Bringing Home Juan Pablo

By Jenny Pope
Buckner International

John and Emily Wiggins were 24 years old and newly married when they drove more than 16 hours to a hospital in Dallas.

Four-year-old Juan Pablo had been flown in from Guatemala with then-Buckner director Chiqui de Mollinedo and her husband, Sergio, a doctor. They were meeting with team of doctors to inquire about a series of nodules on Juan Pablo’s neck.

Mollinedo knew the couple wanted to adopt Juan Pablo, whom they had only met one time, but she also wanted them to have realistic expectations. She asked John and Emily if they would still continue the adoption process if the diagnosis was a terminal illness.

Regardless of the outcome, the Wiggins knew that God had called them to Juan Pablo and he would lead them through that journey.

“Looking back now, it all seems kind of crazy,” John said. “We had been married less than two years when we came to Dallas. We were making a big decision for our family. But we felt like God led us to Juan Pablo.”

Emily remembers sitting in the waiting room with her husband and friends from Buckner, praying for good results when the doctors came out.

“They were crying,” she said, “and they told us it wasn’t cancer. We just totally laid ourselves out there. It’s really a miracle how everything has worked out and to see how God has taken care of Juan P. through the process.”

Boy with burns
Juan Pablo was a favorite child of many short-term missions volunteers to Guatemala. He had an infectious smile and a tender heart; he often cared for the younger children at the Buckner Baby Home in Guatemala City like a big brother.

But Juan Pablo was different from the other children. At 3 months old, he was badly burned in a gas explosion along with his mother. They were brought to a hospital where Juan Pablo would live the next six months of his life. Once he recovered, he was placed in a government orphanage, but his face would never be the same.

In 2006, Buckner opened a group home for babies and toddlers in Guatemala City and Juan Pablo was one of the first children to live there. Since Mollinedo’s husband was a doctor, Buckner typically accepted children with severe medical needs in order to provide them with the best care possible. 

The teal-colored home became a regular stop for mission teams to Guatemala, where volunteers would hold the babies and play games with the toddlers. The Wiggins first spent time with Juan Pablo at this home.

“We went on a Shoes for Orphan Souls mission trip in 2005 with Moody Radio and then got our church in Terre Haute, Indiana involved to go on another trip in 2006,” Emily said. “We played with him on that trip, but adoption never even crossed my mind.”

Later, the couple started to think about adoption and called Buckner to learn more about their options. At the time, Buckner was only placing toddlers into adoptive families and the Wiggins originally wanted a baby.

“Our pastor wrote a story about Juan Pablo after a trip, talking about when he looked at JP, he didn’t see scars, but only beauty just as Jesus sees him.  We didn’t feel at peace about adopting a baby and we started praying about it, asking, ‘Who would Jesus choose?’”

It was this prayer that led the Wiggins to Dallas in September 2007 to spend a week with Juan Pablo, visiting doctors and trusting God with their family’s future. Anyra Cano, Buckner adoption caseworker for Guatemala, said the Wiggins felt a deep calling to adopt Juan Pablo.

“We told them that adoptions were closing in Guatemala in a few months, and they knew there were risks involved. But they remained faithful. They always said they would keep going until God closes all the doors.”

Inter-country adoptions from Guatemala underwent a firestorm of criticism in 2006 when allegations of lawyers coercing birth mothers to sell their children caused the country to close its adoption program. All adoptions initiated prior to December 2007 were “grandfathered” in, but the process was unpredictable. The Wiggins started their adoption just a few months before this final deadline.

“While on one of their many trips to Guatemala and the embassy, they were told that the adoption couldn’t continue because they were missing one document,” Cano said. After a week of prayers and trips to the Embassy, the paperwork finally came through.   

“It was a miracle,” Cano said.

This was just one example of the numerous roadblocks and victories celebrated throughout their three-year journey. In total, the Wiggins would make 10 trips to Guatemala to see Juan Pablo and spend time with the other children at the Buckner group home while the adoption paperwork was underway.

“They were faithful to all the children, not just to Juan Pablo,” Cano said. “They would do special things for the children, take them on field trips or dress up as superheroes. They wanted all the children to experience the same things Juan Pablo did.”

John said the adoption process helped strengthen their marriage as they learned to trust God and rely on one another through the hard times.

“We were married a little over a year when we started the adoption process. Our marriage is Juan Pablo,” he said.
Cano said the couple grieved through the setbacks along the way, “but it was never too hard for them to give up. They loved Juan Pablo and knew God intended him to be with their family forever.”

In November of 2009, the Wiggins went to Guatemala for the last time. Emily was five-months pregnant.

“It was a good bonding experience for us,” Emily said, remembering the month they spent with Juan Pablo in Guatemala while waiting for the last paperwork to come through.

“At that time, he knew we were his parents. He would keep coming up to us and saying, ‘My family’, kissing and hugging us,” she said.

Everyone at the government office in Guatemala was impressed with their journey.

“One Guatemalan caseworker said she was taken aback that such a young family would do so much for a child most other families would not even consider,” Cano said. “They made an impression on a lot of people.”

Homecoming
On December 9, 2009, Juan Pablo came home. He was greeted first in Dallas by Buckner staff and friends, and then welcomed in Indiana by an airport lobby filled with church members, friends and family.

“I had been looking forward so long to having a son, to hear him call me ‘Papa,’” John said. “It still sends tingles down my spine.”

Juan Pablo has made a big impact on their local community, too. After years of support from their church family, John said it’s good for the kids at church to see that “God answers prayers. He had a plan for Juan Pablo’s life and now he’s part of their life.”

There have been some challenges for Juan Pablo, and for his parents, since he came home, Emily said. Sometimes children point and stare at him when they’re walking in the park because they’ve never seen someone with burns on their face.  She and John have been working with Juan Pablo to help him deal with his feelings.  God has also been teaching them how to deal with other people in these situations. 

“Our prayer is that someday JP will be able to respond with confidence all that God has brought him through and done in his life,” Emily said

Juan Pablo came back to Texas in October 2010, one year after their plane touched down. This time, he was  counting in English and looking after his baby brother Sam.

The Wiggins brought with them several bags filled with new shoes for Buckner’s Shoes for Orphan Souls project, collected by their Vacation Bible School at church.

“Will Danny and Estuardo be getting new shoes?” Juan Pablo asked when they arrived. He was still thinking about his friends in Guatemala.

“Juan Pablo is different from other kids because of the care and love he received at Buckner,” Emily said.

“Once people get to know him, they realize he’s a friend for life,” John said.

Cano said the Wiggins have made a commitment to keep Guatemala, Juan Pablo’s friends and his heritage as part of their family. They are already planning a return trip to see everyone again, though many of his friends now live in different group homes and foster families.

“The Wiggins are a great testimony to what faithfulness and selflessness really mean,” she said.