18

With room for 15 babies (HA!) we currently have 18.

The average age is also about 18 months.

2 months
5 months
6 months
7 months
10 months
14 months
15 month twins
16 months
18 months
19 months
20 months
21 months
22 months
2 1/2 years
3 years
3 years
3 1/2 years

It's a busy place, to say the least...!

And...9 girls, 9 boys, if anyone is counting.

Literally hours before taking in the three new girls almost two weeks ago, I was commenting to volunteer Katrina that our girl numbers at the Baby Home were dropping in a bad way. By having just 3 girls out at once going to the doctor that afternoon, we had exactly half of the girls of the Baby Home with us (then 10 boys, 6 girls).

Katrina reminded me of that when in the blink of an eye we were at 9 girls! (Although we agreed to only take in ONE boy from the street, because I thought I might know him. Then in the end, there wasn't even a boy left for us, but the 3 girls!)

So that was pretty good for catching up, LOL!

Random Picture Challenge 7.0

September 2007 folder, 11th picture

Can you imagine if I just left it there, wondering what the excitement was all about?!

Aw, that would be mean.

J is in traditional Cochabamba dress, C is "stuffed" to be a pumpkin, and A is cute as a...bug!

(gotta love it when people donate old halloween costumes!!)

Found the pictures highly appropriate for today. They are from the special farewell for Ruth and Katrina, our two very special and much loved kiwi volunteers for most of 2007. And now today our next two kiwi volunteers join us, Nikki and Alie, yeah!

Also, just have to mention that Katrina sent me a really sweet packet full of goodies that arrived to me yesterday. Thanks for thinking of me, Katrina!!!

I love the picture for today's challenge at 4 little men!

Now, back to catching up on computer work....

two more cuties

A couple of days ago when I found Baby A in this favorite Ralph Lauren outfit we have...

Baby A, 2 months

I couldn't resist, along with the staff from 2007, remembering Baby B in the same...

Baby B, 3 1/2 months

So of course I had to take this picture of Baby A:

And then he smiled!

First really big Baby A grin caught on camera (quite the feat with mine, thanks to the delay):

Then I got them side-by-side, because it was just so amazing to remember [now huge] Baby B in the same (newborn) outfit just a year ago!

Two of my boys...

As a sort of PS, yesterday afternoon we had an uplifting visit from a lady (lives in Canada but has relatives and friends in Bolivia) and her niece (lives in Santa Cruz, Bolivia). She has followed our website/blog for at least the past year and LOVES babies!! so we had a fun time playing with some of mine and chatting.

She has worked with special needs children and spoke positively of Baby B and his development thus far. That was so great to hear!!

Tina (with Twin E) and Jen (with Stick-Tight E)

(So now you know. If you're ever in our neck of the woods, you're welcome to stop in for some baby hugs!)

a couple of cuties

Since I haven't been posting many pictures lately, here are a few from when we took the 10 oldest toddlers/babies from the Baby Home to a first birthday party last weekend.

The big birthday bash was held at a Baptist church and was for a sweet baby that lived from us from February 29 last year (newborn) till last month when he was adopted by a Bolivian family, yeah!! National adoptions are awesome because we continue to see the family.

Twins E & E, 14 months and always in motion

"Get us outta here, we need to CRAWL!!!!"

You can just see 9 of our kiddos here (the 10th was in my arms, of course), and the baby adopted with his parents and older sister as they cut the gigantic cake (first birthdays, done right, are BIG affairs here!)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

So TODAY Rudy met his new parents from Spain!!!!!!!!! It was just as exciting as always. I never get tired of this!! Had to talk to myself to hold it together as I headed to get him and bring him into his new parents. Then unexpectedly (can I just say kids are so unpredictable?!), our Mr. Outgoing clammed up at the door and made a little scene before going to them. Seemed like an hour but was probably, hopefully, just a couple of minutes!! All the adults staring at him with cameras rolling must've scared him a bit....oops. But now everything is going wonderfully and it's hard to tell who is more thrilled--Rudy, his mother, or father. We all smile at each other so big our faces are liable to crack!

Then...today my very-healthy-till-now Grandma was admitted to the hospital for a possible stroke.

So today my Mom and sister Emma booked tickets back to Texas, for just 10 days from now. Ten?! What will I do!! Dad will go a week or two after them, straight to Tennessee I believe (that's where they'll live).

March would otherwise be a fun month around here. We have a constant stream of international groups, visitors, and volunteers arriving for short or long stays, which definitely keeps things interesting. Other adoptions are close to happening.

Now the rug is getting pulled from under my feet, quite literally. I'm a family gal. Homeschooling did that to me I guess. Or actually I've been told I'm kinda weird. I don't go out with friends, I go home to family.

I just can't think about how it will be, that first day when I get to the end of a 12 hour workday and realize......I don't have anywhere to go. The Baby Home will again by my first and primary home. I'll just walk down from the third floor office...to my room. Well with a detour to hold some babies of course, but not the detour to get a good homebaked dinner or leftovers, talk to my family (often in Emma's room as she drifts off after a full day), plan the next day's events, watch a little CNN on their comfy couches, bake, or entertain volunteers.

Not to mention weekends (the ones when I have free time, anyway).

It's just back to how things were 2004-2007, my first years in Bolivia. It's not like I haven't lived this before. So why does it seem so....overwhelming?

About the only plus I can think of is I won't have the constant tug-of-war that is work vs. family time. I can just....work. Night and day. Without worrying about not being with them, or getting there so late.

I will miss Emma SO BADLY it's not even funny. Those who know her will understand better than most. There's no replacing an Emma in your life.

And did I mention how much I hate change...??

Well now that I've gotten out all that dreariness, I think I can move on to my next meeting--the one with my pillow ~grin~. Early tomorrow we take the three new little girls to the doctor, so better rest up for that one!!

one month

It doesn't seem possible that it's just been one month. One day, one month, or one year? Time just moves at a different speed than before.

In some ways I want to move far past it. FAR.

In another way moving on seems to mean forgetting. Moving on, and away from remembering days with Gabriela.

I'd rather move back to being with her. To trying again. Getting her healthier so that she could withstand a common childhood illness...

I still hate it. I hate remembering what happened that morning one month ago. And then the days after, playing over and over again what could have gone wrong and how and if we could have prevented it. Awful. Horrible. Nightmare. Yes, good has come out of it. But I still wish it all undone. God could have chosen another way to bring us together, to regroup and reunite in our care of the babies.

We just want our Gabi back.

Our cute little pair, Gabriel and Gabriela. New pictures to show of the two of them, growing. More pictures with twins E & E.

The caption on this picture and a few others in December 08 was "my babies". That wasn't really right to say, though. Now she's definitely not mine, there in Heaven with her Father.

I read this post the night before the three week anniversary, which was particularly hard for some reason: He Will Carry Me.

The distance between heaven and earth is shortened.

The song "Mighty To Save" by Hillsongs is one of my favorites, but the line "He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave" just didn't register the same way before that it does now. What comfort and hope!

Her twin brother Gabriel is doing well. Has a cough, but who doesn't in Cochabamba right now. Sometimes when he smiles and coos, I get distracted by thinking too much. Things like "He doesn't know yet, what's been taken from him". Or "How would Gabriela look now? Would she still weigh a kilo less than him or would she have caught up by now?"

He's a joy. So sweet...and ticklish!

There are so many others to care for. Currently 38, all with their own needs and our staff team striving to meet them all, care for them all.

That keeps us busy.

Adopting

Several of you have asked about the possibility of adoption of Bolivian children.

In a nutshell:

Certain children have adoptable status and others do not because they will return to family members, or for other reasons. As for the adoptable children, three groups of people may adopt if approved to do so by the court and social welfare system in Bolivia:

1. Bolivian citizens living in Bolivia


2. Foreigner citizens living in Bolivia for at least two years (according to date on first visa)


3. Foreign citizens of a handful European countries approved to do adoptions within Bolivia, such as Spain, Italy, France, and Denmark.

Please note: Casa de Amor is committed to the entire legal process and thus CANNOT facilitate adoptions between families and children. We process and present all appropriate papers to the government for our children but beyond that are dependent on their decision.

(*Taken from the new CDA child sponsorship info)

As you can now deduct, US citizens currently residing within the United States are unfortunately NOT eligible for Bolivian adoption.

Theoretically, with the Hague Intercountry Child Adoption Act now up and running in the US, Bolivia-US adoptions are possible. However (and isn't there always a "however" in Bolivia), Bolivia has not granted any licenses to US agencies yet. In fact, they would rather cut down on the number of international agencies they already work with to 20.....although 22 US agencies have their papers in order to open offices in Bolivia. I imagine Canada might be in the same boat.
As for other countries, if no credited adoption agency in your country has a Bolivia program, then I cannot help you either.

Rather than bemoaning the fact that our fellow countrymen cannot adopt, we are very, very grateful that our kids have at least some options, and for the extremely dedicated couples who wait an extremely long time to adopt a Bolivian child.

For example, the couple that is just about to meet their new child at the Baby Home on Wednesday have been waiting for 4 years (5 years is the max allowed), and that's AFTER their papers got to Cochabamba. Sometimes the process before can take 2 or 3 years, depending on the country.

The familes also live in Bolivia 6-8 weeks to complete the adoption, so it's quite the process for all involved. It's hard to fathom the amount of paperwork that goes on at every level and we learn more of it with each adoption: us as a children's home, the couple, their agency in both the home country and Bolivia, the Bolivian court system, the child welfare system, Child Defense's part, the adoption viceministry in La Paz, etc., etc. We all have massive amounts of work to do to carry out an adoption, from start to finish.


So, that's the scoop! Even though adoptions of Bolivian children are not possible in many countries, if you are reading this and have a desire to give a child in need a home, please please do look into the many other options that may be open to you! Thousands of children throughout the world need loving homes with dedicated parents to overcome many challenges to living a healthy, wholesome, productive life.

"Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." Matthew 18:5

"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

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us...let us not love with word or tongue, but with action and in truth." I John 3:16-18

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.

Adoption coming soon!!!!!

I told my parents last week that I felt an international adoption was near. Of course I constantly HOPE that an adoption is near but we rarely know exactly when one might begin. But the timing is particularly good this time. Since we have three new, it's helpful that two would give up their beds! (Today I move Brandon to Hogar II, which is now great timing so that he doesn't have to observe his best friend getting new parents, while he still waits, and waits, and waits...)

Yesterday morning we got a call from a well-known lawyer in town saying that Rudy's new parents arrive next week. Within an hour he had brought us laminated pictures of the couple to be able to prepare Rudy. Now in just 5 days they have their first hearing in court and will meet him!!!

This is really amazing since the judge with Rudy's case quit. But the other judge is now carrying on with his case (now if she'd just pick up our national adoption that's been so stalled...).

Rudy has been assigned parents since September last year, which is why we never moved him on to Hogar II, but FOUR TIMES the case was kicked back from La Paz for more clarification or proof of things mentioned in the reports. That is the new routine these days, as certain people try to stall adoptions out as long as possible.

His new parents, from Spain, have had their file waiting here for over 4 years. That means they've probably been processing this adoption for their first child for 5 or 6 years. Now THAT is patience!

Yesterday in the afternoon I told Rudy we needed to have a meeting--me, him, and the tias. A couple hours later we sat on the floor in the playroom with Maria, Rosa, me, Adelaida, and a few babies in our laps. After a few false starts wondering how to begin, Maria explained to Rudy what would happen. She said that God sends very good gifts to His children, and He has decided to send new parents to Rudy. He listened wide-eyed through her little speech and then grinned shyly as she showed him the two little pictures of his new mother and father. Since even before he was born, or abandoned, or living with us, those pictures have been sitting in a file in the court in Cochabamba, waiting to be shown to their new child.

This is going to be a fun adoption.

Throughout the rest of the day, Rudy warmed up to the idea of new parents. When I took him and 4 other toddlers and a baby to the pharmacy with me, he thought we were arriving at the place where he would meet his parents. I managed to bring him back from the point of tears, and he proudly showed off the pictures of his parents to several of our friends at the clinic. This morning at 8am as staff arrived, I could hear him yelling to everyone that he has parents and did they want to see the picture.

He sleeps with it, carries it around constantly, and loves showing it to us. Of course I've taken pictures, but for security reasons can't put them here. ;-)

Rudy's our little leader of the pack of toddlers at the Baby Home. He also leads them in loving and talking to the babies. In fact, Rudy is pretty much always talking. That's why when he's not here, we all feel it and the others constantly ask where he went and when he'll be back. So it will be a big adjustment for all, but we're so excited!!!!!! And next week will be super busy (as if things could get any busier) as we observe the new family and begin the next round of paperwork to complete the adoption.

A completely unrelated picture--just a cute one I snapped yesterday of Baby E while helping/playing with babies a few hours at the end of the workday.

Day 4 Fun

Well, you know, fun until two had blow-out diapers. We had to mop the floor and I needed a new shirt and bedspread after those... (did I mention yesterday that they have a zoo in their stomachs?)

Baby A
Beautiful, mournful eyes, lightest colored hair. Cries pitifully every time she sees me, wanting to be held. Youngest of the three--doesn't walk and appears like she doesn't crawl yet (she scooches on her bottom to get around, mainly to someone who just might hold her!)

Baby E
Makes us laugh the most with her catlike fights and clinging and sounds, especially when she's mad or just wants to be held by someone else more interesting. Reaches out her arms desperately and starts to scream whenever she gets a glimpse of me, so she ends up being with me a lot! Falls asleep sitting up because she protests to be made to lie down.

Baby D

The chubby, big attitude (watch out if you make her mad!), messy hair girl. The least demanding of my personal attention, although relatively speaking, remember...

These are great "BEFORE" pictures, haha. What serious subjects! Baby E can be convinced to smile but not the others. Of course they started off the day fasting for labwork and now the medication for their parasites seems to be irritating things. Baby A was pretty lethargic by tonight. But overall, they are not too bad off for the conditions they lived in. Definitely only the strong survive on the street. But their behavior is something else!! The hitting, slapping, yanking, grabbing toys that they do in between themselves and to the other kids, even babies, is crazy to witness. We'll have to work on that, but...

Looks like one might be leaving. =( Was supposed to be today but the people didn't come. One of these girls has older siblings in another home and she will be taken to live with them. We'll see...

Oh, those dreadful lice

We got the best news ever today for our Rudy!!!! More tomorrow.

Day 3 with the 3 little......clingers

Again, to put it nicely. =)

Since the 3 new ones scream unless they are being held (and often even when being held), which might mean they get just a bit more attention than the other 16 babies/toddlers, I have noticed and appreciated that they hang on (cling) better than most. They are like little monkeys, or octopuses!

This is CRAZY: we were already struggling a bit with who is who since when we picked them up, it was supposed to be 1 boy and 2 girls and it was 2 girls...which meant that I lacked a girl name. I liked the name Katrina chose (Esther) and so we had the 3 names. Then the interesting part was guessing who was supposed to be who. We didn't know if some of the names were real or all made up, so anyway we divvied them up as we wanted to on Monday night.

So today a lady from SEDEGES came and tried to match names to babies according to the clothes they arrived in. It was cool to see that I guessed right on one baby, on who her (street) mother is. That means I know her birthdate, and that she has a brother a few years older (currently in another baby home) that we'll need to bring here now, if he's not already been adopted.

Now the names are switched around as well as new names given, so I am perpetually confused on who is who!! I've never ever had this problem, as even when 3 or 4 siblings arrive at once, they arrive with certain names and that's that. This time it keeps changing around and since we were already using one set of names but now another, and 2 of the girls look a lot alike and one has the name of a tia....trust me, it's just confusing!!

My parents say they aren't even going to try. =) I say just wait till the dust settles and we know what we're supposed to call them!! They even had last names at one point but now those are going to change. I don't know what names to give for the bloodwork tomorrow and it has to be right as it's for the court eventually.

Also doesn't help that these current names are mouthfuls, with 3, 4, or 5 syllables each!

There are no pictures of the 3 today. Just too busy to even get one (that means BUSY, folks!).

One could've been 3 gringas (me from the US, Katrina from Canada, and Annette from Germany) with our 3 little clingers at the hospital. As we walked past people they would coo "ohhh, que precioso!!" and I had to smile to myself that "coronilla" and street people were probably FURTHEST things from their minds in that moment. Nearly everyone thinks the babies are ours and we have Bolivian husbands--not that we just care for them in an "institution". Suits me!

Another good picture--one smiled at me more than once after the doctor finished with her, and I caught a glimpse of another halfhearted smile. They will be so cute when they start to act themselves again and smile and laugh! There was definitely none of that when the doctor tried to touch them today. Yikes. They were like little clawing, fighting cats.

Another picture--me working at my desk with two in my lap. Our arms stay worn out--seems like we're always carrying around two babies at once these days.

Anyway, that's just a quick update. Please pray for their continual adaptation and our patience as they scream and scream....and scream.

Tomorrow I'll look into getting them tested for TB. Although a large percentage of Cochabamba's population has coughs and colds currently, I just feel like checking further for these girls since the street population would have a higher incidence of TB. They also get labwork in the morning to be checked out for about 7 different things. I always breathe better after getting back results...

Okay, writing about the 3 was just for a quick break and "debriefer" before tending to more work. I've got to prepare myself for an important meeting tomorrow morning, email some "business" notes to my parents (we were too busy the entire day to ever properly meet), and begin on a big chart that divides up all the sick child/well child responsibilities. It will be a marvel!! Will also keep me more focused on my strengths in the whole (overwhelming) medical realm of the homes so that I can devote better time to my responsibilities as director....although I love the medical part.

Day 2 of....adaptation

That's the nicest way I could think of to summarize the chaos that was today. Well maybe not chaos, but definitely NOISE. I had to be at House II most of the workday due to some previously scheduled meetings, then run errands, but when I finally was able to get back, I jumped right in until bedtime. If I wasn't holding two babies at once....then I was holding three. =) Or holding one of the new ones and driving 8 others and 2 volunteers around (we took the toddlers out for a spin in my car to hunt for cows and other interesting sights for a few minutes).
The poor new babies are most likely having withdrawals from all the toxins they have been exposed to all their lives, from conception on. They are cranky, screamy, mean, picky (about food and formula)........and yet desperate to be held, loved, and cuddled. If anyone reading this remembers when Yandi came from off the street.....it's him times THREE. Or Camila, who still has quite the attitude but was very difficult her first weeks in the homes (in a nutshell: "rules, cribs, spoons, doors, manners, WHY?!").

I just have a minute because tomorrow is another super packed day from start to finish (what a surprise) and I am a bit worn out, cuz you know how I said last night at about this time (midnight) that the new girl's bed for the night was that mattress? Well one ended up on my mattress, the most fragile and sickly looking of the three. It was a tense night. I remembered that the last time I slept with a baby was with a frightenly sick Gabriel on the day his sister passed away, just 3 1/2 weeks ago. Then the baby I was sleeping with, the one we chose to be "Carmen" (one of the names we had on paper), slept restlessly due to missing her mother or someone and a terrible cough. I wondered about the quality of her breathing and why in the world her heart was beating so fast even while she was in a deep sleep. I had to hold her in my arms or be touching her at all times for her to sleep, but her heart beating so hard and her labored breathing kept me awake and concerned most of the night. She would wake up at least hourly clawing the air and searching for someone to cling to....which was me of course, as I tried to shield my face when she coughed (surely it's not TB!!).

I had to wonder at the strangeness of sleeping in the Coronilla one night (the most "hardcore" street people in very outdoor, extreme conditions and situations of violence, abuse, addiction, sickness, disease, etc.) and the next night in my comfortable clean bed?! In my beautiful room, in our spacious and sunny home, in our loving family. Nearly unbelievable, and yet it happened! And at the same time, our hearts break for the mothers who, even if they are mentally ill or addicts and alcoholics, are missing their babies today.

Picture: The three girls today. If Tia Rosi looks rough, it was because not long before she was sobbing her eyes out while trying to hold and rock all three babies at once. She couldn't stop herself enough to explain to me what was wrong, but I simply asked "Are you thinking about their mothers?" and she shook her head yes as she wiped tears away--off her own face and the babies. She is easily our most sensitive caregiver at the Baby Home and has a particularly special love for our smallest and weakest. She is also a mother of a toddler girl close to these girls' age.

For those who read Spanish, a couple articles and one picture of the street people "round up" yesterday. So sad, and yet the future of these kids was only the street. Hard to know what the proper response is. Taking the adults to jail and the kids to homes was obviously a reaction to some recent murders and violent robberies by the street people, to scare them into "cleaning up their act", but we all know they will return to their ways sooner rather than later.

Separan a 6 niños de madres adictas
(the better article, although the correct number is 7 children removed)

Detienen a consumidores de clefa

Pray for Brandon, 3 years old. I'm having to move him to House II ASAP to help us make room in the Baby Home for these three unexpected additions. Today I took him with me for my meetings and we were all very pleased at how very well he did, yeah! I'll take him every day this week and then we'll move him over permanently on Friday. Well until he has an adoptive family...someday!!

The Everything Day ...and THREE new arrivals!

There are many days where we think "just about everything possible happened today"... I was already going to post here tonight about the many and varied things I got to do today, before the day got REALLY wild and crazy.

The first part of the day involved checking on the general health status, updating the blog's prayer requests, changing plans since Donna (visitor) was very sick all night and wouldn't be visiting the homes again today (also tell Mom what to buy her from the pharmacy), coordinating payment for cleaning products already delivered to CDA II, our accountant calling and asking when we can meet this week, talking to a staff member about her health, a lawyer coming by for me to sign some staff-related papers, punishing 3 year old Rudy (sigh), discussing a wayward child's behavior with the social worker, feeding a baby a bottle while I work, catching up on medical stuff from Maria and Katrina being out all morning, making an appointment with our pediatrician for him to verify a girl's age and prepare a medical certificate for court.

AND preparing schedules for two of the houses for the month of March, starting on February's e-update, creating new files and documents for 2009, setting up a few meetings for the week, recording December 2008's expenses, closing out 2008's financial reports and sending them to a couple people for review, emailing a British friend who works with disabled kids in Thailand about cerebral palsy resources, thanking supporters in the US and Australia for their generous donations, emailing our friend in Texas about a donation on the way from Spain, creating a new job description for someone we're about to hire to TRY to take my Dad's place, and attempted to finish reviewing sponsorship packets...but by then I was out of time.

I needed to meet the new long term volunteer who arrived from the US, and coordinate who was going where and when in the afternoon (doctors). At about 5pm everything got interesting when Katrina and I went to the cough doctor with 4 babies. Well, 3 babies and 1 toddler.

And then when SEDEGES called and said they had THREE babies for us, all around 1 year of age. We would've flatly turned them down except that they were taken off the street. Today. And it was past their closing time, and other baby homes had already received others today from this "round up", so...... Um. Actually it's all a rather long story how we ended up with these three girls. Hopefully I'll have time to explain tomorrow. But I think a couple are crying now and I have more things to prepare for meetings, so I'll go see if I can help. Till tomorrow, a few pics...

Picking up the babies (Sarah, our new long-term volunteer, Katrina, and me)

They were so worn out from their rough day

The bed where the three will sleep tonight

Baby Picture Sunday....and 100th Post!

This week the theme at Who Says 8 Is Enough? is LOVE. Wish I had the time to go through all my pictures (well not ALL...that would take days and days!!) and search for the cutest, but for now I'll put up this one, always one of my favorites!

And our little Bolivian is being kissed by a KIWI, no less!
(but the shirt is from Ireland, how cool is that?)

Hey, this is also my 100th Post, wow!! That arrived fast. Now off to make some cookies quickly for tonight's volunteer fellowship...