Another New Baby

I went to the hospital today to bring another baby back to FHC. His story was all over the news because his mom had left him in a shoebox in her house. She left a note with him and then disappeared. The owner of the house found the baby, called the police, and he was brought to a local hospital. The news station came to the orphanage and interviewed the Tias (caregivers) as a follow up to the story. His name is Benjamin and we think he is about 15 days old.

Newest Edition

Here is one of our newest members at FHC, Christian. He is 6 days old!

Making some pizza :)

I know you are not supposed to have favorites, but this little girl, Nathalia, is one of my favorites. She is four years old. We went a couple weeks ago to make pizza. We had gone to this same place last year with some of the same kids. They absolutely loved making the pizza and picking out all of the ingredients. The taxi ride in itself was an adventure, as the kids excitedly shouted out all the things they saw outside the window.

Just because.....

Here are some new pictures of Jennifer, just because she is so cute!

Group Leader

One of my new job descriptions is being in charge of visiting teams that come to the orphanage. The last couple weeks have been my busiest weeks in Ecuador as I have planned and lead two different teams. The first team was a church group from the Boston area. There were 12 people, many of them mothers and daughters and a father and son duo. It was a nice mix of ages with the youngest member being 12 years old and the oldest, late 50s. Currently I have a group of 16 physical therapy students from Northeastern University. They are working on different programs for our special needs children.

In the past couple weeks I have gone on three different field trips with the kids, done 4 different cooking classes, helped with a feeding program at the local dump, lead 3 different city tours, translated physical therapy terms that I don’t even know what they mean in English, did two different school tours, partook in a parade, welcomed and said goodbye to 2 good friends, conducted a scavenger hunt around the city, led a class on how to best barter at the market, and helped with an awesome bonfire. I think I am going to invest in one of those cool umbrellas that the tours guides hold up high when leading groups. Having groups here has let me see and experience new things for which I am very thankful to be a part of. Both of these teams have been such a source of encouragement for me.

I found that I really love spending time with the groups and getting to really know these people. When teams come, the members are open to share with you and eager to help in any way that they can. Their time here looks different depending on the group and the talents that they have, and also the amount of time that they are here with us. Most groups that come down, they play and help care for the children. They will do minor constructions projects around the homes. Let me know if you or somebody you know might be interested in bringing a group down here. It really is a life changing experience for the people who come. I would love to help guide and lead you in your time here!

A cool reunion

Since being here I have been able to witness new babies come in and many adoptions take place. Just this past Monday, one of our 2 year old boys, Lucas, was adopted by an Ecuadorian family. Last week I got to see something a little different. Jairo, a seven year old, was adopted last year by an American family. I worked with Jairo last year, taking him on field trips and doing cooking class with him. He was adopted last March and his parents decided to take a trip back to Ecuador and the orphanage so that Jairo could visit his old friends and so that his parents could learn more about Ecuadorian culture. It was so great seeing Jairo. He now speaks English fluently and attends a bilingual school to keep up his Spanish. He came running up yelling, “Miss Jennifer!” His parents told me that Jairo always talks about the cooking class that we did together. I’ve gotten to spend some time playing with him over the past week. He is so happy with his parents and so well adjusted. I had them over for dinner. For dessert we made a special recipe together, spiders. We used marshmallows for the body and pasta pieces for the legs and then poured chocolate on top. I am so happy for him and his parents. I asked his parents to talk to the group that was visiting to explain how they decided to adopt an older child and how the adjustment went. During the meeting I was playing with Jairo so I didn’t hear all their answers. But they did explain how they couldn’t imagine their lives without him.