hold fast

I posted about #danieleltravieso  a couple of weeks ago, but I'll be honest, I think I censored it fairly heavily. Everything I said was absolutely true, but it isn't the post I set out to write. I'm aiming for this one to be. D. has had a hard start to life. He was born to a mother who already had a host of kids in various orphanages, and in a family with a genetic predisposition to hyperactivity, by all accounts. He was cared for pretty well until he was about four months, when he arrived to Casa de Amor pretty severely malnourished. It was discovered that he had a severe heart defect, which was why he wasn't gaining weight, and why he was the size of a newborn. At this point a team of volunteers stepped up and cared for him, one after the other. It was great, and he got his surgery at 7 months, recovered like a boss, and by the time I met him last September he was a cute, healthy, almost 1-year-old. I loved him before I met him, just from reading all the blogs,...

It takes a village to raise a child.  - African proverb I've always liked this proverb, but never really thought much about it, until today. Because I can't decide if it's more or less true for the hogar kids. The village is supposed to be in addition to your parents, I'm pretty sure. But that's not how it is for them. For them, their village is all they have. There's no consistant parent figures, just a lot of  tios and tias. And they know that. One of my biggest fears, always, is to attach to kids without parents. Not for my sake, at all. But for theirs. I've read all those studies that say it's better to attach and lose someone than to never attach. I'm sure that's true. But it's better again to attach and not lose it. Some of the kids have attached to their parents and been torn away. Or their parents have passed away. Some of the parents chose not to attach at all. The kids have attached to volu...

We celebrated Purim on Thursday.  We were only about six months out. (It's in March, I googled it. It’s not a holiday I knew a lot about (read: had ever heard of), until we had a chapel on it this week, complete with a turtle puppet in the role of Haman. How does a turtle build such big, high gallows?! It’s based on the story of Esther, told in the book of the same name, which is the only book in the Bible where God is mentioned (I think…?) And the whole point of the holiday is this: God is there even when He cannot be seen. Like in the entire book, when He isn’t even mentioned. I needed that message this week. Because when two newborns are abandoned in the same hospital, in the same town, in the same week, I need to know that God is still there. Because when babies are born with problems that will change their whole lives, and the lives of their parents, with no prior warning, I need to know that God is still there. Because when children are orphaned, and have no family to step u...

In the last week and a bit CDA has taken in two newborns, both abandoned at a couple of hours old. I wrote this almost exactly a year ago about another little boy (whose life has changed completely, in the most wonderful way, a story for another day...) but it rings true for these two as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the past Psalm 139, in my opinion, was a Psalm reserved for reading at dedications and putting in "it's a [insert gender]" cards when babies were born. I have since seen the error of my ways (different story for a different day) but it still has me thinking, what if no cards arrive? What if there is no celebration? What if it isn't the happy occasion we're envisioning? The first night I did night duty with sickbaby I read Psalm 139 over him for exactly the reasons I first set out - it's a good Psalm for babies. They were literally just...

There is a word in Spanish,  travieso , and it means naughty, or mischievous. It's a word pretty often thrown around here, especially in the orphanage, but I have never heard it said in reference to a child quite as much as this one gets it: He looks like butter wouldn't melt.  This is an act, do not fall for it. Today he came to Horita Feliz, which is a bible club the kids go to every Saturday. He has been once before, and it was a little stressful, I'll be honest. However, after the move last week the babies just live down the street from it, so he managed to smile his way into being allowed to come.  Here is a list of the milestones I am claiming today. 1. He sat on my knee, or within arm's reach of me for 100% of the singing/bible verse bit. 2. During that portion of the bible club he only fake cried once. 3. In the 1-3 year old class he sat in his seat for 80% of it. 4. He ate NO crayons, and coloured in for a total of about 3 minutes....

In a strange turn of events, I ended up teaching "Language Arts" to 5th Grade. When I was first told this I neither knew the age of 5th grade, nor what in goodness' name "Language Arts" was. (Turns out it's just English, and the Americans give everything weird names.) I am also teaching Kinder, who are pretty adorable themselves, if not completely EXHAUSTING. (I'm saying they're 90% to blame for the fact that I fell asleep on the bus home from work today.) So, fifth graders are funny. We read a story about a girl (called Bolivia, weirdly) who moved into a neighbourhood and kept talking to these two boys about her little sister, Lucette. Turned out she was a bird, which most worked out when they talked about her escaping out a window and ending up up a tree. One boy, however, took just a little longer. Me (reading): "Lucette likes to walk up and down my arm and then fly round and round the room." S: "What?! Miss, babies ca...

I wrote this last week, and maybe forgot to post it. Apologies - but the photos are too cute to miss. So, when #braveheart was in hospital he asked me a couple of times where E. was, because he missed him. This is miraculous in and of itself since usually they're fighting. E. missed C. too, so we decided to bring him over for a sleepover. C. has a lot of rules for what he can and cannot do (all of the things a normal 4-year-old would want to do are not allowed...) so we've been pretty strict with him and the normally very torpe  (rough) E.  Also, neither of them speak the best, but they understand each other perfectly - Hannah and I have no idea what they're plotting or planning. Pray for us. (Edited: they did not kill us, thank the Lord.) Reunited, and it feels so good. Movie time before bed. (Don't tell them, but I might have fast forwarded through an hour of it to speed up bedtime.) E. took over my bed... C. had to sleep on the floor, so...