Feliz Cumpleaños,S.!

Today we celebrated S.'s 3rd birthday! When he arrived back in November, we didn't have a name or birthday for him. About a week later we finally found out his name but it still took a couple months before we had a birthday. Everyone was sure that he was already three years old due to how mature he seemed. He was fully potty-trained, spoke well, and just behaved like he was older. We were shocked to learn that he was actually just two years old and wouldn't be three for another several months! 

We had several little boys turn three before him so now that their birthdays have passed, the countdown was on! He's watched several birthdays so he knew just what to do. He was excited to hear it was his special day and asked MANY times if he would get to eat cake. We lit the candle on the cake and rather than wait and let us sing to him, he immediately blew it out. Then we asked if he wanted to bite the cake and he quickly put his face into it! It was so funny to watch him!

Hope you enjoy some pictures of our party!

E. meets his parents!

Today is the day SO many of us have been waiting for! Of course we want all of our kids to end up in families but some just need a family so much more. This little guy, E., is one of those babies. He arrived to Casa de Amor in March of last year after his mother tried to sell him. He was sick for a long time and in general requires much more attention than the other babies. 

His adoption paperwork was completed pretty recently, and I'll be the first to say that I said more than once I was worried that it would be hard to match him with a family due to his health issues (Bolivian families typically want young, healthy babies). He ended up being matched to a family really quickly! We got a call on Friday afternoon saying that his new parents had just left a court hearing for the adoption and wanted to meet him. We were THRILLED! Unfortunatley because it was already late in the day, they had to wait until this morning to come for their big meeting. 

They met with administration before meeting him, and kept saying "It doesn't matter what he has. We just want to meet him!" They don't have any other children and although young, they said they have waited a long time to be matched with a baby. They were both SO excited when he was brought upstairs! I wish I could say E. was as excited as they were but he was not. He was pretty unhappy but I think it was mostly because he was overwhelmed with so much one-on-one attention! They'll visit every day this week, and we're sure we'll see a big change in him as they all begin to bond. His parents don't have much experience in caring for children but have already been really hands-on in his care (his mom's first diaper change ever was a blow-out diaper he had right after lunch!). 

We don't yet know when they'll have their court hearing allowing them to take him home but we expect it to be relatively soon!

CASTIGADO

For some reason this afternoon, not a single one of our 14 kids took a nap. They were ALL awake and LOUD. Three year old S. refused to stay in his room and at some point, we thought we lost him. I'm not kidding. We looked all over the house and couldn't find him. One of the tías finally found him hiding in one of the other bedrooms. 

The tías asked me if I would take him down to my room and I did so only after they agreed that he would sit in a chair in the corner until naptime was over (I was cleaning my room in preparation for our big SEDEGES inspection tomorrow). I think at that point they were so happy that I'd agreed to watch him that it didn't really matter what I did with him! Although he spends his days wandering around the house (both with and without permission), I think he realized that he wasn't going to be allowed to do it with me (probably because I had him blocked in with all of my stuff everywhere) and sat still in the chair. At about 3:45pm he asked if he could go to his bed and I told him that it was too late. About two minutes later I looked over at him and he was sound asleep in the chair!

Feliz Cumpleaños, Tía Rosi!

I just wanted to post a few pictures of our birthday celebration for Tía Rosi… Her birthday was yesterday but since she wasn't working, we celebrated today. The kids didn't know that we'd be celebrating so they were thrilled with our impromptu celebration! S. and B. were still around working on homework so they got in on the birthday celebration too before heading back home. 

As you can see in the pictures, Rosi was a good sport and agreed to bite the cake! She didn't get it all over her face like the kids do, but the boys, especially D., thought it was HILARIOUS. She got lots of hugs from them and a sweet prayer from B. before dinner. 

The above picture really has nothing to do with this post, but I agreed to take S. and B. home on my way home. They'd been playing outside and B. came back in, begging Tía Rosi to let her take the boys' cat to the girls' house "so it can live with its little brother." Rosi agreed so I told her to go get it so we could head out. Rather than just go get the cat, she found a plastic bag to carry it in. For some reason, the cat didn't fight her. She was carrying the bag by the handles and the cat was just hanging out in the bag like nothing. When I suggested that she take the cat out and just carry it, she looked at me like I had gone crazy. While all of this was happening, the boys realized what she was doing and although they don't care about having a cat, all insisted that they didn't want her to take it. In the end, Rosi made her leave the cat at the house and we returned empty handed to the girls' house. 

Quinceañera

Last night, several of us were invited to Tía Anita's daughter's quinceañera (15th birthday party). To be honest, I've skipped two other quinceañera parties since I've been in Bolivia because I really don't enjoy big parties like this. However, this party was much different than others and I'm so glad I went! 

From what I have been told, a typical quinceañera can be a pretty wild event involving a lot of dancing and alcohol. Tía Anita, being the good Christian that she is, did not want either of these things at her daughter's party. Keila's quinceañera was put on by many of their family's friends and it turned out really nice. There certainly were aspects of a typical quinceañera such as a "court" of young girls, dinner, lots of gifts, etc., but their Christian faith played a big part in it as well such as having a brief sermon from their church's pastor. 

Tía Anita asked Danyelle and I to help take pictures, so enjoy some of our best ones!