My little Superman.

¨Jesus touched them and said, ¨Rise, and have no fear.¨

-Matthew 17:7-

A blessed third week of Advent to each of you!

Peace of Christ. In this time of expectation, awaiting the celebration of the Birth of Our Savior, I hope all is most well and blessed for each of you and your families.

This week was wild...hey, aren´t they all! A little one of our´s, 8-year-old Fernando, had his guardian angels working overtime. This little one has been with us for about one year. He is the only child of parents who most likely will never be able to care for him again, and he had been in a foster family before coming to us. It is the goal of the foundation to re-unite families after the appropriate rehabilitation, but sometimes it is impossible. Therefore, hopefully, someday he will have a family to belong to. In the meantime, he belongs to our family here, and we love this crazy one dearly. He apparently was a really difficult child upon arrival with a really difficult background. For example, he had grown accustomed to having to defend himself, whether in the streets or his own home; therefore, he was always carrying rocks in his hands, even when sleeping. Although still difficult sometimes, the love of this place has greatly transformed his sense of self and security. Praise the Lord. Well, last Tuesday, with aspirations of flying like Superman, Fernando climbed the roof of the little store attached to the high school and ended up falling through the roof onto a stone staircase below, about an 8-meter drop. Thus, he was brought, with a significant loss of blood, into our mini-consultorio where the doctor and I were attending patients. After assessing the little one and controlling the bleeding from the laceration on his head, we had to embark on the 1-hour-plus ride in our old, old van with roads in terrible conditions to the nearest hospital with emergency and xray services. By the grace of God, Fernando is free of fractures and there is no evidence of other cerebral damage. A miracle. We spent the night in the emergency room, and then he was released to our medical staff here at the base. Therefore, for the past few days, Fernando has been my life. He had to stay in a more tranquil environment than the house with 29 boys in which he normally lives, so we moved him to the house of the misioneras for the week. There I spent my week, giving his medicine, cleaning his wound, reading books, playing cards, and sleeping by his side. Oh, my little son. There were also many others (including Maribeth and Jim) who gave of their time to care for him this week with great love. Blessedly, Fernando is doing incredibly well, and he has returned to life as usual...hopefully, with a different vision of how he can emulate Superman, minus the roof-climbing escapades. :)

Now back to life as usual for me as well! This is the last week of school for the children before Christmas vacation, so we are wrapping up all our check-ups with the doctor. Most of the children leave for vacations, either to their own homes or to foster families, but there are some who stay with us. What a joy to celebrate Christmas with these dear ones!

Well, I must be off. I hope to get back to email some time this week to reply to ya´ll who have so kindly emailed with your love and prayers. But in the meantime, I love you all dearly and hold you in my heart of prayer.

LOVE,

m