Special Kids orphanage in Cuenca becomes OSSO’s
The day arrived. Monday, February 25, 2008. All nine children living at Special Kids in Cuenca became OSSO’s kids and moved to our orphanage “OSSO’s Little Ones/Los Pequeñitos de OSSO.” It was a day we’ve been waiting for for at least two years (a hope and dream really). Miracles do happen, and these children are living proof of that. Read about this amazing journey and see below for a lot of pictures of Pablo, Brayan, Luis, Vanessa, Blanca, Martín, Román, Jorge and Laura.

We’ve been working at Special Kids in Cuenca since May 1999 when we first had volunteers in Cuenca. Some of the SK kids have come and gone, but most have been long-term. Those that are still here who we’ve known since they were just little when we first sent volunteers to SK (and believe me when I tell you…Román did used to be little!) are: Pablo, Brayan, Blanca, Román and Jorge. Pablo and Brayan used to be quite a bit smaller, and Brayan didn’t have top front teeth for what seemed ages, and then all of a sudden these big permanent teeth started coming in and surprised us all. Pablo has always been the little angel, and also a miracle for living. Blanca’s always been a pretty girl, but now she’s a pretty teenager and much bigger! Román has always had his signature looks, whether it was the Mini-Me pinky at the corner of his mouth pose, the searching side look or his characteristic hand clapping (which sadly he doesn’t do much anymore); Román’s always been a very even-keeled boy, and now he’s getting quite big. Jorge, back in the day, didn’t walk, and then slowly, with our volunteers’ help, he began walking. Jorge’s never had much finesse in this department, but he’s doing better all the time. All of these kids were so cute and stole the hearts of many, many volunteers through the years (and they still continue to do so).

All nine children in the van for the ride to their new home!

See more pictures on SK move picture page.

We then received little Laura, and she was the instant “mom” to all of the other kids as well as the volunteers and workers! She loves everyone and proves it by being extremely loving and giving hugs and kisses, but she’ll definitely speak her mind when she thinks you should be doing something different. Years ago we helped Laura receive a couple surgeries to correct her cleft palate, and while it’s much improved from how it started out, it’s not completely fixed.

Luis was our next addition to SK. The shy little guy with his lovable facial expressions and his spurts of affection, Luis became one of our own. When Luis came to SK, he had a club foot and couldn’t walk. After we paid for a corrective surgery, it wasn’t long before he was off walking, or running, into mischief. A couple years ago, Luis left SK, transferred to another house with non-handicapped children. So many were sad to have him leave, and we visited him when we could, but Luis regressed at his new house, and it was clear he needed to be moved back to SK. We were, of course, thrilled to have him back, and he bounced back to his normal self and behavior in a very short time.

Vanessa was the next to arrive. Though not a baby by any means, she was immediately taken under the volunteers’ wings and carried around almost like a baby doll. Her big brown eyes and her habit of sucking on two fingers, not to mention how easy-going she is…she was a shoe-in to be loved.

The children are welcomed to their new home, Casa Milagros.

See more pictures on picture page 2.

Martín, Martín, Martín. He took the house by storm when he arrived at SK not too long ago. All of a sudden we had a new child, and he was all the volunteers talked about, how smart he was, how cute, how playful, how incredible. And he’s truly that. Martín’s been a great addition.

A couple years ago or more now, we started thinking about possibly accepting all the SK kids into our orphanage. But assisting those who ran Special Kids (which was made possible for OSSO by a very generous donor, who for years had been donating every month to support SK) was less expensive than for us to take over the complete care for them. Yet in the end, we decided that even though it would cost us more money to have them in our orphanage (versus helping this other organization take care of them), we decided that what we wanted most was to provide these incredible children with all that we could offer them. Moving Special Kids in with us allows us to provide specialized care for their special needs and allows the other organization to take care of more kids without such special needs.

So now they’re OSSO’s kids! All nine of them! (And Sinaí comes to OSSO during weekdays.) It was a very big undertaking, because we went from two Casas of children to three Casas, all in just one day. The SK kids now reside in Casa Milagros (Miracles House)—they’ve been a family all these years…now they’re part of OSSO’s family, and they’ve truly been a miraculous addition.

At our orphanage, there’s much more space inside as well as outside in the yard. We’ve had to go looking for Laura multiple times—she takes off exploring, whether she’s cruising along with her walker or doing her kneeling scoot/drag. And Luis…boy, Luis has been running laps around the walking path. They’re loving their newfound freedom! All of the kids seem very happy in their new home. They love spending time out on the patio under the warmth of the sun; or Pablo (during nap time no less) just laughing gently with a huge smile on his face. Martín was a huge help to us during and after the move because he told us whose chair mold was whose, whose wheelchair was whose, where things were, etc. That little boy is very smart and helpful, not to mention a teaser.

Playtime on the patio/court with tías and volunteers.

See more pictures on picture page 3.

And speaking of smart…we’ve hired a special education teacher (the same teacher who was Laura and Martín’s teacher at the school they used to attend) to provide special ed classes at our orphanage for Jorge, Luis, Laura and Martín, as well as Christian and possibly others (the children are currently being evaluated to see who these classes would be beneficial for). We have a classroom where the classes are held (in small numbers so they get more individualized attention), and they even have a very simple school uniform to signal to them that it’s school time and certain behavior’s required. We hope to see great improvement in these children, because we think they’re pretty darn smart and capable!

In addition to special education, we’re also excited to provide each child with all the physical therapy they need as well as all the language/speech therapy they need (from helping them improve their suction and to swallow better to helping them learn to speak or speak better than they currently do). Each child is being evaluated by our therapists so that we can implement individualized plans for each child to help them achieve their potential and experience a higher quality of life.

With the addition of these nine kids from SK, OSSO’s Little Ones now has 23 children. We received two newborn babies in January/February, Thomas and Juan José. Thomas had received surgery for an umbilical hernia and might need another surgery to fully correct it. Both are cute as buttons.

The children with some volunteers…making friends with kids from the other Casas.

We’re looking into getting feeding tubes for Brayan, María José and Simón since it’s so difficult for them to eat and get adequate nutrition that way. The doctor we’ve contacted is willing to do the surgery for free, but we still have to pay the hospital costs and costs for materials needed. The estimated cost per child is about $500. If you can donate to help cover this, or you know someone who can donate, please help these children!

Thank you for all the love you’ve given these children. The nine kids of Casa Milagros have hundreds of alumni out there who we know are as excited for these kids to be OSSO’s as we are.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Please sign up to be a child or orphanage sponsor so that you can continue to personally help these children. http://www.orphanagesupport.org/sponsorships.html

See more pictures on picture page 4.