Reflux Surgery Update

As I wrote in this post, baby E has been diagnosed with severe reflux and needed surgery urgently. He entered the OR at 8:10 yesterday morning and the surgeon came out with a report at 10:50am. The surgery went well!

E was sent to a room at 3:30pm and slept alright last night, but this morning was in a lot of pain again.

He must be doing pretty well, because even though the surgeon said he thought he would be hospitalized 3 days, he might be released tomorrow, Friday!

Thanks so much to everyone who is praying...and giving!

The current donation count stands at $2,114, from 10 donors living in 4 different countries (US, UK, NZ, and Denmark).

Surgery. (Yes, another one!)

Thankfully our sweet baby D is doing marvelously after open heart surgery in May!

 Here are a couple recent pictures:

We're in the thick of surgery prep again though, this time for baby E (10 1/2 months). Since his arrival in February, he gets sick, then sicker. After many tests and a hospital stay, he comes home - sick. Then he gets sicker. And sicker! Back to the hospital, home sick. Repeat!

 A rare smile!

He has been diagnosed with several different infections this year, but mainly develops respiratory infections. Cold and cough type viruses are very common both in Cochabamba (3rd most polluted city in South America) and the Baby Home (the babies and staff pass colds around), but E seemed to have trouble to an unusual extent.

It has been so frustrating for our staff and volunteers doing their best, around the clock, to help this baby, and see him still suffering!

The "pre-haircut E"!

Finally, after numerous visits to many doctors, including two of the best pediatricians in town, a special study was done and E was diagnosed with severe acid reflux. He doesn't throw up to a large degree, but it's almost worse that he doesn't! The milk we give him goes back into his right lung every time he eats.

Earlier this month, we were told that he needed the surgery as soon as he was somewhat well again, preferably within a month's time. At that point he was receiving IV meds for pneumonia every 12 hours and STILL not improving. Finally, it just became too urgent, as his esophagus is compromised due to the terrible reflux.

Baby E. will be admitted to the best clinic in our city TOMORROW morning, Wednesday, July 24, and operated on an hour later.

Please pray for wisdom for the doctors, for peace and comfort for baby E., compassion and patience for those staying with him night and day, and for the rest of the funds to come in!!

Maria, our health coordinator, has estimated needing $3,000 to cover the surgery, even with the surgeon donating his time. Since posting the need on our Facebook page, $875 has come in through 3 donors (sending from Denmark, Ireland, and the US) via paypal. That's a great start but we need more!

Please let us know if you have any questions!

Successful Surgery!!!!!

We have been supremely blessed with generous financial gifts, an excellent surgeon, and timely visits by dedicated medical volunteers.

The reward is that this sweet baby...

...has a fully repaired heart!!

According to the surgeon, this was his first and LAST open heart surgery. Yay!!!

THANK YOU to everyone who has prayed, given, and volunteered by D's bedside.

Elizabeth, a nursing student from Texas, has been here for nearly 3 weeks pouring her life into baby D's. Read her wonderful blog updates here. 

Katrina from the Canada, US, and Bolivia (she lived here for 10 years as a missionary kid), spent much of her recent two week visit assisting with D and other medically related errands at Casa de Amor.

Melanie, a pediatric CVICU nurse from Texas, will be here in a few days to take up the baton!

The Booher family from Oregon, our enthusiastic Casa de Amor IV family, will take care of D once he is released from the hospital during this critical post-op recovery period.

Casa de Amor is so blessed!!

We have a surgery date!!!

WE HAVE A SURGERY DATE!!!

Actually, a new surgery date.

It was heartbreaking to get so close to D’s original admittal for surgery (May 7) and have him get sick—very sick—only 3 days before. Instead of surgery, he was re-admitted to the private pediatric hospital with a respiratory infection and coronary heart disease.

We bailed him out one week later with a nasty cough and more meds, but he’s been doing very well under Elizabeth (and now Katrina Culmer’s) diligent care.

In fact, many different people have taken turns caring for baby D around the clock the past several months, often in total isolation from the other babies.

Kaley

Linnea

Lindsey

Elizabeth

Katrina

(If I’m forgetting anyone, let me know!)

Tia Maria has also given her all these past months.

Thanks to some great teamwork from Elizabeth, Katrina, and our favorite pediatrician, our new surgery date is May 22, with hospital admittance on May 19.

WE NEED YOUR HELP! 

·        Prayer Support! We’re going to be nervous until he’s admitted. The city is full of viruses right now and it’s hard to stay free of them.

·        Financial Support! We have all the money we need for the surgery deposit (praise the Lord!), but need a cushion for medications, post-op tests, consultations, etc. Our current health funds are depleted after 3 months of constant illness. If 10 more people gave $100 each, we would be in a much better position as we move forward.

·        Local friends: take a turn! We have never had an inpatient at Clinica Belga (the heart hospital) and have learned that someone must be with our little patient around the clock. Our current volunteers have busy days (and nights) and our staff is fully occupied with all of our other babies. I will be creating a schedule soon - please write or comment here if you can help!! 

For those of you who have been waiting for information on donating blood, we think that’s taken care of for now! The doctors have changed their minds and say we only need 1 or 2 donors. We can easily reach that goal amongst our staff. More helpful at this point would be volunteers to stay at Daniel’s bedside before and after the surgery.

Thank you for your prayers and support! We are nearing the goal of a healthy baby! :)

Baby D is Sick.

As we count down the days to admission (2) and heart surgery (4), baby D has gotten sick again.

Yesterday he woke up with discharge clouding his eyes, and as the volunteer and I talked about him, he coughing hoarsely.

Oh, the disappointment! This morning I sensed defeat in the voice of Maria, our over-worked health coordinator. The doctor gave him three medications and ordered lab work.

Maria has been unable to reach the heart surgeon to learn what happens now.

Please pray for God's perfect timing in all of this!!!


In other news, I just did a fresh tally of the finances that have come in specifically for this surgery.

Some interesting stats about the donations:

• ELEVEN separate donors (some have given multiple times)
• SIX different countries: US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, and United Kingdom
• EIGHT donors are former volunteers, and ONE donor will volunteer later this year
• Average donation amount per donor: $400! 

Our current total (minus paypal fees) is approximately $4350. Our original goal was $4000, readjusted to $6000 to allow for more heart exams, lab work, post-op medication and consultations, and any other complications needing immediate funds.

Thank you to everyone who has given so sacrificially! I hope to report back with good news SOON.

Baby D's Heart Surgery!

 

For the first posts on Baby D and his condition, see here and here.

WE HAVE A SURGERY DATE!!!

Baby D will be admitted to the heart clinic on Wednesday, May 7, for heart surgery on May 9! He is still about a pound shy of where he should be, but is currently healthy and progressing developmentally. Due to the chronic ear infections he has suffered through, he has been scheduled for auditory testing. 

PRAY THAT HE STAYS HEALTHY!!

We are so grateful for the dedication of volunteer Linnea to care for D around the clock and get him healthy and strong. She leaves Bolivia tomorrow morning to return to Canada, but return volunteer Lindsey is stepping in to fill the gap.

 Baby D with Volunteer Coordinator Elena
April 28, 2014

Last week when I sat down with our health coordinator, I realized how many details are involved. Maria had just spent the morning on 3 tests for the baby costing over $100. If that doesn’t sound like much, it’s a lot here in Bolivia. One of the things she found out is that we will need MANY blood donors. (An estimated 16?!)

Friends and volunteers in Cochabamba who are willing to donate blood: stay tuned for more details!

On the legal front, since baby D is a relatively new arrival for Casa de Amor, his official papers for his “shelter” in Casa de Amor had not yet been issued from the minors court. That’s normal but in this case we needed everything in line before the surgery. (By law, we have 72 hours to request legal shelter for each and every new arrival, but social services and the court can take months to process the papers.) Our social workers (Rosa and our new staff member Evelin) worked hard to get this loose end tied up so that we could present a report to the court with all the details of the surgery requesting permission to proceed. We expect a positive reply—this is more of a formality before embarking on major medical treatment.

We are very blessed to have two medical-minded volunteers arriving soon, our repeat volunteer "Canadian Katrina" and a repeat visitor to Bolivia, Elizabeth from Texas. They will be a huge help with all the special care baby D will need, and also our medical staff as they keep up with all of the other babies.

Financially, a HUGE THANK YOU to the TEN different sponsors of baby D’s life-saving surgery!! Every bit of what has been donated for baby D is going to baby D. Yesterday I transferred the first $3,500 to Bolivia so that our accountant can access it on time. All of the staff is marveling at how quickly we are able to move forward with this surgery!

We do need more to be able to pay for his post-op medications, tests, consultations, and anything else that might come up. Click HERE for information on making donations to Casa de Amor/GOAL. 

In summary:

~ Pray for baby D’s continual health and consistent weight gain

~ Pray for a sufficient number of blood donors (enough donors will reduce the total surgery cost)

~ Pray that the proper legal backing comes through in time

~ Pray that enough money comes in to be able to cover any extra expenses

A few more pictures of our volunteer get-together a couple of nights ago, thanking Linnea for her service to Casa de Amor:

My house looked like a second baby home, with quite the room full of babies - four babies ages 6 1/2 to almost 8 months!

 So fun! All of these babies can sit to some degree now.

And finally, we would be very grateful for any special donations towards health expenses in general right now. One of our newest babies, little boy E, was hospitalized twice at two different hospitals in the month of April with various illnesses that he has probably had since his arrival.

We have spent MORE THAN $2,000 on medical bills alone the month of April.  

Much of that was due to hospitalizations, but also because of the continual sicknesses we’ve battled at the Baby Home. Obviously, this went way over budget, and follows behind another high medical expense month in March. The babies are finally doing better thanks to a united effort on the part of the staff and volunteers, but it’s made it hard to meet other expenses like staff salaries and utility bills, now due.

Click HERE to see how to give via check or paypal.

Thank you to all of our supporters! 

  

Baby D Update

It's time for an update on Baby D!

First of all, his diagnosis is a VSD (Ventricular septal defect) - and most of the symptoms associated with that - and a PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale) .

Currently, he is on two medications indefinitely.

He has struggled with repeated respiratory infections, a common issue with heart babies. He narrowly escaped hospitalization last week thanks in part to a valiant effort by Casa de Amor staff and volunteers.

Baby D currently weighs 4.8 kilos but needs to weigh SIX kilos for his heart surgery to take place. Pray that he begins to tolerate more formula at each feeding!

From past surgeries, we know that a little one going through such an experience needs lot of extra TLC. It's also best if the least number of people possible are involved to provide the best continuity of care. That's why it was pretty neat when a nurse visitor to the Baby Home was captivated by our tiny Baby D and asked if she could change her plans and come back in May! (Read her blog post on falling in love with our baby here.)

NOW the trick will be getting D healthy enough and big enough by May for the surgery, plus coordinating with the doctors and Clinica Belga!

At least we won't be held up by lack of funding. As mentioned in my last blog post, we have been told to budget at least $13,000 for the surgery and post-op hospitalization and medications. Tia Maria, our health care coordinator, was able to obtain a pledge of 70% of the funding from a Catholic foundation in our city. That is an AMAZING portion towards the surgery!

Donations to cover the remaining 30% have come in from far and wide - Australia, Canada, and the US. All of the donations have been from current or former volunteers with the exception of one family who explained that they understand the costs involved as they raise their own "heart baby".

At this point, only about $1,300 is still needed to reach our goal (yes, Linnea, a little more came in since you asked me this morning)!!!

Little D is a much-loved baby!

PS - For a few recent pictures, see volunteer Linnea's blog post!

Heart Surgery

Last month, we welcomed baby D to the Baby Home. It was obvious that he was very small and delayed for being four months old. He was closer to the size and developmental level of a newborn!

Our dedicated volunteers and health staff have poured extra attention into D, and he is slowly gaining weight and recovering from several illnesses. He is a sweet, generally quiet, little baby!

After several appointments with specialists, we learned more as to why D is not thriving. He has a heart defect that demands surgery as soon as possible. His life depends on it!

Throughout the years, Casa de Amor has received a number of babies who were found to have heart murmurs, and even one who needed two medications, but this will be the first time a defect is serious enough to warrant special intervention. 

We were in for a shock to hear how much this surgery will cost! Previous surgeries here in Bolivia, such as cleft lip or palate repairs, hernias, lazy eyes, etc., have cost us anywhere from 0 to several hundred dollars. This one is in a completely different ballpark!

The heart clinic told us to budget $12-13,000 for the heart surgery, plus more to cover any potential complications.

A substantial chunk of this amount is for the cardiologist. Once we are able to commit to a date for the surgery, we will know which pediatric cardiologist would be assigned to our baby, and could possibly negotiate a discount.

We trust that God brought us this precious baby for a reason, and that our team of supporters will be able to bless him with a life-changing surgery!

Please write Jennifer with any questions, or go directly to our support page for more information on giving.

New arrivals!!

Just as soon as I posted the group Baby Home picture, it went out of date!! On Friday evening (December 6), Casa de Amor got an early Christmas in the form of four children in need of a new home.

Introducing, according to age....

Brothers LM (age 5) & E (3)

These boys were transferred to us from another children’s home that is shutting down. According to the reports left us by that home, their mother was escaping a violent partner when she came to them for help. She was visiting the boys every week or two and wants to pick them up when she finishes studying. They seem like talkative, happy boys so far! The youngest needs dental work.

Tomorrow (Monday) we'll talk and decide if these boys would be better in Casa de Amor II.  

A, age 2 or 3

Little boy A was brought due to abuse, obviously. We have no further details on him so far. He prefers to be outside and gets upset when brought inside. His first morning in the home, he didn’t want to be touched by anyone and ran crying from the staff.

Baby V., approximately 1 month

This is one of the most pitiful babies we’ve ever had in the Baby Home. His size (2.3 kilos/5 pounds, 4 ounces) reminded me a bit of the triplets, but they were over a pound smaller at his age and still not as sad looking… His story is awful. He was admitted to a hospital in the campo (countryside) by his father and grandfather after his mother (17 years old) tried to kill him by rubbing poison on herself before feeding him. According to the 20 year old father, she then left him on the floor of their shack to die. On November 22, the baby was transferred to our city of Cochabamba for better care. He was released on Monday last week (December 2) but no one had visited and no one came to pick him up, so authorities were notified and he came to us by Friday!

For some reason, his skin is drying and peeling off in sheets. He needs a lot of attention, and I'm so glad that one of our volunteers is caring for him around the clock!


These two cuties arrived on Monday:

V., age 1 year and 5 months (?)

We have very little information about this little girl so far. Apparently her father was very abusive and tried to kill V and her mother. She hasn't spoken a word yet and cries a lot.

Baby F., approximately 4 months

Until we get reports, we know little about this sweet baby except that her mother has health issues and begged social services for help.

Pray for the adjustment of all these new babies and children!!

New look!

On Saturday our little trouper M underwent his first surgery!

Read a bit of M's history from the post the day I brought him home here.

Some early pictures...

I took him to a couple different surgeons who work with projects or foundations here in Cochabamba to do cleft repairs, and in the end we went with the same doctor who operated on twin K last year. He was so upset that M had a "plaque" in his mouth (to form a roof) that he ripped it out and pitched it across the room when I first took M! Ah, the difference of opinions of doctors. So we stopped using it and actually, M drank better that way!

Then it was countdown time till the big day!! He is now 3 1/2 months old and plenty big enough for the surgery. (Amazing even to the nurses and doctors who have met him, he has had no problem gaining weight. He's often in clothing for 6 month olds!)

Just a couple days before...

...and hours before surgery

(This two pictures above and the one below were sent to me by volunteer Iris, who graciously volunteered to spend her Saturday afternoon comforting little M.)

Post-surgery!!! That night I saw this picture, the NEW HIM, for the first time when Iris posted it to Facebook, I gasped aloud I was so surprised how great he looks! (Apart from being pale, poor baby. He's now on treatment for anemia.)

Back at home, resting up!

Thanks to everyone who prayed for M. He's doing well apart from NOT being happy about the "milk in a syringe" procedure for his meals. That's the post-op procedure for two weeks, however.

We are so excited about his cute little perfect nose! In fact, hospital staff told us that M's surgery came out the best of anyone's that day!! Even beforehand, they had chosen to focus on his story for their next publication that goes to their funders in Holland.

Thanks to a March team from Canada, we had $200 set aside for M's first surgery expenses. In the end, the total cost was $310 (reduced due to the foundation's support).

PS - if anyone feels led to give towards our new little boy P's surgery, the cost will be similar so we'd be very grateful! The surgery, already scheduled for May 11, will be P's final.

New arrival!

Yesterday we took in a little boy who has been on our "waiting list" so to speak since December. What a joy to have beautiful successful adoptions and thus be able to take in others in need!

Little J* was abandoned at a stand in the market in August last year and has been in a temporary boys shelter ever since. This home does not send kids to school so we need to get him registered. Just as urgent is to see to his medical needs... J has had two surgeries for cleft lip/palate but needs at least one more and has related dental issues. Since we've received two in the past year (K of the twins and baby M) with cleft lip and/or palate needing repair, it's becoming one of our "areas", so we already know just who to take him to!

*Amazingly, it's actually a J name we've never had!

Here is J right after arrival and going directly to work with Tia Mercy, our speech therapist who comes every Friday morning to work with all our kids needing extra language support.

All we know is his first name. His last names and birthday are made up since he has absolutely no papers. Pray for J's adjustment and for the upcoming labwork and medical procedures!

Little boy!

Introducing the new little fellow D....who thinks he's big!

Seven years old, to be exact. And I guess 20 when he slams his little fist on the table and demands "GIVE ME A BEER!"

(He's 4!)

Yep, he came in all pink.

No, I do not know why, other than to say, "It's Bolivia".

Meeting the tias and children!
J (blind) meeting little D by touch!

This is our child number #120 and the first to ever arrive with money! The neighbor caring for him sent him off with 4 Bolivianos (equivalent to about 60 cents) and 4 small peaches.

We had a horrible scare on one of little D's first trips to the bathroom. This is probably not the place to go into details, but what I can say is he has an extreme infestation of parasites and worms that was causing something we had never thought of. We ran him to the ER but they sent us home with parasite meds and instructions on how to deal with this "side effect" when it happened again.

What we know so far of this little guy is that his father died when D was only a few months old(due to an overdose?) and now his mother is dying of terminal cancer in a hospital...we don't even know which.

According to him, he has an older sister. We don't know where she is.

D has relatives but they have migrated to Spain.

Now that we know his real age, something we were clueless on when he arrived, we realize he probably needs to live at Casa de Amor II to attend pre-kindergarten starting next month.

But since lots of investigation remains to be done, we still need to see...

Pray for D's adjustment to Casa de Amor and peace in his little heart, as he occasionally speaks of his mother to the tias.

First new baby of the year!

On the very first workday of the year, Tuesday, January 3, I was heading home but had stopped at a fruit stand around the corner first. As I reached for a cantaloupe, I saw with a bit of surprise that I had a call from SEDEGES. This being the authority that sends us kids, my heart lept a bit (because we also are currently in a "receiving" mode!), and sure enough...

I was asked if we had space for a newborn!





I said yes, then was told the details.

The baby, now abandoned, was born with cleft lip/palate and was being fed via feeding tube.

I thought about that for a second: we know some about cleft lip (thanks to twin K), and also about feeding tubes (thanks to the triplets), and are about to have lots of volunteers (to help with surgeries and extra care), and our favorite volunteer nurse Savannah is currently here!

He was supposed to be brought within an hour, but by day's end there was no new arrival. SEDEGES called back and said the "hand over" had been postponed until Friday morning.

But now curious and knowing I had another baby, just in the hospital, I asked for details and went the very next day to visit him. The social worker got me past the security guard, and then while I met the baby and chatted with the doctors and nurses caring for him (what great people!), the same security guard came to announce that a lady had brought a donation of clothes for the baby who was "sick". Apparently, the day before two local news channels had come to interview the hospital staff and learn about the abandoned special needs baby, thus the flow of donations.

I felt much better after visiting, that we were going to be able to handle the baby. First of all, since the night before he was already drinking his milk fine with bottles, no tubes needed. Secondly, they were having a special plaque made for his upper mouth to also help him suction better. Thirdy, he wasn't really tiny or malnourished, as our K had been. He already weighed well over 8 pounds, pretty good in a country where most babies weigh only 5-6 pounds at birth.

Since the baby was born on December 23 (making him 2 weeks old today), hospital staff had played around with different ideas for his name. In the end, SEDEGES won out with the name they chose for his memo. It begins with a M... I like it, and it's always nice when it's not a current (or past) duplicate! :)

This morning I spent a couple hours picking him up with all the proper documentation and instructions. As soon as I got to the neonatalogy room, I scooped him up because he was hollering.....and he immediately settled down and fell asleep. That is, until I had to leave him again to go sign papers with the hospital director! I thought well, there's nothing unusual about this baby...he already prefers to be held! :)

As long as he continues to take milk well, the biggest challenge I can see is the twice daily cleaning of his little plaque, and then returning it to its proper position with some special "glue". When the baby weighs 5 kilos (11 pounds) he will undergo his first surgery.

All we know of the mother is that she just turned 19, is from the countryside, and showed signs of rejection even before he was born. The birth was difficult and when the baby emerged, the cord was around his neck and he needed oxygen and incubation for 6 days. He also had a systemic infection requiring antibiotics. When the mother first saw him, her reactions were even stronger and she refused to hear anything about him, even when staff tried to explain that his condition is operable. On December 26 she left the hospital and didn't return. (We will carry out all necessary investigations.)


Passing him off to the tias this morning! When we got to the house, the very first child to greet us was actually Twin K, visiting from Casa de Amor III for the weekly speech therapy classes. Looking at her, doing so well now after two surgeries, made me think of the long road ahead for baby M, but how worth it it will be!



From there we sat down with the tias in the playroom to introduce the baby to the older children in particular, who were already making faces and all sorts of shocked comments about the new baby's mouth and nose. I explained that baby M was born this way, just as our little girl J was born with different eyes. It will take some getting used to, but we recalled how very quickly they adapted to J's special needs!

(Little boy B only now met the new baby because he had a play day at Casa de Amor II. Once again highlighting how unique every child is, he dashed over to meet the new baby, pointed and declared with his ever present smile "LOOK, the baby has a BEAK!" and dashed off to another room...!)

Open your eyes, baby... :)


About HALF of the mountain of gifts we were sent off with this morning at the hospital! More clothes than any one newborn could use, a heap of soft blankets, socks, diapers, baby wash, 3 brands of formula, two diaper bags, and more. What a blessed little baby already!


Addendum: ironically, the mother went to the hospital today looking for the baby, about an hour after I had brought him home. However, it seems her intentions were anything but good, so the hospital was relieved that he was already legally here with us!

learned.

On July 19 I celebrated seven years living and serving in Bolivia! Since early last year I even have my permanent residency visa, which is WONDERFUL! This means I never have to apply for a visa again as long as I’m not out of the country for extended periods of time.

Right now is one of my ever-rarer trips back to the US. I have a week more visiting my family and this weekend we'll attend my cousin’s wedding in Texas!

As I add more and more time in between trips, it becomes a little like visiting a foreign country! The United States changes, my family changes (changing houses right now), and I change. The main reason I feel different since my last trip is all that I’ve been privileged to experience and learn in 2010 and 2011.

I’ve learned how to…

…Drive stick shift

…Care for triplets! (In a phrase, it’s exhausting, rewarding, and definitely felt like a once-in-a-lifetime blessing!)

…Lead a worship team at church

…Be part of a leadership team at church of university students and young professionals

…Make a real Bolivian “torta” (birthday cake)!

…Administer first aid (second aid?!) for many and various urgencies and emergencies

…Stitch minor wounds

…Give shots (to humans…before I’d only given them to goats)

…Choose medicines for various complaints and illnesses

…Coach soccer :)

…Get out ID cards for Bolivians

…Deal with macho police on a daily basis

…Speak and understand many, many legal and medical terms I had no idea of before 2010

…Speak “street slang” (literally dozens of new phrases and words in my vocabulary…some usable, others—well, NOT!)

…Go to a beautiful Christian wedding in the maximum security prison

…Enter the three main jails plus juvenile detention facility in Cochabamba

…Get someone out of a holding cell…or jail

…Navigate far reaching corners of the huge valley that is Cochabamba as I take street friends to their families

What other country and job would allow me to learn all of THIS in 1 ½ year’s time?!

I LOVE learning, what about YOU?

this is what happens...

...when you ask Casa de Amor for babies!!

Within six days, two babies!

The story of baby BOY G (yes, it's a boy! he was in donated, very pink clothes when I picked him up)...

On April 5, 2 month old G and his mother were admitted to the hospital* with severe burns suffered in a kitchen gas tank explosion. His mother was burned on 60% of her body and G on 9% (his face and thigh). He was operated on three times and received two blood tranfusions.

He's been well enough to leave the hospital since the end of April but they weren't sure where to send him.

Then...... On Saturday, May 14, his mother died from complications. His father, an alcoholic, never visited, so he was declared partially orphaned and abandoned and taken to government offices today. Which is when our social worker called me (out and about) and asked what to do. See, we've had some bad skin things the past couple weeks possible due to this new baby so although we have room, it didn't seem the wisest thing to bring a baby into our scabies infested house.

Sooo.... I called Casa de Amor IV! They agreed to take Baby G in until next week when we're sure we're over all this skin stuff.

I was blessed to be with him all day long as I ran other errands and took him to the doctor, and never once heard him cry! In spite of all the trauma he's been through, he seems to be a sweet, laid back baby, but still pray for his recovery (he also has a bad diaper rash, possibly caused by all his medications) and the VanderWerf family as they kind of have twins suddenly. :)


*And possibly his half-sister, but the government doesn't know where she is (??) so tomorrow we start the search!

three hospitals

I'm at hospitals/clinics every day (and many nights) with both of my jobs, but lately it's gotten a little crazy as I have kids in three.

Just the past few days...

I've had up to two from the street in Viedma (both for surgeries)

Up to three babies at Hospital Albina Patino

And now one at the public pediatric hospital: a new baby for us, as soon as she's released!

But that day won't come till sometime next month, for reasons obvious in these pictures:

We're not filled in on the details, but Baby A was admitted due to multiple fractures inflicted by her parents. She is only 1 1/2 months old. Both of her legs are broken and her skull has a crack as well (remember baby Victoria?). There are no words......

Apart from the fractures, it's abundantly obvious that she has a bad skin condition going on. The doctor who approached me out of curiosity, for checking on this "abandoned baby", said it's bacterial. She must have been in less than hygienic conditions. For that reason they can't even cast her legs, until her skin is better.

Either the skin problem or the pain she was in has caused her to claw her face in several places.



Thanks for praying for baby A and her long recovery at such a young age!

Please also lift up baby boy S, in the hospital for over two weeks now, as we wait for results. The TB came back negative as we expected but the H1N1 results will be in tomorrow. Even so he has been moved to the isolation wing, where normally only our HIV+ kids go. He really needs to get better SOON!!!!

sick baby update

Shortly after writing the last post, we got the good news that baby girl F could come home!

The other news nearly made us faint: the bill for 13 days is $280! (We rarely spend more than $100 to get a child out, if not much less, because we are in the lowest paying category of the pediatric hospital.)

We were blessed to have the social worker, a long time friend, speak to the director on our behalf and slash the bill down to $143. Tomorrow baby boy S might be released (yeah!) and we have been warned that his bill is nearly as much as baby F's.

Apart from these two, we spent $110 on the other babies admitted, not to mention a whole lot more on medications the past month.

The accountant just showed me his pile of health related receipts for March as related to other expenses - it definitely wins!! It's been a rough several weeks.

If God puts it on your heart to help with these extra expenses, please let us know. I think maybe once or twice a year I mention economical needs on the blog, not wanting it to be anything about asking for money (my least favorite part of my "job"!), but sometimes it's good to share our needs with one another.

I'm done now - off to check on all the babies! :)

sick babies.

We've had a rough few weeks as the babies get sick with a cough, then get sick AGAIN with the cough, and now the dreaded rotavirus is here....oh will we ever be all healthy again?? In times like these we become excruciatingly aware of how susceptible our babies are. Many were born prematurely and obviously without many of the physical and emotional benefits of other babies.



Baby girl F and baby boy S were admitted on the same day, 13 days back. Little girl S (CDA II) and one year old F (Baby Home) just spent a few days before they were on the mend. Doctors wanted to admit baby A (youngest at the Baby Home at 4 months) but there were no available beds in the two main pediatric hospitals! This epidemic has hit Cochabamba hard.



We thought it would be cool to just take over this hospital room with our three. As it is, we run back and forth between the two wings of the hospital. More than once another mother has said "Is that one ALSO yours?!" Oh yes, and there are many more where this one came from. :)



Monday was scary as baby boy S took a downturn and doctors said I needed to go in to "make decisions". They were throwing around the possibility of a type of chemotherapy. WHAT??? He is now in testing for TB, but if he came straight to us from the hospital, how could he have TB? If a staff member has it... I don't even want to think of the possibilities!! Finally he was taken off penicilin and put on two other antibiotics and is slowly improving.

Pray that he and baby F are out SOON!! We are so ready to have everyone back home and healthy. One of the triplets, A, has had a very hard time improving. Baby MN has been absolutely miserable with the rotavirus.

*Photos shamelessly swiped from volunteer Savannah's blog :)

one of the newest...

We have been flooded with new babies this year!!

{some of our current crew of babies}

Whereas in 2010, the arrival of the triplets was all we had for the first seven months of the year, we've already received EIGHT this year! How I love being able to say YES when we get the calls. :) This due to the other amazing statistic of FOURTEEN adoptions last year, by far a record for Casa de Amor, and the re-opening of Casa de Amor III.

This handsome little guy is one of 3 March arrivals: His arrival story is unique to the others. I've known his young family since late last year through my street work. I actually met his mother and 1 1/2 year old sister at the crime police station as his father was being sent to jail. As I helped them weed through the paperwork and implications of what was happening to their family, I fell in love with baby M's witty mother (and adorable sister), often joking that she was my assistant on the street. For the past few months she has been back at home with M's sister and we just meet up to visit L in jail once or twice a week. Long story short, baby M has been living with relatives in another part of the country since he was 3 or 4 weeks old. When they dumped him back rather unceremoniously with his mother the evening of March 10, now 5 months old, he was in a terrible state. He was being fed watered-down powdered milk and had a bad cough, diarrhea, fever, tight distended stomach, and almost 3rd degree malnutrition...and screamed non-stop. (Now the pediatrician has detected a concerning heart murmur and has requested tests.) The very next day I went to government offices to get approval to bring him home temporarily, until his dad is out of jail (possibly this month) and the family is functioning again. Just now I realized that I've taken pictures of him three Fridays in a row - what a transformation!!

March 11, 2011 - Arrival day! A few minutes later a tia christened him with his name. He has not been named as they are waiting for his dad to get out before deciding. (But the parents like the name we chose.)

March 18...looking better!

March 25 - sweet, happy baby boy who rarely cries now

More pictures to come of the other new arrivals, and I think I still owe the triplet birthday party picture post.... :)