Child #80 Arrives!

Eighty children through our doors in 4 years, that is, with 36 currently under our roofs! It sure took long enough for this one to arrive, and now he's practically our Christmas present!

He's actually a transfer from another Baby Home, something we rarely do (although every time I can think of, the transfers always take place the month of December, now that I think of it...). However, it's a unique story. A few weeks after Newborn C arrived to us (in August), her grandmother tracked her down to visit and in the course of interviewing her, she informed us that C had a brother a mere 16 months older. He has lived practically all his life in another home in Cochabamba, but to be able to process their papers for adoption, obviously they need to be within the same organization. We immediately said we'd bring him to us rather than send her to live with him, and as it turns out, the other home was so worried we'd force them to take the baby they would barely talk to us about any transfer.

To make a long story short, after over three months of working on this, everyone finally got their act together and Toddler B joined his Baby Sister C yesterday evening at the Baby Home!! (And as more needless trivia, their mother's name starts with A.) He was very quiet and sad until this evening, when I took this picture of him having a great time playing with another toddler:

What a cutie! Tomorrow while everyone is dressed up for Christmas I'll get a better picture of him with his sister. Better done before we shave his head (lice).

It was a new feeling to introduce one sibling to another and see them in the same room together for the first time in their lives! Not that either is old enough to take it all in, but I was there at the moment. {grin} (The baby in pink is his 4 month old sister.)

So, that's the news on the new one! Just a few other tidbits from a very full day (seemed like 2 in 1!): Twins E & E are out of "isolation" and are nearly cough-free, yeah! The cough has passed through the Baby Home but is not too bad at this point. (Pray for my "medical" helper Katrina who seems to be down with the same thing.) I was blessed to arrive to HDA III this afternoon and find that the Christmas gifts they were preparing for all the kids were not ready yet but because they were busy washing and feeding a street mother and her 5 young children AND washing their clothes (and the baby has a horrific, nasty skin infection). One of our lawyers came by and donated clothing from her almost-2-year-old-twins (also boy and girl). Had a very nice chat tonight with adoption reps as I delivered them a Christmas card with my Dad...then we finally got to my family's by almost 9pm. It is STILL raining tonight, we are nearly flooding away here.

Can't wait till tomorrow to take lots of Christmas pictures of my babies and kiddos!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

(Camouflage) Christmas Angel

Anyone seen a camo angel before? I had not. Until my sister Emma brought me some homemade angels, made to represent her three sisters (because we're angelic, of course).

The lovely camo angel...although I imagine that's the wrong adjective entirely for it:


God even gave my sister these really amazing camo colored EYES:


Hanging out with one of her favorites (she gave him his first bottle when he arrived to us 2 years ago), also sporting camo. This particular evening her mission was to wrestle approximately 7 active toddlers into their crib or bed. Announcing victory:


We're expecting a call soon. Looks like maybe just maybe the new child we've been expecting to arrive for months now is coming to us TODAY, yeah! (Not that there aren't others waiting to come, but he's the most urgent since his baby sister is already with us.)

Hey, there are now exactly a dozen "baby lovers" following our adventures! Thanks, everyone!

Baby Picture Sunday

This week's theme for "Baby Picture Sunday" at "Who Says Eight is Enough?" is Christmas Morning.

Christmas 2004 (just two little boys in this picture, and folks, that was half of the kids at that point!)

Christmas 2005, Baby Home (well, the only home we had at that point)


Christmas 2006, Baby Home

(See sleeping baby A's gifts?)

Big sister lends a hand to sleeping beauty

Christmas 2006, Hogar de Amor II

Christmas 2007, the initial rush on gifts at Hogar de Amor II!

And finishing with (another) favorite from last year, from the second floor balcony at the Baby Home!

Christmas 2007

The Never-Ending Day.....and Staff Christmas Party!

I was hoping to have a chance to blog somewhere around midnight last night but, well.....the day was not done quite yet, never mind that it started at 8am with a meeting with the director of SEDEGES (the government agency we work the most closely with) and didn't let up the entire day long. I didn't even see 2/3 of my family.

But anyway, Twin E had other plans for me besides blogging and sleeping. Like a trip to the Emergency Room. Don't worry--just a miserable cough/cold that wouldn't let him sleep (or the other babies or us, for that matter). When I walked into the ER, the dear nurse on duty gave me and my beautiful-but-miserably-snotty-and-pitiful baby a condescending look and asked as her first question "Why did you not bring him in this afternoon?!" AHHHH LORD HELP ME HERE before I do something regrettable!! Does this lady actually think I love being hospitals so much that I purposely bring my baby out on the cold rainy night a mere 5 days before Christmas rather than snuggling in bed reading with hot chocolate (okay I don't have any hot chocolate, but it's a nice thought) after an already super long busy day, rather than coming in the daytime like normal people would??? What if I have so little time that there was not a spare second to even think about bringing him in. Because our medical appointments of the day had to do with the continual adjusting of B's hearing aids and another appointment where I'm told that Baby V could very well have cerebral palsy. AND (and here's the reason that counts) what if he was fine all day long but all of a sudden at 11:30pm took a turn for the worse? I believe that is why there are such things as Emergency Rooms, people.

Personally I think they were having a pretty boring night and we livened it up....like when the doctor (who sees me at this clinic all the time) started drilling me with personal questions about why I haven't married a Bolivian yet and don't I want to have babies of my own (and how many exactly)? Well at least he thought it cool that I'd like anywhere from 8 to a dozen, and he says he's sure I'll have twins because I'll know how to handle them. ;-)

Sooo anyway, just had to get that out of my system. And, oh yeah, now Twin E is isolated (dr's orders) in the physical therapy room which makes things decidely more complicated in the Baby Home (and poor him). Sigh. 'Tis the season for our babies to have coughs/colds they can't shake. It would be amazing if this December/January we didn't have any hospitalized... The one bright spot is that no one else has his cough, currently speaking.

And the cheerier news of yesterday: we had another lovely annual staff Christmas party/gift exchange! It's always fun to see the caregivers and cooks and physical therapist and everyone else dress up for a change, let their hair down, put on high heels, and jewelry without fear of babies yanking it off, and relax without the backdrop of crying or yelling or fighting kids (not that our kids do that. I'm just sayin'). It was also a fun surprise to see how many tias arrived with new hair styles! A few pictures:

Giving Tia Roxana her Christmas gift basket (the expected gift from employer to employee in Bolivia...which I learned the hard way)

Enjoying a steak dinner with all the trimmings (in Bolivia, this does not cost as much as one might think, and even better this restaurant worked out a special deal with us)

Dessert: homeade cookies my Mom spent a couple days preparing

And finally, the group picture of the evening! We are so many it's too far back to see anyone very well. The party included subs for vacations, violin teacher, part time staff--everyone.

If this post seems like an odd mixture of sick babies and a party and Christmas, well that's our crazy life in the homes! It all goes hand in hand, every single day. =)

The Little Lost Boy

We're at one week and counting for parents or someone to come in and claim this cute kiddo, so guess it's time to introduce him to our reading audience. Poor little guy. He was found at the door to the main cemetery here, and supposedly according to the officials who brought him, some people have come in looking for him but apparently they are not relatives?? (Perhaps he was abandoned there?) And so, we wait.

I think there's something special about getting a child around Christmas. Well actually I think ANY time is a special time to take a new baby or child into our family, as is obvious by the fact that anywhere from 15 to 22 new kids join our Hogar de Amor family annually. =) But at Christmas it's extra special, and you know what he says his name is? (Okay I realize I'm breaking from my rule of no names and pictures in the same place online, but just had to put this.) Gabriel. Even a Christmas-y sort of name! The made-up name he was given is very common, besides getting no response from him, so we're sticking with Gabriel at the moment, even if we have, hm, 5 Gabriels/Gabrielas already not to mention the 2 who have been adopted.

And it's neat that he makes an even dozen kids at HDA II. Even numbers are nice. There are even 6 boys and 6 girls.

He's had some sad nights missing his parents. Other than that he's integrated well into the rhythm of the home, and in fact is reportedly the most well behaved child (doesn't know who to fight with yet, haha). Obviously we do not know how old he is if we barely got his name out of him (which he only said once but seems to answer to), but he's the same size as our very short 3 1/2 year old and other 2 year olds that I have. We guess he's around 2 1/2 and speculate he's either lived on the street or "worked" on the street alongside someone who sells things in the market....or begs by the cemetery? He has some ways of interacting with the caregivers that seem to point to him having lived with a blind person. Now if we can just teach him to use the toilet instead of the floor...

Maybe we'll know his story someday, maybe not. But meanwhile, he's in a happy home with a roof over his head, food to fill his stomach, medicated cream for his sores, and "mothers" to watch over him, NOT lose/abandon him. Welcome, little wanderer!

(I'll try to get more pictures of him later today. The above pic is on his arrival, on his way upstairs for a good scrubbing bath!)

Update, 11:29pm: He's gone! Some people not even his parents (apparently a long story that we were told very little of) have taken him back, with government approval and three witnesses to vouch that he will not be abused with them (I would assume that would include losing him). And his name? Turns out it's Juan Carlos. Funny, cuz we also have that name already...

Special visitors...and news!

Last week, we were very very blessed by the fourth visit from one of our first and always faithful supporters, Ben Whisenant. He was accompanied by Bryan Doyle, Missional Life Pastor at First Baptist Church McKinney, Texas.

They were a great encouragement to us and even better are creatively leading their church to play a bigger role in the ministry here in Bolivia.

So here's the news: soon we'll have a new addition in ways to support the homes: child sponsorship!! We've felt led to this for a while now, both due to popular request and the realization that a "connection" to one of the children is very powerful, but I haven't had the time or full motivation to just go for it. However, meeting with Pastor Bryan easily brought me to the tipping point. I mean, how could I resist when he spoke of their THREE WEEK mission conference to be held in April 2009, and how they will announce the need to their thousands of members, and the big display table Casa de Amor will have, and they would expect every HDA child to garner 4 to 5 monthly sponsors in that event alone?!

Pastor Bryan also spoke of sending a professional photographer next month from Texas, to spend a few days with us taking pictures of each child and filming a video to be shown at FBC McKinney during the missions month. Wow, how could we say no?! With all of this "jump start" support, we can easily take the sponsorship opportunity to our home church, other churches, our website, etc.

Here's something to think about: would any of you former volunteers be interested in helping me design the child sponsorship packets, and/or assist with the communication process between HDA and the sponsors? Please let me know as we begin to put the details of this in place! I'm excited about the possibilities as I begin the process of researching other existing programs, creating our guidelines, and writing up short histories/bios on our kids. I still need to be cautious of increasing my administrative load here in Bolivia, since that's already way heavy, but with more help "the sky's the limit". Fun!

Christmas Babies =)

Trying out this video thing, so if it works, here's my first blog video addition!

The baby twins were cooing and so happy after our outing to church in their Christmas finery, I just had to film them a minute. Don't you just want to hold them?! And coo back? (Although please don't listen to me doing it in the video...it's just that boy G prefers a two sided conversation or else he quiets down.) And feed them their bottles which can take forever? Then change their diapers?

Okay I won't torture any of you baby-lovers with more...but they are CUTE! I might have found an adoptive family today for them in the restaurant, not to mention at church (if such a thing were permissible, of course). And if you wonder their age, they were rescued 3 months and 2 days ago, so they are that or a little more.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Baby Picture Sunday

This week's theme at "Who Says Eight is Enough?" is "Peace on Earth".

Maybe it's the number of babies and toddlers I live with, but nothing says "peace" to me better than SLEEP....

Baby E, at 9 months old

Baby J, 1 month

Baby S at a few months, now adopted



Baby J again, 1 month

Baby V, a few days old in 2006, now adopted

Babies G & G, at almost 2 months

Ummm....makes one tired just seeing all those shut eyes! So before I fall asleep looking at four years worth of oh-so-cute baby pictures and reminiscing, better get back to addressing Christmas card envelopes for the friends at church. :-)

Sleeping through an earthquake, and other events of the week

Some of the anticipated items of this really full week, coming off a really full weekend of visitors, birthday parties, and helping with babies:

• Receive two important visitors from Texas who were here only 3 packed days (Monday morning through Thursday morning)


• Send off volunteer Melanie (Monday night)


• Welcome next volunteer Elizabeth (Tuesday)


• Put on a two-day nutrition seminar for about 16 of our staff members with two nutritionists (Thursday & Friday)...which, if I do say so myself, was a smashing success, woo-hoo!
  

Others I did NOT anticipate:

• Receive little lost boy, who now may or may not be temporary as was told us


• Sleep through 3 tremors, from 4.1 to 4.5 on the Richter scale, around 4am Friday morning (most everyone felt them except for me.....I'm a heavy sleeper but beyond that, it was an intense week, people!!) New addition to my list, since the experts are saying we could have a much worse one at any time: emergency plan for homes in case of major earthquake
  
• Find new house for HDA II after 11 months of almost constant searching?! More soon...


• Receive 26 emails on Friday, mostly personal...with nearly as many emails the other days, too

In other news, both of the local adoptions we have in progress passed milestones this week. We're trying not to get our hopes up, but maybe just MAYBE both of the babies can be in their new forever families by Christmas?? If not, the whole process is still well on track with NO DELAYS YET!! That is really a miracle, folks. I do not know of any other local adoption that is not derailed currently. I've heard that SEDEGES (the gov't agency we work with constantly) will change hands again in January, so it would be sooo much better if these adoptions could be done by then. It would also be better for other children, since we have a waiting list going for space in the Baby Home.

We also thought we were approaching a funding issue (i.e., not enough money in the bank to cover extra end-of-the-year expenses), but THEN we saw God working and we'll be fine, PTL!!

So, in a very small nutshell, that was my week, plus a Girl Scout award ceremony with my family and sister Emma last night and now this weekend is full of Emma's 10th birthday celebrations! As she put it last night, living 10 whole years is something to be happy about! She also imagined living 90 more years (to a 3 digit number, of course) and how many friends she would be able to make in that time. I admire that. If I think of living to be 100, I imagine all the things I could accomplish, haha. Like actually see my task list emptied and all those dozens of emails tended to.... Speaking of which, I really need to get out of this comfy chair and start my Saturday chores so that I'm done in time for Em's birthday party (which involves horses, of course).

Snow!

Well, sort of. This week we had a great snow in the mountains surrounding Cochabamba, on the lower sections as well as the peaks. I imagine (and know my Dad would agree) that here we have the best scenario: enjoying the stunning beauty while wearing sandals and sunglasses and eating ice cream in the valley. =)


Panaramic view we woke up to Thursday morning (taken from 3rd floor office balcony). The low lying clouds were slowly rising above the peaks...

It's fascinating to me to have palm trees in the foreview of snow capped mountains...

Announcement to HDA volunteer-wanna-bes

I know it's a busy time of year, but for you dozens of people who have written us reqesting more information on volunteering (you know who you are!), just a friendly reminder that NOW would be a great time to let us know what you are thinking. It would be nice to see from our end how we'll be with help in 2009.

So have a seat and fill out that application! Or go ahead and send your questions if you're undecided. (Yes, I realize the application is long and daunting, but honestly there's just one reason behind that: before we're stuck with you for 6+ months, cuz many of our volunteers find they can't leave and end up staying in Bolivia, we want to be sure we'll like ya! Well, and our kids/staff, too. We want it to be a great placement for all involved,)

I'll also take the opportunity to welcome back British volunteer Elizabeth, already in fine form and caring for multiple babies at once as the picture shows. She was one of our very first volunteers in 2004, as far as once we had kids. In fact, I can still remember which number she was: 2! Long term volunteer #1 became engaged while serving with us then went back to the states to get married and have her first child. SO needless to say, she hasn't been back (yet). Whereas I'm still here after all this time. Single. "Mother" to so many children I occasionally can't even remember exactly how many. *sigh*

So anyway, back to the point: we hope to be hearing from some of you...soon!

A sneak peek at our Christmas cards!!

As a follow-up to the last post, here are the Christmas cards created from the winning manger scene photo session!

To be sent to our amazing supporters in the US:


If you are reading this and have sent us a donation recently, please forget that you saw it here first and act veryyy surprised when you open the envelope from us. =)

And to be given to our wonderful friends in Bolivia:

See? It pays to give to Hogar de Amor. ;-)

Unto us is born a Savior...

Drum roll, please!










Announcing the first annual Hogar de Amor..........














Nativity photo session!

What FUN!

And "baby Jesus" was nearly perfect...

Baby Picture Sunday

Taking up the invitation at "Who Says Eight is Enough?", here we go again this week!

Some Baby Home Christmas pictures...

December 4, 2005

December 24, 2005

December 25, 2006

December 22, 2007

My sister Heather enduring enjoying the happy chaos

December 24, 2007

Can't resist showing the "behind the scenes picture" which some smart person thought of taking (my Dad?). Cracks me up every time I see it! (This ain't easy, folks.)

What memories will Christmas 2008 bring.....