Our Family Journey

Love is the universal language
Adoptive mother forms a group to help others in daughter's native country

Cheri Peluso-Verdend co-founded an organization to help Mayan families. She and her husband, Gary, are the adoptive parents of 2-year-old Eliana, from Guatemala. SHERRY BROWN/Tulsa World
By MATT GLEASON World Scene Writer
Published: 1/18/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 1/18/2009 2:25 AM

A boy so loved his gray canvas sneakers, he feared someone might steal them. So the Guatemalan child, who was maybe 7 years old, never took them off — not even to sleep or bathe. Eventually, though, his beloved shoes lost their laces and split at the sides as they gave way to the boy's ever-growing feet.

Then a Tulsa mother, Cheri Peluso-Verdend, visited Panajachel, which is something of a tourist town in the highlands of Guatemala. The boy didn't live there. Rather, he lived in the mountains overlooking all those tourists.

In December, Cheri joined 25 other volunteers on a Helping Mayan Families service trip. Most of the volunteers, like Cheri, had adopted Guatemalan children and wanted to give back to the impoverished country. They came from around the country to offer everything from medical and veterinary care to Christmas gifts and tamale dinners.

More importantly — at least for a little boy in dirty sneakers — all those volunteers brought him a new pair of shoes. Cheri, who co-founded the organization, watched as another volunteer sliced off the boy's old sneakers.

"His feet had grown into the shoes," Cheri recalled of the heartbreaking scene that wet her eyes. "He hadn't taken those shoes off in so long that we cut the shoes off. Then we couldn't hardly get new shoes on him, because his feet were so overly sensitive. He couldn't walk. It was just traumatic. We all cried. I couldn't believe it."


Adopting Eliana


Nor could Cheri believe this poignant scene: It unfolded as a mother and her children picked up their tamale-dinner basket, which had all the fixings for a family of 12.

"The kids were wanting to get into it right then, but it was for Christmas," Cheri explained. "The mother was scolding them, 'No, this is for Christmas.'

"I don't speak enough Spanish to understand, but the translator explained to me afterwards that the reason the kids wanted in the food was they hadn't had a meal in two days. I wasn't really prepared for that level of poverty. The basic food, shelter, clothes are like gold to them."

If not for Cheri and her husband, Gary, their 2-year-old adopted daughter, Eliana, could have been one of Guatemala's hungry children.

Cheri met her 10-day-old daughter in a Guatemala City hotel room. It was September 2006. If everything had gone as planned, Cheri would foster Eliana for a few months in-country, then bring her home to Tulsa. However, a snag in the adoption left Cheri and Eliana in Antigua, Guatemala, for 16 months. Cheri, a computer Web site programmer, could work from a laptop — but she could only see her husband about once a month.

Then Guatemala ended adoptions from the U.S., which left Cheri fearing knocks on her apartment door. After all, it was an "extremely high chance" the government could take Eliana.

No one knocked, though. Mother and daughter made it home together.


Back to Guatemala


Once in Tulsa, Cheri — who hadn't driven a car in 16 months — remembered how Guatemala changed her perspective on life.

"It just seemed like we have so much stuff," she said, "just unnecessary stuff, and everybody lives in their own little bubble."

Cheri stayed in that bubble for three months. Then a telephone call came from Trisha Downing, another Guatemala adoptive mother. Downing wanted to know if Cheri would accompany her on a weeklong trip back to Guatemala to deliver Christmas presents and supplies.

"Absolutely not," Cheri thought to herself, but six months later, she was ready. As word spread of their trip, largely via the Web site Cheri built, other volunteers signed on. They cut it off at 25 people, although four more eked in. They turned away at least 20 to 25 other volunteers.

By December, Helping Mayan Families had raised just a few hundred dollars short of $70,000 in supplies and donations.

"We could not believe it," Cheri said. "We thought, 'Oh, if we go down there with $1,000 or $2,000 that would be great.' "


A night of extremes


After a week in Panajachel, where a little boy got new shoes — and thousands were served — Cheri and about a dozen other volunteers set off from Panajachel to Antigua. They wanted to celebrate.

But once the van crossed into Antigua, all the emotions of Cheri's 16-month ordeal in Antigua swarmed her.

"Just all of the extremes, both on the positive and the negative, all just hit me. We pulled in, and I just started sobbing."

Instead of a celebration, Cheri got a hotel room, where she "lived through the emotions of that night" all by herself.

Still, old memories won't keep Cheri from returning to Guatemala. There are too many children without food in their stomachs and new shoes on their feet.


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Matt Gleason 581-8473
matt.gleason@tulsaworld.com


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Helping hands
Highlights of the recent excursion by the Helping Mayan Families group:

400 patients received medical care

88 pet spay/neutering surgeries

1,000 tamale baskets packed and distributed

25 orphans received shoes, a Christmas gift and party

850 school children received a Christmas gift and party

13,413 people and animals served



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How to help
To join Helping Mayan Families’ summer or winter trip to Guatemala, please visit tulsaworld. com/hmfcontact.

To learn more about Helping Mayan Families, visit tulsaworld.com/helpingmayanfamilies.

To learn more about Mayan Families, the group that inspired Helping Mayan Families, visit tulsaworld. com/mayanfamilies.