Bianca has a second set of injections

Bianca is in the hospital in Cincinnati as this is being posted. She had her second set of facial injections into her hemangioma this morning. Foster mother Jennifer (and Children of the Americas board member) reports that although she is not happy about being in the hospital overnight, Bianca is being a brave young lady.
Bianca has had this facial malformation for many years. Her determination to regain her health is only matched by her foster families willingness to help her do so. As you can see, she has plenty of spunk and spirit.

Jose's American family

Fourteen months of doctor's visits, hospitalizations, trips to the dentist, to the ER and to the OR, are memories now for Scott and Margaret, Jose's foster parents in TN.
COTA has been abundantly blessed to have the highest quality foster parents for our medically fragile pediatric patients. Most of our board member's have also fostered for COTA and we realize the responsibilities, emotional issues and joys of fostering a child that comes from a developing country with no English, in poor health and needing surgery. Jose and COTA were very fortunate to have Scott, Margaret and their daughters to share in his journey to recovery. They offered their home, finances, time and attention to Jose as if he were their own son.
We could not have asked for a better situation for Jose. The results are evident!

A brave little boy returns to Guatemala

Do you recognize the child in the red shirt ? The two photos of Jose that were taken while he was in the hospital in New York City show Jose just before surgery. Your financial contributions created the change that you see from the recent photo of Jose in the red shirt. What an amazing difference! The "angel" sitting next to Jose in the hospital is foster mother Margaret.
Jose returned to Guatemala yesterday. He had not seen his parents in almost 14 months. Maria and Carlos knew that COTA considered sending Jose home without surgery early this past summer, since the amount of money we needed to raise to obtain his surgery was so large. Their sincere requests asking us to try harder gave us the stamina to push forward. I think you will agree that the results were worth the effort!
I will see Jose again in January when COTA goes back to Guatemala for Team 2010. At that time he will be evaluated for further surgery. Dr. Waner wants to do a second procedure to take care of the neck mass that he was not able to repair (Jose could not tolerate a longer surgery due to blood loss).
Meanwhile, Jose is enjoying a reunion with his family, and as soon as I get photos of his experience, I will post them. Thank you for making this adventure possible for this special little boy.