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! 

  

New Baby Boy for the Booher Family!

I was trying to get up a picture of our new baby before traveling but the server is rejecting the picture for some reason. There will be news soon though!

Meanwhile, pray for the Boohers, a new family serving with us in Bolivia, as they adjust to their first Bolivian baby. :)

Baby Girl!

 

Our newest arrival is an overlapping of my two “jobs”—Casa de Amor and the street population. I’ve known the baby’s family and even extended family for two years now, so I could go that far back in explaining why she is now with us. The story would read a bit like a soap opera, including multiple lovers, another abandoned baby, jail escape, cold-blooded murder….and still, my continual friendship to this whole struggling family, those on the street and those off.

To start at more recent events, my friend M. (20 years old and mother of three) had her newest baby on August 30 in Santa Cruz (another large city in Bolivia). Ever since I took her for testing while she was in jail earlier this year, she has said she would give me this baby. I would only reply that we would talk about that further down the line. Well, once the baby was born she told me to pick a name, that she still planned to give her to me.

Fast forward a few weeks to Sunday, September 23. At 9:51pm, I was talking to my family, a regular Sunday night event for us, when I took another call on my cell phone. M. was sobbing hysterically and I could only imagine that someone had died. That someone was her father, and her mother had killed him. They had fought in their one room home in Santa Cruz and M.'s mother had stabbed the father of her nine children to death. Both were drunk and had even overdosed on sleeping pills. M. said they were waiting for police to come arrest her mother, also essentially mother to her own children, and could I get her in touch with her little brother, leader of my group of street kids. That was a difficult couple of hours, watching the news sink in for I., and going around town to let his sisters and their young families and his aunt know what had just happened.    

Four days later, after burying her father and watching her mother go to jail, M. and her partner bused in to Cochabamba. She called me and I asked “So what do you plan to do in Cochabamba? Are you just visiting?” and in a different, more somber tone of voice she replied “Senorita, I came to leave my baby with you. That’s the reasion I came.” I asked where she was and told her I could meet up with her in an hour. I met the baby at the base of the hill where my street group lives. M. thrust her into my arms saying “Here’s your daughter!” Then she saw my face and nodded as if to say “Yes, it’s true”. I was adjusting to the fact that the baby looked just like someone else we know, currently in jail, and not the father of M.’s other two children…. We sat down on a curb to talk about M.’s thoughts and plans, the implications of this new revelation taking hold.

We went to government offices to talk, and the sweet baby came home with me. Surprise, tias! I kept her with me till the middle of the next morning, getting to know her. As M. has told me by phone since baby N. was born, she has quite a bit of reflux (read: entire bottle can reappear without warning!). I’ve taken her to the pediatrician, who fell in love with our new little 4 kilo “doll”, and we’ll see if the medication and different formula help.

 

Pray for the mother, M., and her partner as they make decisions. There is still time for them to change their mind in the next couple of days, before traveling back to Santa Cruz, and before we notify the court of the situation.

Pray also for baby N.’s health and life… Multiple relatives tried to force M. to either abort the baby, even buying pills to do so, or drown or suffocate the baby after she was born. Here at the Baby Home, she’s the little princess after seven boys in a row and just one toddler girl!

 Baby N loves all the attention!

 

Adoption of the Three!

We have NEWS!!!

These three much beloved Casa de Amor siblings....

...are now IN ITALY with their new adoptive parents!!!!


The new family!

S. will soon be 8, A. is 6 1/2, and D. is 4 1/2 years old

A few pictures from the first evening meeting:

Tio David giving a group bear hug to the three before the first big meeting

Tia Rosa, our social worker, greeting the couple and their agency representative

First hugs!!!

Brand new parents with three kids at once, WOW!

The photographers and onlookers

Some of us were a bit emotional! Katrina C. and I were reminiscing about February 16, 2009, when we picked them up after the street kid raid...

I didn't even know her name yet, but little D fell asleep on me on the way home and I was in love... (The other two in this picture were adopted years ago: E left with her older brother, JK, and A went to a local missionary family!)

The day A joined his sisters at Casa de Amor I (March 3, 2009)... How they've changed!!

See the posts from February 2009 posts beginning February 16 for the whole story and the difficult first days of the three as they transitioned from life on the street to life in our home.

Waiting in court for the big second hearing!!

Some sweets to help keep some busy kiddos calmer during the wait and anxiousness of everyone around them...

I could barely peel little D. off of me to be able to leave after the hearing. The gelato break gave me the moment I needed to get away... So hard! This is not our first older kid adoption where the kids beg to stay with us, or to return to the home even after going with their new parents. It's hard to know how to nicely say "Hey, even though we all love each other a lot, your best future is with a family, not with us, even if it's a hard change at first!"

The transition period for this new family of five is far from over! PLEASE keep them in your prayers!! I would say it's been the most difficult adoption we've ever observed that still "went through", although the most crucial court hearing was delayed an extra 10 days till the family felt more secure. Their biggest challenges were communication (the couple doesn't know Spanish, the three don't know Italian) and discipline. Anyone who knows these three knows that both of these areas are crucial!!

And, finally...
...no post on "the three" would be complete without a picture of their favorite tia, Savannah! :)

adoption!

This week little A became our 9th child to be adopted in 2012!!

This Bolivian lady's family cared for A when he was found as a newborn on New Year's Eve last year, abandoned in a hostel in a more tropical part of the country several hours from Cochabamba. When A was brought to the city in January to be legally placed at Casa de Amor, the family moved to Cochabamba to be able to hire a lawyer and begin guardianship paperwork for A even though they wouldn't be able to visit him during the process.

While many Bolivians are interested in adopting, many are surprised by the long waits and all the bureacracy. A's papers had actually gone through several weeks prior, but due to one error on the final government memo, several steps had to be redone. During that time baby A got sick with rotavirus, was hospitalized, nearly re-hospitalized, and really struggled to get better.


Pray for our family at CDA III who really grew to love him, and for A's transition time to his new family!

First adoption of the year!

Our first adoption of 2012 couldn't be off to a better start!

After a really difficult adoption that didn't go through at the end of 2011, it's been a special delight to watch this older, first-time-parents-Italian-couple, literally race after our dear JG (age 5) as he introduces them to his home and life up till now!

Leaving the old, passing to the new...


Their first meeting was yesterday, December 5. Since beginning paperwork, this couple has waited over 5 years for their child!

Just a few minutes into the first meeting, JG had a rough moment as he worried if his new parents were already going to leave him, and also realizing that he wasn't leaving to go with them that very day.



Looking through his picture album while Tio David films with the couple's camera.




Pray for our dear JG's continual adaptation to his new family, and the accompanying changes in language, culture, and eventually environment when they travel to Italy together sometime at the end of February, Lord willing!

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 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 :)

It's a Boy!

Today a one year old arrived to us from the hospital, where he was admitted for three days after being removed from the street.

He is really down, poor little guy. It's so hard to see him here looking all alone when I've always seen him happily in the arms of his mother.

This is the very conflictive, controversial part of our work, even if I didn't have any say in him being taken away. Police and even the child's father had warned the mother multiple times and this is the consequence of her refusal to leave the street.

Pray that little J perks up soon, responds to our love, and heals from several ailments!

Christmas Baby :)

Today we received a beautiful baby girl!

This makes 8 new entries for 2010, SEVEN of them girls! :)

Baby A is 1 month old and came with a good 25 pages or more of papers. Her mother is 14 and was the victim of rape. It's obvious from all of the reports that the mother has very little support and is suffering a lot with the whole situation so please pray for her.

hospitalized

Please pray for our next-to-newest, little girl J. She went downhill tonight and ended up being hospitalized at the pediatric hospital. She refuses to eat and was just not doing well. Tomorrow is Pedestrian Day here (no transportation allowed) so we can't visit her until after dark. Pray that her turmoiled heart can be at peace even in the midst of so much change, and that she turns the corner quickly.

Thank you!

house change

Even though last month's adoption was more difficult than usual, we quickly saw God's hand in it in at least one way. The very same Friday that JK & E left with their new parents, we were asked by Child Defense to take in three babies from the street. Because of the location they mentioned, I knew immediately which three they were referring to. Praying through it half a day before we had to give our answer, I made the complicated decision to bring them to our home even though it will greatly complicate my relationship with their parents. We asked for a week to prepare ourselves.

To create space, we decided to pursue a potential transfer of the three siblings (also arrived from the street last year) from the Baby Home to Casa de Amor II since there were now "just" 9 there. This is something I've always said we would never do for these special three, but in all honesty that might have come from not bearing the thought of not living with them. (Can you see I have a lot of favorites? But seriously, these three are ALWAYS favorites!)

Our visits went so well and the kids were so extremely excited to be moving up to the "big kid home", we continued with plans and a week later they also moved over.

Now as God would have it, on that same day He took home one of the babies due to come to us. She couldn't survive life on the streets just one more night to come to us. Authorities regrouped on the raid and we still await news. Yesterday we were contacted and asked to prepare space for FIVE. I am on pins and needles to know who and when and from where. It's torturous to be involved in the background in taking away babies, a part I really hate. I also don't want to be anywhere near them when the police arrive. But after seeing how quickly we lost baby M, at barely two months of age, I also can't find it in me to oppose the move if the parents refuse to leave the streets permanently, particularly during this harsh winter.

Anyway, I could go on and on but that is already a long winded introduction to just say: siblings S (almost 6 years), A (4 1/2) and D (2 1/2) now live at Casa de Amor II!

We could barely get them to stand still for one minute to take a farewell picture at the gate of the Baby Home

There was some sticker decorating going on in the backseat on our way!


A checking out his new bed. Scary new roommate, eh? (Another "little boy A"!)


The girls wasted no time in getting down to business. Doll and chat time!! The CDA II girls were tripping over themselves to give a little gift to the new ones.



Please pray for all the children and CDA II staff (like amazing volunteer Elena!) during this transition time. And don't leave out me and our staff here, especially volunteer Savannah, as we adjust to losing our oldest two and just three beautiful stars from our children here in the Baby Home.

a family formed

Last month we had a very "surprise" adoption. You wouldn't think it would come as a surprise when it takes 1-2 years to get the kids anywhere close to being adoption ready, and often up to a year or more for the new parents to arrive, but this case was a bit out of the ordinary.

These two adorable children...

arrived just last year. And quickly became favorites with everyone! You can read about her arrival here and his here.

I had a special attachment with E ever since the first night when I brought her to my bed because she seemed to be the sickest and frailest. I actually first "met" her when her mother was pregnant with her on the street, wanting to send JK to Casa de Amor.

Now it wasn't all peaches and ice cream, if you look through February and March 2009 blog posts, like this one. But we had fallen in love and all was bearable.

Of the 21 adoptions we have had, I have never been as opposed to an adoption in my heart as I was this time. Of course in my head, I knew it was better for them to have a family, even if I wanted to be that family, but my heart wasn't understanding.

We got the news on a Monday evening.

Tuesday at midday the Bolivian couple arrived to meet Jk and E.

On Friday afternoon the children left, just in time before a month long court vacation.

Rarely does an adoption week even go that fast. Elena (their house mom) and I cried! It was a whirlwind and there was no time to prepare ourselves emotionally or mentally, or even properly prep the kids.

Even so, they adapted remarkably well. That at least gave us a bit of peace in our hearts. They will be doted on by a very well-to-do upstanding couple.

A few pictures of the adoption week:

Specialists in cheesy smiles, what can I say! Waiting anxiously to meet their new parents.

First moments chatting together

Eating all sorts of snacks (their lawyer and Elena looking on)


Emotional goodbyes at Casa de Amor II


Little E climbing into my car, embarking on a new chapter of life. I love how she clung to the picture Elena gave her, of Elena and me



A post-hearing picture outside court. We all look a little harried - maybe the stress and also hour long wait with two active children beforehand!

Our social worker has traveled to visit and brought back wonderful pictures of glowing faces. It seems they are already thriving as a new family!

Please pray for me this next week as I work with another street mother and other institutions coordinating in a very complicated situation. She is asking a lot of questions about adoption, which in this case seems the only good option, but mothers here rarely make a decision for an adoption as long as it's in their hands. Still, we don't want what's coming up to be overly traumatic for her or her children. Thank you!

great news!!

Sorry I haven't gotten to post this until now, but I've been out or with the other two triplets since last night and am EXHAUSTED with a capital E. I can't even remember the last time I've been this worn out, as everything has just caught up to me. So forgive the brief update but I wanted to let everyone know that VICTORIA IS BETTER!!!! She is more active today (so says the doctor, as I wasn't allowed to go back either time I visited) and they will try to take her off the ventilator tomorrow.

We are so, so relieved that she's okay now and that she's continuing to improve! Still, the doctor says she could be in the hospital up to a week longer. That's hard to imagine... It's sad to see her empty spot in the crib and not use her yellow/green clothing. Nights and feedings are just too easy - I mean, you have two hands! Oh and we're also SO GRATEFUL that Valentina and Nataly are showing absolutely no signs of having the same infection as Victoria. Our twins almost always share illnesses, especially when little and if they share the same crib, so this feels like a miracle. :)

Thank you so much for all of the support and prayers! We need all of it as we keep up with hectic full schedules and lots of other babies/children.

prayer for Victoria

Please pray for Triplet #2, Victoria!

Today her health deteriorated very rapidly between the first signs of something wrong at 11am (fever, wouldn't finish milk) and 3pm - very pale, skipped feedings, diarrhea, vomiting, troubled breathing. By 4pm she was being intubated at the best clinic in town as three of us agonized outside the doors of the ER. I could hardly believe it - this is the 3rd time in just 14 months one of my babies has been rushed in with labored breathing. Only, praise the Lord!, this time the story was different as they were able to stabilize her!

Now Victoria is in the NICU on a ventilator. I was finally able to go in and see her for just a few minutes at 9:30. By that point she was semi-conscious and stabilized, and pneumonia has been ruled out although they're running more tests. It appears to be some sort of gastro intestinal infection that threw her into such a tail spin so quickly today.

Obviously, we're now very concerned for her sisters, so please pray for them!! We're watching them very closely and so far they have been perfectly fine which is a HUGE relief. I'm grateful that I'm already on duty with them tonight, because I'd be worrying more than sleeping anyway.

Here's a sweet picture of Victoria with our dear E yesterday:

Christmas, Round 5

*because Christmas is how all this started :)


Rather unbelievable that I haven't blogged about this yet, but what can I say! I’ve just been so busy doing it...and getting sucked into more and more responsibilities for 2010 at my church (!).

After having such a blessed, joyous Christmas celebration at the “Casas de Amor” with the staff and volunteers, I wanted to take it to the streets.

As I watched our children, so many with street backgrounds, enjoy their beautiful Christmas with presents and special meals and treats, their parents weighed heavily on my heart. Granted, some are in jail and others live in the most “hard core” part of town where it’s more complicated to visit safely. But I AM in contact with others who I’m comfortable visiting, and don’t know that some of their children live with me/in our homes.

So on Saturday, January 2, I headed out to see how a particular group was doing and feel them out about bringing a chicken meal later that day. It was a great reunion! I was really surprised how much it reflected the welcome my kids gave me after my trip. I went back later that day with volunteer Savannah, and then the mother of one of my kids mentioned us going to another group down the road.

Now, normally I’ve always been introduced to new street groups by someone who works with them, either foreigner or Bolivian, never by another street friend. But as I quickly thought it over, I decided I trusted her to take us.

While there, I was asked to buy or bring all sorts of things, as usual. I struggle with buying them whatever they want (or even really need) because that makes street life easier, versus changing and going into a rehab center or just getting off the street. But later that day, I realized that a couple had stuck out to me: a blanket for the newborn baby, and ointment for a nasty cut.

So the next day I found myself heading back, this time with volunteer Elena. We ended up going under the bridge because it was raining, we came bearing gifts, and...well I’m not sure how it happened, but we were allowed to pull ourselves up over a wall along the river and jump down into their world of danger, dogs, and despair.

Now I am not one to scare easily, but even I was nervous. Okay, maybe even scared. But I was desperately trying not to show it. Must have worked because 1) nothing happened and 2) I freaked Elena out afterwards by saying how dangerous that probably was, surrounded by 7 or 8 of them with no one else around to see us. (Hopefully her mother is not reading this!!)

Even so, I knew we had a strong foot "in the door" so to speak and the beginning of new friendships and building TRUST, which is the key word in this kind of work.

So, I went back to check on the baby and change the bandage.

Then the cut was healed, and the new friendships kept us going back.

Not long after, I stopped by for a quick visit and found one of the guys with two bleeding gashes on his arm. Deep, wide, dirty, the whole thing. But way past the possibility of stitches. Again, I am not usually squeamish, but this churned even my stomach. I did what I could with what was in my first aid kit, then went back 1-2 times a day over the weekend to clean it out and change the bandages. I'm getting more used to this sort of thing already.

So that’s how it started that I have a new group of friends in this “underworld”: literally (under the bridge), figuratively (lowest class of society), and spiritually (serious strongholds).

I’ve now visited almost daily since January 2, often with other volunteers or staff and even children (ones they would not recognize, always protecting from glue fumes).

This bridge is very close, a 6-7 minute drive from my house or a quick bus ride, and I can easily pass by when I'm doing anything downtown or in the north of the city.

At first, I had a little more free time because of "vacation" from several activities at church and quieter days at the homes as far as work because of the holidays. However, now that everything is kicking into high gear, it's a bigger challenge to balance everything and I have way less time for sleeping and eating, and forget anything personal, but it was made completely worth it a couple days ago.

I had just taken a few to eat dinner, which is a great opportunity for building relationship and talking without so much glue in the picture. As I dropped them off at the bridge, the 19 year old leader of the group and new father asked me when we could have a "serious chat" away from there. Then he said the words every street worker longs to hear "I don't want to live here anymore". Right now I'm waiting, trying not to be pushy, for the day when they want to talk further.

Elena comes with me when she can, a very brave, willing partner! The other day I stumbled upon the website "Street Sleepers" and loved reading how she and her friends (one of which I met in the Miami airport a few months ago) have had their hearts touched by the street population. And not only that, they are actively working to make a difference by providing bunk beds for a home here.

Okay, now that I've shared this, please do not set me on a pedestal! I am not a saint. This work is dirty, complicated, and full of setbacks, heartbreak, and disappointment. There are also as many theories on "how" to do it as there are people doing it! It's never easy to wade into the lives of people who have experienced severe trauma, abuse, and hurt, and know how to help....or even where to begin! I just plead for the Holy Spirit to lead me and protect us from the powers of darkness....and if I can make a difference in the lives of any of these "outcasts", it would be a huge privilege.

Right now things are going extremely well, and we feel very blessed to be so well received and welcomed into their world, where few dare to go. (Not sure about the day when a kid, quite high on glue obviously, asked me "so how long have you lived in the street?" but other than that... :)

I could share of so many adventures already, but will post first about the soccer game we took 11 to over the weekend - total blast!! More later...