Busy Day!

While I always say Sundays are the craziest day, today was a bit crazier than normal! We picked up kids for church like we always do, and then had the brainstorm (???) to take them out to lunch after. The volunteers took the little ones home after church, and the big girls and I headed out to a birthday party for a little girl who was adopted from CDA (she'd lived with the big girls before she was adopted). The girls couldn't have been more excited to go to the birthday party and for me, it's always fun to see the changes in the kids once they're adopted. Needless to say, we love Oriana's family and it's great to see how well she's doing!

Father's Day in Bolivia is on March 19th, and the kids made Father's Day cards in Sunday School. These kinds of holidays are always hard for our kids, but they handled making the cards well. Instead of making her card for her dad, S. made a card for me! Spelling my name correctly escapes most Bolivians, but I thought S. did a good job sounding it out ("Jana" pronounced "Hannah" as the "j" sounds like an "h").

Several months ago, Pastor Fernando asked me if he could buy earrings for S. He finally bought them the other day and wanted me to bring her to church with us so they could pierce her ears. Only in Bolivia do you get your ears pierced in the middle of the church service. Seriously, y'all. Only in Bolivia.

I think in my pictures, it often appears that the kids are sweet and love each other all the time. While that can be true, it isn't always the case, and with these two, their behavior is usually all over the place. I was pleasantly surprised with how well they did today and how nicely they treated each other and the other girls all day!

 When you have this one...

...and this one as the two who are teaching you how to smile for pictures...

 ...it's no wonder this is your go-to face!

 C. got to come back to church with us and seemed to really enjoy it!

A. also got to tag along this week! 

 We love empanadas!

So photogenic.

 Of course Sarah's hijo was the one to spread mayo all over his face!

B. has been telling me for weeks that she wants her ears pierced and was so jealous when she heard S. was getting her ears pierced this morning... So we pierced her ears too! She said this face is what it felt like... She really sat still and didn't have much of a reaction at all!

 She was giddy about her earrings all afternoon! She told so many people about it and when we went back to the hogar, she walked in announcing that she got her ears pierced! She's had them pierced before so we'll see how long these actually last...

Ready to head out to Oriana's birthday party!

I saw that coming... Nearly all slept on the way to the party!

Oriana (far left) was adopted from CDA a year and a half ago, and the girls still talk about her often. They were SO excited to be invited to her 6th birthday party today! Also, funny story... I might have forgotten about getting her a gift. I mentioned to the girls that we didn't have anything but we all knew there was no time to buy anything. I told them our presence there would have to be enough. Do you see the lollipop flower Oriana is holding? I didn't realize it until we arrived, but A.M. had found it at my house (one of my kindergarteners gave it to me this week as a gift for International Women's Day) and brought it with her to give to Oriana as a gift. She handed it to her and said "This is for you, Oriana! I made it myself. Happy birthday!" I laughed to myself as it's really the thought that counts... I should've known the truth would come out, and it did. It took 5 year old S. approximately half a second before she said "No you didn't! You brought that from Tía Hannah's house. It's hers!"

 Her parents planned lots of fun games for the kids and even our biggest girls enjoyed participating!

A little extra playtime with the birthday girl before it was time to head home!