Lynette offers comfort to two of her children

December 25, 1999
Web posted at: 12:31 a.m. EST (0531 GMT)

In this story: Challenges of fund-raising and puberty Orphanage has Hollywood roots Work that they love RELATED STORIES, SITES

NORTH OF ENSENADA, Mexico (CNN) -- This holiday season, dozens of Mexican children are depending on a California couple for food, shelter and love at the Door of Faith orphanage.

Some of the children are orphans, others were dropped off because their parents simply could no longer afford to care for them.

"We started with about 35 kids," said D.J. Shuetze. "Today, we have 92 children."

"Giving haircuts, making birthday cakes, putting on Band-Aids is a full-time job around here," he said.

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Take a glimpse of life at a privately run orphanage in Mexico. (December 24) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

D.J. and wife Lynette did not plan their vocation.

"If someone had told me 10 years ago that I would be living in Mexico with 92 kids, I would have told them they were absolutely crazy," laughed D.J.

"Before I got involved with this, my idea of roughing it was slow room service."

D.J. sees it as a hobby that took over the couple's lives about five years ago.

"Originally Lynette had no interest in me because I hadn't been bitten by this yet," D.J. recalled. "She saw me as your typical Orange County yuppie at the time."

"Yeah, I never went out with him until he had a heart for Mexico," said Lynette.

It takes $150,000 a year to run the orphanage. They rely 100 percent on donations and get no money from the Mexican government.

Along with fund-raising, D.J. has also had to develop a lot of patience.

"Our older boy's dorm has nine boys all going through puberty right now -- there's a challenge," D.J. points out.

But he said the hardest part of his job is when he sees kids dropped off who know they're being "dumped in an orphanage for the first time."

"I know that's a day that child is never going to forget," he said.

Along with rebuilding lives, the couple had some construction work to do.

"Before this property became an orphanage, this building and the surrounding property was the Pasadena Gun Club, and it was a Hollywood getaway -- John Wayne, Clark Gable and a lot of bigwigs would stay down here and hunt quail back in the canyon," D.J. said of the grounds.

But by the time the couple moved in, they say, the "termites holding hands" was the only thing keeping the building standing.

"We kind of approached it -- and I joke about it -- like taking over a bankrupt company, we kind of approached it like that," explained D.J.

D.J. and a young orphan boy

They're also trying to rebuild new relationships for the children.

"Most of our kids that are here have at least one sibling," said Lynette. "Those that don't are sometimes left out maybe, especially if they don't have family that come and visit."

"We have a lot of kids that call each other 'brother' -- they'll go out to one another, they watch out for one another," Lynette said.

The Shuetzes said they are at the orphanage because they love it.

"We know there are not a lot of people who can say they really love what they do, and we're incredibly thankful to be in a place where we are," D.J. noted.

Most of the children stay with the couple for a long time. If the children do leave, it is most likely to the home of another family member.

"Some of the kids you get attached to, and it's hard," said Lynette. "You've been a big part of their lives for so many years, and they're so little and they'll probably never remember you."

But as hard as it gets, the couple said they can't imagine going back to the "real world."

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