April | 2009 | House of Dreams Orphanage

Reinaldo was brought back home from the hospital again today. He had a rough go at it this round and is now on various medications. He is doing much better, though. The doctors have said that the combo of bronchitis and pneumonia that he has is chronic and will be a life long struggle. They recommend that he has a special humidifier type machine to help him long term.

The fact that this tiny 10 month old was born prematurely has created many difficulties for him. Not the least of which is underdeveloped organs. I am hopeful that he will continue to grow strong here in our home. We appreciate your continued prayers for him.

~ Angie

… showers of goodness, that is!

Although the rains have stayed around unseasonably longer than usual here in Bolivia the showers I want to talk about are the showers of goodness brought to us by a wonderful group of visitors. The 2009 Outreach Season here at the House of Dreams has started strong. Four ladies from Word of Life Church in Saint Joseph, Missouri came to help in the orphanage.

Their activities in the home were varied. They dove right in bathing the babies on the first day. Our little ones loved being cuddled to sleep for their naps. The bigger one loved running, jumping and playing with the new friends. At dinner time seven year old Estefani started laughing and said, “They don’t understand a thing we are saying because they speak English!” No matter, though, because a hug and a smile are universal for communicating love. Many diapers were changed and many noses were wiped. To top it all off they brought a bunch of goodies like a new camera, socks and Spanish childrens books.

A unique aspect of this team was that one of the members is a professional photographer. In less than a week she took about 1,500 photos of the kids, the facility and the city. The church is planning an artistic display for their foyer using some of the images she captured.

A special request for hiking was gladly met. It was so fun to take them up Tunari National Park and also climb the 1,500 stairs to the statue of Christ. The mountain lover in me was happy to oblige.

Thank you so much Peri, Ashlie, Lacy and Kathy!

Hope you enjoy looking at some of the pictures I took of their trip. It might be time for you to consider spending some time in Bolivia with an Outreach Team. Contact us for more information.

(Click on the image to see an enlarge version and read a short description.)

~Angie