Chris and Brian Tourgee took out their camera to show a picture to the frightened boy.
This would be your sister. The words came through an interpreter as the boy cried. They scrolled to the next photo.
This would be your house.
Next photo.
This would be your dog.
The boy calmed down.
“You don’t have to,” said Brian to the boy, “but if you want, you can come live with us.”
The interpreter repeated the words. The boy was no longer crying.
Three years and five judges later, the boy who had no parents, who lived in five different Mexican orphanages, left Juarez for a new dog, new sisters and a new home.
A better home.
It’s hard for Andres to remember his life before moving to Peterborough in 2011. He remembers bouncing around to different orphanages, but he shares little else.
The Tourgees took several trips to Juarez and Centro Victoria, an orphanage, to help out the pastor, Joel Ramirez, as part of an outreach with their church, All Saints’, in Peterborough. The Tourgee family included two daughters, but no sons. Brian had an idea.
“Hey, we can do more than just go down to do a service project, let’s adopt a little boy,” Brian said to his wife, Chris.
Chris didn’t think twice.
They met back in 2007, when Andres was 7. Authorities could not release Andres’ name or age to the Tourgees before they agreed to adopt him. The Tourgees were looking for a boy older than 7, because older kids are harder to place in homes.
Andres was inconsolable at first.
“He hadn’t really seen Americans before, so he thought he was getting Mexican parents. It was just emotionally overwhelming for him,” Brian said.
But he eventually relented. And the family learned the Andres’ name. And they got to know him.
“I always say they picked him because he has a nice personality, like sweet, you know,” Brian said. “He’s a very gentle, sweet kid.”
The Tourgees attended a recent protest of President Donald Trump’s travel ban at the Peterborough Town House among the crowd of about 200 people. As the crowd became more spirited, Andres’ English-as-a-second-language teacher and immigrant from England, Sue Henley of Peterborough, held his hand and walked him to the front of the gathering.
“This is what first-generation immigrants look like,” said J.D. Leedham, who was serving as the de-facto moderator for the protest.
The Tourgees emphatically joined in chants like “No ban, no wall, America is for us all.”
For the Tourgees, any talk of a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border is personal. Anything that separates the place their son was born and the place he calls home is unconscionable.
And all the recent rhetoric — from politics and even in tiny Peterborough — has turned them into activists.
After Donald Trump was elected, the subject came up in school. A classmate made a comment and Andres overheard it.
“Now that Trump won, the Mexicans can burn in hell. They can all go back to Mexico where they came from,” said the classmate, according to the Tourgees.
Chris took the comment hard.
“It’s just hateful, it’s out there, it’s here in Peterborough, and it’s not OK,” Chris said.
Andres got angry.
“I just said something back to him, something I shouldn’t say — I said a bad word — I wasn’t thinking at the time,” he said.
Still, Andres isn’t as worried as his family.
His family watches the news. They admittedly try to keep most of it from Andres. And it works.
Andres, a junior at ConVal, is focused on an upcoming job at RiverMead, an assisted living facility in Peterborough. He plays soccer and tennis. He hangs out with friends.
But he hears his family talk. He accepts their concerns. And he is fine with standing in front of a crowd to remind everyone where he came from.
“They really do care about me,” said Andres of his parents. “They gave me a better home.”