New Baby Girl

As promised, here are the photos of our newest baby girl.



She was abandonded as soon as she was born, I believe they said that she was born premature. Her mother never even named her. Well, what does a group of mostly women do with a baby that doesn´t have a name? We vote! And we came up with a beautiful name that of course I can´t post. Sorry :) She has a very high risk of having HIV but we won´t know for sure for another 18 months. She just turned 1 month old this week. And as you can see she is TINY compared to the babies we´ve been taking care of for the last 2 months and so so skinny. She came to us with a headcold and is recovering from that. As is normal for a baby her age, she sleeps most of the day. She has her awake times and likes looking around at lights and faces. She´s even smiled a time or two.

Still no word yet on when Baby G will have his surgery. It has been delayed because a certian machine that the doctors need to run a test on him before they can do the operation is broken. So we are waiting for it to be fixed. He has grown SO much since he first arrived. He´s longer, weighs more, has more energy, and can sit all by himself now. Even his hair has gotten darker! I´ll try to get new photos of him up soon.

More updates coming soon!

Happy Easter and Happy Kids Day!

It seems in my life that there are long periods where nothing very exciting happens and then a short period of time when EVERYTHING seems to happen. And when things happen, I'm usually there to take pictures of it.

So this weekend was filled with activities related to both Easter and the Latin American tradition of Kid's Day. The Wednesday before Easter my team had a passover meal complete with some readings. I can remember having the passover meal once before in my life but for the life of me I can not remember when or where I celebrated it. If I was with you would you please tell me? Thanks.

Next was Good Friday. I had the day off of work a the daycare so I went to the girls hope to participate in the activites there. Here it is in pictures.

All of the girls were instructed to think about the sin in their lives and after a time of refection, to write down a sin on a piece of fabric that no one else would see.

Then we all gathered outside and each girl took a turn nailing their sin to the cross.

And when the last nail was nailed, this was the result.
We might never know if this activity really reached into their hearts and minds but they know and God knows, and thats all thats really important anyway.

The next day was celebrated Easter/Kid's Day. We had an easter egg hunt in the park and then some prizes. Here are some pictures from the hunt.

I FINALLY got a group picture, all 22 of the girls!

This is my small group for the hunt.

Searching high and low

And the proud owner of a fistfull of our "easter eggs."

Sunday was Easter. I went to an English speaking International Church and enjoyed a drama and lovely Easter sermon. The preacher for that day was actually the Latin American Director for Operation Harvest, what a nice suprise that was. He is also the man that ran all over Cochabamba with me to help me get my visa. Following the service I hosted a single missionary's potluck in my new apt. There were 8 of us in all and it was a lovely afternoon of food and fellowship. Holidays can be the lonliest times when your away from your family. A small group of us have kinda banded together to be there for each other during those times.

Monday was the Kid's Day celebration at the Daycare. We took all of our 8 kids to a nearby park and let them play on big slides, swings, tire swings, a train ride, etc. The babies were a little less then thrilled but the older kids had a lot of fun.

Check back soon for pictures of baby number 9 at the daycare, she just arrived today and oooooooo she is cute!