Happy 1st Birthday Lucas!

Oh birthdays are so much fun, even if they are a ton of work and the baby will never remember it! This last Saturday we celebreated baby Lucas' first birthday. This will be much easier to tell in pictures. This is Lucas and his father, Lucas is wearing the clothes his father bought him for his birthday.


I'm not that familiar with his story but I believe his mother has already passed away from HIV/AIDS. His father is unable to care for him but visits with him frequently. Along with his father, we had quite a crowd come together for this birthday including his grandmother, cousins, and other relatives. This is Lucas with his grandma.


The Tias made a typical Bolivian dish called Pique Macho. And boy did we ever eat!

And of course there was the cake!


And this is Lucas trying to catch and eat a balloon and I couldn't help but add a picture of Lily smiling.


The beginning of the party was a little rough for Lucas. He was very overwhelmed and doesn't know his biological family. If he couldn't see me he flipped out a little. As time went on he relaxed and seemed to be having a good time. And lastly, he pooped out!

Maybe I should have taken a picture of the pile of dishes the Tias and I were left to wash...

Like giving birth

"Its like giving birth!" is what came out of my mouth as another missionary friend and I were trying to get my full sized mattress up my 3 flights of stairs to my apartment. We were halfway there and I was on the pushing end, she on the pulling end. She kept saying "PUSH!" and I kept saying "I AM PUSHING!" and it just reminded me of a woman in labor! We all got quite a laugh out of it, including my bolivian neighbor :) This mattress purchase came after two months of waking up with sore back muscles cause my apt came with a very typical Bolivian mattress... foam. And seeing as I'll be staying in Bolivia for some time to come, I thought it would be a good investment. I don't know a single other missionary in Coch that hasn't bought a good mattress! So that was this weekends adventure. I also helped a friend give away one of her 3 dogs at the doggy market.

So my blogging has kinda slowed down, I apologize for that. I don't have internet in my house and I have very little time to sit in internet cafes and generally have a lot of other corresponding to do during that time. My weeks are pretty typical these days as I am working full time at our daycare. The kids are all growing by leaps and bounds and learning new things everyday. I had a missionary friend visit from Sucre last week and it was so good to see her again and catch up on each others lives. I know her from WAY back in the day as we grew up in the same church.

I turned 28 this last week and enjoyed a couple of meals out (and free to me!) and taking a day off of work. I have been very healthy for a couple of weeks now thanks to some new vitamin supplements I have been taking. I attended an AIDS seminar this last weekend and honestly didn't learn anything I didn't know before. But I'm glad there are professionals who are willing to educate people on what HIV AIDS is and how it is and is not passed from person to person.

Baby G's surgery is scheduled for July 3rd. One of the girls from the home has been placed with her Aunt, Uncle, and cousin. We are looking forward to June and July being very busy months as we host 4 different short term teams. I am plannning to take my second furlough Sept 18th through the last week of Oct.

Last night I saw a motorized cart pulling a kids train with 2 big and 1 small horse trotting along behind it with riders on them. This was on one of the main streets in town. Very very random!

I think thats all the updates for me right now. Look for my email update coming out in June for updates on some of our kids and more pictures! Here are a few pictures of me working with my kids.

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!

This and that

Things have been going well in the ministries of Niños con Valor. An update on the day care is that our three resident babies are all doing well and almost all are healthly. Baby G came home after 1 1/2 weeks in the hospital to clear up an infection. Baby G still has a pretty nasty cold and has in turn given it to me. There is not a whole lot you can do when a baby sneezes right in your face! He has a good attitude though, much better than mine! Also, all of our daycare kids have returned, praise God! Two of them have been temporary residents as their mother feared for their saftely as she separated from her abusive husband. So on an average day we have 6 babies and 2 older kids to care for. A weight check shows that Pablo has gained weight as well as Raul. Baby G, due to his continued sickness and hospital stay, has not gain any weight.

The girls in the girls home are hard at work going to school and doing homework. They have just enough time in the day to still be little girls and play with Barbies and do other activities. I still hope to start English classes with them as well as a Bible Study for the older girls. But right now my help is more needed in the daycare.

On the Spanish side of things, I continue to take classes 2 days a week at my newly reopened and restructured language school. I really like their teaching style and have been with them for many months. I was happy to learn that I could continue learning there at the same rates I had before. I have a LOT of practical application as I communicate with our Bolivian workers on a daily basis. If I had to guess at my spanish level I would say low intermediate. Intermediate is a HUGE part of spanish and has 2 or 3 levels. Some missionaries never get beyond this point as they have enough Spanish to get by on, I don´t want to be like that though. I still struggle with not knowing proper names for things and verbs I don´t have reason to use on a daily basis. Everytime I get frustrated I have to remind myself how far I´ve really come.

My financial support has had its ups and downs not unlike the US stock market! I had a scare in Feb as half of my suppport didn´t come in for the month. And then March it was almost back to normal. I know that God will take care of me so that I can finish my two year term this coming fall. Thank you always for your prayers and support!

The dream becomes reality

Welcome to Pedacito de Cielo NCV's daycare and orphanage with children with compromized immune systems. This transition into an orphanage hasn't been "smooth" but it has finally been successful. We currently have 3 babies staying in our home around the clock. For the sake of privacy I can not list their real names. However I can tell you a little bit about them, so here we go.

First of all we have Guillermo.

Baby G is currently in the hospital recovering from an infection that he had before he even came to stay with us. Here is an excert from a friends entry about his condition.
"He was abandoned early on by both his mother and father and then shortly after, his grandparents. He has battled chronic pneumonia and malnutrition. Guillermo just turned one year this month, but he is small and underweight for his age (about 16.5lbs/7kgs) due to early neglect as an infant, and also because of a heart condition he has, tetralogy of Fallot. This is a rare congenital defect that causes blood to not be oxygenated properly (find out more here- http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/UVAHealth/peds_cardiac/tf.cfm). There is a connection between alcohol and drug consumption during pregnancy and tetralogy of Fallot, and since Guillermo was originally found lying on the street next his passed out mother, this is a definite possibility.

On Sunday, Guillermo started turning blue, so we brought him to the hospital so he could be put on oxygen. He had just left the hospital after having been in for four months battling pneumonia, so we were very sad to have to put him back in, but his blood oxygen levels were dangerously low, compounded with a severe infection. He is doing better now, but is in poor spirits as he’s very bored and uncomfortable. We have round the clock staff caring for him in the hospital, trying to keep him happy and distracted, but it’s a difficult task.

Guillermo is in desperate need of surgery. We knew this was going to be a reality for him, but we didn’t think it was going to be needed so soon. Because he is so underweight, we wanted to get his weight up, and then plan for the surgery, but after several consults, we’ve been advised that the risks of operating on him sooner outweigh the risks of waiting for him to gain the weight.

While we are looking into several charities that provide services at a lower rate, there are long waiting lists for these, and we do not have that kind of time. We’ve been advised that the costs will be at least $5000 for this surgery. This is an extraordinary cost here in Bolivia, but as we are working with the best cardiology department in the country, and this is a very rare surgery, we knew that the costs were going to be high. The government has already stated that the universal healthcare for children under 5 will not cover the surgery, so we must cover the costs."

Even with all the hardships in his young life he is such a happy baby and I want to see him have this surgery and get better and live a full long life. His smile is worth a thousand words don't you think?

And then we have Pablo.

He is 8 months old but very developmently behind. He can't roll over or sit up by himself. He is one of our babies that is at-risk for having HIV but its to early to tell. A doctor came to visit all our kids when they first arrived and then came to check on them again just yesterday. He didn't recognize Pablo as the same baby! Good, that means he getting chubby :)He is currently struggling with a very bad cold and is not sleeping well. It doesn't seem to have affected his appetite though! He also has a smile that will steal your heart :)

And lastly we have Raul.

In this picture he is holding hands with his "girlfriend" who is one of our girls that comes for daycare. He is almost 2 years old and I often feel like he is a big boy trapped in this little body. He is about the size of a 12-18 month old. At other times I see a glimps of just how much of a "baby" he still is. He is very thin, quiet, and stubborn too. Sleeps like an angel though, thank God for that. He has a tendency to throw himself backwards when he is having a tempertantrum, and not always on a soft floor. He had severe intestinal problems when he was a baby and is malnorished and develpmentally delayed. He doesn't speak at all.

Good News! Our daycare kids are slowly starting to come back! Th mothers recognize that their children were fatter and healthier when they were coming to us. There have been issues with a partnering organization and so they stopped bringing us their kids. And now nearly half of them are back again, Praise God!

I love this baby home more than I can say. I have been taking my turn on a rotation and sleeping at the home. Sleeping is a bit of stretch though as Pablo wakes up 2-3 times per night. And when he looks at you with a huge smile on his face at 4:30 AM... yeah, thats not so cute! If you would like to contribute financially to this home please see www.ninosconvalor.org for more details!

La Moda Loca!!!

"Crazy Style" really does say it all! Yesterday, Ninos con Valor had their third annual Moda Loca and it was quite possibly the best day I've had in Bolivia yet. What it really is is a fashion show but with the craziest clothes we could find. NCV also hired a DJ with loud speakers. These pictures say more then I ever could! BTW, I took almost 70 pictures, these are just a sampling. First there was the prep time This is my crazy fashion getup. And this is our director, Tyson. And a couple of our girls.

And there was dancing, oh yes, there was dancing! This is one of our Tias This is the girls' psychologist Doin' the train And one of our short term team members

And after the craziness died down and we had the girls walk the fashion runway we were all starving. We had homemade pizza and icecream sundays At the end of the day we were all exhausted but very very happy!