The last week in October, there were 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls, that entered the orphanage. They all had the same mother, but 4 different dads. I was there when they came in from the Peruvian jungle. Their clothes had to be burned, and they had to take long showers. The next day I saw them in church with pretty dresses on and the fellows with nice slacks. Also, they had already made friends with the other children to show them around.

With these new children, we hit 40 in the orphanage. We now are working on hiring 2 more mothers and setting up a new casita (groups of boys or girls that live together). This arrangement allows us to bring 2 more babies into the orphanage. I was really disappointed when we had to turn down three babies in the hospital that were abandoned by their mothers. We just did not have the staff to bring them in. All the other orphanages were full, so as of this writing, the babies are still in the orphanage.

I had a real neat email from the couple that adopted a 7 year old street child from Peru in 2000. She gave me permission to reprint their email.

Hi David,

I heard about your program from Tim Steibeck. I felt moved to tell you about Flor de Maria, a former street child whom we adopted in 2000. Flory was approximately 7 years old at the time we adopted her. She was living in Huanta, Ayacucho. She was found sleeping in a doorway. It is not known exactly how long she lived on the streets.

Flory was almost like a wild animal when we adopted her. She did not have basic skills for living in a house, in a family or having friends. She has had to learn all of these things in addition to learning English. Today Flory has been in the U.S. almost 5 years. She is 12 years old. She is in all honors classes in 6ht grade and brought home straight A’s the first grading period of this school year. She plays trumpet in the school band and runs on the track team. She also plays softball, soccer, and basketball on a church league. She also helps the children’s church ministry.

In most every way she is a typical American early teenager. She still has some problems with trust and social skills, but that is gradually improving. Those survival skills from the streets do not just go away. Neither does the trauma that she endured. I don’t want to make it sound like the past 5 years have been easy for us. They have not. But I do want to say that Flory was more than worth the difficulties and hardships. To see her today it is just almost unimaginable that she was ever a small, forgotten orphan sleeping in a doorway.

Please feel free to share this story with other families. You may give my email address to families who are considering adopting an older orphan.

God bless you, your children and your work,

Kathryn Aqua

I hope this email encourages other couples to consider adopting an older child over 5. In the orphanage, we have 8 children that are over 5 years old and can be adopted.

Please keep praying for the children’s health and safety. Also, pray for Christian couples that feel lead by the Lord to adopt.

David Miller