Sr. Carol is a staff member at AMANECER, an orphanage network in Cochabamba, Bolivia. She is involved in the Saint Louis sponsored program, Pan y Amor.
 Dear Friends,
I received the attached story from some friends, who over the course of five years adopted three children from Salomon Klein. I'll tell you a bit about Kipp, the boy who is featured in the article, and my relation to his family.
I met Kipp my second year here in AMANECER when I lived at Casa Nazareth. Cochabamba continues to suffer from the fact that there still is not 24 hours a day of running water but back in the early 90's it was much worse. Casa Nazareth received very little water from the city of Cochabamba, and washing clothes for all of the children plus us sisters and lay volunteers was a real adventure.
So, once Salomon Klein became part of the AMANECER family in mid 1991, Sister Carolyn Pozarich and I would go down at night to Salomon Klein and use their washer and well water for the clothes of Casa Nazareth. Since the washer was automatic, only one of us was needed to load and unload it. So Emma, the administrator, decided that I could be put to use as a babysitter for a tenth month old little boy who usually was not very interested in sleeping at 7:30 p.m.
So I would walk the halls with him, play and laugh with him, and eventually wound up also carrying him around whenever I had to go there for real business, such as taking local and international visitors to see the house and the improvements in the facilities. Sister Ana María, the directress of the house, one day half seriously suggested that I take him home as my foster child since we enjoyed one another's company so much. I, of course, laughed and said that I didn't think he would enjoy being tied to my back while I worked in the office, or sitting in a car seat while I traveled around the state of Cochabamba making home visits.
Several months after this conversation, the future parents of Kipp (Walter) made contact with me through a former volunteer and they asked about the possibility of adopting two children. In those days, U.S. adoptive parents were accepted, so I checked with Sr. Ana María about the possibility of Kipp and another baby being adopted by this family. I was given a list of requirements and recognized U.S. adoption agencies that I sent to Liam and Sandy, Kipp's future parents. They initiated contact with the agency, did all the paperwork required in the U.S., called me bi-monthly, initially regarding how things were moving here, and then eventually took a month's vacation and came to Bolivia to try and move things along.
Their persistence paid off and two months later they were the proud parents of Kipp and Brenna. I was accepted as their translator by the courts and in the course of the two months we all became close friends. They visited me a couple of times at my family's home, as well as at the motherhouse, and we have stayed in contact for the past 15 years. Five years after adopting Kipp and Brenna, they returned to adopt Devon, and again I accompanied them throughout the process.
In August of 2007, the entire family returned to Cochabama and they spent the month working at Salomon Klein. Kipp explains in the article about how he felt upon learning that his biological mother had died and a bit about what Emma knew about his personal history. He returned to the states and kept saying that he wanted to do something special to help those living in the house. So when senior projects were being planned, he decided to do fundraising for the children.
His project was quite successful in spite of the economic reality in the U.S. at the moment, and I heard today from his dad that to date he's gone over the top of his goal of $2,500.00 – and checks are still being deposited. I had written to them asking for permission to share his story and the response was positive.
I feel Kip is an inspiration for other students who are interested in service projects such as this one. Not every young person can come to Bolivia with their families, but most young people know that there are needs right there in St. Louis, as well as around the world, and just maybe, Kipp's story might be just the push one would need to take up a similar challenge.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed