Naïve Set Theory

Many of you may have seen Shyrel and our precious Charges on CNN Last Night. The Segment was pretty sensational in that AC and staff used many words that cast many aspersions on the Guatemalan Adoption world. A quick scan of the Blogs populated by the Americans interested in Adopting children from Guatemala ( past, present and future) shows a defensive reaction, and even outrage at the CNN story.

I guess that’s a reflection of our society. As Joshua and I traveled in the states last month, we at first enjoyed listening to varying radio ideologues. But it does get tiring after a while. It seems like many issues are so polarized that there is not much talking WITH…only talking AT people with whom one disagrees. That rarely helps solve the problem that divides the opposing sides. This was epitomized yesterday in the Guatemalan Congress, when the opposing presidential candidates’ parties used the pending Adoption Reform law like a football to score political points. As neither side cared so much about the law, as wanting to make sure their opponents did not look good, no action was taken.

In the adoption debate, it seems the two sides can be classified by their understanding of the status of the children being adopted by Americans. One group ( seen on Adoption agency websites and the Guatemalan Attorney’s sites) says that these children were born by accident to poor mothers and will die if not adopted by American couples. The other group (see CNN segment) says that the children are a product, harvested from pressured mothers or even conceived to sell.

As always, the TRUTH is probably somewhere in the middle. That fact reminds me of learning about “sets” in school. Do you remember intersecting sets? Sometimes it was diagramed showing two circles {set A} and {set B}, with parts of both sharing the same ( usually shaded) space. I feel like we here at Amor del Niño live in that shaded area. I promise to post some cute pictures of children that are here, who are from both sets.

Often, you can only hold these strongly opposing views by being ignorant of the facts. One way to remain ignorant is to refuse to listen to the opposition. The U.S. State department counsels prospective adoptive parents to do their homework. The problem is that all of the “research” occurs on the sites that are financially motivated to show one side of the story. We here in Guatemala see a distinctly different world that that portrayed by these sites. It saddens us that the well intentioned potential parents in some cases ( NOT ALL!) become unwitting accomplices to an system of coercion and corruption motivated not by the welfare of the children, but by the lure of the almighty Dollar. When stories are heard evidencing corruption, it is again sad to see how they are not investigated or considered, but emotionally shouted down. It is an emotional subject.

rleationships are the heart of our faith

a frind said that to me, and I have many times pondered if I even understand a little bit


Until i start writing again, I will post some connectijns to our friends who do blogs so much better.

melissa is helping to find homes for children who are otherwise forgotten...due to more reasons than I can list right now. Here is her blog

http://seekingtheforgotten-melissa.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the good word. Melissa...but to our other friends..please read her historical stuff!

Per child costs and puppies

I just heard a pod cast of a nonprofit discussion group talking about costs and raising funds. Probably the quintessential labor of non profit people is to discuss how to raise funds, and then to try to explain to boards why they were unable to get what they needed. (I am so glad that Jehovah Jireh told me years ago that it was his deal to provide, and my deal to obey...it definitely takes the edge off)

I then read an article about the Dallas Public school district that pointed out that some schools receive $8000 per student per year, while others were as low as $4000 per student per year. In a 10 month school year that is $400 per child per month in the poorest schools in Dallas.

Why am I bringing this up? I am very insecure, and a miser, and have had a hard time with the idea that we are spending about $300 per child per month ( total organizational costs) to not just educate, but to feed and house, and provide medical care and all the special things that make the special children feel…special.

For instance, our latest guilty indulgence:

Labrador Puppies.



I hope they will grow to become good guardians of our children and our houses. But in the meantime, the people who sway me the most are happy to have them














Yes...I said "Puppies", as in 2




Jose likes to get on the ground and wrestle


























Hannah just plain loves them


Danny is not so sure


And Selvin is such a servant hearted little person that he makes sure the puppies are well fed.














We will keep working at being a good organization, and at being a place where the children who have no say over whether they would be here or not...would choose to be here if they had.

Thanks for your prayers that keep us going!




Please forgive the photo quality. I shot in low light with my available camera. I hope you agree with me that a fuzzy picture is better than no picture at all.

A Child of Promise

The arrival of a number of our children has had a sense of something special attending it. Each one is a special arrival, and we fully believe that their attendant angels as well as the prayers of all the saints are involved in working out their becoming part of our little family. Although we do not make decisions based on special “coincidences” or signs, it is fun to note them as part of the general joy.

This week, we were blessed with the opportunity to take care of a little boy, who was abandoned at the Roosevelt Hospital at birth. He was born with some physical problems that were actually considered worse at first than they turned out to be. That is a shame because the mother who may have been frightened into running away due to the first diagnosis is now no where to be found.

He had no birth data and had not been given a name when he arrived with us, maybe a week old. Usually, the court papers assigning a child to us come with either the name the parent gave, or a named given by the police or social worker or nurses involved. Names are important, and we don’t mind when the people who brought him to us have given one, but it is really special when we get to name our new family member.

I am POSITIVE we have given him the right name.

Isaac.

The child of promise.

Shyrel talked it over with the staff, and especially the nannies. I think Rosa was the one who first said Isaac. But as Shyrel liked it and when I heard it it sounded very good. Little Zak! We decided to think about it and see how it fit him. But the icing on the cake was talking with a good friend (who likes to remain anonymous in these things)the next morning about the nameless child who had joined our family. He said, straight out, “If I had another boy, I would have named him after my great Grandfather Isaac.”


Who knows what plans the Lord has for this little boy. But it gives us a long term perspective and insight into potentialities to think about names and namesakes and especially that Isaac born miraculously to Abraham and Sarah so long ago.

Are you … Steve?

It was an odd, slightly hesitant salutation. I was speaking with one o f the pastors of the many churches on our street, and a woman approached and asked that. I said Yes, I’m Steve, and she explained that she is the new teacher in the school, for Gabby, Diana, Herlinda and Shirley. She gushed about how much she enjoyed our children and what a wonderful work we have. I then realized she had hesitated in asking my name, as she checked herself, because she keeps hearing about “Papa Steve” and I guess didn’t want to use that moniker. She went on to embarrass me by saying I must be a loving person, because the children obviously love me so much.

Diana, Shirley and Herlinda ready for school

I get embarrassed in those situations because it isn’t true. The children love me a lot, due to, I think, the wonderful home they live in and the wonderful way they were hard wired to love the big people in their lives. So, really, that compliment needs to go to Shyrel, for the beauty of the home and the hard work and love that maintains it, and to their heavenly father, for the beauty of these little creations, and the redeeming love that is at work here.

They really are loving and beautiful, and I receive comments like the teacher’s regularly. People notice, I think, the special joy these children have. I am amazed regularly, myself, how happy the children are. Ours really is a happy home. There really is a lot of Joy. And a lot of patience and love. There is a remarkable amount of kindness too, between the workers and the children, and between children. And they are pretty well behaved when out and about in our neighborhood.

Selvin and Bryan helping out front

Those attributes, though, aren’t fruit of our labor, although it takes a lot of work. Galatians 5:22 shows a different source of this fruit: the Holy Spirit. How does that fruit come to be? I believe that that is where our prayer partners come in. One of the strengths of our lives is the prayer covering our friends have provided since we first came to Guatemala. We can’t thank them enough.

PRAYER WORKS, I am here to testify. If you would like to receive prayer requests and updates that we don’t publish publicly, please e-mail me, and ask to be put on the list.

Bryan and Angel practicing what I mean

Not all our neighbors are happy to see a big group of cute albeit lively children, and as we played with the children in the new house Sunday evening, a neighbor came out on his balcony and and threw insults and comments about having a day care business in his neighborhood. Being deaf, I didn’t hear him, but Shyrel told me later. She took the brunt of his tirade, and took it as she does most suffering, very stoically, but I am sure it stung her. One wants to respond in these situations. Then as I went in to close up the house, she told the kids that this neighbor needed a blessing, and so she had the children all say in chorus “ God Bless you” as they left. A powerful response, and one, I have to admit, I wouldn’t have thought of.