The Past Few Days

It’s good to be back.

I truly missed this place.

But it’s sad how much I had forgotten in just 2 years.

How sad an orphanage really is.

Because for most of these kids the “life” that they are living is not a life.

Sitting on a bench with your hands tied up and never moving.

That is not  a life.

And I guess I had forgotten the living conditions of these children.

These children are not living.

They are barely surviving.

And as I walked around the orphanage I am surprised at how easily I had forgotten

The suffering

The tears

The hopelessness

I had forgotten.

I guess I got so caught up in my own life.

My own busy schedule.

My own complaints.

I forgot what it was like.

But it’s not all bad!

There is still light in this darkness.

The nannies still smile.

The kids still laugh and play.

Or at least some do.

And even though there are kids that are worse, there are kids that are better!

Anyway.

Sorry I havn’t posted.

It’s Tuesday night here and I’ve written one blog.

We’ve spent 3 full days at the orphanage now.

In the mornings we play with the babies. We take them from their cribs and bring them down to the playroom. The babies make it a happy morning. There is hope. Because for a lot of the babies we know they will get adopted. Especially the healthy ones. We know that a lot of them will make it out of the orphanage before having to move to the big kid room. I tend to play with different babies each morning. I’ve spent a lot of time with a baby named Sam. He was there as a little tiny baby when we were there 2 years ago. He has down syndrome and is the cutest little thing. He loves to play and roll around on his back and stomach and he also likes to do some strange little scoot crawling type thing he has learned. Sam along with other babies in the morning make me laugh and are a good way to start off the mornings.

After lunch (which has already consisted of one trip to KFC and one to Mcdoanlds) we head back to the orphanage for the big kids.

We learned to split the team into 2 groups. One group takes the kids that can walk and play on their own and the other group takes the more special needs kids. I enjoy both groups of kids. Playing with the less severe special need kids is a little overwhelming because they are crazy. But its also encouraging to see the progress a lot of them have made. Jessie, a little girl who last time couldn’t walk is now running around like it’s the easiest thing in the world. Another encouraging thing is that Daisy and Collin (both kids with down syndrome) and Mikey (a boy with epilepsy) are all older kids and are all learning to write their numbers 1-10. They are all very proud of this talent they now have. 

After awhile our groups switch and I move over to the more severe special needs kids. Playing with these kids can be depressing. It’s a dimly lit room with a bench full of kids just sitting there. Some of the kids sit on potty chairs all day long and never get up. We decided to put diapers on these kids and bring them over to the play room. I was a little upset to see Sadie, a little down syndrome girl not looking so good. Two years ago when we came she was a chubby happy baby with such a personality and now she sat on a potty chair all day long showing no emotion. The hardest part was seeing Penelope. I played with Penelope a lot last year. She does nothing but sit on a potty chair and chew on her hands the entire day. Her hands will become swollen and bleeding if the nannies don’t tie them behind her back for the entire day. When I saw her I untied her hands and sat her up to soon realize that her legs had lost all the muscle in them and she could no longer walk. No longer. She could walk 2 years ago but now there was nothing left but skin and bone on her legs. 

The last part of the day was to give the kids a “special treat” of watermelon. When the nannies brought it out the kids devoured it.  The sight was a little unsettling watching just how hungry these kids were. 

Overall the past few days have been good but hard.

The special needs are just very severe this year.

Tonight we met with a pastor of the local church.

I have lots of stories to tell about that but I will have to share about that later.

Your prayers are very much appreciated.

Please continue to pray!