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!

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!

learned.

On July 19 I celebrated seven years living and serving in Bolivia! Since early last year I even have my permanent residency visa, which is WONDERFUL! This means I never have to apply for a visa again as long as I’m not out of the country for extended periods of time.

Right now is one of my ever-rarer trips back to the US. I have a week more visiting my family and this weekend we'll attend my cousin’s wedding in Texas!

As I add more and more time in between trips, it becomes a little like visiting a foreign country! The United States changes, my family changes (changing houses right now), and I change. The main reason I feel different since my last trip is all that I’ve been privileged to experience and learn in 2010 and 2011.

I’ve learned how to…

…Drive stick shift

…Care for triplets! (In a phrase, it’s exhausting, rewarding, and definitely felt like a once-in-a-lifetime blessing!)

…Lead a worship team at church

…Be part of a leadership team at church of university students and young professionals

…Make a real Bolivian “torta” (birthday cake)!

…Administer first aid (second aid?!) for many and various urgencies and emergencies

…Stitch minor wounds

…Give shots (to humans…before I’d only given them to goats)

…Choose medicines for various complaints and illnesses

…Coach soccer :)

…Get out ID cards for Bolivians

…Deal with macho police on a daily basis

…Speak and understand many, many legal and medical terms I had no idea of before 2010

…Speak “street slang” (literally dozens of new phrases and words in my vocabulary…some usable, others—well, NOT!)

…Go to a beautiful Christian wedding in the maximum security prison

…Enter the three main jails plus juvenile detention facility in Cochabamba

…Get someone out of a holding cell…or jail

…Navigate far reaching corners of the huge valley that is Cochabamba as I take street friends to their families

What other country and job would allow me to learn all of THIS in 1 ½ year’s time?!

I LOVE learning, what about YOU?

CHRISTmas

Love, love, LOVE this!!

Don't forget to check out Casa de Amor's Christmas Giving catalog.... :)

Assuming the link still works, here's the Advent Conspiracy video I posted a couple years back: Advent Conspiracy.

Caring

A few nights ago, I was happily bouncing a smiling, filthy dirty baby in my lap when I was told that her mother is HIV+. Both live in the street. My heart sunk as I quickly connected the dots and realized that her baby must be positive as well.

Apart from our little girl at CDA and an occasional meeting, I have never been in daily contact with so many with HIV until now. And I can feel so helpless beyond just being there for them and being their friend. But watching the video in this post, "Dying and Rejected by the Church", reminded me that sometimes that's all we can do.

And it is considered significant by those surviving even though rejected by "normal" society. Every day, every night, when I offer a listening ear and a word of encouragement or share a laugh, I see a light come back in their eyes. Could it be hope?

Words cannot describe how privileged I feel to be able to live here, surrounded by need, spending myself on behalf of the weak as we walk side by side. Since last week, that includes keeping track of 3 medications, multiple tests and doctor/lab appointments, and seven days of 9pm injections for one of my friends from the bridge. And that's just ONE of my friends... It's exhausting, but I cannot imagine doing anything else.

As I type, I hear little voices float up to the office. It is snack time, and the prayer included a blessing for the street children. So young, and yet already ministering.

Watch the video and think of who you can love today.


Ten years ago today, my family had the court hearing in Russia that made Emma "ours"! Today, a Bolivian couple has their court hearing to become the parents of our 20 month old boy F. Exciting!

TEAM!!!!!

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

{ orientation }

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

Back online later...

People

The other day I briefly went to the blog of a gal who follows mine. I watched this video clip of a pastor speaking on the desire to go into missions. While I agree with all he said and it was supposed to be a brief answer, I couldn’t help but think of a missing ingredient which I keep mulling over.

Yes you must have proper motivations for going to the mission field. Glamour and glory don’t enter!

Yes you must be mature enough to be in it for the long run. At least, if you want to make the greatest impact—and on others, not just yourself.

Yes you must be able to deal with the harder things. This morning, I woke up with so many incredibly itchy, burning flea bites I couldn’t think of anything else for 10 minutes.

That is, until I was figuring out how to get ready for the day without electricity (which also means no water—and no internet).

But you know why we put up with it all? Why the 50% of missionaries who do NOT give up within the first year stick it out? (Apart from the obvious: God Himself sustaining us, the support and encouragement of friends and family both here and abroad, etc.)

The PEOPLE!

I am blessed to be a friend, mother, boss, fellow volunteer to Rosi, Maria, Silvia, Ana Maria, Teresa, Esteban, Jhoselin, Luz, Kevin, Jose, Alejandra, Luis, Victoria, Katrina, Elena, and dozens of others. I stay here because I love working for/with all of them!

When the loneliness and pressures of missionary life threaten to overwhelm me, I look into the faces of the 39 children who will eat nutritious food all day, drink safe water, play like carefree children, and sleep in warm beds.

When I’m fed up with the bureaucracy and paperwork hurdles and constantly waiting on a “mañana” which never comes, I remember the adopted children in loving homes and all of those still waiting for their forever family.

When I can’t fathom the abuse and neglect and abandonment our children have suffered, I admire the work of the 16 women and 1 man who pour out their lives on a daily (and nightly) basis on behalf of our children. And this, not because of some grand paycheck that could actually repay us in full for what we do, but because we love the children.

(And a new example: the lack of sleep and 2 hour round-the-clock feedings are all worth it as the triplets thrive!)

Very few of our staff members have ever quit, and many volunteers have stayed well past their initial service period, or moved here permanently, because the people we serve break our heart, motivate us to do something, and work their way into our lives in a such a way we can’t imagine doing anything else or being anywhere else in the world. I myself never thought I’d be here nearly 6 years, never away more than a couple months at a time, but I can't pull myself away from these people.

I put up with irritating flea bites and the dangers of bridge life because I want to see Carlos and Eli, and Sergio and Dayana, living in a house with their children. The alternative is subsisting under a bridge, desperately trying to drown their pain in drugs and alcohol because their children were violently torn away in police raids and sent to orphanages. And it’s not like I’m some kind of saint, just putting up with these kids outcast from society. I genuinely enjoy being with them, and getting to know who they are under the tough “street face”. When I introduce them as my friends, I mean it!

And so many examples more... But our power just came back on and I need to use the internet as I deal with a mountain of office work before the 1pm triplet feeding!

blog post especially for Elizabeth...

...Before I awake to another email from the UK entitled "Appeal", begging me to imagine the boredom since neither Savannah nor I have posted in an entire week. We wouldn't want Eli to be driven to such extreme measures as reading a book or speaking with someone in the same room, oh no! I'm nice like that.


But seriously, sorry I've been such a terrible blogger lately. It's not that things aren't going on, I just have two full time jobs right now (CDA + street work) so I pretty much crash once I get home late, or have to work on music things for church.

Why I've been a bad blogger:

~ I had the privilege of meeting the triplets, but didn't take a picture (I did have my camera, but it wouldn't have been appropriate at that moment).

~ Two days of increasingly tense nationwide transportation strikes/blockades meant that I was awakened from very early as staff tried to arrive either by foot or in vehicles that were being stoned by angry protesters, and then cared for the 20 babies/young children here with one or two other volunteers until the childcare staff could arrive. I had no time to be stuck at home though and had to brave the streets as we tried to accomplish the pressing tasks, such as obtaining ARV medication, caring for an extremely sick volunteer, and going to speak to the Canada team (more below). There was no time for picture taking!


I guess these sorts of things are so normal to me now I didn't consider it blog worthy, but here's an article about the strike/blockades for those curious: A "Drunkards" Strike Shuts Down Bolivia.

~ It's a constant adventure with my street friends. I never know from one minute to the next if I'll be mediating in extremely messed up family situations, dealing with police or drunks, bandaging wounds, giving "couple" counseling, listening to heart wrenching stories, or more lighthearted moments such as taking them to get their hair cut, to the La Cancha (outdoor market), getting to tell them when their real birthday is (lots of trips to the "registro civil"!), or just shooting the breeze chatting either under the bridge or at the intersection as they wash windows. I have been working on a post but with very limited time because, well, I'm always with them now!

~ We've spent countless hours waiting in lines and obtaining all papers necessary to obtain documents. It's been very rewarding as we make advances and see their self esteem soar as make progress! I've wanted to take a picture inside the extremely crowded, dark, airless building we wait inside for hours at a time, but it's crawling with police and I don't think would be accepted. Here's a pic I snapped with my cell phone of the outside line early afternoon (when the line had already gone down):

~ For the third year in a row, we welcomed a private school team from Canada for the day last week. We operated in major Plan B due to the aforementioned civil unrest, but they were able to come and meet the babies and do a lot of work in the Baby Home: mowing the yard, trimming back plants, painting the playroom, and sorting out the donations they brought. And possibly many other things, but I had to leave Savannah and then Katrina in charge because I was going to a meeting about the triplets, getting meds to the sick volunteer, taking out a couple from the street for his birthday...and so on and so forth (it was a NUTS day!!). The room they painted would have made for a great before and after pic... It gets constant day and night usage and hadn't been painted in almost 3 years!

~ I don't know if I'll get pictures from the Texas concert, but if I do I'll post them!

And here's a recent picture of some kids, since I'm pretty sure that's all Elizabeth wants anyway. :)

Aw, sibling love!

taking steps

It all started in late October, a couple weeks after I got to the US. I was catching up on Bolivia news and read this article titled "Wilson, el niño con parálisis en las piernas, ya es un bombero" which translates to "Wilson, the child with paralyzed legs, is already a firefighter".

Somehow Cochabamba firefighters (of which there are few) found out that Wilson has a fascination of firefighters and wants to be one. They invited Wilson to ride in their truck and made him an honorary fireman at the ripe old age of 7. Wilson has muscular dystrophy that is obviously advancing rapidly. From what I read, his future is bleak, and even bleaker when you add in where he lives and a family with minimal resources.

At the end of the article, a plea went out for help for Wilson...and a wheelchair.

So, we took the first step. Joni & Friends is the favorite ministry of my sister Emma. I asked her to look them up and see about the possibilities of a wheelchair for Wilson. After a few days and not hearing anything, I took another step and rang the fire station in Cochabamba. I asked if they really wanted a wheelchair for Wilson (yes) and if he had one yet (no). I told the fireman "I live in Bolivia but am currently in the US and think I can get a wheelchair donated and can bring it back when I return".

He got so excited over the phone, actually skype, he was practically shouting! He kept saying "what do we do? how can we help? who can we call?" I told him to leave it to me since I speak English. ;)

After emailing and calling more people with Joni & Friends, I reached someone in their "Wheels for the World" division who immediately started explaining our next steps. It sunk in that this meant they were indeed going to help! I was actually requesting two wheelchairs at this point, remembering little girl V who also had an article published in the newspaper pleading for help some time after her stay with us. In the end, there wasn't time as we deliberated if a wheelchair would even work for a child in her very advanced condition. (I'll look into that more when I'm back.)

Next, I received the forms to fill out from Wheels for the World. Then I called two of our houses looking for Tia Maribel, our physical therapist, to catch her up on Wilson (who she remembered having read about...and I was like "well he's coming to see you tomorrow!). She said she had never measured a child for a wheelchair before but was willing to learn.

Then I called the Cochabamba fire station and spoke with two or three fire fighters until I was speaking to their coronel. Each one of them became so animated at the prospect of helping Wilson! They agreed to transport him and his parents to the Baby Home the next day so that Maribel could measure him for the wheelchair. A poorly fitted wheelchair can easily do more harm than good. THEN I called the office to inform my staff what was up, and THEN I emailed volunteers Katrina and Savannah with all the details of what we needed to know here in the US, reminding them to take lots of pictures and also sending a list of questions to ask his family.

And did I mention I did the above from the car as we crossed the Mississippi River into Arkansas on our way from Tennessee to Texas?

Once Katrina emailed back the details from the fitting session and observing his condition, the next step was to fax the forms and signatures to Wheels for the World.

Did I mention that our contact's name is Gail Thompson? Half the time when I saw her email address I thought it was my Mom's, Glenda Thompson.

After that, Gail got me in touch with the guy who runs the refurbishing site in a Nashville "correctional development facility".

I should mention here that his last name is Wilson.

It only took him about a week to have the new custom wheelchair ready to go! It then took us another week or two to have a day to devote to picking it up from the jail, 3 1/2 hours away (see picture above).

To complete our pick up day, we stopped off at a Toys R Us to find a fire engine as a birthday present/Christmas present for Wilson, who had turned 8 just the day before and had a party put on by none other than his new fire fighter friends.

(It wasn't all work. As you can see from the picture at right, the trip to Nashville gave us the perfect opportunity to ring up fellow Texan friends who moved here about the time I moved to Bolivia and we haven't seen since. We had a nice catch-up during our mother daughter lunch on a charming historic downtown square while the Christmas parade passed by!)

This is where we now stand:

My staff is letting the family know that we indeed have the wheelchair and that Wilson should have it by year's end. It weighs over 50 pounds and American Airlines will not let me carry it on since it's not for my own use and is too large for the overhead bin. Secondly, I have embargos and strict rules (and NO exceptions) regulating travel to Bolivia going against me as far as checking it in a box or as excess luggage, so it's proving trickier than I had hoped. I have probably 2 suitcases worth of donations, not to mention my own things, so something has to give but I'm not sure what yet. I can already see I'll have to leave a lot of the clothes and shoes and books I brought as I shed weight on the way back.

I'm in the middle of looking into a host of options before making a decision for the final step on my end of getting this to Wilson. From the beginning I've had Christmas stuck in my mind as a deadline. Christmas doesn't seem to mean as much to Bolivians as it does to us westerners (there carnival reigns), but I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't explore every avenue of getting the wheelchair to Wilson by then.

I will let everyone know how the saga works out, and of course will post pictures when I have them!!

The "Orphan Sunday" event, LIVE!

Through some schedule changing around and quick planning, I was very blessed to be able to attend the Orphan Sunday event LIVE just a few hours from where my family now lives. Definitely a perk to living in Memphis! Or visiting here, ya know.

So Heather (sister) and Emma (sister) and I packed up first thing Sunday morning, November 8, and hit the road for Nashville.

It was a huge treat to go from living on the front lines to sitting in such an electrifying crowd of people obviously “with it” on adoption, orphan care, and loving the unloved.

Still, I think I have just about the best job in the world and prefer to keep the ratio to about 95% “living it” and 5% “talking about it”, but cool all the same.

It was like the United Nations in children or something, passing in a continual parade in front of the back section where we sat. The most stylish accessory of the day was an adopted child, seriously!

All of the speakers were passionate, on topic, had or are adopting – names such as Jim Daly (Focus on the Family President & CEO) and Jedd Medefind (Christian Alliance for Orphans President and former White House staffer) – but the leader in the field I most identified with was Dr. Sharon Ford, of the Colorado Division of Child Welfare Services. She obviously does battle for these kids at every level, is passionate about seeing every one in the best home possible, gets fed up with the bureaucracy that traps innocent kids, and is used to having her heart broken as she pursues the vision. But she has kept at it and not given up, and many children (and families) have been blessed by her dedication!

Then of course, Steven Curtis Chapman was amazing. We had never seen him live before and it was quite an honor. He seems like an incredibly humble, down-to-earth, Godly man. Some of his family was there but I couldn't glimpse them around all the video cameras and cranes.

Just as an aside, what stuck out to me the most and impacted me the most from the entire event was not “save the orphan” (something I’ve already given 10 years of my life to) but how the Chapmans are finding hope in the midst of deep sorrow. I could have broken down and sobbed at just about any point when he was talking or singing because he came back constantly to losing their Maria a year and a half ago. Since I’ve lost two babies this year I could jump onto the same page with him all too quickly. (I know “lost” isn’t the correct word, but when you are not where they are and miss out on watching them grow, it sure feels like a loss...for us down here, anyway.)

Actually the past few months it seems to me like everywhere I turn, someone is working through terrible grief and sorrow. For example, in every sermon of my family’s new pastor here, what I read into it is how to deal with losing someone you love (he lost his mother right before I got here, plus multiple sudden deaths in their church body). As I was thinking on that the other day, I realized that more than “all of a sudden” everyone is losing someone near to them, those are just the high notes that stick out to me at this point in life as I process what has happened this year and the brevity of life.

Even so, I wasn’t the only one getting emotional as he shared the story behind his song “Cinderella” and then played it for us. He also did several songs from his newest album “Beauty Will Rise”. I decided then and there I would get that CD before leaving the US! It’s obvious that SCC is a wise man and has walked through this faithfully for 18 months now. It might be really painful to listen to, but as SCC challenged us at the concert, “We have to anchor our hope to that day that is coming!” And that we must be willing to say, "If my heart must be broken, then that's the sacrifice I am willing to make. I am Yours, God."





On a completely lighter note, at the beginning of the concert while the Children of the World Choir sang, I had glanced down and when I looked up, I swear (except that I don’t) Steven Curtis Chapman was in the aisle not ten feet from me, looking right at me AND WINKING. Now I think, and I hope, that he was communicating something to the sound guys right behind my head and not ME, but I was so shocked to realize who it was, the first time in my life to see him live in front of me, I think my jaw dropped open before nudging Heather. So mature. ANYWAY….

I’ll end what’s become a very long post with a video of SCC and the Children’s World Choir singing a final song together, one of my very favorites, Mighty to Save. As I’ve blogged about before, the line “He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave” has never meant so much to me since January 23 and May 28.

You can see it all with professional filming right HERE in this link to what appears to be the entire broadcast (2 hours and 10 minutes)! http://www.gospelmusicchannel.com/orphansunday

"This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus." Hebrews 6:19-20a

P.S. - Read about our special evening post-concert here!

rest.

FURLOUGH:

a. A leave of absence or vacation, especially one granted to a member of the armed forces.
b. A usually temporary layoff from work.
c. A leave of absence from prison granted to a prisoner.

Permission to take a leave of absence from an organization for a specified period of time.

A regularly scheduled period spent away from work or duty, often in recreation.





When I chose REST as my word-of-the-year back in early January, I was serious.

So even though this year has been extremely full, with more tragedy and challenges than I could ever have imagined as 2009 began, I've also made a point of taking a couple weekends off since my family left in March and finding other moments in the craziness to step back for a moment and...well, smell the roses. I didn't really have a choice if I wanted to hang onto what sanity I still possess!

Now, as mentioned in the above linked post, the time has come to make good on my "mini-furlough" plans. I can still hardly believe it myself, but in just two days I leave Cochabamba for 2 1/2 months!

That is by far the longest since moving here 5 years ago, and in the past 2 1/2 years, I've only been back in the US (Texas) for about 12 days....and spent said time completely worn out from trying to remember how we do things there! Definitely will need to put my own advice to practice as I attempt a graceful “reentry” for a time into my "home" culture.

So, after several weeks of intense organization and delegation, somehow I'm muddling through the goodbyes to the 20 staff members, the volunteers, the 42 children and babies who will grow so much while I'm gone, our lawyers and other friends, Cochabamba International Church's praise and worship team and Monday night women's Bible Study group, to head to Buenos Aires for a little vacation, then Miami to meet with a future volunteer, then onto Memphis and my family!!

This is only possible due to the faithful staff members and volunteers who are willing to increase their load to give me this chance to travel.

A thousand thanks to:

Rosa, Maria, and David, the world's best office team, with matching awesome attitudes, for encouraging me to go

...Katrina & Savannah for sitting through hours of meetings taking notes and receiving dozens of emails from me

...Joe & Denise Holman for talking to me till late one night last week to talk me out of canceling the trip (and ordering me to go and have FUN and spend MONEY, wow!)

...Rehanna, just back from London, for practically high-fiving me and doing a little jig when she found out I was finally taking an extended trip

...and my family for seeming truly excited that I'm coming although I know that at times I'll be like a caged lion! At least I have plenty of catch up work to do, meetings there, and of course will be in touch with the homes throughout the weeks.


So, until I start some catch-up posting, hasta luego...!

budding little artists

Our friends at Orphan World Relief asked for some artwork from our kids to display in up to three art galleries in the US midwest as a fundraiser.

Yesterday Tia Elizabeth turned in these finger paintings from the dozen kids of Casa de Amor II.

Aren't they neat?

The top row is from the 4 oldest, siblings
The next row was all created by 6 year olds
And the bottom row is from the 3, 4, and 5 year olds

Bolivians are so creative! Tia Eli found really pretty paper to use.

It will be very interesting to see what Doug at OWR is able to bring in for these. =)