news from Peru

A day we get an email from "Papa Jose" at the orphanage is like Christmas around here. For one thing, the guy has approximately 8 million things on his plate (such as arranging for two dozen kids to get national ID cards, which I can only imagine is a herculean task in Peru).

For another thing, he usually sends photos, and it's fun to see the kids and how they've changed in the year since we last saw them.

Remember The Quinceañera Queens? The cards we sent arrived—including the $5 bill we included for each of the birthday girls. Jose said it was the first time someone sent them American dollars, and they were very excited. He also said they have no idea about the process of exchanging dollars into Peruvian Soles, so he will need to show them how to do it. He did not say, "Thanks a lot. Now I have 8 million and 1 things to do." He is very kind.

For months we've been considering trying to make a trip to Arequipa to visit to the orphanage, and last night we finally bought tickets! We're going November 23-29, and I'm considering begging Jose to delay their quinceañera party that's planned for November 10 so that we can be there for it. But whether we get to be there for the party or not, we are so excited to reconnect with the kids. Some people have asked if the kids that we hope to adopt know that we're trying to adopt them. The answer is no. Both our adoption agency and the orphanage directors strongly feel it's best for the kids not to know until everything is 100% approved and finalized. It's too common for things to fall through, which is obviously traumatizing. So we'll hang out with all of them just like we used to, but it will definitely feel different this time, knowing that some of those kids will hopefully be part of our family soon. (Why are my palms sweating right now?!)