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Tashirat Newsletter June 2009
 We’ve been running the tooth fairy ragged with all her visits to the orphanage in the last two months, as finally all the little kids are starting to lose their baby teeth. When the tooth fairy didn’t arrive punctually to reward Julito for the loss of his first front tooth, he generously proclaimed in English “Ahh, I know what happen! It’s because she couldn’t get in the mosquito net!” With so much talk about losing teeth, Yola, who has already lost all her baby teeth, got a little tooth fairy crazy and tried to convince her mom to help her get one of hers out so the tooth fairy would come and leave her a sweet too. When her mom explained that the tooth fairly only took little teeth, Yola then tried to get her mom to donate one of her own teeth because they looked smaller than Yola’s own very large ones!
 Bela lost her second tooth, and has been showing off her new gaps with pride ever since. Pretty much wherever you go around the orphanage these days there are crooked, wiggly and gappy toothed smiles. We are really happy about all the tooth losing going on because according to our dentist, it’s a sign of not only physical, but mental and emotional maturity; handicapped children in particular often don’t lose their baby teeth until they are much older, so Bela and Yola are doing great!
 The little girls are growing up so fast; they really aren’t so little anymore! Rosi , who’s almost been with us for two years now, is really looking forward to her 9th birthday (she’s been looking forward to it since the day after her last birthday!). When looking at an old calendar, she found the 24th of July, her birth date, and asked what the small writing on it said. When told it said “New Jersey”, she made a quizzical face and said “What? New Rosi?” Sami, Julio and Kian are in love with the same girl, but that doesn’t bother them at all, especially Sami our very quirky 13 year old boy; he thinks it’s great because he has someone who understands him! He’s even gotten up the nerve to call the girl on the phone several times, but once she picks up, it takes him about two minutes of dead silence to work up the courage to say hello, and then he can only laugh into the phone from sheer embarrassment. Recently Julio, Kian and Sami invited the girl to dance at a party. To everyone’s surprise, it was Sami who stole the show with his hot dance moves while Julio and Kian could only look on in amazement as Sami got down. We have not idea where he learned them; he’s obviously just a natural! We are so proud that Sami continues to overcome his mental handicaps, and is now living a more socially normal teenage experience with his peers.  The teenage crew has been busy as ever. This vacation they spent at an overnight camp by the beach, sponsored by the state child welfare agency (DIF). The kids raved about the camp singing, teamwork activities and challenge games, as well as a few trips to the beach they all enjoyed. It was a real expanding experience for all the kids, as they made a lot of new friendships and were pushed into new experiences. On the last night, the camp hosted a farewell dance where even Cristian, our avowed wallflower, broke lose and boogied on the dance floor! Many of their new friends are from the DIF government orphanage for teens in Cuernavaca. Last Sunday they went to visit them and had a great day full of many hugs and laughs as friendships were renewed. Most of our kids would have ended up in this same government orphanage if we hadn’t taken them. The DIF teens live in a concrete compound. They rarely go out except to school, and those who don’t go to school spend their whole day in the compound.  The recent weekly communication meetings with the older kids have been a great success. These meetings are a forum in which they express themselves freely with each other, resolve their problems, and help each other improve as friends and people through constructive communication. It has been really gratifying to witness our kids become more confident as they see that through expressing themselves, they not only fix their own problems but help other people too! This week, our first two handicapped children came to live with us! Estephany is a curious, petite 6 years old with an almost completely unintelligible speech impediment. She suffered from severe neglect as a baby, either free to roam the streets alone from the time she could walk, or shut up in a room, unattended. She was thought to be almost deaf when first found by the authorities but it turned out that her ears were just so caked that she had almost entirely lost her hearing. She can still hardly talk, but she likes to repeat everything, and we are all teaching her English!  Gabriel is a 2 year old with dwarfism who cannot yet crawl or sit on his own. His body and joints bend in every which way due to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. He was found abandoned on a bridge when he was 7 months old. He doesn’t talk at all but clearly makes his wishes known with nods and smiles (and shrill screams if we’re a little slow on the uptake too!). He is so tiny, the footwear they sent with him are a pair of Fisher Price doll shoes. Gabriel has an absolute passion for fitting things into bags, boxes, etc.; he spent almost an hour filling and emptying a bag with socks, shoes and his tooth brush! Estephany is the same with lacing, matching shapes and easy puzzles. They are most calm and happy when they are deeply into one of these tasks. Our first day was a lot of fun; Gabriel had a marathon fit of giggles and shrieks over his first mango and papaya breakfast, and Estephany loved flushing the toilet and calling down the bowl “Adios!”.  Both are currently on a lot of medications that we plan to wean them off of while substituting with homeopathy, just as we have with our other children including Bela, Yola, and Maribel. It hasn’t been all easy going, of course. Gabriel has a history of running chronic fevers, especially after eating, which makes him very uncomfortable and cranky, and he requires constant monitoring. Already with the aid of a healthy diet and proper food combining his digestion has improved and his fevers have started to go down though. Thank you all so much for your love and support! We are so grateful to you all for being such great grandparents, uncles, aunts’, supporters and friends to our children. With lots of love, Tashirat Kids and Staff |
Tashirat. A path of Truth, Love and Life