Leila and I have been working to get all of the parents of the children living at the baby home to give official custody of their children to Leila. We started with Brian and it went smoothly. We met with his father today to further discuss the custody issue because he had been showing up his house three to four times a week to see Brian. He works as a security guard so he carries a gun and he even brought it to the house a few times and left it where the kids could get to it. He is also drunk a majority of the time when he comes to the house, and that creates an unsafe environment for the rest of the kids. He came to talk to us along with the Children’s Officer and agreed to the terms of not showing up drunk, or with his gun and was granted visitation of Brian once every three months. This will help Brian adjust better and reduce his stress because he get upset and cries when his father comes around. Other than that he is doing great. He sleeps a majority of the day and sleeps through the whole night. He is such a happy, smiling boy when he is awake and it is great to see how much progress he has made in such a short amount of time.

Brian hanging out with his best buddy Vela. 

     We also took Rose and Rael’s parents to the Children’s Officer this week to get official custody of the twins. We thought it would be simple and easy, like when we met with Brian’s father, but it was the complete opposite. We showed the officer the twin’s documents and he was able to immediately tell that they had been forged. The names and birth places had been changed. Ester, their mother, was saying that she was 23 years old and that her firstborn was 16. So that was the first lie that they were caught in. The name written on the cards did not match the name that she was giving us. After that is was lie after lie. Forging legal documents is a serious crime and there were a few times where it looked like Patrick and Ester were going to be arrested. They wouldn’t come clean, so the children’s officer’s assistant came back to Shimo to take a look at their house. She saw the living conditions and told us to come back to the office with them the next day to further discuss the issue.

Rael and Rosie ready to head out to meet their parents.

So today we went with Patrick’s mother, Patrick, Ester, Franco, Dorcas, Rose and Rael to the office. It is still unclear what the exact story is, but they are probably not the real parents of Rose and Rael.  It is also very likely that the girls are not twins and the Rael is about a year younger than we originally thought that she was. They decided not to arrest them because they suspect that they may have some mental health issues or something that is hindering them from making logical and rational decisions. They told us that they both grew up on the streets and Ester does not even know how to write her name. 

Me and Rose at the house. 

Me with the whole family.

Franco and Dorcas playing with Rose.
They were so excited to see the girls.

Rael and Ester

        It’s hard to write about because there were so many different stories and we never got the true story, but the most important thing is that we now have custody of the girls so they won’t have to go back to live in that situation that sadly, will never be able to improve. They are so much healthier and happier now. It’s crazy to think that only two months ago the girls looked like this. 

The girls two months ago.

The girls now.