Mi Sobrino

A friend brought a sweater back for my baby nephew, who just happens to be gigantic!  I am not sure if the sweater will still fit him come winter, but it sure is cute now :) 

Thank You for the Coats!!!

Here are the sweet kids from the small village saying thank you for their new coats!! Adorable!

An Incredible View

I still have yet to make it to Machu Pichu after two trips to Cusco, but the views are incredible! Here is a selfie with a good friend of mine after we hiked through old town to one of our favorite overlooks!  The people are what my draw me back, but the setting is really something too!

Coat Drive for the Village!

I recently got to visit San Juan de Pomacanchi in the Andes Mountains.  It was beautiful!  The home town of one of the mamas from the shelter.  I am trying to get coats for all the kids in her small village.  Please help if you can!

Back to School!

Ruth Karina, one of the moms I support and has become like family to me, found a night school where she can go and take her baby.  She is finishing her final year of high school!  

They have free care for babies while mom's are in school.  One of the requirements was that each baby has to have a stroller.  Me and friends helped her get a stroller, so now Yhandy is rolling around Cusco instead of always riding on her mother's back.  Big experiences for this little one!

Video Calls are the Best!

One of the highlights of my week is getting to do video calls with Ruth Karina to continue to encourage her, get updates, and of course talk baby talk with her little cutie!

My friend Lee is with Yhandy and Ruth Karina and translating for me on a video call.

Oh the sweets...

These photos don't even begin to capture the array and plethora of incredible looking sweets available EVERYWHERE IN CUSCO!  Coffee shops, bakeries, and street fairs like this one.  Feel I could do a whole blog on the beautiful, edible, sweets I encountered while I was there! 

Row upon row...

Is that some kind of Mickey Mouse themed jello, flan cake thing?! Why yes, I think it is!

My Amiga Rosabel

Meet Rosabel -- she is one of the first mom's we met at the shelter.  She is out of the shelter, living on her own, working a full-time job and raising her two young sons.  She is a success story, and also part of the family!   Rosabel grew up around abuse from the time she was very young and then found herself in an abusive marriage herself.  

We are still supporting Rosabel as the pay from her job (which is full-time as in Monday thru Saturday 8 am to 8 pm - her boys come to work with her after school) only covers about half of her monthly living expenses.  

She is a beautiful person, a fighter, and yet another GREAT investment!

International Women's Day

I got to march with Ruth Karina and other women and children from the shelter in a very Peruvian-parade for International Women's Day on March 8, 2018.  I will tell you I have never been a feminist per se, but seeing these women free and proud and hopeful, after hearing their gut wrenching stories, touched a very deep place in my heart.

My Ruth Karina

I'm warning you, this post is a little longer than most, but it tells an important part of my first journey to Cusco, Peru in March 2018.  My trip and the people I got to meet helped me see how much I have and how even a little can go SUCH a long way for someone else. There were several "someones" that touched my heart during the week I spent volunteering at a shelter for victims of domestic violence in Cusco, Peru. But the one I am writing about today really stood out, a a young woman named Ruth Karina who stole my heart.  

My, Ruth Karina (with the baby on her back) and my friend, Lee

Her story in a quick nutshell....

She was forced to leave her family in a rural area at the age of 11 because they couldn't feed her. Yes, 11. She worked at a restaurant in a small village and enrolled in school. She loves numbers and always had the dream of becoming an accountant. She had nothing, and when she met a young man and became pregnant at the age of 16, she was hopeful that this would be the family she had always wanted. He told her she could come and live with him and his family in Cusco. So she came right before she delivered her beautiful baby girl, but the father of the baby abandoned her at the hospital. After trying to gain acceptance into his family home, a lot of fighting, and him threatening to kill the baby, she ended up for a night on the street, under a bridge with a one-month old baby. (I cannot imagine...) 

She was terrified and sought help from a taxi driver who (thank God) took her to authorities who connected her with the shelter. She arrived just a week or so before I did.  

She wants to work, wants to finish school and still has dreams. Her will to thrive and her joy and thankfulness was like medicine for me. I have not ever experienced anything like that.

I am committed to supporting her for the next year, at least, so that she can finish secondary school and maybe even pursue University.  There is absolutely no pressure, of course, but I wanted to invite you all to join me to help Ruth Carina and her baby Yhandy. 

Shopping - I had to do all the heavy lifting! I got to hold sweet baby Yhandy all afternoon.

It was just so impactful for me to be with her and get to know her!  I can't not help her.  I took her shopping while I was there and bought her two pairs of jeans, a good winter coat, new socks and underwear, a couple of t-shirts and a new pair of shoes -- I literally lost track of how many times she said "Muchas Gracias." It was heartfelt and deep.  She was truly overwhelmed. 

I was corresponding with her a couple of days later on Google Translate on my phone. She wrote and told me that the day we went shopping was the best of her entire life. I teared up. I was sure that it probably was, and that broke my heart.  

There is no welfare mindset there -- no sense of entitlement -- just warmth, thankfulness and a will to work for a better life. That is an investment I can get behind.