Year 2 at Casa de Amor

YESSSSSSSSSSS!

It has been a whirlwind of a weekend back in Cochabamba. I have been surrounded by people I love nonstop since arriving yesterday morning. Let´s start with the airport arrival...I thought that Elena was picking me up, but when I came out of baggage claim, Mauge, Jen, and our newest Casa de Amor baby were there instead! (More on our new guy later!) So I was excited to see the three of them, and was ready to head to the car with the newborn in my arms when I look down the hall and see EVERY SINGLE CASA DE AMOR BABY and a handful of tias waiting at the airport!! I was speechless - there were balloons, signs, and one very excited girl right here. Before I knew it, I had ¨my¨ triplet, Nataly, in my arms...(yes, the chunky triplets now require two hands to be held!), and I was attacked with hugs. It was such a joyful time! A huge thanks to our staff...I have no clue whose idea this all was, but it was an unbeatable welcome back party in the airport. :)

I headed back home to House 1, (¨The Baby Home¨,) and hung out with everybody for a little while until naptime, when the tias from today´s shift told me that they had gotten special permission to all leave with me during naptime to go walk around outside of work for a little bit. (Thanks, Felica and Jen for keeping an eye on everyone during naptime!) When 2pm rolled around, Tia Consuelo, Techy, Yovanna, and I headed out. Just so you know, we´ve never left the house together during the workday unless allllll the kids were coming along, too, so I was pretty excited to get to spend some time catching up with these 3 friends. Well, we walk into an ice cream shop downtown and who´s waiting for us? The other 4 tias from the next day´s shift!! (And a bunch of their kids, too!) I was, once again, very surprised and really excited to see everyone. Because of the tias´ 24 hour shifts, (each group works every other day,) it is pretty rare that all of us are together, but nothing is better, that´s for sure! These sweet friends got sundaes for everybody, and we had so much fun.

Tia Adelaida even brought her newborn along, who was born a month ago today!