Maria lives in an orphanage called Los Pisingos in Bogota, Colombia. Our friends the VanderMaas's are also adopting two little girls from there, and this is where they adopted their first two children. (This is the family whom I've mentioned several times already in previous posts!) We're so thankful that God has connected our families together, to share in this beautiful journey of adoption together. Kristi VanderMaas keeps a blog for their family as well, and on Sunday she wrote a posting about Los Pisingos. I loved reading it, and asked her if I could copy it and post it on our blog. She agreed, so now you'll know more about where Maria lives! Please keep her and all the children at Los Pisingos in your prayers, and if you think of it, please also pray for the VanderMaas family. They have been waiting a lot longer than we have, and are just aching to get down to Colombia to meet their daughters.
Here is the posting from the VanderMaas's blog:
Los Pisingos Foundation is like family to us! It is where Isabel was cared for the first 8 weeks of her life, Silas, the first 9 1/2 months of his life, and now Caroline and Marta the last 16 months. It is a foundation that is about the child, not the parental rights, or the waiting adoptive families...it is about the child, and what is best for that child. They understand that every child needs to be in a healthy family, and they give their best efforts into finding or returning their children into the home that is best for them. Although an institution, it well organized, meticulously clean, and the children are shown much affection while being housed there.
You might think of an institution for the orphan, or a "safe house" for the abused, neglected, under privileged children to look a lot different...where you would see malnourished, underfed, under clothed children. This is not the case at Pisingos. Just seeing what they feed their kids is remarkable to me. A typical lunch would be fresh salad, rice, and lentils, with freshly squeezed juice. This is seriously made fresh each day. They eat lots of pudding for dessert (we think that's why Silas came to us so "rollie-pollie"), and a typical snack would be something like a "mango smoothie"...you wouldn't see anything like spaghettios or mac-n-cheese. They even spoon feed the little ones, not owning highchairs, but, feeding each one individually on the caretakers lap. They separate the kids by age. Newborns, infants, toddlers, etc. up to age 12. They are currently housing very many children, it is very full.
With all that being said, Los Pisingos is still an institution. It is not a home. Not a family. Yes, it is a safe place that houses broken and fragile children, but, it is not the same as a family. Each one of these little children are "alone." They don't have a daddy or a mommy to tuck them in at night, or to be by their side when they are sick...they have themselves, possibly a sibling, and that is all.
Below are a few recent pictures taken by my dear friend Gayle Knibbe. (Caroline and Marta are not in them...they did not know about them when they toured Pisingos). (Maria is not in them either.) As I share these pictures with you, please pray over the caretakers and children of Los Pisingos!
Below is our Colombian Representative through Bethany, Tia Isabel, loving on a little boy at the foundation. See his face light up to her touch!
I just received an email from her. She said, "I hope you can come asap. I just visited LP and saw your girls. They are so very cute, and they need you so very badly! Each one received 4 kisses. One from Daddy, Mommy, big sister, and big brother!"
Yes, God does set the lonely into families! His heart is for the fatherless! If His heart is, than shouldn't our hearts be also?! We are so privileged that our God chose us to parent 2 more precious children, His children...who He loves more than we ever could! Soon...very soon...
"Sing to God sing praises to His name! Lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts, his name is the Lord, exult before Him! Father of the fatherless, and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home...Blessed be God!" from Psalm 68
2 comments:
I saw you mentioned Bethany, would that be Bethany Christian? I came across them in my search for adoption info. Were they good?
Hi! Yes, Bethany Christian is the agency that my friend who wrote this posting went through for all of their adoptions. (In the beginning of the post I mentioned that I was copying my friend's posting about Los Pisingos because I liked it so much.) Many of our friends have used Bethany Christian and all of them have very positive things to say about their experience with them. Where do you live? We are in Grand Rapids, Michigan, so they have all used the Bethany that is here in town. My husband and I adopted from Colombia through Children's Home Society and Family Services out of Minnesota. If you'd like more info on them, I'd be happy to email you privately: stephanie@tomatocollection.com. Good luck in your adoption journey, and please feel free to email me with any questions you may have! Blessings! Stephanie
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