Laura, Luis, Patricia and Javier. They are siblings.

News About the Foster Children/Home

The paperwork is being finished for the orphanage but we have the first and only permit for a Casa Hogar (Shelter for Children) in our County. Please pray that all paperwork will be finished soon (Things move VERY slowly here) so we can accept more children. There is such a great need.

Laura has finished first grade! She has now started second. We are trying to catch her up to the grade she is supposed to be in which is third. The ‘real her’ is now showing after her being here for eight months. We have been praying for that. We knew it was not possible that she was that obedient all the time. It is good to know she feels comfortable enough now to act out sometimes, if you know what we mean.

Luis had a birthday this past March. He turned six. He also lost his first two teeth and is very excited about that. He has no bottom front teeth. He is learning his numbers and letters in school and LOVES to help around the house.

Javier had a birthday in February. He is now three. He is gaining confidence and talking more. I’ve noticed that he doesn’t really like talking Spanish very much. We need to address some of the physical problems he has such ask horribly dry skin and rashes.

Pati is growing like a weed! We hope to be able to take her in to have her legs checked as they are not even and one is a bit bent probably due to poor care (or no care) during pregnancy. She is a very happy baby and will turn 2 in July.

Part of Our Vision

We just wanted to share part of our vision with you. As we continue with our “casa hogar” (orphanage), our goal is not to have it set up like an institution. We want kids to know how to cope in family situations, how to be a family. What happens here most of the time is that children get put in institutions with many children. Since it is so difficult to adopt children here, they end up staying there until they are 18. Then they are on their own. They go out into the world and try to start a life, but have never had a family so don’t know how to have a functional family. It is a bad chain. We don’t want that for the children. We want them to experience living in a family. So we are hoping to set up family groups. There will be a max of 20 children living with a set of ‘parents’; a big family.
Right now we are in phase one of three to get to that goal. Phase one: add more rooms onto our house to be able to take in more children. Phase two: A large multi-purpose building with a dormitory, kitchen/dining area and a large multi-purpose room for classrooms. We hope to set up workshops to teach skills to the children that they can use when they leave (plumbing, electric, carpentry, jewelry making, tiling, making clothes, food). The dorm has an attached apartment for those that come to help. Phase three: an area completely separated from our house that will have lots of town houses for family groups and a recreation/education area. Someone has offered to donate the land for this project. If we use this land, we will need to dig a well and run electricity to the area.