Birthday!

This post is a little late in coming, considering Sh's birthday was November 16th, but the pictures are too fun not to share! 

The birthday girl was very excited. She requested a princess themed party and asked that the boys NOT be invited! 

Greeting her party guests. All of the volunteers were able to make it!

Tia Hannah really delivered on the Princess theme with this fun Pink Castle Cake!

Getting ready to take a bit of the cake. I LOVE this picture of B and SH (Sisters). B's expression is trying to portray the fact that she ISN'T planning to push her older sisters head into the cake : ) 

A Bolivian tradition!

A few more party guests : )

'A' the oldest of the girls decided she was going to be the party 'payasa' or clown!

Everyone wanted to help out with the babies in attendance : )

It was a special day and I'm so glad that I got to share it with this special girl!

My Baby (...sort of) Part 1

It's been more than three years since my first trip down to Cochabamba and over that time I've gotten to know many wonderful kids.

Some of those kids have moved on to join families all over the world, some of them have been adopted by families in Coch or by staff members of CDA, and some kids are still here with us in one of our four 'hogares'.

During my second trip to Cochabamba, there was a Scabies outbreak at the baby home. If you don't know much about scabies, I'll just go ahead and tell you that it's miserable and very difficult to get rid of!

At this point I was living at Casa Dos, the big kids home and we were somehow saved from getting the plague! 

One day, during the epidemic, Jennifer was telling the volunteers about a new baby that had arrived and how a family from our church had offered to foster the baby for a while so that she wasn't introduced to the scabies. It was a good temporary situation while the staff and volunteers were working to get rid of the contagious skin infection.

After hearing the story I told Jen that if anymore babies arrived and needed a place, I would be happy to foster one at the big kids house for a week or two. I figured it would be good for the older kids to have a baby around, and they could even help take care of him. (I also assumed it would be about a two week stay at the most!)

The next day, I got a call from Jennifer asking if I had been serious about my offer to foster a baby, because she had one for me. That afternoon, Three-month-old "E" arrived, and he stayed with us at Casa Dos for 6 weeks! 

"E" went everywhere with me! Church, choir practice, Bible study, Spanish school, not to mention all of my CDA shifts! 

There were a lot of bottles, a lot of diapers and a lot of sleepless nights. It was a completely new experience for me, to be entirely in charge of a tiny human being! 

 I had to take "E" to the baby home once the scabies were gone. I wanted to keep him with me, but there were several reasons why that wasn't best. For one, I wasn't going to be in Bolivia forever, and the longer I spent 'mothering' this  baby, the harder it would be on both of us when I left. He was also (in a way) getting spoiled. He had my undivided attention at all times and the sad truth was that eventually he would move into the baby home, which is arguably the best baby home in the city, but still could never compare to the love and care of a parent. 

Finally, it wouldn't have been fair to the older kids at Casa Dos for me to keep "E" any longer. I was living with the big kids and still working my shifts, but all of my extra time was going to this little one, which wasn't a bad thing, but I had made a commitment to work with the older kids and I wasn't able to do everything I wanted with them when the majority of my time was going to infant care! 

I LOVED having "E" with me. When I left in 2011, "E" was set to be adopted but like so many cases, it fell through. "E", my baby is still with CDA and it's amazing to see how he's changed and grown over these three years.

....to be continued

Orange Juice Assembly Line

Well, school vacations have begun and we are trying to stay busy here at house 2! (Idle hands and all that!) So yesterday we decided to take advantage of some of the awesome fresh fruit we have at our disposal! 

Such hard-working and mostly concentrated workers! 

Somehow the above scoundrel managed to get out of helping but decided to stop by for a picture... 

Great Face! 

And the juice was delicious! 

Please pray for us over the rest of the 'summer' vacation as we look for fun ways to keep the kids busy and happy! 

Kaley

Inconspicuous?

I don't love standing out while I'm here in Bolivia, but somehow, when I was walking down the street with one blond American, a redheaded Danish girl, and a crazy tall blond Dutch girl, all of whom were toting small Bolivian children; there was no way to be inconspicuous! 

Movie Time!

There is something so cozy and comfortable about having all of the kids in one place, watching a movie, eating popcorn. 

The kids have to earn the privilege of watching Friday night movies, and let me tell you, it really works as an incentive! 

And what movie night would be complete without a big bowl of popcorn?

So fun! 

Tia, why did you cut your hair????

Most of the girls here at house two are extremely talented hairdressers, and by coming back with short hair, I have perplexed them greatly. But they are still trying to make something of it!

1 Thessalonians 5:17

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Pray without ceasing".

I know in our world there is always something or someone to pray about. But there is no reason that we can't live our lives constantly in prayer....

So this week, I ask that you take a moment and pray with me for these two young ladies;

"B" the younger sister is a precocious 5 year old, who a lot of times ends up taking care of her older sister "S"

"S" is a cheerful and very imaginative almost 7 year old. Sadly she "S" has 'FAS' or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which you can read about here. 

Because of the FAS "S" sometimes has trouble focusing when instructions are being given and sometimes winds up getting herself into trouble because of that. 

I really believe that what she would benefit from most would be a committed Mother and Father who were working together to make sure that they were giving her the attention and training she needs in order to have a happy childhood and a successful and Godly life.

Younger sister "B" was quite young when she arrived at Casa de Amor, but has some memories of her life before. She makes references to her mother and father, who are both gone for good. I found it was usually when she was being punished for something when she would defiantly tell you from her timeout spot that her Mother and Father were coming to punish you and that they would be very upset we were treating her this way. 

(Though this behavior was both disobedient and unhealthy and had to be dealt with, it still could be pretty funny to have a four year old tell you with complete confidence that you were going to be sent into timeout and that you should wait and see how you liked it!)

My heart breaks for them, these two precious, hilarious and loving girls who so far have not known what it means to have parents, or a 'normal' family life.

So please pray for "S" and "B". 

• Pray that paperwork and courtdates and all of the legal battles that have to be won are miraculously expedited
• Pray that these girls will not grow bitter or sad during this season of waiting.
• Pray for the Tias who are working with them on a daily basis, pray that they will be given extra measures of patience and wisdom when dealing with these Children.
• Pray for the parents God has waiting for them. Pray that they are even now preparing mentally and emotionally to train up these girls in the way they should go. 

THANKS FOR PRAYING!! I head back in 25 days! I can't believe it!

-Kaley