Random Picture Challenge

Third folder, first picture with brown:

(Even if it's just a hint of brown...and pink!)

I've always loved this one, Baby S's very first upon arrival, February, 2008 (see the admission papers still in my hand?)

Since October '08 she lives with her adoptive mother!

Back to packing up my family's place (will it ever end?!)...

Another Arrival

....nope, not a baby! :-) This arrival is about...6 1/2 feet tall?!

Dan is 19 and will be here a couple of months. It's his first time out of the US but he's doing well and, best of all, has a great attitude. (My Dad: "Can you build a room while you're here?" Dan: "Uh....yeah, sure!")

Tonight he met the kids of CDA III as I went with a bag of meds, and tomorrow he'll help with a medical outing for 15 CDA I and II babies/kids, so he'll quickly feel a part of everything! He has 7 siblings (including 5 younger sisters) which will be helpful as he becomes a part of our big families.

We often go through periods of great change around here, due to the transitory nature of our homes, volunteers, etc. I think it's safe to say we are in one now:

Between February 16 and March 17, four new volunteers have arrived. Funny how they come in waves like that--even their email inquiries about working with us. And even tonight as I try frantically to catch up on today's emails (25 at last count), the last two come from travelers in Bolivia who want to visit us later this week.

Five new babies/kids arrived between February 16 and March 3.

Two adoptions "began" (or is it "ended"?): one international and one local, yeah!

We've hired a new staff member, the husband of my social worker/administrator. Yeah, potentially awkward, but they don't cross paths that often and he's part time. (For now, although I'll probably have to increase his hours soon since he's replacing not one but two wonderful guy helpers who've had to leave Bolivia.)

My family is transitioning from life here to life back in the US. Their home here is almost dismantled, but we still have a volunteer fellowship there tomorrow night.

We got some awesome wonderful super great news tonight about CDA III but I'm not sure if its public knowledge yet so will share it later, but it does mean one LESS change for them.

Okay, back to the emails, which keep coming in...

Sorry there are no new pictures to post... I'll put a pic of Dan later. My day was insane until about now (nearly 11pm), same as yesterday. Pray for CDA III kids as the chicken pox hits them hard. Today three have a cough and two are confirmed with bronchitis, if not pneumonia, too. Tomorrow will be packed with doctor visits.

Picture posted 3/18
(our "little" outing for flu shots which turned into two hours of waiting because yesterday they sold our reserved vaccinations to another group who came in, grr...)

Today

January 16...

arrival!

February 16...

triple arrival!!!

March 16...

no arrival, shew!!

although a one month old might come this week, for one week.... (NO we don't have room. I think he/she will be in MY room, yikes!)

Just tons of computer work

and planning out the week

getting updates on the chicken pox outbreak in CDA III

the current adoption

papers to two lawyers

papers to two places in court (I about KILLED myself getting there on time after my staff took too long finishing the report...including running about 10 city blocks and up and back down 6 flights of stairs!!)

and creating a list of upcoming medical specialist check-ups

Would you believe the list includes a surgeon, neurologist, orthopedist, pulmonologist, ophthalmologist, pediatrician, dermatologist and ENT? Gracious. And names of 15 of my kids. That's nearly half!

A way lot to keep up with, but who wants a dull, quiet life, anyway?!

My dear sister, etc.

Talking with my sister Emma for the first time since she moved back to the states a week ago:

E: “Hey, my first two nights here, I dreamed of your kids in Bolivia.”
Me: “Aw sweetie, how nice! And what were they doing?”
E: “Oh, I dunno. Just stuff.
Me: “Really? But what stuff?”
E: “Well…(hesitating now)…they were CRYING. Which ACTUALLY makes it a nightmare!!”

Oh. Glad I asked.

This afternoon we took the four oldest kids of CDA III (ages 4-6) to CDA II to play. The current adoption going on at CDA III is affecting them a bit (so hard to watch someone else get a doting new family while they continue waiting, and waiting…) so we thought we’d take them out during the family’s afternoon visit to their new child.

Some of my more interesting conversation with the kiddos in that short time:

Jhoselin (age 5): “Abigail went to Tia Eli’s house today because she had seventy THOUSAND happy faces!!” (Part of an award system at CDA II.)
Me: “Oh, really? Seventy thousand, huh?”
Jhoselin, giggling (if she’s not talking, she’s giggling—or both at once): “NOO, I was JOKING!! She had eight smiley faces!”

Really had me there…

Me: So how many kids were in your Sunday School class today?
Luis (age 6): Thirty one hundred.

WOW. I’ll guess it was 30, nor 100, or 130 (what was it with numbers today?!)

Me: “Mayra, did you have chicken pox when you were little?”
Mayra (age 4), indignantly: “QUE?!?!??” [what]

O-k-k-e-e-e-y, I’ll take that as a no. :-) Or maybe she was offended that I thought she was once "little" (if you knew Mayra, you'd understand).


And WHY you ask are we talking about Chicken pox yet again??? Arghh, because it appears we have them YET AGAIN in CDA III. Poor Juan Gabriel is pretty miserable but I’ve started him on medication, and Alejandra appears to be right in his wake. I’m worried concerned for the two babies there already a bit health-compromised (like Baby V, just 8 months old). We’re going to stay right on top of it though, and for now JG will be isolated in his room. I’m sending a Baby Home volunteer there instead tomorrow, to be his personal assistant/entertainer/nurse. SO….with an adoption in the works, another volunteer arriving, and this being my Dad’s last week living in Cochabamba, will prove to be an interesting one!!


And a picture that has absolutely nothing to do with any of this, but what's a post without a picture? Last night for my Dad and myself, I baked a spinach-two-types-of-cheese-mix-of-recipes-to-accomodate-Bolivian-ingredients....QUICHE! Yum.

get your verse on

I know this is normally all about the kids, I don't even have a label if it's not =), but this was a fun find.

The adoptive mother behind the blog Heart Smiles is starting a new business with friends. Just a few days ago I was thinking I'd like to find a shirt with a verse on it or a neat phrase the next time in the states...you know, the continual list "when I am back....." and then when I'm there there's somehow no time for anything! But anyway, since only God knows when that will be, maybe I should just order a shirt and have it brought to me here, ha!

Bonus: A portion of the sales currently go to support Shaohannah's Hope, an adoption-funding (sound familiar?) non-profit that I love!!

Special Adoption Fundraiser

Dear Blog Readers: Below is the email I sent out last night to our mailing list. Don't feel obligated to give (the response has been heartwearming already!) - just wanted to share the happy news here.

Also, see the new album of the twins in the slideshow to the right. There you'll see almost ALL the photos ever taken of them. To view the album with the captions, just click on it.

March 12, 2009

Dear Supporters,

Partially due to my family’s history with adoption and partially due to God’s mandates on family and caring for others in need, adoption is special to our hearts. And well, witnessing one unfold every two or three months right before our eyes is pretty special, as well!

Casa de Amor has been so blessed to be a part of 16 adoptions in the past 2 ½ years (11 international and 5 domestic), all having gone very well. We are on track for 2009 to be a record year of adoptions, even as the whole process slows down in general due to an anti-adoption government. One lawyer told us his adoptions from other homes are stalled, but in court all he sees are files that say “Casa de Amor, Casa de Amor, Casa de Amor…” (What can I say? We pray our kids through!)

Now we want to give you the chance to participate in a special adoption. Maybe you remember that in October 2008, we took in a set of twins found abandoned in a dry riverbed, Gabriel and Gabriela. Many will remember the terrible news in January of Gabriela passing away so quickly due to a rare complication of the chicken pox virus. My grief was compounded both by the sorrow of her many “mothers” (the caregivers) and by seeing baby Gabriel, just 4 months old, who was suddenly no longer a twin.

Gabriela and Gabriel in their “twin outfits”, December 2008

But a few weeks later, our newest caregiver at the Baby Home approached us to explain something. Luz had always imagined having a family of two sons and two daughters, but after having two daughters and a son, her husband left her for someone else and her dream seemed over. But Luz came to the Lord, became a part of a vibrant church, and last year, the pastor’s wife (who has adopted with Casa de Amor’s help), spoke into her life saying that someday, Luz would adopt her fourth child. She didn’t even believe her, but here we are! Luz and her now-grown children have prayed and fasted and are very excited that God is leading them to adopt Gabriel to complete their family. We have helped Luz talk to the best adoption lawyer we know, who told her she can absolutely apply for custody of our now 6 month old much-loved Gabriel, even before he has “adoptability” status. He is so sweet-tempered and happy, just like his mom-want-to-be, Luz (which means “light” in Spanish). My only concern is that he would be completely spoiled!!

Tia Luz feeding several at once, but still attentive to baby Gabriel (rocking him with her foot)

Luz also asked us to pray with her that God would make a way if this is His will, because financially she will not be able to afford the approximately $400-500 cost of the two step process over the next few months: gaining legal custody and then applying to adopt Gabriel. As a “family” who loves and adores baby Gabriel, and deeply appreciates the ladies who sow their lives into these children who have no one else, Casa de Amor desires to help Luz as her family pursues this adoption. This is actually the first adoption by a Casa de Amor staff member, and might also inspire others to do the same.

We are so excited to think of Gabriel’s future as the special child who “completes” this sweet Christian family. He will also have a mother and sisters who knew and cared for baby Gabriela, and being adopted locally means he will stay in Cochabamba and can eventually visit his sister’s grave.

If you are touched by this unfolding story, please consider giving towards adoption expenses. For all that can be gained, the amount is really small, and with the participation of many it will not be a burden to any one person.

“I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him.”
I Samuel 1:27

This week Luz is beginning the paperwork process with the lawyer and child welfare services, so please be in prayer about meeting this special need. For giving information, see below.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!


Blessings,
Jennifer Thompson
Founder/Director
Casa de Amor Children’s Homes
Cochabamba, Bolivia

Donations are tax deductible. Please make checks payable to GOAL, “Global Orphan Assistance League”, specifying “Gabriel” on a separate piece of paper.

GOAL
PO Box 3201
McKinney, TX 75070
(972) 562-4496

www.casadeamor.org
Visit http://hogardeamor.blogspot.com/ for many more stories on the twins (click on the label “Gabriela” half way down column on the right) and other children

Casa de Amor Children’s Homes
A ministry of Hogares de Amor para Niños (Homes of Love for Children) and Global Orphan Assistance LeagueSharing Christ’s Love with the Children of Bolivia

Busy little bees

Hard at work at Casa de Amor III...

And hard at play =)

Baby V, now 8 months old (how time flies!)

Today an adoption has started here at CDA III, the first since they've opened, yeah!!!

All Tonsils

See what I mean?

Our most common viewpoint of Miss E, ha!

The Three

Not "the three" as in the three (first) new ones, but "the three" as in the sibling group of the new five......if any of that makes any sense. It's well past midnight by now but just wanted to post a few of these pictures because I had so much fun making them at the end of 10 solid hours of computer work.

My day's reward was making these three adorable kids feel special and enjoy some sibling alone time. I took them off to the newly painted blue room, moved a crib away from the sunniest corner and plopped them down and they started to play and love on each other.

Very first picture of the session

My favorite!

Baby D comes alive with her older siblings! I've never seen anything quite like it. It's heartbreaking to remember that they were separated two whole weeks ( until the government got it's act together enough to reunite the siblings. I'm glad it's me who gets to see their joy at being together. :-)

Proud big sister!

The sisters

Kisses! I tried so hard to get a good picture but the delay on my camera is such that it was impossible to predict when to click to "catch them in the act"...

...but just imagine how adorable it was for all three to pucker up and try to kiss each other at the same time!

www.casadeamor.org ....and a makeover!

Since the addition of the blog I've almost entirely neglected our website. Blogs are just so much more....well, fun!

But finally today I had a minute (or more like a couple hours) and thought I should give it a brush over and also update staff/volunteer pictures. Now it's pretty much fine except for the one staff picture that refuses to publish...how annoying.

Another reason I've ignored our website is because I would LOVE love love to give it a makeover. Totally start over and make it work better for who Casa de Amor is now. The current version was done in a couple of days by a visiting friend back in April 2005 plus one day in 2008 to create the Spanish version, and (obviously!) we've changed a lot since then.

Now going through it page by page today I'm more motivated to concentrate on, somehow in between everything else, 1) what I want exactly and 2) find someone to get us there. Cheaply.

If anyone reading this has any contacts of people with experience in designing websites for non-profits, I would love to contact them!! Thanks!


And as a rather random photo addition to this post, check out this hair of one of our newest:



Actually, maybe it's not so random. I think my hair starts to go every whichaway like this after hours of dealing with html coding!!

Adios

Well.....the dreaded day arrived and I survived. After living here 22 months, my Mom and sister boarded the plane about 6:20pm yesterday (Sunday). We were all teary eyed, especially Emma. Lots of changes coming up for her (grandparents in Texas, Tennessee, back to Texas to live, hopefully visits to Bolivia again), but she'll adjust quickly. I hope. Probably quicker than the rest of us! Reverse culture shock is worse than culture shock.

It looked like church again in the airport! Too bad that we didn't take a picture to not forget, but all or some members of all these families came (some of you will know them): Porters, Murrins, Summerfields, Bakers, and Holmans. And of course a tia came with 5 of the toddlers from the Baby Home, so it was quite the send-off.

I think it was good because it kept me distracted from focusing on saying bye. Directly leaving the airport, my Dad and I went to pick up our current 4 volunteers to take them to the now nearly-empty apartment to make something for dinner and watch a movie. So the evening went okay. I'm so busy that hopefully it won't sink in for a while that they are really gone?

Dad leaves two Sundays later. This Sunday another volunteer arrives. There are always airport trips! People coming and going, coming and going. We never realized how constantly transitional missionary life is, but it's pretty much constant loss and grief on different levels. Well now that I have everyone fired up to work internationally, I better quit...

On the Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca (outside La Paz) with my parents and youngest sister Emma, January 2009

Other picture: Emma saying goodbye to "her" horse Lluvia (rain) the day before leaving

New Paint

What about this, "thistle"...

or "daffodil" yellow...

This team of teachers and graduates from a private school in Canada re-painted the three baby bedrooms at CDA I in just a few hours. Some helped with babies while the others cleaned walls, painted, and cleaned/repaired/rehung curtains! (Didn't take a picture of the "clear sky" room because it's basically the same as before.)

They did a great job!

And we appreciate the two suitcases full of useful donations: socks, shoes, toothbrushes, meds, vitamins, puzzles, shampoo...

New Child A's first smile on camera (he had arrived just a few hours earlier)

If any of the team reads this, muchas gracias!

It feels like we're in a new house when we're in the bedrooms.

Now maybe the team that comes in May can tackle the high traffic areas and playroom. There's always enough for all!

The Threesome

With the hectic-ness of the day, this is the best picture I have of the three so far, but hey--they are together again!!

The new little boy arrived to be the new oldest boy just a few hours before Rudy left to live with his new parents (pre-adoption custody period).

The three bedrooms at the Baby Home are beautifully repainted!

More later...

Sisters reunited!

Today was an amazing day. Exhausting in every way and I missed most of the potluck/Bible study at my parent's place (the last one to be held there) and I just NOW have a minute to THINK at 10-something-pm, but.........very, very amazing.

In a nutshell, here's what happened:

After two weeks of begging at an increasingly louder volume for the government to figure out which siblings belong together from the raid two weeks ago, finally today was the day. After several time changes, finally at almost midday, we had our three little girls in SEDEGES so that a 4 year old girl could show us which was her sister (their sister--she has a brother, too). My Mom and sister got there in time to see what looked like a "police line up" as my Mom put it. Three of us were holding our three babies and the sister, crying from confusion in the arms of a government social worker, finally pointed to the one in the middle and told us her name. Finally, we knew the poor baby's real name!! She has had two others in the past two weeks.

Now, we needed to reunite the family of three children. The question was, bring the two to our homes, or let Little Sister D go to them (the stance we'd had since finding out a sibling group was separated)?

So the fun began. Several of us (me, my family, volunteer Katrina) had been feeling pretty reluctant to hand over one of the girls we'd been caring so hard for the past two weeks. (The main reason I kept the pressure on SEDEGES to do this sooner rather than later!) I was waiting to see the age of the siblings, and if they could be integrated into the Baby Home, we could "make" space (and several are leaving even this week). Also to see if they were totally wild as some are, or on the calmer side.

Now seeing the sister and how sweet and quiet she was, and learning her name, and watching her love on her baby sister, my Mom and I were like oh yeah, gotta have her!! Meanwhile SEDEGES is begging for us to just take her with us and them to bring her brother to us next. Here the decision seems easy but when we're already so very overloaded and out of beds and donations barely keeping up.....it's not so clear cut.

I also had to imagine telling the caregivers, as hardworking as they already are, that two more were coming, making 6 new arrivals within 6 weeks (our normal preferred pace is one a month, if that many)! We're also in the thick of some other changes with kids, as well as a new staff member who started today and new volunteers. AND I wanted to be with my family more this week before they leave.

But life doesn't wait. So we took sister S back with us.

Then three of us spent 4 hours out with the 4 at the doctor (see pictures below for the more enjoyable part of the outing) to get orders for TB testing and other necessary labwork.

On the way back, SEDEGES called my cell phone (extremely rare) to say that the brother needed to come ASAP because he was crying for his sister. Okay, that makes 20 in the house tonight, but what else to do... [He hasn't arrived yet, but I assume will come sooner rather than later.]

Then I made some harried preparations for tomorrow (huge day: team of 18 coming, painting, outing with the kids, Rudy's adoption hearing, etc., etc.) and left to give new marching orders to the volunteers and go to the pharmacy.

By now I was really tired but pressing on because the day was far from over. Then I had a phone call that gave me renewed strength and encouragement, that God was leading in all of this and would make a way for everything!

In SEDEGES this morning as we tried to see which girl went to which name, approximate ages, etc., I recognized the names of several parents from street visits I've made. In particular, I noticed the dad's name of the three siblings and remembered which ministry had worked extensively with him. I met him and their family in 2007 when I visited the tents/shelters and piles of trash they call home.

So as soon as I had a minute without holding two babies at once, I called the fellow directors of a home for boys just outside Cochabamba. We talked for nearly 20 minutes as we marveled at God's plan. They have prayed for over a year now that these three siblings would come to our home when/if taken away from their parents. I thought they might be very disappointed or insist that we work to put the children back with their parents (although practically never happens in "street cases").

To my surprise, I could practically hear them jumping up and down for joy through the phone, first the husband then the wife. They were incredibly grateful that we would take in the three and also gave me much needed information (for example, knowing actual birth dates is a treat in these situations!).

Tomorrow afternoon they'll come over to see the kids and tell us more. God is at work!! What a "coincidence" that I would see that name on SEDEGES's papers, that I would remember their dad's name, that I would have met him nearly two years ago, and that someone happened to mention that he had been involved with the ministry that I know the directors of! (And right now they have Scottish visitors staying in their house who are a huge support to our ministry.) What a small world...


And switching gears, here are a couple of pictures from the l-o-n-g doctor outing this afternoon. Glad I took my camera to entertain ourselves! (The first two pictures above are also from the outing. Are they not cute or what?!)

What to do when waiting 3 hours for a doctor with 4 little girls...eat!

Waiting for our freshly squeezed orange juice

Katrina and the 4 little girls having their snack of crackers and juice outside