Children of My Heart: Bolivian Dreams- Day 4- Baby Day!

Today we visited the Compassion offices in Cochabamba and I was able to unload an entire suitcase of sponsor gifts for children there! We toured the departments and of course I was most interested in the mailroom and how exactly the corrospondence process worked. I was surprised and disappointed when I asked about letter frequency and learned that the children could write up to a maximum of 6 times per year if they had sponsors who wrote at least once per letter writing period but that 6 was the max. We were able to see how the mailboxes were set up and I was amazed when one of the other sponsors grabbed a stack of letters from of the cubbies and I recognised a picture of my boyfriend's grandson! It was a letter that I had written to my Luis in July and happened to be on the top of the pile for BO-435 which just so happened to be the pile that was grabbed. Talk about serendipity.

Mailboxes in the mailroom at the country office

After the country office we headed BACK to the market, which was actually open today. While I was not really interested in shopping, I was able to find some inexpensive postcards to send my other Compassion kids to tell about my trip, especially 6 year old Cyprian from Kenya who told me in his My Dreams template that he wants to go to South America one day. Finally it was time for a project visit and the one I had been anticipating all trip. The visit to CSP-01, the child survival program to see the babies! When we arrived some of the children were very shy and one little girls started screaming and didn't stop the entire time we were there!

We heard testimonies from several mothers, including one whose first child had died but who now has a little boy Israel who is alive and well due to the program. We also were treated to several performances by CSP graduates who were the cutest things!

One little group of girls were delighted to see themselves on video and made me play it for them 4 or 5 times in a row!

When we were finally able to play with the kids I was in heaven, especially when someone handed me a tiny little girl in a pink hat. She was so content just to be cuddled and when I readjusted her in my arms to be more comfortable she soon fell fast asleep. I thought I could totally let my guard down this day, to love these children with total abandon because the US doesn't do sponsorships for the CSP. There was no way I COULD sponsor one of these kids so I didn't need to worry about willpower. God has a way of letting us know that we are NOT as smart as we think. After playing with all the babies we split up for family visits. Since a few members of my group were staying behind I joined another group and was assigned to visit Adelaida and her 15 month old son Eder. A little girl was on the bus too but I didn't notice her much because she was sitting with another sponsor. When the sponsor got off with the first visit group however I offered to have little Reyna sit in my lap and absolutely fell head over heels in love with her. She turned out to be the 3 yr old sister of the baby we were visiting and I held her the entire bus ride and the entire family visit. I don't know if it was her shyness, her cute little giggle or her poor rotten teeth that got my attention but I found that I could barely focus on the visit. We learned that Adelaida is a single mom and that she didn't have prenatal care with either child and actually did alot of manual labor when pregnant with Eder. As a medical professional I noticed that his head was very large for a 3 yr old and that he was not even standing which would be expected by that age. He did have movement problems in one hand and there had been complications with his birth. Even with all this, his mother feels he is doing far better than little Reyna was at that age in regards to his development, which was even more worrysome. It was obvious that this mother was barely getting by on the odd jobs she picked up and when we returned I asked if Reyna was sponsored but learned she was not eligible due to there only being one child allowed in Compassion unless the family had 5 or more kids. I was not to be rebuffed however and after speaking to Maria Elena from the country office did learn that exceptions were made if a willing sponsor were requesting a specific child be registered, and that the staff also felt there was a need in this family. Unfortunately I was gathering this info literally as we were being pushed to the bus so they were unable to take down my info and Adelaida was back at her house where we said our goodbyes so they were unable to ask if she was willing to have Reyna registered. As it stands I do have a few pictures of her and her mother's name and brother's center to identify her. I will be able to send this info to the Maria Elena when I get home and if it meant to be she will be enrolled though it may take several months. I can wait though since she is so worth waiting for!