weeks.)

So the administrator said "It really doesn't work to use hearing aids with a baby, does it". Nooo, it should work!! At least I don't think it should be so complicated. It's just our situation. Sigh. The challenges are more compounded raising so many at once, with 8 different "mothers" + volunteers and me.

And teething babies who think a soft plastic mold is nice for chewing practice.

As now I'm sure you are all very concerned about what craziness will happen next in the hearing aid saga, please join us in praying for God to work in providing B with a permanent loving family! He is a beautiful, sweet baby who loves attention and joking around. He has a slight to moderate case of cerebral palsy, severe hearing loss in one ear, moderate hearing loss in the other (the degree depends on who you talk to), and--what seems to be the main issue behind his delays--brain damage/mental retardation. Our current volunteer didn't seem to believe me when I described how he was as a baby, so cranky and hard to please and decidedly ANTI-social. He has turned around so much from that stage.

We KNOW that there is a family who will love and embrace him from one of the countries Bolivia works with (mainly European). I can't say much more here in public, but we have high hopes that he will be matched to someone soon, although he could still easily be with us another year. And I will miss him terribly when he goes.

Special visitors...and news!

Last week, we were very very blessed by the fourth visit from one of our first and always faithful supporters, Ben Whisenant. He was accompanied by Bryan Doyle, Missional Life Pastor at First Baptist Church McKinney, Texas.

They were a great encouragement to us and even better are creatively leading their church to play a bigger role in the ministry here in Bolivia.

So here's the news: soon we'll have a new addition in ways to support the homes: child sponsorship!! We've felt led to this for a while now, both due to popular request and the realization that a "connection" to one of the children is very powerful, but I haven't had the time or full motivation to just go for it. However, meeting with Pastor Bryan easily brought me to the tipping point. I mean, how could I resist when he spoke of their THREE WEEK mission conference to be held in April 2009, and how they will announce the need to their thousands of members, and the big display table Casa de Amor will have, and they would expect every HDA child to garner 4 to 5 monthly sponsors in that event alone?!

Pastor Bryan also spoke of sending a professional photographer next month from Texas, to spend a few days with us taking pictures of each child and filming a video to be shown at FBC McKinney during the missions month. Wow, how could we say no?! With all of this "jump start" support, we can easily take the sponsorship opportunity to our home church, other churches, our website, etc.

Here's something to think about: would any of you former volunteers be interested in helping me design the child sponsorship packets, and/or assist with the communication process between HDA and the sponsors? Please let me know as we begin to put the details of this in place! I'm excited about the possibilities as I begin the process of researching other existing programs, creating our guidelines, and writing up short histories/bios on our kids. I still need to be cautious of increasing my administrative load here in Bolivia, since that's already way heavy, but with more help "the sky's the limit". Fun!

Christmas Babies =)

Trying out this video thing, so if it works, here's my first blog video addition!

The baby twins were cooing and so happy after our outing to church in their Christmas finery, I just had to film them a minute. Don't you just want to hold them?! And coo back? (Although please don't listen to me doing it in the video...it's just that boy G prefers a two sided conversation or else he quiets down.) And feed them their bottles which can take forever? Then change their diapers?

Okay I won't torture any of you baby-lovers with more...but they are CUTE! I might have found an adoptive family today for them in the restaurant, not to mention at church (if such a thing were permissible, of course). And if you wonder their age, they were rescued 3 months and 2 days ago, so they are that or a little more.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Advent Conspiracy

This video is a must-see. Please watch, be blessed, and let's commit to WORSHIP this year!!

Christmas: my feelings exactly.

11/22/08: "Jesus is the Gift" movement, click here.