This blog entry is coming embarrassingly after the fact. But I wanted to tell, just briefly, of the miracle that God performed to get Raquel back to the Hogar. Thinking about it makes me smile with wonder.

Adam and I had the opportunity to visit Raquel a couple of weeks after she left. It was good to see her, but disheartening as well. The potential for abuse seemed very possible. Even more when the school principal spoke of her suspicion as well. Needless to say, Adam and I and her Hogar parents discussed our options all the way home. How could we get her back?

The next week, I talked with the director as well as the social worker and psychologist. They were all interested in working with us to find a solution. That very week, some of our administrative team went to talk to Raquel’s parents to try to get permission for Raquel to come back, permission that would give us more legal say in her life.

The trip was successful. They brought Raquel back with them. But she had to live on the adjoining school campus with a teacher while the social worker tried to work out the paperwork to legally return her to the Hogar.

One of the main complications was that, as you know, Raquel was not legally ours to begin with. When ICC had taken over the orphanage they had sought to make all the “illegals” legal by turning paperwork into social services. Social Services said they wouldn’t accept them. What to do? For two and half years now, Social Services had failed to accept the documents. Well, when our social worker went to visit Social Services, she found that Raquel’s name was in the system! We don’t know when or how that happened, but we know that God worked it out. They told our social worker that they had the exit report on Raquel but had not processed it yet. They handed it back to her and said that they would pretend like it never occurred. Amen!

After one week living off campus, Raquel was clear to move back to the Hogar with her “family.”

Although Raquel is back and seems happy, something about her has changed. She grew up a lot in her one month away. Her innocence about life has been tarnished. So, please keep her in your prayers, that she will feel secure, that she will rejoice in the amazing way that God is working in her life.