Family Updates April 2012

One of the many things I appreciate about the Latin culture is their focus on the family as a unit.  Here in Ecuador you don't see this concept of needing a sitter so the parents can go out, because in this culture you just take your kids with you everywhere!  The extended family comes along - be it shopping at the mall together, eating dinner, or going to the park and having a BBQ there.  The children grow up playing with their cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents.

Our family loves to go to the park!  Quito has two great parks located in the northern part of the city where we live.  Parque Carolina is a large family oriented park located in the heart of the north part of Quito.  On any given weekend you will find it filled with families riding bikes, exercising, playing football (soccer), dance classes, and it even has a beautiful botanical garden inside.  The other park we often frequent is Parque Metropolitano that sits high on the west mountains of Quito and is sometimes referred to as the "lungs of Quito" because the air is so clean - full of trees, green grass, playgrounds and trails.  We are so lucky as to live across the street from this park so have an amazing view and clean air to breath!

Oscar and his daddy at Parque Metropolitano.

Here you see some of the roses in the gardens. Roses are a product of export in Ecuador where we can usually buy 2 dozen long stem roses for about $5.  You can't see it on this photo, but these roses are actually about the diameter of a softball!

One of our favorite activities to do these days is to take Oscar Andres to the Park.  In fact, I usually try to take him there as often as I can because Oscar Andres is now 22 months and has mastered walking!  He loves to walk, in fact he would be content walking all over the park all day long if we would let him.  True to his father's gene's he is an outdoors kind of little guy.  Just pulling into the parking lot is met with kicking legs and squeals!

Oscar Andres will probably ask me someday why I made him wear a mickey mouse hat... well - it just looks so cute on him!  In addition to walking, Oscar Andres likes exploring, opening and shutting cabinets, rearranging the DVDs, cleaning off our papers from the desk, removing books from the book shelf and looking at books with lots of pictures and textures!  He is fast approaching two years and despite the hurdles of being born prematurely, with the help of patient parents, great therapists, and a fabulous pediatrician - he has progressed beautifully and we rejoice that he is a healthy, happy, normal little guy with great plans for the future!

I have been mostly occupied with being a mommy.  I continue to work part time and recently took a trip to Argentina for some continuing medical education (see previous post). Having a toddler makes getting to events a bit more challenging, but I have continued to do Beth Moore's online teachings through living proof ministries.  If you haven't checked out her website - she has some really great teachings you can watch for free!  The other project that has been of interest to me is learning to cook more vegetarian and gluten free.  We are neither vegetarians nor gluten intolerant and I still do cook meat, but we just have wanted to look at healthier options.  One website I have found a lot of great recipes on and was recommended by a few friends:  Gluten Free Goddess.

Oscar (dad), is busy as always, but one of the many, many things that I love about my husband is the fact that family always comes first.  When he comes home from work, he sits down and starts playing with his son right away and it is a much enjoyed activity by Oscar Andres.  Oscar Andres is really into imitating his father right now.  If dad is doing it, he wants to do it also - it brings me such joy to see my son adore a father who is so amazing!   I find the imitating issue to be particularly helpful when it comes to teaching skills such as brushing teeth.  He just doesn't have the same drive to brush his teeth with mom like he does with his daddy:

Oscar has been getting steady seminars for work and recently did a huge convention for a major pharmaceutical company in Banos.  We are thankful for God's provision in work for us.  In addition to his job as a corporate trainer, he continues to put in full time hours as Pan de Vida's executive director.  The ministry is doing great - we are still serving around 1500 persons per month with the Word of God and a hot meal.  Last month we saw about 20 persons receive Christ in their hearts through our programs.  You can read our latest ministry newsletter here

Eight months ago we started the process of raising funds as missionaries for Pan de Vida and we are still in that process.  It is our hope to be able to focus more on furthering the Kingdom of God by continuing to serve at Pan de Vida, but until we have raised full support we must continue to work our full time jobs.  At this time we are most in need of monthly financial supporters.  If this is something you feel lead to help us with please visit our Donor FAQ webpage or email us

As always we welcome you to visit us in the southern hemisphere - we'd love to see you personally, we'd love for you to send teams down to work at Pan de Vida, or for you to come an volunteer for an extended period of time.

Buenos Aires Trip

In February, I had the chance to go to Buenos Aires, Argentina for a medical conference.  This was my first time to Argentina and I found it to be very different then what I had expected.  I live in South America but Buenos Aires definitely did not have the Latino feel.  In fact, the only thing that was similar to Ecuador was the fact that they speak Spanish.  I would describe Buenos Aires as more European with a feel of Italy and Spain. 

The food was nothing like that of Ecuador or other countries in Central and South America that I have been to.  There was plenty of good steaks to be eaten there though!  Dinner really isn't served until about 9 p.m.  I went to a restaurant one night at 8 p.m. and the only other people there were foreigners like me!  I figured that at 8 p.m. the tourists show up, at 9 p.m. the senior citizens start strolling in, at 10 p.m. the families start coming, and at 11 p.m. the young folks show up!  Dining out was the way of the culture, but for this young lady who likes to be in bed by 9 p.m., it was late nights and early mornings for me!

I went to Cafe Tortoni's a very old (1858) Cafe in Buenos Aires with some people from the conference.  Below is a picture inside of it.  This is the place many famous artists, poets, and writers went.

Earlier that day, I went to the San Telmo market.  San Telmo is an area of Buenos Aires that used to be very wealthy until it was hit by a yellow fever epidemic many years ago.  Now it is a cute little part of town that has a lot of antiques and every Sunday they do a big market.  Below is a picture of one of the stands and a lovely old couple that entertains the crowd with their tango dancing.

Tango is the thing to do and see here.  In case you can't remember the steps, no need to worry, they have them imprinted on the sidewalk!

Part of our trip included a special event at Bosch Palace where the U.S. Ambassador lives.  This is an amazing historical building.  Below is a picture inside the formal dining room

I took a tour bus one day and stopped at Plaza 25 de Mayo where you will find the Casa Rosada.  The Casa Rosada is where the current president has her offices, but you may know this more for its history of Juan and Eva Peron's.  Eva Peron, more commonly known as, Evita.  Her husband had been arrested in October of 1945 by his opponents who feared his influence on the common workers and poor of Argentina.  On October 17th of the same year, the people gathered in Plaza 25 de Mayo and protested his arrest.  He was consequently released, married Evita, and went on to be the president of Argentina. 

Evita and her husband had a great passion for the people of Argentina and were very active in reaching out to the workers and the poor.  Evita was also instrumental in allowing women to vote in Argentina for the first time.  Her work is well known for the abandoned children in Buenos Aires where she started homes and children's city.  She also worked towards getting work programs started for the poor.  There is much to learn from her life and what she stood for.  So much of what I read and saw reminded me so much of Pan de Vida and what we try to accomplish for the poor there.  Below you will find her museum, a replica of one of the kitchen's used to feed the children and poor, work programs, and her memorial.

The trip was wonderful, but the best part was coming home and seeing my two Oscar's again!

A Time to Rejoice!

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Hebrews 11:1

Beth Moore's teachings online have been my church for the past year  while Oscar Andres continued to grow and develop in the safe environment of our home - something a preemie requires.


I was recently listening to one of her teachings on Praying and Believing God. She said that we need to put our hope and expectations on God, meaning we need to see things from God's perspective and not focus on what we see now today. The reality for us needs to be God's promises to us and not what our human eyes can see in the flesh today. 

It had me reflecting on what this year has been for me - a first time mother and the mother of a preemie. For many preemies, things don't come naturally. O.A. has had to be taught how to do everything from the "outside in" rather than just naturally aquiring the skills and figuring things out on his own. We have been blessed to have such a wonderful medical team of doctors and therapists who have worked diligently with him all these months, but I know that it is ultimately the Lord's hand that has brought him to the place he is today and it was the Lord that led us to the right people to help him.  (pictures below:  1. Me meeting my son for the first time - day two of his life. 2.  Finally going home after being in the NICU for one month!)

On August 10th, 14 months after O.A. was born, we were finally given the a-ok to take him off of oxygen - this time for real!  I am so pleased to share that he passed his echocardiogram and oxygen saturation tests and all is well!!!

It wasn't but two days later that I had him in his therapy where we were working hard to get him to do an army crawl. By Saturday, he was getting on all fours and crawling and by Sunday, I found him in the crib standing up!!

I know that every parent gets excited when their child does things for the first time, but for a preemie parent things like this truly bring us to our knees before the Father. We know how hard O.A. had to work to get to this point! Today he his crawling all over the place, pulling up to stand on furniture, babbling, eating better, and full of giggles and smiles and while all this means more work for us as parents - we very joyfully welcome it!

There have been so many times over this past year that we could have easily chosen to believe what we saw in the flesh.  I remember taking O.A. to an early stimulation class and seeing other babies his age so far ahead of where he was, wondering if we would ever get there.  It takes faith to see things from God's perspective. To be a believer isn't to just believe in God, it is to live out your belief in God. Standing in faith, believe that that which we cannot see today will one day be!  We so rejoice in His good work in Oscar Andres!

A Birthday Boy!!

June 10th was Oscar Andres first birthday!  He is a special gift to us from God.  Born prematurely at 35 weeks, he spent 1 month in the NICU before coming home.  Even though I worked in obstetrics and took care of many mom's who had preemies, I truly never understood what it was like to have a preemie - it is a whole different world.  We have come to treasure and celebrate every little milestone we hit.  Were are so pleased to report how well he is doing and how healthy he is.  We are thankful for all the people who have invested in our lives during this past year, our families, friends, and the incredible medical team we have worked with. 


You may be surprised to still see him on oxygen but I assure you he is very healthy and doing ok.  His oxygen levels stabilized after our trip to the coast for a month to the point that we really don't need oxygen on him anymore; however, his lungs are still maturing and because we live at such a high altitude, here in Quito, he has something called pulmonary hypertension and the medication for that is oxygen.  It is merely a matter of time and being patient for his lungs to completely mature.  We ask that you continue to pray for complete healing in this area.  It can take up to three years for preemie lungs to develop but we are believing for a miracle way sooner than that!

Oscar Andres is active and happy.  He loves to be social and will easily forgo a much needed nap if there are people around - especially his cousins.  He loves to play with balloons, and tries to figure out things by observing and manipulating them, he says "mama" and "papa" and I think he even said "dada" the other day - we are working on that bilingual stuff!  His favorite food is applesauce, he sleeps through the night.  He loves going to his grandma and grandpa's house - who watch him while I work.  He is very close to crawling - starting to get up on his hands and knees.  He loves anything with water and if you put him in his tub there will be water all over him, you, the floor, from his splashing and laughing.  His favorite time of day is when his daddy comes home and plays with him - there are squeals all over the house. 

What a Friend We Have!

A friend of mine gave my son a little Children's Bible stories book with a CD of songs in it when he was born. On that CD is this hymn:

What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

What a privilege it is to be able to carry EVERYTHING to God in prayer! How often do we suffer needlessly and forfeit our peace trying to take matters into our own hands?

My son, who will be celebrating one year this friday, has had an amazing year of perseverence and growth. He was born prematurely at 35 weeks and while doing very well, we have had to put a little more effort into things to help him catch up with his motor skills, eating skills, etc. He has required some physical therapy, supplemental oxygen, and a very expensive special vaccine that is given monthly to premature babies during their first year of life, called Synagis.

Our insurance company has been very difficult about reimbursing us, initially they reimbursed 5 of the vaccines and then because of multiple internal problems in their company, the agents who knew about his case left and the new agents denied ever knowing anything about the case nor having paperwork on it. On top of that they processed 15 of our oxygen/physical therapy claims incorrectly, owing us over $200 in money that was not paid out correctly. My husband and I went round and round with them for 5 months about the bills, totaling almost $6000 that they had not reimbursed, giving us no answers, not responding to communication from us.

One day while I sat angry, frustrated, and just wanting seek our vengance, the Lord gently reminded me of this song. I hadn't turned this problem over to Him. For He is bigger than this company, bigger than their policies, why hadn't I just stopped to pray for the Lord to intervene on our behalf? To release those funds? To give us His perfect peace?

Today, after 5 long months the insurance company sent us an email saying they will cover the remaining doses of Synagis and recalculate the other bills to correct any errors. Believe me, this is the Lord's work - I am convinced without Him, we would not have received this news.

Don't be burdened by your circumstances - We serve a God who intervenes on our behalf!

Mother's Day

I woke up on my first ever Mother's Day to see my two Oscar's coming in with smiles, presents, and balloons! Oscar Andres liked the balloon so much that he really decided to just hang on to it and play instead!

We decided to head off for brunch a little bakery behind the Swiss Hotel. I am a sandwich fanatic and had a wonderful chicken salad sandwich. Since this is a european bakery - they had berliners that I got for my dessert. I think it was the sentimental feeling of eating something from my childhood years of living in Germany that made it so special.

After brunch we had some time to kill before going over to Oscar's parents house for a Mother's day BBQ so we stopped at Burger King and got some ice cream.

Didn't have a good picture of me at the BBQ but here is Daddy and Oscar Andres at Grandma's house with Uncle Borys. My love language is spending time with people I love and that is something I value more than any gift I could get. It was a perfect day for me - spending time with my two Oscar's.

Aguirre Family

2010

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him."1 Cor. 2:9

2010 was a very full year for us. We passed through many ups and downs during this year, but the Lord always was and continues to be faithful to us. His provision is always just in time and in ways far above what we could ever dream or image. It is a blessing to serve our God who is always in control.





Our biggest blessing was the birth of our son, Oscar Andres, on June 10th, 2010. He is an amazing little boy and truly a miracle given to us by God. Oscar Andres came into our lives a bit earlier than expected, born at 35 weeks weighing 4 lbs. He was in the NICU for about a month where we worked hard on stabilizing his weight and getting him ready to come home. He is now eating like a champ, growing, smiling, playing, and you would hardly ever know that he was a preemie!



For Oscar, the year opened with continued recovery from his back. He is now back to running, exercising, and life as normal - he even went downhill mountain biking in Cotopaxi Park. In February, he had an appendectomy and again we saw the Lord's provision and timing for having the right doctors and being in the right place at the right time. He has fully recovered and since then has been in good health. His biggest priority now is being a father - something he loves to do more than anything in the world. Oscar Andres is all smiles when daddy comes home to play with him. He continues to work as a business consultant for Desempre here in Ecuador as well as Aguirre Consulting in the U.S. in corporate training. He is now in his 10th year of serving as the executive director for Pan de Vida a ministry he founded in 2001. The ministry continues to explode and we are now serving over 1500 poor people a month!


For Lori, the year started with a new job. A part-time nursing position opened up at the U.S. Embassy in Quito and in August she was promoted to nurse practitioner. It has been a blessing to be able to find the only nurse practitioner job available in the entire country and for it to be part-time allowing her to focus on Oscar Andres. Her biggest priority and joy is taking care of Oscar Andres - there is nothing more precious than being a mother and watching Oscar Andres explore and grow. In addition to being a great mom she is a wonderful wife.




We were able to enjoy spending lots of time with family this past year. Lori's parents came shortly after Oscar Andres was born and were able to spend a few weeks meeting their new and first grandson in the family. Lori's brother came over Christmas time. Living in Quito, gives us the opportunity to see Oscar's family often. Oscar Andres's abuelito and abuelita have a great time with him every week watching him while Lori works - it is such a blessing to have them as part of our lives.

We now have a U.S. mailing address at the Embassy where we can receive only flat (paper) mail that weighs less than 1 lb. We unfortunately, cannot accept packages of any kind through this address, but you can send us letters and cards! If you didn't get our U.S. address and U.S. phone number on our postcard that we sent out, then please contact us. We would love to hear from you!

Oscar's e-mail
Lori's e-mail
Pan de Vida's Website

Oscar, Lori, and Oscar Andres