Casa de Amor Celebrates 10 Years

My six awesome kids at the parking garage!!

    Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of Hogar de Amor para Ninos, the orphanage that we worked with for the first (almost) two years we were in Bolivia. I usually refer to it as Casa de Amor in my blog, don't exactly know why! We thought it was important to go and show our support and celebrate with Jennifer and the Hogar team for this grand accomplishment! The event started at 9 so we once again had to get up and going early!
     We arrived fashionably Bolivian late... And Tia Rosa was speaking about the Hogar when we arrived. She gave some really neat facts about the Hogar and the things that it has been able to accomplish over the past ten years. The Hogar has received 145 children during the past ten years. I believe that 119 of those have gone either back to family or have been adopted. Incredible! This Hogar works so hard to place these children into families. They believe that every child deserves to grow up in a loving home. Basically, they want to work themselves out of job with these children. Of course, the need doesn't stop for a safe place for children while they are waiting for families, so "job security" is unfortunately always there!

Tia Rosa sharing about the accomplishments of Hogar de Amor

Some of the statistics of Hogar de Amor

 Next Tia Maria shared on the health of the children. She is the nurse/person in charge of health in the Hogar.

Tia Maria

 A lot of the Tias came and brought some of the children from House One, Two, and Three!

Tias listening to the speeches

Tia Sarin shared from her perspective of working in the Hogar for almost the whole ten years. She is one of the original Tias to work for the Hogar. She is also one of our most favorite Tias!

Tia Sarin sharing..

I really enjoyed seeing some of the babies from the Hogar with their prospective parents. V. was assigned parents this past month! They are from a town outside of Cochabamba and only speak Quechua. They seem super sweet and we are super happy for V. to have a family. I remember the day she arrived at the Hogar at just a few days old. Her hair reminded me of a newborn baby goat, so thick and curly!!

V. with her new Mommy!

I don't know if any of you remember baby F. that we cared for for two months, but she was also there with a lady who is in the process of trying to adopt her. She looked healthy and so happy! She also was running around everywhere. A big improvement on the "baby blob" we took care of!

Baby F. with her prospective mother!

 Rudi and Jake had a good time chatting in back. There was quite a echo in the building and so it was hard to hear exactly what was being said from the back! I think they both enjoyed an English speaking guy moment.

Paula commented later that the event was really short. Rudi commented that she had been in Bolivia for too long, as it seemed pretty long to us!! I think she was expecting another long wedding type event!

Ruth and Paula taking it all in!

 One of the children who came was S.! He sure gets cuter every day!

S. and "Daddy"

 You can see from the picture below why Myles is his favorite!!

Quite a few more people spoke and then Tio David presented Jennifer with a plaque commemorating the 10 year anniversary of Hogares de Amor para Ninos.

Tia Jennifer receiving her plaque!

Another highlight was seeing previous children from the Home that have either been adopted or returned to their original parent(s). Below are the famous triplets that the Home raised until they were about 18 months. Some of the former volunteers will remember Ruth who came with her adopted mother. There were others also, but I don't remember their names!

The Famous Triplets with the founder of the Hogar, Jennifer Beaty!

Congratulations, Jennifer and the team at Hogar de Amor for a successful and blessed 10 years! May there be many more children blessed and impacted by your service to Cochabamba, Bolivia in the future!

    Mark 10:14&15 "...Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein."