Orphan Sunday

James 1:27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Today, Orphan Sunday, is a day where churches all over the world spread the message about caring for orphans. It's something we're called to do in the Bible. You personally may not be called to adopt. I don't think everyone is, and that's okay. However, you are called to do something. That looks different for everyone and every family. It may be sponsoring an orphan, it may be supporting a family who feels called to adopt, or it may be spreading the word about organizations who support orphan care. There are so many ways to get involved. There's no excuse not to do something.

There is a quote from David Platt that says orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names and faces, and you can pretend they don't exist until you hold them, but after you do that, everything changes. I can't think of a more accurate statement. For as long as I can remember, I have dreamed about one day adopting. However when I met all of these kids, the desire became so much stronger. I don't like the thought of them not growing up in a family. I've seen the difference it makes in kids and I want them to have that kind of a forever love. 

On days like today, I wonder a lot about our kids' histories. While we know the general circumstances surrounding their abandonment, there's still so much unknown. The truth is, most of our kids aren't actually orphans. Nearly all of them do have biological parents and/or family. For one reason or another, they are either unable or unwilling to care for them which is why they're with us. In a country like Bolivia, there are so many reasons why children are given up. No money to buy food, simple surgeries cannot be afforded, inability to care for multiple children, spouses who can't/don't want to also care for step-children, etc. While adoption in Bolivia is becoming more accepted, there is still a long way to go. Please pray with me that more Bolivians will answer the call to adopt. Older children, sibling groups and those with illnesses/disabilities are always the ones left behind. Of the 19 kids pictured below, would you guess that 16 of them have a "special need"? For some of them, it's only because they are older than 3 years old or have a sibling... I'd say that their only real special need is that of needing a family! 

I hope when you look at their pictures, you see them for the children that they really are. I hope that through seeing one of them, you're called into action. If you'd like to become involved in orphan care but don't know where to begin, let me know! I'd love to help you get in touch with organizations both in the States and Bolivia that do this work. Speaking from experience, I can say that there is no job more fulfilling than that of caring for orphans. 

Sleepover with the Little Grandes

Last night we brought 3 of the youngest big kids over to our house for a sleepover! We took them out to eat last night, went to the market this morning and then have spent the rest of the morning at home. We'll be heading to Horita Feliz and back to the hogar later today... Something tells me they may not want to leave!

Dinner at Las Islas

They loved that their salchipapas came with toothpicks!

Too busy eating to stop and smile for a photo!

Movie night for the little grandes while Sarah and I watched the newest episode of Big Bang Theory!

 Manicure and pedicure after her bath... She's so girly and I love it!

 Bath time for the boys... They insisted on both getting into the bañador!

 Playing with "those little toys!"

 Matching to go to the market!

Now with big sister thrown into the mix!

 Love her!

 Pizzadillas for lunch and strawberries for dessert

 Tomorrow at church we're having a fundraiser lunch. Everyone is assigned either a job to do during the lunch or something to prepare ahead of time. Sarah and I were surprised to hear our names called on the dessert list last week... We think we've officially made it as members!

 Sarah thought it would be a good idea to let the boys help her crush up the crackers for the bannoffee pie crust... Within 30 seconds of each other, they'd both ripped open their bags of crushed up crackers, letting it fly all over the floor!

She used to be terrified of Crocodile Dentist but now she LOVES it!

Feliz Cumpleaños, Tía Silvia!

While yesterday was actually Tía Silvia's birthday, it was a holiday which meant she had the day off. She was back at work today so we had the big celebration! 

I've been babysitting for a missionary family who lives just down the street from the hogar this week, so after I was finished with that, I walked down to the hogar to finish the cake. As I still had to go to my real job this afternoon, I planned on being there for less than an hour... Enough time to decorate her cake and then leave it for them to celebrate with the big girls later this afternoon. Well, I should've known I couldn't get away that fast! After we made sure to get her with eggs and flour, she chased the rest of us around the house with all sorts of ingredients until we were just as dirty as she was! It was awful! I had to stay awhile longer to shower before I could be seen in public again!

Tía Silvia is one of my very favorite tías and I don't know that anyone could ever be as crazy as she is! Every time I see her she offers me some sort of food or drink (once she gave me salty cinnamon water that she said was juice as a joke...), she gives me directions and trufi numbers for anywhere in the city (using the tile floors as a map), makes me my own small pot of food when she cooks things she knows I don't like, always wants to search for a Bolivian husband for me (but really she just wants to be my mother-in-law), and never misses an opportunity to remind me that my dislike of cooking and cleaning will actually make it impossible for her to find me a Bolivian husband! She keeps all of us laughing and there was no way we could let the day pass by without celebrating!

 This crazy girl has started imitating Saret and now whenever she sees me she runs over screaming "MY TÍA HANNAH!" and then won't let me out of her sight. She was glued to my hip this morning and helped me make the frosting for Tía Silvia's cake.

I used up the last of the eggs making the cake yesterday but luckily there is a little store right down the street from the hogar that sells eggs so we snuck in a few to the house. We lured Tía Silvia outside by pretending we saw a snake in the bushes. She totally fell for it and we all got her with eggs and flour!

 She spent the rest of the time before lunch chasing the rest of us around to make sure we got to be covered in eggs, flour, cornstarch and mashed bananas too!

We should've known that leaving the bowl of flour in the babies' bedroom was a bad idea! Someone pulled it off the dresser and put flour in the babies' hair while we were all outside with Silvia... B. got it the worst!

Dancing or protecting myself?! Her hand you can't see was sprinkling flour down the back of my shirt.

 I'll have to shower anyway so what's a little more in my hair at this point!

 Too busy making sopa de maní and french fries to go shower!

This was the face when we asked her to please smile!

Life Skills- Cake Baking!

Something that we've especially noticed lately is that we need to make life skills a larger focus for some of our older children. Unfortunately, some of them will never excel academically and likely won't go to university, so we need to equip them with a skill for the real world. 

Now that our older girls live with the babies, they're learning how to care for them... feeding them, putting them to bed, changing diapers, etc. As expected, they LOVED it the first couple weeks. Now they're realizing how tiring caring for babies can be. Personally, I worried we were glamorizing life with the babies too much and they were seeing it as almost too fun, but now the reality is setting in and they don't always want to help with the babies. As hard as it can be for them, I know they're learning some great skills for the future... And several of them would make GREAT tías one day!

Another thing we're focusing on with some of them is money/learning how to pay. It's as simple as letting them pay when we get off trufis or paying for our groceries. They think it's exciting and don't realize they're also learning!

Today I decided to try something different and let them help me bake a cake! Over the summer, the girls rotated daily who had to help Tía Benita in the kitchen. We thought it was a great idea as they'll all need to learn how to cook. Since being back in school, they haven't been in the kitchen much. Tomorrow is Tía Silvia's birthday so rather than make the cake at my house, I enlisted their help in baking it. We had to buy a couple ingredients at the store, then we practiced measuring the ingredients, following the recipe and cleaning up after. They did a wonderful job and were so proud of themselves!

Tía Silvia is our cook/housekeeper and MUCH prefers cleaning to cooking. I don't know that anyone cleans as well and as thoroughly as she does. While at the store, A.M. kept finding great gift ideas for us to buy her (we were buying cake ingredients, not a gift). Every gift was some sort of cleaning supply. She begged and begged for us to buy this bottle of laundry detergent as soon as she saw it because Tía Silvia "LOVES this!"

Los pollitos dicen pio, pio, pio!

As if twenty kids in one house isn't enough, Tía Silvia decided to bring baby chicks over to the hogar. She wants to raise them until they get big enough to eat, and then we'll get dinner out of them. I'm not sure I like that idea, but I do like having the baby chicks around! 

The kids LOVE them! So much so that 8 year old Belinda wasn't allowed to go to church this morning after she got caught keeping chicks in her purse... Right now they live in a box in the hallway but seem to magically escape from their box from time-to-time. I may be wrong, but considering how often the kids are found carrying them around, I think they may have help escaping! 

I got a super cute video yesterday of some of the babies with the chicks but videos never post here... For now, pictures will have to do!