“You have to see this,” Susana told me.  We all sat down while one of Casa Viva’s five year old girls stood up to show us her life book. It was memorized and she began with us as she had done in her class.  “My fellow students, this is my life book called The Story of a Princess.” She opened the book and read the first page.  “These are my biological mom and dad.  I don’t stay with them because they have to work so hard.”  She had two small pictures, one of the mom and one of the dad whom she hadn’t seen for years.  The next page:  “This is me, I’m a princess.”  And another: “This is my other mommy and daddy, and my sister and two brothers and my little baby sister.”  The story went on telling about her life and her dog.  She ended it like this:  “When I’m big, I want to study so I can help my mom and dad.”  None of us knew which mom and dad she was planning to help.

Her Casa Viva mom explained that the school had asked each child to make a book about their family.  “We have to include my real mom and dad,” the little princess explained to her.  And so they jumped in to explain her family to her class.  The book was beautiful.  “I wanted hers to be the prettiest in the class, I’m so worried about how she’ll be treated,” explained the mom.

This is healthy, and demonstrates a commitment to one of Casa Viva’s core principles – The Truth.  Our little princess is learning to incorporate the truth of her story from an early age, and it will make all the difference as her life unfolds.

Little eight month old Daisy came into our Casa Viva offices today for probably the last time. Her Casa Viva parents and big sister were searching for the box of Kleenex, and soon the Casa Viva staff had joined them.  Today was the day we turn this little life over to her new adoptive family.

Sonia gave me a big hug.  “Felipe” (as they call me here), “it went well with the family.”  I don’t know why the news made me react so emotionally.  Tears immediately welled in my eyes.  I leaned against the door jam for support, said a public thanks to God, and escaped to my office to recover.

In the scope of things, it was a small miracle as miracles go.  It’s hard to even explain it so you will understand.  It had to do with a very complicated and delicate situation Casa Viva was in, between the proverbial rock and the hard place.  We were struggling with our government partners over issues concerning the highest interest for a child. Our Casa Viva family was passionately involved as well, so we were navigating a variety of relationships.  Other external pressures exasperated the situation, leaving everyone tense.

Yesterday, before Sonia’s key meeting, we dedicated our entire daily staff prayer time to asking God to intervene.  And just like that, He acts.  The tension is gone.  That situation is resolved.  A hundred more loom, some big, many small. But in that one, God clearly acted.

Maybe that’s why the emotion came.  Sometimes we can begin to think “we’re doing this work alone.”  We work and work and work and see no movement.  But then God acts, so clearly, so directly in line with our prayers.

One of Casa Viva’s core values is this – Look for the Transformation.  Transformation is not something we do.  It’s what God does.  We’re the farmers, preparing the soil, throwing the seeds, but it is God who works to bring about the growth.  

Your prayers over this work are having an impact. Gracias.

Casa Viva recently received a call from one of the local offices of the child welfare department of Costa Rica, saying “We have a child in need and consider Casa Viva our ideal option.”  Remarkably, it was a first for us after five years of creating a paradigm shift in child services here in Costa Rica.

Five years ago, when Casa Viva Costa Rica first opened our doors, the local government didn’t trust us and it took us more than four months to receive our first child.  Then we entered a restricted period – “We’ll place no children ages 0-5 in Casa Viva homes because we’re afraid the children will become to connected to the family.”  As we continued to demonstrate remarkably positive results, seeing children transformed, biological families reunited, and Casa Viva churches and families selflessly serving, the attitude of the government slowly changed.  But even then, our calls usually said “None of the children’s homes have room, do you have a family?”  We were the last resort.

All that changed with our call this week.  A local child welfare office called us first, and said they’d prefer the Casa Viva family based solution over all their other options.

Paradigm shifts take time, but they can happen.  Praise be to God.