No One Left Behind

Sweet Jose rode in the front seat next to me on the ride from the old house to the new house. It is my honor to load up all the kids in my truck and help them shout “Adios” to their old place as we drive off and “Hola” to their new one as we pull up. Bridgit rode on the lap of a lady from the church in another vehicle. So the other 16 came with me. As we rode along Jose and I had a little chat.

“You know what Tia Angie?”

“What’s that, Jose?”

“I thought I was going to be left at the house. I am so glad that I got to come to the new house!”

He flashed his toothless smile up at me.

“Of course you come with us, Jose. We would never leave you behind.”

The three older girls took to reminiscing about this location above the church. This was the first home we had for the House of Dreams. They remembered. It seems that the familiarity has allowed for some great adjusting.

It helps, as well, that they have much more space than before. There are more rooms and larger ones at that. They even get to store their toys in their bedrooms. The outside covered soccer field plus ample yard are perfect for all 17 of them to run free.

If you have joined us in prayer over this moving project you can join us in being grateful to the Lord for:

• Favor from an unlikely landlord
• Happy, healthy and quickly well adjusted kids
• Over fifty people willingly helping with the packing, hauling, sorting, and traipsing through the mud on two of the rainiest days of the season
• People who played with and cared for the Dreamers making this move fun and pleasant
• God’s provision

- Angie

Photo by: Jason Naldrett

July Wrap Up

Winter came to Cochabamba in full force this year. We had more snow on the mountains than we have had in years. So it is only appropriate that I do a “wrap up” for the month of July as I wrap my jacket a bit tighter around my shoulders.

House of Dreams has had a great month! There have been some good things happening that I would like to share with you.

First of all, at the beginning of the month our oldest Dreamer, Estefani, turned nine! We are so proud of this sweet girl. She continues to excel at school with top grades and much ambition. She is also determined to learn to speak English. She is a pure joy to have at the House of Dreams.

We had a group come and spend just over a week dedicating their services to the House of Dreams. They came from River City Church in Kentucky. Pastors Brian and Jessica Gibson have been friends of ours since mission school. We are grateful that they decided to send their team here. The group brought some fun gifts for the kids, did a vacation Bible school, painted almost the whole interior of the house, and put a play ground in the yard that the kids are thoroughly enjoying. Thank you team!

Because of the cold the children of Bolivia are given a winter break from school. Though the nights and mornings are chilly the afternoons get quite warm. So the children spent many days at the parks that are close by the house. Church of Christ Cochabamba brought in a team one of those days to help escort the kids to and from the park. We are glad that they are so close to fun places to play out of doors.

This month we have also made arrangements with an international program called Bolivia Sostenible to facilitate volunteers at the home. Thus far through them we have received volunteers from Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.S. They are hard workers who stay for about a month at a time. This is a very good partnership.

Another answer to prayer in this month is a new partnership with a boarding school in England called Steyning Grammar School. Year seven is going to be working together to raise funds for a computer lab at the House of Dreams. It is so exciting when people act on ideas to come together and help the kids of Bolivia.

Thank you to all who have chosen to participate in caring for our kids through prayers, volunteering, giving and your kind notes of encouragement.

Keep dreaming!

~ Angie

Glasses Update

Almost a month ago now I wrote about two of our kids who needed glasses. (See post here: Glasses.) I explained that the exams were done free of charge and that we were looking for people to help with the costs of the frames and lenses. Well, I am happy to report that there has been an outpouring of good will towards our boys. A blog reader sent down some frames and let us know that if they didn’t work for the boys then we could use then for someone else or some other time. Thank you Sabrina! While they were on their way down to us a lady from church stepped in and said that she wanted to cover the costs of getting the boys their glasses. Thank you Dora! So they now have good sturdy glasses and we have extra frames for the future.

Thanks to all who prayed about this need. You can join me in thanking God for people who were obedient when He nudged them to help our kiddos. Enjoy the pics!

Yamil and Gabriel at DaRonn's birthday party at church

Sweet Gabriel can see better now!

~ Angie

Tea

Last night’s tea went very well. Thank you all for your prayers! This is the first effort and the ladies are motivated to organize the next event. That is an answer to prayer right there.

Stats for the bottom-line people:

• 14 ladies came
• $347 U.S. were raised

Not bad for a country considered to be “poor”. I absolutely love the idea of Bolivians helping Bolivians!

In all the excitement of: sipping, and munching, and giving my little speech three times for the different levels of punctuality represented, and chatting, and greeting, and farewelling… I forgot to take pictures. Oops. When only part of my team was left I remembered. So I quick took one shot of an unfinished plate of a yummy tea. Maybe I will remember pictures when we get together as a team to celebrate. For all the people who gave $20 or more we promised to make them a little “recuerdo”. It is a typical Bolivian gesture of a handmade item commemorating involvement in a significant event. So, when we get together to glue and cut and whatnot I will try to get a few shots of the team.

You can continue to pray for good ideas, strong follow through and favor for all the ladies who want to help meet the needs of our little Dreamers by finding creative ways to involve donors.

- Angie

Prayer Points and Answers

Thank you for sharing with us the work of the orphanage by praying. We are expecting great things from God.

Answers to get excited about and thank God for:

• Adriana is adjusting very well to life with her new parents.
• The caregivers sector of our staff has found an operational degree of stability.
• Due to some tests that were performed we have found out about some disabilities in a couple of our kids. Having this information helps us to: care for them better, get them the therapy and schooling they need, adjust their files to get a better match for them to be adopted.
• New volunteers are helping.

How you can pray with us now:

• Our director is battling some health issues.
• We are addressing the professional staffing needs.
• Expediency on the processing of the paperwork of the kids who are going to be adopted.
• Creativity in raising funds.

We appreciate you taking the time to pray for the House of Dreams; it makes all the difference in the world.

- Angie

Prayer Points and Answers

Answers to thank God about:

• Slowly but surely we are getting the staff we need.
• The children are adjusting to school.
• All are healthy.

Prayer Points:

• Continued staffing issues.
• Finances – we need to double our income asap.
• Wisdom and perserverence for us as directors.
• Love and stamina for the care givers.
• Many of our children are very close to home placements. Pray for smooth transition and efficient processing.

Friends, your prayers are so very important. I truly believe that it makes a great difference when we are unified in our efforts to care for the Dreamers here at the House of Dreams. Thank you for taking a moment to pray.

- Angie

New Stove and Oven

Remeber I mentioned about the wonderful gift of a new stove and oven? I was reluctant to do before and after pics because of the horror that our dear cook had to deal with before this huge blessing came our way. I decided a little peek at a corner of the beastly thing would be enough to not turn your stomach too much.

Before:

Before the move there was a full kitchen at the rental. This new place didn’t have all the appliances. So for about six weeks we have had various local promises of the donation of a new stove and oven. Finally one of the promisers followed through on their word and brought us their gift. As you can see this old one was a contraption made of open burners connected to a hose that ran to a tank of gas. Every time it was used the cook would have black soot all over her hands and clothes. People were concerned that our director was being abused because she made lunch one day and ended with a racoon face from the grit. An awful smell of gas from a leak would fill the kitchen and dining area to the point that I prayed for the safety of the kids while we waited.

Finally, help came! Here is the brand spanking new stove and oven:

Isn’t it beautiful?! Six burners. A huge oven space. Clean, new and safe. All the workers at the home are vying for time to use it. It is fun to see them so excited to help the cook do her work. The kids know that this was a donation and are happy to tell me the story of it coming to us. I am glad that they were able to see a real life answer to prayer.

- Angie

More Answered Prayer

Updates of Prayer Points:

• Restructuring of staff hours received well

UPDATE: There were already some gals who had told us they were leaving to continue with their studies or advance professionally in their chose profession. That is one reason I felt the green light to restructure the shifts to increase efficiency. The gals who are staying are happy with the changes. I am especially grateful that our director (who has more interaction with our staff) is completely on-board and even excited about the change. She is taking some initiative in some areas that I was going to address soon, but she is already on top of it. Thank God with me for this good reception to change.

• Wise hiring

UPDATE: You might remember I referenced some hiring in December. Maybe some day I will tell the story of my lesson at the school of hard knocks during that fiasco. Suffice it to say that there were no new hires that stuck around in December. This has made me a bit gun-shy for the current hiring going on at the House of Dreams. I feel strongly that I need to be the one doing the hiring right now. I learned a ton and I think I can do a better job this time around. So, continued prayers in this area are much appreciated. I started calls yesterday. I have interviews today and tomorrow. Final decisions by Friday. Training on Monday.

• Implementation of the new volunteer program both locally and internationally

UPDATE: Still in progress but coming along nicely.

• The set up of my office

UPDATE: How much have I done on this? Nada. It remains a point on my to do list.

• A new stove and oven for the kitchen

UPDATE: We have a new stove and oven! It is beautiful! Pictures to come soon. It was purchased and donated to us by Juan David’s adoptive parents.  I am so grateful that the Lord would move on thier hearts to help us with this urgent need.

Thank you for your prayers!

- Angie

Prayer Points and Answers

Time and again there is proof that prayer makes a huge difference in our lives. If you are in any way involved in the lives of our little Dreamers here at the House of Dreams I invite you to join me in praying for the following topics. The “Prayer Points” are requests and the “Recent Answers” are reasons to rejoice. Thank you for joining in this strategic element.

Prayer Points

• Restructuring of staff hours received well
• Wise hiring
• Implementation of the new volunteer program both locally and internationally
• The set up of my office
• A new stove and oven for the kitchen (A member of the church is heading up the local fund raising for this project. Pray for expediency, favor on his face and willing hearts to participate.)

Recent Answers

• The recent approval of one of our little girls to be returned to her mother (more on this soon)
• Our church members becoming much more involved
• The wonderfully quick funding of the Back to School Backpack Fill campaign
• Increased involvement from the community by way of donations of goods and services
• Good neighbors and a kind landlord who like us

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.“ Matthew 25:40

~ Angie

First Looks at the New House

We are all moved in! I must say that I am very pleased with how things went. Sure, there were a few hick-ups, and there is still a bunch of fixing up left to do,  but over-all is was good. I believe we owe the success to various factors, not the least of them being: huge doses of answered prayer and a huge group of wonderful volunteers.

One of my biggest concerns was the adjustment for the kids. During our last move many of the children reacted to the change with fevers, depression and languid behavior for many days. I am so grateful to God that we had none of those issues this time around.

A tactic that we used was to have a crew of volunteers dedicated to hanging out at the church with all 24 kids the day of the move. It helped that they were distracted and that they didn’t have to see all their things disappearing.

Here are some pictures.

Bye Bye old house

I won’t tell you how many kids I fit in my truck

These kids are so fun!

Too distracted to eat

Marta Sylvia at dinner

Vladi showing off the baby room

This girl knows what a camera is for

This guy likes his new place

Shirley so Happy

Sisters playing on the floor in their bedroom

The room for the older girls

Adriana Playing

Taking pictures of each other – Smile!

In the room for the younger girls

The room for the younger girls

The toy room

Where the living room set will be

Mr. Cheeser man

The Boys Room

Boys will be boys

~ Angie