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.

Overnight with Baby G

This will be a little different then normal. Why? Cause I don´t have any pictures! I can actually write fairly well so I will paint you a word picture of Baby G´s home away from home.

For the second time this year, Baby G has been admitted into Hospital Velga, reported to be the best heart surgery hospital in Cochabamba. The first time he was there it was to run a test on his heart that required he be under anesthesia (sp?). Now he is there for pre-op observation.

I walked in the front door yesterday and went directly to his room, no security was present at the time. The hospital doesn´t look like much from the outside. Just a drab looking building with bars on all the windows. Down a short hallway and there is actually a very beautiful garden area with a winding ramp going up to the second floor. Signs leave you a little confused and it took me a few moments to locate his room which is different then his first visit. Finally on a whim, I walked through an unmarked door and stumbled on his room. This is a double room but he is the only ocupant and there are two twin beds provided for caretakers plus his metal, white crib. He was thrilled to see me and even more excited about the toys I brought for him. At this hospital we are required to bring his bottles and his milk and clothes for him everyday and diapers. Yeah, I know, welcome to Bolivia, its a little different down here! The room is surprisingly warm for this cold season of the year and the best word I can use to describe it is ¨drab¨. Bolivia is vibrant with colors but this room is gray and white and well, its feels like a hospital.

We played with blocks and books for a little bit as nurses zipped in and out. The poor boy has to be on oxygen until the surgery (which at the moment is postponed until Tues or Wed). He is just 1 1/2 years old and doesn´t tolorate the tube very well. So the nurses have to use medical adhesive tape to tape it to his face. He´s not crazy about it but he leaves it be. He needs to have the oxygen to bring up his levels before the surgery. He goes to bed at 7:30 and I got to sit back with a book for a little while. I´ve been struggling with either a sinus or a stress headache for the better part of the week so even when it was time for me to sleep, I couldn´t and needed to take some meds to relieve the pain so I could sleep. Sleep is also dificult because I keep imagining the worst case senarios, trying to prepare myself for whatever may happen next week. The tears come immeditetly. So I keep praying and giving him to God.

He did very well that night and slept just short of 11 hours. The last overnight I did with him he woke up at least 3 times in the night. So I thank God for that. In the AM he was bright eyed and more or less happy. He´s bored and wants to crawl around like he normally does when he´s not attached to oxygen. I wish I had a picture of him sitting on an adult scale as they took his weight. That was pretty comical. At 8AM my replacement came in and I headed home. I will have another overnight with him this coming Monday, hopefully his last night before the surgery. Please keep us all in your prayers during this very emotionally dificult time. thank you.

Park trips

Hello! Its been a while since I updated... again. I really wish I had more time to share what goes on in my life here its just that my life is soooo busy that I don't have a lot of time for internet cafes, much less for updating the blog. So that said, welcome to a photo blog of our once a week trip to the park with kids from Pedacito de Cielo.

Here is our kids, doing their best to walk in a single file line.


And this is me and "my" baby girl. She normally sleeps through the whole park outing in her baby carrier sling thing.



We play on a lot of different things including a VERY big slide and swings. The slide is great fun as long as there is someone at the bottem to do the catching!




We also have snack time.


And who wouldn't want to take a group picture in a great big car?

This is usually a once a week event and gets the kids off the property for a bit. Its a lot of work but well worth it to see the smiles on their faces!

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!