New look!

On Saturday our little trouper M underwent his first surgery!

Read a bit of M's history from the post the day I brought him home here.

Some early pictures...

I took him to a couple different surgeons who work with projects or foundations here in Cochabamba to do cleft repairs, and in the end we went with the same doctor who operated on twin K last year. He was so upset that M had a "plaque" in his mouth (to form a roof) that he ripped it out and pitched it across the room when I first took M! Ah, the difference of opinions of doctors. So we stopped using it and actually, M drank better that way!

Then it was countdown time till the big day!! He is now 3 1/2 months old and plenty big enough for the surgery. (Amazing even to the nurses and doctors who have met him, he has had no problem gaining weight. He's often in clothing for 6 month olds!)

Just a couple days before...

...and hours before surgery

(This two pictures above and the one below were sent to me by volunteer Iris, who graciously volunteered to spend her Saturday afternoon comforting little M.)

Post-surgery!!! That night I saw this picture, the NEW HIM, for the first time when Iris posted it to Facebook, I gasped aloud I was so surprised how great he looks! (Apart from being pale, poor baby. He's now on treatment for anemia.)

Back at home, resting up!

Thanks to everyone who prayed for M. He's doing well apart from NOT being happy about the "milk in a syringe" procedure for his meals. That's the post-op procedure for two weeks, however.

We are so excited about his cute little perfect nose! In fact, hospital staff told us that M's surgery came out the best of anyone's that day!! Even beforehand, they had chosen to focus on his story for their next publication that goes to their funders in Holland.

Thanks to a March team from Canada, we had $200 set aside for M's first surgery expenses. In the end, the total cost was $310 (reduced due to the foundation's support).

PS - if anyone feels led to give towards our new little boy P's surgery, the cost will be similar so we'd be very grateful! The surgery, already scheduled for May 11, will be P's final.

Danish Invasion...

Last week we had our annual visit from the Alterna team from Denmark. This year, we gathered at Casa de Amor II, our home with the most space.

And boy, did we need it!

We were around EIGHTY people! That was one FULL HOUSE.

(And you should have seen us squeezing them into 3 cars to arrive. Cochabamba was having yet more blockade trouble this day, so their bus driver was not able to come with their big bus and Casa de Amor provided back-up transportation instead!)

We offered to prepare and serve lunch to everyone with their budgeted amount. We ate over 80 pounds (36 kilos) of potatoes, 9 chickens, and massive amounts of salad!

After helping prepare the mashed potatoes, I began serving up plate after plate to the line of hungry people, and it went on, and on, and on.....

...But it takes a while to get 45+ adults served up, not to mention 33 babies and children fed!

(And some had tackled mowing our huge yard that morning.)

As usual, their program was a big hit! It's always neat to watch how they get their message across with almost no vocabulary.

Full house!!

Baby A was a side-show - she has never been big on strangers, much less those who look very different from her dear tias, but this day she went from crying and trying to get away to bouncing along on her diapered bottom and clapping and smiling away during the program!

Good times!

Another side story is that this day, the Mitchells (house parents of Casa de Amor III) fell in love with baby boy A from the Baby Home...and took him home! And they haven't given him back yet. ;-)

Canada Team!

This was our 4th year to have the joy of hosting the Devon Park High School team for a day! (If I remember correctly, 2009 was the first year they visited us.)

More than once, members of the team have returned as long term volunteers for Casa de Amor. In fact, one of our newest volunteers Bobbi-jo first visited several years back with a Devon Park team, and is now serving at Casa de Amor along with her friend Johanna.

It was a smaller team this year but they still packed in a lot of work and play!

We started off the day at a local jail, where the team presented music and testimonies. It was fun for me to go in with others, since 99% of the time I go into jails alone. :)

Loving on some babies

Tackling the Baby Home Jungle Yard...

(A SERIOUSLY large project!! We were about to lose small children in there. The month of February was so extremely rainy, there was no way to be able to cut the grass.)

If it gives you any idea of what a task it was, more than one asked me if we had a machete lying around, ha!

Trimming the trees, which actually haven't been trimmed since last year's Canada team

MUCH better.

Oops...did we lose one due to exhaustion?!

He was actually dramatically posing for the picture ;-)

Then we moved the team to Casa de Amor II, where Bobbi-jo had some plans of her own.

The color of Casa de Amor II's Prayer/Music room, before...

...And the prayer/music room NOW!! (And this is Bobbi-jo, showing how it's done!)

If only there were frangrance with this picture, you would appreciate what a grueling paint job this was. There is very little ventilation upstairs at CDA II and none in this room. The fumes were overwhelming and all painters emerged from the room a little tipsy!

Others worked on putting up new screens in the back "garden house"

Our cook put together some chicken sandwiches for everyone and some refreshing Bolivian drinks

...But all was not work!...

It was a GREAT idea to bring bubbles for each child!

The "magic mitts" were a huge hit with the boys, who were thrilled when I told them yes, the team was GIVING those to them. They were really good at it!

A visitor teaching little J (our youngest at CDA II) how to blow bubbles

The gift bags at the end were a huge hit

J. trying out his new playdough!

Final farewells...it was a little hard to tear everyone apart and they were already leaving 1 1/2 hours behind schedule!

Thanks to everyone on the team!! I know that it's a huge job to carry out a trip like this and do all the accompanying fundraisers and preparations. Your day at our house was a great success - the kids loved the extra attention and you accomplished lots on our "honey do" lists. It was also a huge blessing to receive your special donation for baby M's upcoming surgeries. (AND on the same day the team was with us, we said yes to a 6 year old boy with cleft lip/palate, so perhaps the funds can stretch to him, as well.)

Gracias, and till next year!

TEAM!!!!!

This is what we're up to this week...

{ orientation }

First Baptist Church McKinney "Bolivia All-Out" Youth Mission Trip!

Back online later...

Beautiful Birthday Girl

Last week this beautiful little girly turned THREE!

We specialize in gigantic cakes here at Casa de Amor :)

Little too much sugar perhaps??

Just what every girl wants - a new cell phone!

Could she be any cuter?!

Cute fellow party guest

Many thanks to the Orphan World Relief team for taking these pictures for me! I got stuck in the office and missed the party.

Remembering former birthdays:

First Birthday!

Second Birthday!

To read more about "Eliana's" story, click here.

Although her abandonment papers have moved along very slowly, she is finally reaching the point of being assigned a loving family!

Orphan World Relief Team

Church Outing!

L-R: little girl L (almost 3 years old), Rick, Jennifer, Doug, the triplet's mother, Jason, Nancy...and of course the famous triplets!

A few years ago, I received an email from a man named Doug Riggles with a questionnaire was attached. I filled that out and later heard that Casa de Amor was one of three children's homes being chosen to be funded by a new organization, Orphan World Relief. Since then OWR has blessed us with a quarterly donation according to our current number of children. OWR also helped us purchase little girl A's hearing aids at reduced cost last year.

Orphan World Relief Founder & Director Doug Riggles getting cuddle time with a triplet

This month Doug is here with a few of his key people. During their ten day trip they will see different aspects of our work and also explore Cochabamba.

As the caregivers expressed so well this morning after their little presentation with the oldest kids, we are so grateful for their support and hope they have a great time visiting!

Photo Shoot, Part 1

Enjoy these pictures of Casa de Amor II kids and their house mother extraordinaire, Elena!