New arrivals!!

Just as soon as I posted the group Baby Home picture, it went out of date!! On Friday evening (December 6), Casa de Amor got an early Christmas in the form of four children in need of a new home.

Introducing, according to age....

Brothers LM (age 5) & E (3)

These boys were transferred to us from another children’s home that is shutting down. According to the reports left us by that home, their mother was escaping a violent partner when she came to them for help. She was visiting the boys every week or two and wants to pick them up when she finishes studying. They seem like talkative, happy boys so far! The youngest needs dental work.

Tomorrow (Monday) we'll talk and decide if these boys would be better in Casa de Amor II.  

A, age 2 or 3

Little boy A was brought due to abuse, obviously. We have no further details on him so far. He prefers to be outside and gets upset when brought inside. His first morning in the home, he didn’t want to be touched by anyone and ran crying from the staff.

Baby V., approximately 1 month

This is one of the most pitiful babies we’ve ever had in the Baby Home. His size (2.3 kilos/5 pounds, 4 ounces) reminded me a bit of the triplets, but they were over a pound smaller at his age and still not as sad looking… His story is awful. He was admitted to a hospital in the campo (countryside) by his father and grandfather after his mother (17 years old) tried to kill him by rubbing poison on herself before feeding him. According to the 20 year old father, she then left him on the floor of their shack to die. On November 22, the baby was transferred to our city of Cochabamba for better care. He was released on Monday last week (December 2) but no one had visited and no one came to pick him up, so authorities were notified and he came to us by Friday!

For some reason, his skin is drying and peeling off in sheets. He needs a lot of attention, and I'm so glad that one of our volunteers is caring for him around the clock!


These two cuties arrived on Monday:

V., age 1 year and 5 months (?)

We have very little information about this little girl so far. Apparently her father was very abusive and tried to kill V and her mother. She hasn't spoken a word yet and cries a lot.

Baby F., approximately 4 months

Until we get reports, we know little about this sweet baby except that her mother has health issues and begged social services for help.

Pray for the adjustment of all these new babies and children!!

Special Arrival from the Chapare!

 

 

Introducing one of our beautiful new babies!! The below information is from baby S's sponsorship packet. (For more information about sponsoring her, write our sponsorship coordinator Denise at Denise@casadeamor.org!)


On March 27, we were called about a baby approximately 3 weeks of age just brought in from what is called the “Chapare”, a tropical area a few hours outside Cochabamba, down out of the mountains. As different as this area is, the Chapare is part of the department of Cochabamba and so their children-in-risk pertain to our city.

And so a gorgeous tiny baby girl arrived to Casa de Amor! The baby’s papers state that her mother has seven other children, but has only lived with the youngest the past few years as she has pursued other relationships. This baby's father wants nothing to do with the baby and made that clear, so the mother gave the baby to her neighbors, saying they could have her. Although that couple would love to raise the baby as their own and actually gave her the unusual, beautiful name she arrived with, they did the right thing in notifying authorities.

At this point we do not know if they are presenting papers to request legal guardianship, but it takes 1-2 years for a child’s abandonment papers to go through.

 

 

Baby S has been healthy and a pretty perfect baby since arrival! Next week she’ll go to the doctor for the regular exams. She weighs around 8 pounds.  

 

Depending on any future developments with S’s birth family, Casa de Amor will process papers to so that she will eventually have a forever adoptive family!

  

 

 

Baby S is in the pale green and white outfit. The baby in pink is baby "V".

 

Cute babies!

For our Casa de Amor fans, a few recent pictures of our beautiful babies!!

 

 

Our newest, baby V, has the cutest ways of sleeping... 

 

Spunky Toddler F (those who know her know this hairstyle just suits her!)

 

 

Baby C, growing slowly but surely (Yes, this is a girl - we need some hair!)

 

 

 

Toddler MN - hard to believe that she left today with her new Bolivian adoptive parents!! She was our second oldest at the Baby Home, a spot which will now go to A. who turned two last month.

 

 

O., our oldest at the Baby Home, turned three yesterday! Here she is modeling her new earrings, to replace the others she quickly lost...and one of these was gone by the next morning! Sigh. And she loves earrings so much!

 

 

And a final picture of our chubby cheeked V! (Blogger turned this picture automatically in two tries of uploading it, but I think it's still worth showing.)

 

New Baby Boy for the Booher Family!

I was trying to get up a picture of our new baby before traveling but the server is rejecting the picture for some reason. There will be news soon though!

Meanwhile, pray for the Boohers, a new family serving with us in Bolivia, as they adjust to their first Bolivian baby. :)

Baby Girl!

 

Our newest arrival is an overlapping of my two “jobs”—Casa de Amor and the street population. I’ve known the baby’s family and even extended family for two years now, so I could go that far back in explaining why she is now with us. The story would read a bit like a soap opera, including multiple lovers, another abandoned baby, jail escape, cold-blooded murder….and still, my continual friendship to this whole struggling family, those on the street and those off.

To start at more recent events, my friend M. (20 years old and mother of three) had her newest baby on August 30 in Santa Cruz (another large city in Bolivia). Ever since I took her for testing while she was in jail earlier this year, she has said she would give me this baby. I would only reply that we would talk about that further down the line. Well, once the baby was born she told me to pick a name, that she still planned to give her to me.

Fast forward a few weeks to Sunday, September 23. At 9:51pm, I was talking to my family, a regular Sunday night event for us, when I took another call on my cell phone. M. was sobbing hysterically and I could only imagine that someone had died. That someone was her father, and her mother had killed him. They had fought in their one room home in Santa Cruz and M.'s mother had stabbed the father of her nine children to death. Both were drunk and had even overdosed on sleeping pills. M. said they were waiting for police to come arrest her mother, also essentially mother to her own children, and could I get her in touch with her little brother, leader of my group of street kids. That was a difficult couple of hours, watching the news sink in for I., and going around town to let his sisters and their young families and his aunt know what had just happened.    

Four days later, after burying her father and watching her mother go to jail, M. and her partner bused in to Cochabamba. She called me and I asked “So what do you plan to do in Cochabamba? Are you just visiting?” and in a different, more somber tone of voice she replied “Senorita, I came to leave my baby with you. That’s the reasion I came.” I asked where she was and told her I could meet up with her in an hour. I met the baby at the base of the hill where my street group lives. M. thrust her into my arms saying “Here’s your daughter!” Then she saw my face and nodded as if to say “Yes, it’s true”. I was adjusting to the fact that the baby looked just like someone else we know, currently in jail, and not the father of M.’s other two children…. We sat down on a curb to talk about M.’s thoughts and plans, the implications of this new revelation taking hold.

We went to government offices to talk, and the sweet baby came home with me. Surprise, tias! I kept her with me till the middle of the next morning, getting to know her. As M. has told me by phone since baby N. was born, she has quite a bit of reflux (read: entire bottle can reappear without warning!). I’ve taken her to the pediatrician, who fell in love with our new little 4 kilo “doll”, and we’ll see if the medication and different formula help.

 

Pray for the mother, M., and her partner as they make decisions. There is still time for them to change their mind in the next couple of days, before traveling back to Santa Cruz, and before we notify the court of the situation.

Pray also for baby N.’s health and life… Multiple relatives tried to force M. to either abort the baby, even buying pills to do so, or drown or suffocate the baby after she was born. Here at the Baby Home, she’s the little princess after seven boys in a row and just one toddler girl!

 Baby N loves all the attention!

 

New addition!

Yesterday we got a surprise! In the afternoon we got a call about a one year old. The social worker said no. They kept begging, so she consulted with me. I said the tias would probably say no. So the social worker said no again. She was told it was temporary, two weeks. The social worker still said no, however reluctantly.

Then the social worker left, social services called back, and yep, you guessed it: I said yes.

After a long exchange, mind you!! Apparently when there was no home for the baby, a lawyer at social services was told to look through past inspections of homes, and in doing that they "discovered" that Hogar de Amor Baby Home supposedly had two open spots. Wow!! How interesting that I didn't know that Hogar de Amor Baby Home has two open spots, and I work here. (Not to mention I also live here.)

If anything, our papers say we should have up to a dozen and we actually have thirteen. I explained that the numbers do not matter to us as administration, but rather the workload, and that we have some special needs babies right now and that's why we're full.

How can anyone look at this picture of not even ALL of our babies (taken last night) and say it's too few?!


But they insisted it was just for two weeks, pointing out that they were now 8 minutes away from closing time and the day before a holiday (Happy Aymara New Year!), and the baby had been waiting in their offices all afternoon.

What would YOU do?!

And so this little cutey arrived...

She's kept our ears perked up in periods since her arrival with her strong healthy screams. :)

Getting hair fixed after a good warm bath

All of our oldest little girls look startingly alike (the newest is in the middle). They move a lot so even though this picture is blurry, it was the best.

Please pray for little R's future! In spite of the insistence by those desperate to place her that it's just for "two weeks", I strongly doubt it. Her mother allegedly sold her to another couple, although we have no idea when or of the circumstances. Neighbors reported the deed and the mother was detained. This is the second such case of the week here in Cochabamba and I know from reading news that the mother of the other baby did not end up going to jail, but we have no details on the mother of little R - not even name! Investigating her case will be our homework in upcoming days.

It's a Boy!

Our seventh boy in a row has just arrived!

We have said no to any new babies since baby S last month, but as I mentioned in the very last post, baby A was suddenly whisked off to Casa de Amor III on Friday and they don't plan to give him back! :) I had already had the secret thought that this meant we could probably take in another baby, and we didn't have to wait long - just till Monday!

First picture, mere seconds after landing in my arms. :) He was born on March 7.

Baby P (another Bible name) came from the countryside several hours away. We don't have much information about him yet, but what we do know is he was living in very poor surroundings with his 75 year old grandfather and deaf/mute mother. On Friday, child protection authorities took him to the hospital and he was diagnosed with severe hypothermia.

He arrived quite dirty and as Tia Tomaza and I bathed him, we discovered a bad diaper rash and other rashes on his tiny body.

CUTE!!! He's already stolen all of our hearts...

I weighed him and he's only gained 100 grams from his birth weight (2.8 kilos to 2.9 kilos - a little over 6 pounds), according to the immunization card we have.

Sweet baby... Think I need to go check on him! :)

(Today is my sister Sarah's birthday! It will be easy to remember this baby's arrival date.)

Another baby...BOY!!!

I always say I never know who or what a day will bring around here! Today was already full but I ended up spending a delightful couple of hours this afternoon picking up a baby. :)

A newborn to be exact, apparently born at home right on or before February 12, whose mother tried to suffocate him in the wee hours of the morning today. After that episode, the nurses brought the baby to stay with them, prepared sample packets of formula to give the baby (she hadn't been nursing him anyway), and reported events to the hospital's psychologist (who declares the mother mentally unstable and is requesting more tests) and social worker (who promptly called us)!

I was out making the school pick-up rounds, my new Wednesday job as the Hogar's minivan is otherwise occupied picking up the week's supply of food, when Rosa (our social worker) called me. She said "We say no, right?" I hesitated, as I always do in these situations. We are overrun with babies at the moment, many small babies, so I would've been quicker to say yes to a walking, talking 2 or 3 year old than a 3 DAY old. She read my thoughts and we decided to say no. Well, the dear elderly social worker of the city's main pediatric hospital would have none of it! The only correct answer was yes, and she furthermore threatened "If something happens to the baby tonight, it will be on your hands...!!" So Rosa said yes, then called me back. With the noise of the nine kids now filling my car with happy chatter, and music, of course, I didn't hear the calls to my cell (missed a call from the US too...sorry family!), so she finally tracked me down at Casa de Amor II as I was upstairs going through all the violins my sister left us years back.

Rosa gave me the rundown, so after dropping off two cakes for the afternoon's double first birthday at the Baby Home, I left for the hospital. After visiting my street patient, I went next door to find my new baby. :)

Right before going down the stairs, to the best part: the security guard! As I picked up my ID card, he gave me a double-take. Is that a baby you have in there?? I probably blushed - I wasn't trying to hide him, I just love my slings for the small babies, it's cold and wet today, and I was also holding papers and dealing with constant phone calls and messages. (I didn't answer all of the calls, but a nurse even suggested that I need a secretary - amen!)

I showed him the baby and he sort of freaked out, in a quiet Bolivian sort of way. But...did you have this baby when you came? Or did you HAVE HIM here? Here I couldn't help but join in with a grin: "Yes, I had him RIGHT NOW!" He just kept staring, and now a crowd was gathering to watch the exchange and try to gain a peak at my tiny baby all snug inside.

Finally the guard got over his shock at a gringa taking a newborn from the hospital with only a piece of paper and an immunization card, no mother in sight, and just filled out a paper making notes from my one paper... As he finally turned back my Bolivia ID card, I swore to him this is not the first time I've waltzed out of there with a baby. Gotta love my life. :)

I went straight to our authorities with my tiny warm sleeping bundle to get papers in order. After signing a couple more....he was ours!! :)

I realized during all of this that he didn't have a name, so I immediately gave him one we've had on the "waiting list" for a while, a good strong name that we've never had at Casa de Amor. In fact, Rosa asked for our last new baby a few weeks back to be given this particular name but it turned out he already had one.

It begins with an S and is from the Bible.... Shouldn't be too hard to guess.

Back in the warm, cheery Baby Home, for the tail end of two birthday parties (pictures, which others took for me, to follow)...

Tia Tomaza with the little beauty. (Little O, my stick-tight, was getting a little jealous so as soon as she saw the baby was out of my arms, she jumped into them.)

As many babies as we've gotten lately, this is our first "born in 2012" baby. I was kind of hoping the next would be a girl. I just counted it up, and 6 of our last 7 new ones have been boys! We haven't gotten a girl since Abi and Edgar came back to live with us in July last year, and before that was baby F as my birthday present in May. But actually I just checked, and there are now 8 boys and 7 girls at the Baby Home, so somehow they stay even...

Pray for special grace for the tias and volunteers as they add yet another little one into the round-the-clock routine here. I was told that he's a little jaundiced and last night had a slight fever, and to monitor that.

Also pray for his mother, who weighs on our hearts. According to what little information the hospital could garner, she lives with an alcoholic partner and 5 other children in a shack outside the city. We will be doing investigations ASAP.

And....It's a Boy!

Thanks to recent adoptions (see here and here), we have the joy of being able to say YES to some of the many calls we always receive about more children!

Yesterday we said yes to a 4 year old boy (still waiting for him).

Then we said wait about a special needs 5 year old, until some more children are adopted from CDA II.

Then today we got another call about a 2 month old...who turns out to be younger.

Turns out he was discovered alone in a motel room on New Year's Eve. The lady renting the room said she was going to run out for breakfast, but by 3pm had not returned and the daughter of the owner was alerted by the baby's lusty cries.

Baby A appears to be nearing one month old, same as our other new baby M. (So, both Christmas week babies?!)

Pictures of the welcoming crew...

Tia Rosi LOVES loves babies...

...and was actually the first of us to get her hands on him!

Here's a cool fact: Baby A actually arrived right on the heels of our newest volunteer, Genevieve! I had no sooner started down the stairs from the third floor office to meet her when the doorbell rang and the baby was here! Here she is helping give a bottle.

And here's our other new volunteer, just arrived yesterday - Iris from Holland!

Checking out the two newest babies side-by-side, Baby M (arrived 2 weeks ago today) and Baby A

Fun times! :)

First new baby of the year!

On the very first workday of the year, Tuesday, January 3, I was heading home but had stopped at a fruit stand around the corner first. As I reached for a cantaloupe, I saw with a bit of surprise that I had a call from SEDEGES. This being the authority that sends us kids, my heart lept a bit (because we also are currently in a "receiving" mode!), and sure enough...

I was asked if we had space for a newborn!





I said yes, then was told the details.

The baby, now abandoned, was born with cleft lip/palate and was being fed via feeding tube.

I thought about that for a second: we know some about cleft lip (thanks to twin K), and also about feeding tubes (thanks to the triplets), and are about to have lots of volunteers (to help with surgeries and extra care), and our favorite volunteer nurse Savannah is currently here!

He was supposed to be brought within an hour, but by day's end there was no new arrival. SEDEGES called back and said the "hand over" had been postponed until Friday morning.

But now curious and knowing I had another baby, just in the hospital, I asked for details and went the very next day to visit him. The social worker got me past the security guard, and then while I met the baby and chatted with the doctors and nurses caring for him (what great people!), the same security guard came to announce that a lady had brought a donation of clothes for the baby who was "sick". Apparently, the day before two local news channels had come to interview the hospital staff and learn about the abandoned special needs baby, thus the flow of donations.

I felt much better after visiting, that we were going to be able to handle the baby. First of all, since the night before he was already drinking his milk fine with bottles, no tubes needed. Secondly, they were having a special plaque made for his upper mouth to also help him suction better. Thirdy, he wasn't really tiny or malnourished, as our K had been. He already weighed well over 8 pounds, pretty good in a country where most babies weigh only 5-6 pounds at birth.

Since the baby was born on December 23 (making him 2 weeks old today), hospital staff had played around with different ideas for his name. In the end, SEDEGES won out with the name they chose for his memo. It begins with a M... I like it, and it's always nice when it's not a current (or past) duplicate! :)

This morning I spent a couple hours picking him up with all the proper documentation and instructions. As soon as I got to the neonatalogy room, I scooped him up because he was hollering.....and he immediately settled down and fell asleep. That is, until I had to leave him again to go sign papers with the hospital director! I thought well, there's nothing unusual about this baby...he already prefers to be held! :)

As long as he continues to take milk well, the biggest challenge I can see is the twice daily cleaning of his little plaque, and then returning it to its proper position with some special "glue". When the baby weighs 5 kilos (11 pounds) he will undergo his first surgery.

All we know of the mother is that she just turned 19, is from the countryside, and showed signs of rejection even before he was born. The birth was difficult and when the baby emerged, the cord was around his neck and he needed oxygen and incubation for 6 days. He also had a systemic infection requiring antibiotics. When the mother first saw him, her reactions were even stronger and she refused to hear anything about him, even when staff tried to explain that his condition is operable. On December 26 she left the hospital and didn't return. (We will carry out all necessary investigations.)


Passing him off to the tias this morning! When we got to the house, the very first child to greet us was actually Twin K, visiting from Casa de Amor III for the weekly speech therapy classes. Looking at her, doing so well now after two surgeries, made me think of the long road ahead for baby M, but how worth it it will be!



From there we sat down with the tias in the playroom to introduce the baby to the older children in particular, who were already making faces and all sorts of shocked comments about the new baby's mouth and nose. I explained that baby M was born this way, just as our little girl J was born with different eyes. It will take some getting used to, but we recalled how very quickly they adapted to J's special needs!

(Little boy B only now met the new baby because he had a play day at Casa de Amor II. Once again highlighting how unique every child is, he dashed over to meet the new baby, pointed and declared with his ever present smile "LOOK, the baby has a BEAK!" and dashed off to another room...!)

Open your eyes, baby... :)


About HALF of the mountain of gifts we were sent off with this morning at the hospital! More clothes than any one newborn could use, a heap of soft blankets, socks, diapers, baby wash, 3 brands of formula, two diaper bags, and more. What a blessed little baby already!


Addendum: ironically, the mother went to the hospital today looking for the baby, about an hour after I had brought him home. However, it seems her intentions were anything but good, so the hospital was relieved that he was already legally here with us!

new baby boy

Last week on Thursday, I had a busy day out doing all sorts of errands including Christmas stuff, and came home to a surprise!

There was a new baby in our playroom...



Baby K is supposedly 6 months old.



I say "supposedly" because we suspect he might be a bit older, for his development and because he eats food so well.


Some of the babies...

Baby K hanging out by Baby G (having just finished playing Baby Jesus for our annual nativity scene)!

Baby K's mom is just 18 and has an unstable relationship with the father. When she found out she was pregnant, she pressed charges for rape, but then changed her mind, withdrawing charges and asking for child support instead. Last week the father pressed charges on the mother, asking for the baby to be taken away because she wasn't properly caring for him....never having given a cent of child support!

Anyway, we will soon start our investigations to see what the future might hold for this content, chubby baby.

Update: we just got his immunization card and Baby K (spelled with a C there, hmm...) IS almost 7 months old. His birthday is the day before mine and thus the same day as our little girl B AND baby F - May 23!

our new set of babies

We currently have a BIG group of babies!

There are 16 total* in the Baby Home right now, 9 of those ages 1-12 months. It gets wild and wooly sometimes!!

We've turned down at least 3 babies since baby G arrived end of July... Yesterday it was a 6 month old that social services was desperate to place, but what to do? We lack hands as it is now.

*Our 13 month old F is currently with a sweet missionary family for health reasons

Some pictures!

Most of our babies...

(Little J was at blind school and baby C was taking a bottle in the arms of a tia during the pics)

See M, far left? Fit-throwing is the norm when I'm anywhere near him but not holding him

Babies, babies, everywhere...

Some of the youngest:
newest baby G (1 month), baby C (3 months), baby G (6 months), and baby F (3 months day after picture made) giving a little wave - most certainly to her mother Savannah... :)