Jose

This little sour patch kid is so adorable that it hurts.  Jose is a 5-year-old boy who came to the Hogar for bilateral cleft lip and a cleft palate repair.  Following the surgery, he has not been able to speak, for reasons unknown, but he still manages to capture your heart.  Jose reminds me of a Tasmanian devil because he and two other young boys at the home run amuck around the house but still manage to sit down look like sweet little boys.  Because he cannot express himself verbally, we often find that Jose can be aggressive with playing and trying to get your attention.
 During breakfast, Jose and his friends Alexis and Josue eat very slowly which they know annoys all the mamitas.  I think they secretly love being scolded and pulled into the kitchen to finish their meals while the mamitas cook next to them.  However, when I have one-on-one time with Jose, he becomes an entirely different boy.  He sits still on the bus on your lap and watches as people walk by on the street and doesn’t cry or scream or complain when you tell him to do something.  The hardest part is keeping him from reaching out for candy that people sell on the street.
 At the home, Jose’s favorite hobbies are probably mimicking whatever you say and not listening to the mamitas when they tell him to do something.  Jose is like every other young boy in that he loves to run around in the dirt, requiring a few wardrobe changes throughout the day.  Every time I see Jose around the house, he has a smile on his dirt, food, and/or sweat covered face.  I love walking into the kitchen to see the mamitas teaching him how to talk.  He never gets upset or frustrated that he cannot annunciate anything and I’ve learned to love hearing him try to talk.  He is so fun to play with because he loves interacting with people and running around, but my favorite part about Jose is his sweet little smile.
 
- Nicole

Lotti y Jose at Jose's Baptism: