A new little life

It is with great joy that we announce that we have recieved our first "foster child" here in Bolivia!! She is a beautiful almost 7 pound little girl named Camila. We are all having a hard time remembering her name so she has already been nicknamed "Cami Rose." She came to our home on the afternoon of the 12th at only 36 hours old. She has already brought so much joy to our lives in such a short time.

We began the process to take care of children under the Casa de Amor IV name about two months ago. There are currently three other Casa de Amor homes in existence with a total of 30 children. Now Cami Rose makes 31! We are thrilled to be a part of this new family.

Please pray for this new little life we have been entrusted with. She is such a blessing to our family and we are so grateful to be a part of her life.

Life as we know it....

It has been a while since we have updated our blog. Life has just been cruising along here in Cochabamba. We have just passed the six month marker of living here and we are settling in nicely. Our house is feeling more like our home now and we're getting more accustomed to our surroundings. There are so many things to familiarize yourself with when you move to a foreign country. Language, transportation, food, weather and people are just a few. We have had many ups and downs in six months, but we still feel God has called us here and most days we feel honored to be here working with the beautiful Bolivian people.

Steve has had many amazing adventures in the past few months. Recently he has had the opportunity to take a bush plane into a little village called San Lorenzo to visit the orphanage there. While there he was able to meet with the new house parents for the home and some of the locals in the village. He also had the chance to try some new foods including a whole Piranha and a non-alcoholic version of a corn drink called Chicha. The corn drink was hard to swallow, but he enjoyed the Piranha. He reported that the town of San Lorenzo is a peaceful, well-kept and beautiful place and jokingly said we will be retiring there! We shall see!

The girls are thriving in their new school. Although they entered school late in the year, they have all managed to make some pretty great friends. This is an answer to our prayers. God is so good. Kendra joined cheerleading a few months ago and we have really enjoyed seeing her cheer at Carachipampa's home games. Emma and Grace stay busy with homework. Grace came home with the exciting news today that she has made it into the final spelling bee on the 13th of this month! We are very proud of her.They are doing so well.

I continue to take language classes three days a week. This is a great opportunity that I am very grateful for, however, the hard part for me is using the language within everyday life. I need a little more courage I guess. Please pray that God will grant me more opportunties to use the language and the courage to do it even though I'm sure to mess up.

One of the highlights of our week remains baby washing. It is so fun to be a small part of a street person's day. And the babies are so very precious. I have gotten to know one mom a little more in the last month or so. Her name is Benita and she has three sons and one daughter. Her daughter was born shortly before we arrived here. It has been such a joy to watch her grow and develope. She is so sweet. Benita has recently started asking me and one of our interns to pray over her every week. She has stomach issues that cause her alot of pain and make it hard to care for her children and still keep up with her job of washing clothes. My heart breaks for her. My prayer is that she will find comfort in Christ and experience joy in him.

So life continues on and we thank God everyday for the blessing he has bestowed upon us. We are always amazed at his provisions for us. We are so very grateful to our friends and family that support us and love us. Thank you!