2 1/2 weeks till furlough!

I can´t hardly believe how fast time is going! I´ll be visiting the states in no time at all! I am going to miss ¨my¨ kids sooo much as they are all growing and learning new things every single day. However, I do feel I need a break. I know that sounds terrible! We currently have 3 children potty training, 3 children cutting teeth (first teeth and molars), and currently nearly all of them have headcolds of some sort or other. All of this adds up to a lot of crying!

Just last week we added another baby to our home bringing our number of residents to 8. His name is Mateo and was born at 30 weeks (about 7 months into the pregnancy). He was abandonded at the hospital at birth and has struggled with respiratory problems ever since. He came to us weighing about 4 pounds! He is literally smaller then some of the dolls our other kids play with.
In other news... Lucas is finally crawling. We at Pedacito de Cielo have been working on developing his leg muscles for over 6 months. He is also finally starting to try to pull himself to his feet while holding on the furniture. He hasn´t gotten there yet but he´s trying hard!

I don´t have a picture of her, but baby Lily has learned how to roll over and over and over again. She is really kind of comical when she gets herself rolled into a corner that she can´t get out of! She looks at a toy and gets a very determined look on her face...it won´t be long till she starts inching along on her tummy which in turn will lead to crawling. We are all very impressed by how strong and chubby she has gotten in just a few short months!

Over the next several weeks we are expecting several new arrivals. So far I know about 2 more boys with heart conditions, a baby girl with facial deformities that don´t allow her to drink from a bottle, and a little boy that has digestive problems. Very soon PDC will be a full house! And all of them arriving just as I´m leaving, thats makes me sad! But I will have plenty of time to bond with them when I return to Bolivia in late October.

Please be in prayer for all the staff and new volunteers at PDC as we accept all these new little ones. Many of them are undernorished and underdeveloped. Some of them will be requiring surgeries or even multiple surgeries. Please pray also for my time in the states. I need to raise a significant amount of money in order to be able to stay on in Bolivia for another year. My monthly budget is about $1000 and I need about $1400 for my second year visa and health insurance. If you are able and would like to contribute to my support you can mail a check to Operation Harvest P.O. Box 1410 Burbank, CA 91507. Thanks!

Update

As promised, here is some of those photos a mentioned in my last update. I can't help it if my kids are just too cute!

Marcos likes to play with baby Lily. He is the oldest of all our kids and is an excellent big brother

Miguel likes to lick the bowl!

One of volunteers is taking a nap with Baby G in isolation. Glad I had my camera handy. Sorry about the glare!

Unrelated to the pictures above I wanted to share about some things I saw on a recent walk I took.

I sometimes don't notice the everyday sights and sounds anymore. I'm just so accustomed to life here that nothing really surprises me anymore. However, I found myself laughing out loud the other day as I walked home from having dinner with a friend. In one block of Cochabamba I saw: A young couple making out on the curb of the street, both his hands planted firmly on her behind, a hippie/gypsi w/ long long braids and a small guitar on his back talking with some one grilling some food outside a restaurant, and then a young boy peeing against a tree.

The sights I mentioned above are just normal things I see everyday. There are somethings you never get used to and make me want to cry everytime I see it. For example, in the main market, La Cancha, I saw a man half running through the market with a very heavy load literally strapped to his back. It was nearly as big as he was. He ran hunched over. I'm sure if he was upright he would have tipped over backwards from the weight. He was an old man and I almost started to cry. He was a human donkey. No one should ever have to carry a load like that to make a living.

Another time I saw a frail old man sitting on the ground in the main market. On the tarp in front of him was just a few candy bars to sell. I've never seen someone look so sad and so desparate. I'll never forget the day I saw 3 men sitting IN a dumpster sorting through the trash for anything that could be eaten, sold, or recycled.

The smiles on my kids faces, seeing them get stronger and learn new things brings my heart a lot of joy. But I also live in a big city and there are things I see everyday that just break my heart too. I hope this has given you a little more insight into my life here.