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“Wendy, will you be our mother?”

“Wendy, will you be our mother?”

I am in the plane on the ride home. It is dark and we are far above the clouds now. I can see the lights. Is this what Wendy felt like flying home from Neverland in Peter Pan. Did the words “Wendy, will you be our mother haunt her like they are haunting me tonight?

That is what the Lost Boys said to Wendy. This is also what some of the older girls keep saying to me. I feel like I have found some of the lost children of the world. They are getting meals everyday, clothes and shelter and even school. I am just not sure how much love they receive. The women at the orphanage are nice, but they have a big job to take care of that many kids. They are just starving for hugs and attention. I told them I wish I could take them all home(Don’t worry Kevin, it is not possible). The only hugs I saw the kids get this week were from us. I felt like at times I needed 7 more arms to give them all the hugs they wanted!

Girls would just come up to me and just grab me and wrap their arms around my waist. They would look up into my eyes. I could not speak their language, but I could see the pain and sorrow and the joy in their eyes. They were looking for love…and hope. By the end of the week many started to really unfold. That is what feeling loved does to you. We saw it happen! Over and over again!

Many of the young moms there have come out of abusive homes. They did not choose to have a baby. Now they are 12-15 and have a baby. They have been put in this orphanage and share a room with about 6-7 other young moms and their babies…no really…all in the same room. Can you imagine how much sleep they get? They should be outside running around with the other 12 yr olds. When we treated their hair for lice, we really bonded with them. We all agree that was the first time in 3 days we saw smiles from any of them. After that they started to smile at us when we walked by, when before they would just look down and frown when we passed by.

One of the big things the girls wanted to do this week was the hand clap games. You know, the ones we would play on the playground. Well towards the end of the week, I was hand clapping with a small girl. When we were done, she ran off. There were two of the little moms sitting next to me. I decided to be crazy and turned to one and put up my hands towards her to play the game and she shook her head no. I did the same to the other little momma. She is 12 and we played 2 rounds of hand clap games and she smiled a lot. She did not say anything, but I think I could tell it meant a lot to her to be treated like a child…just for a couple of rounds of hand claps. She could enjoy her childhood again and be like her friends. I know it was brief, but there was an unfolding of her heart in that moment.

Another unfolding moment: The first day we arrived at the orphanage, we started to take a couple pictures of the kids. We were surprised how much they loved it!! They wanted you to take the picture and then show it to them. This happened many times that first day. Now that I look back at it, I think they wanted to see what they looked like. They wanted to see if they really were beautiful. That is why I love taking pictures. I love capturing the beauty around me. I told the girls many times a day how beautiful they are. Who tells them this when we are not around? Well one of the girls, Maria(pic above), would always look at me with such an angry look on her face, but yet she wanted multiple pictures. This hit a cord in me. I could guess the pain in her heart that made her heart so hard and the frown on her face. I decided that I was going to make her smile. I would get ready to take her picture and then I would put the camera down and put a big frown on my face and she would just light up. I did this many times, until a few days later, she stopped frowning at all and just kept smiling. We really bonded over something so silly. The night we left, she was on of the couple of girls that were crying on the side of the truck where I was sitting. She gave me a note before we left and told me I was her “best amigo”

Unfolding….

If you have followed us all week, has your heart been moved? Have you cried and prayed for us? Do not stop praying for these orphans. I told them I hope to come back one day, but I also told them I was going to send my friends her to see them. Have you ever thought of going on a mission trip to minister to the orphans in their distress? You might think that you are not capable of doing something like this. You are. Do you have two arms that can wrap around a young child? Do you like painting toe nails pink? Do you like to kick the soccer ball around or throw some hoops? All they really want is to be loved. Adoption is so hard right now in El Salvador, all we can really do right now is pray for the floodgates to be open for adoption down there, or go visit them and continue the unfolding work. There is so much that can be done. Let this be the start of a steady stream of visitors down to this orphanage so this child will not feel like “the Lost Children” of El Salvador. Be on the next team down there. It just might unfold your heart to see just how big a God we serve….a God that can bring hope to the broken and healing through love. Oh, will you be part of the blessing of visiting orphans? You will come back changed.

www.visitingorpahns.com

We are going to try to post pictures somewhere and post the link here.

Wendy

Compassion visit/sightseeing

We had a fun morning debriefing at Casa Mia. It is such an amazing bed and breakfast.

If you are ever here, you should check it out!

I started supporting a Compassion child here in El Salvador this past Dec. I picked her because I knew then that I was coming here over spring break. I prayed that night there would be some way to meet her. Well, today was Estefany's 11th birthday and we all got to have lunch with her and her mother!! The compassion visit went great and she is such a sweet girl! I brought a big full of little things for gifts for her. It was fun to see her face light up when she opened the bag. We ate at a nice place for lunch and then had ice cream for her birthday. We took them and the team on our sightseeing outing for the day. We drove up the mountain and went to the top of one of the five Volcanos in El Salvador. At the top, we saw a place selling jewelry. I told Estefany to pick out something. Everything was about 2 dollars and she was smiling big after she got her selection.

The volcano crater was fun to see. The next place we went was funner for me, though. We took them to the local Walmart. They asked her if she had ever been to a place like that. She said no. We got lots of food for her and her family to take home like beans, rice, sugar, meat, and also a pinata for her birthday. The Compassion host that was with us told us this is will be a day she will remember for the rest of her life. It was such a blessing to be with her and to hear about her life and to see how the support we give her monthly really does make a difference.

God is so good. He not only let it work out to see her, but let us see her on her birthday!

Home tomorrow night!!

The Final Adios

Our plan was laid out at breakfast. Well, sort of. It seemed like there were a million loose ends to tie - donation distribution, birthday parties, final goodbyes. Plus, we needed to send Danilo and some others to the market to buy the rest of the supplies which meant no translator! Jenni and Jordan flew out that morning and we were already missing them, which meant we didn't even want to the THINK about saying goodbye to the kids. It was much easier to think about what needed to be done.

Once we arrived at the orphanage a few of us went to work organizing the donations into little bags to giving to each child. Piles of watches, toothbrushes, underwear, and soap covered the room which was at first a little overwhelming. However, when you put four women in a room - they will organize! The boys were most excited and proud to get the watches. One little boy kept showing me his and flexing his muscles.

Next was project PAR-TAY. 11 cakes, 4 pinatas, and 110 sugar-hyped kids later we had celebrated every single child's birthday! After a beautiful and very off-key (if I do say so myself) "Feliz Cumpleonos" we broke out the pinatas. We knew they were a hit when all the kids swarmed one that had dropped tearing it to shreds in order to get every piece of candy and dollar stuffed inside. I believe I still have sticky sugar all over my clothes :)

They young mom's have been on our hearts all week. The Amandas were able to teach them basic care such as keeping them cool. They've been wrapping them in layers of clothes and fleece blankets in the 90 degree heat. One result has been heat rashes. Many of the were very receptive and hopefully will continue to learn how to take care of their babies.

Then the dreaded goodbye. I personally had avoided the thought since the moment I met all of their beautiful eyes. We started to make our way to the truck the whole way giving out a towel to each and every child. The whole way I told myself, "Ok Mary Lauren, just keep yourself together". After a little boy came up to me with a big smile and told me, "Thank you for my towel," I lost it. BIG TIME. Before, they had been sharing one towel for every 25 kids so this was a big deal. Not to mention some of the kids had started their own water works. I tried to hug and kiss as many as I could. The kids we had bonded the most with clung to our arms and legs, begging us to not forget them. I looked around at the other team members only to see them crying too and receiving notes from the kids. They told us we were their angels from God and that they would be waiting until we come back.

The final adios was one of the hardest things probably all of us have ever done. But I thank God for protecting the kids. I have never understood God's love the way I did when I looked down at their innocent eyes and smiling faces that told the story of His sacrifice for us. Halleluiah! He would have died rather than live without us.

-Mary Lauren

"Adios Piojos"

“ Adios Piojos “

Bye, bye lice. Mission accomplished. Today we finished up with treating all of the children and some of the workers for lice. They were so happy and grateful to finally have some relief from the itching. The first day we started treating the kids we were starting to think it was hopeless, but as God always does, he proved us wrong and provided us and the children with one giant sweet kiss.

This morning started out with a loud pop and we woke up to no electricity. The power came back on just in time for us to eat breakfast and for the Bolanos and Jenny and her son Jordan to make it to there appointment in San Salvador with their adoption attorney. We were able to relax a little this morning and let Mary Lauren re-cooperate from her sickness and she is feeling much better now.

After we finished up with lice treatments, we provided dinner for the children and spent some time with them. After dinner, we were invited to attend their praise and worship service. They actually have a church on the property just for them. The whole praise service is lead by the kids. It was amazing to see them all dancing and singing to the Lord. I don’t think any child in the church from 2 to 17 wasn’t singing and dancing. They actually sang two songs that we sing in our church, “ I Am a Friend of God “ and “ Trading My Sorrows “. Their love for God is truly amazing. We came here to teach the children about God, but instead they have taught us about the love of Jesus. Most of the children were praying and they thank God for all that they have. Every child there has a story, all filled with sorrow. One of the girls was asked, “What is the greatest gift you have every been given. “ Her answer, without hesitation, was “ My Salvation. “ We all have a lesson to learn from these angels sent from God!

Tomorrow is going to be a day of fun and sadness. We are planning a party for the children to celebrate their birthdays. Some of the children have told us that their birthdays this week, while some of the children don’t even know their birthdays. We are having cake, balloons, piñatas, and we will give them all the wonderful gifts that all of our friends and family have helped us collect and raise money to buy. It will also be a sad day because it will be our last day to love on them, but we will never forget them.

Amanda C.

more pictures!

Jordan with the kids at the pizza party!

12 yr old mom with her baby...

Even though we probably will not eradicate the lice problem, we are training the other girls to treat each other.

Bobby with a couple of his favorite girls!

We are getting a late start this morning, because Mary Lauren got sick (travelers sick) yesterday and she is resting this am. We did bring Cipro with us so she feels much better today! Continue to pray for the health of our team. Everyone else is doing good so far.

Amanda doing the "Robi Comb" for lice. Wendy, meet Wendy! This one I would take home in a heartbeat. She is my shadow and gives me so many hugs through out the day! I can not talk to her in Spanish, but she knows I love her!

Top pic: Girls getting there hair treatment for lice, Mary Lauren showing the kids pics she just took. They love to see their pictures!

"I have never seen a sad kid with a glow stick!”

Today felt like one big, sweet kiss from God. When we arrived at the orphanage this morning we all felt a bit tired. I guess the past few days of travel, heat, and little sleep had taken its toll. But, when the orphanage gates opened and we saw those precious faces the tiredness soon left us and was replaced with joy and excitement.

We have started making connections with particular children and this is as exciting for us as it is for them. Sheer happiness when they call you by name! They constantly ask us, “ Do you remember my name?”……as if to say, “please don’t forget me!” What they do not realize is that forgetting then would be impossible. Their smiles, laughter, and love for the Lord is forever impressed upon me.

Today brought more de-licing and more playing with the children. But, the best part of the day was dinner. We ordered Pizza Hut for the kids and they were thrilled. They ate 300 pieces of pizza! Bobby had the great idea to bring glow sticks- 120 of them! His motto was “I have never seen a sad kid with a glow stick!” Boy was he right! No sad faces here. Amazing joy and love these kids have!!

At the end of the night they all thanked us and said “the gates of the orphanage were always open to us”. They are so concerned we are not coming back tomorrow. I guess because we had a party tonight. They were begging us to come back. That is one promise that we intend on keeping.

Amanda P.

Lice and Laughter

We just returned to the hotel after a full day at the orphanage. Once again, our hearts have been touched by the precious children at the "Ciudad de Los Ninos" home and we continue to process all that we have experienced.

Our goal today was to begin the lice treatment and it was quite a challenge. The kids were absolutely amazing and never complained as we washed, combed, and "poked and prodded" through their hair. I marveled at the joy on their faces as the girls' wet hair dripped upon their clothes, the boys' heads were shaved and they learned that we would have to remove and store their precious stuffed animals for a week. Their responses consisted of hugs, kisses, laughter and a million expressions of thanks - "gracias, gracias, gracias."

We are beginning to learn the stories of some of these kids and each story is heart breaking. We are especially burdened for the young moms (12 and 13 year-olds) who did not choose to be moms and have had their youth and innocence torn away. It is tragic, yet redeeming to see these young moms learning to parent their babies. We spent a lot of time holding the babies and encouraging the moms. They are beginning to experience the hope and healing of a God who redeems all things. We will never forget these moms or their children.

I want to close with a journal entry (from my adoption journal) that I wrote in September, 2008. As many of you know, we have been waiting to adopt a child from El Salvador for almost three years.

How long, O Lord, must these children wait,

Living without parents,

Without families to call their own?

Without toys or clothes that were picked especially for them?

Without the loving touch and affection of a mommy or daddy?

It is devastating to be aware of the millions of children living this way

And to feel so helpless and so far away.

Who will advocate and stand up on behalf of these children?

Who remembers them?

Who cries out on their behalf?

I will remember the, O Lord.

I will wait.

I will advocate on their behalf and share their stories.

God, move in power over your orphans.

Break the barriers preventing them from resources, care and adoption.

Break our hearts.

Use us to bring change in the nation of El Salvador.

- Jenni Ramsey

Day one pics

Day 1-take two

Day one seemed to start off quite slower than I anticipated. Then I realized, for sure, that we are on “El Salvador time”. Breakfast- over an hour, fast food lunch- over an hour, getting some fabric for sheets- well over an hour. We ended up at the orphanage around 3pm and were greeted by children running out of every door available. I stepped out of the truck (by the way, we’ve totally gone old school and are riding in the back of a pickup everywhere we go. Just know it’s against everything that I believe in and don’t tell the kids. I don’t want to have to use the adage “Do as I say, not as I do) Our motto: pray hard and don’t look at the speedometer. I was hugged at least fifteen times in the first 3 minutes that we were there. “hola! Como te llama?” Do you know how hard it is to remember the names of over 100 children? I can’t even get my own kid’s names straight usually!

We quickly had to let go of our plan to start the de-licing upon arrival. Most of the older children were still at church and the younger ones were so busy playing and chasing us that it just didn’t happen. We have plans to do it on day 2.

Just a quick fill in for those of you that I don’t know: We have been in the process of adopting from ES for nearly three years now. Recently our adoption took a new road and we’ve had to realize that an adoption from ES is not in the cards for us. However, God had a greater plan and our adoption journey finally has an end in sight. I thought this new road and the promise of a child in the near future would make this trip easier….it didn’t. I had such an overwhelming sense of sorrow when I first arrived. Looking over to see Bobby holding a girl of no more than 13 months nearly made me lose my emotional self control. I don’t understand. I’ll never understand why. I quickly pulled myself together as I was pulled in multiple directions.”Vamos, vamos!”

How much do the girls love Bobby? I’m feeling some serious crushes going on. “Bobby, Mira, mira!!” Look Bobby!! And then they would touch their toes, or throw a ball in the air and let it hit them in the head. We did find one girl that is just perfect to fit in our crate on the way home. She’s a chatty Cathy though so we’ll have to find some way to silence her for the plane ride. Oh, I jest. Sorta.

I loved every minute of today. I even let the girls braid my hair during which time I had a personal devotion with the Lord. “Please God in Heaven, let the lice hate my hair. Help me keep my hands below my shoulders so as not to inoculate myself. And God, did you know that they don’t have soap in the bathroom? Amen.” I think the Lord is still working on my stronghold J

The sweetest thing was listening to the 2-4 year olds do their devotion in the evening before bed. All of these little beings sent up the sweetest prayers straight from their heart, criss cross applesauce in the floor with their little eyes closed and hands folded. “Dear Lord, please protect the Americans and thank you for letting them be here”. How touching that they are praying for us when the whole point is for us to be here praying for them.

God is good and he definitely filled us with “sweet kisses” (as my friend Alicia says) all day long. We can’t wait to see what is in store for us tomorrow! Pray for us as critter clean up is in our future and continue to pray for our protection as we may or may not have had to yell loudly like strong men so as to ward off gangs while we might or might not have been riding in the back of the pickup truck in the dark……maybe. If you’re Mary Lauren’s and Amanda P’s mom you can read the “may NOT’s and might NOT’s.”

Thanks for reading!

Sonja

Kisses from Heaven

Today was beautiful! We stayed at an amazing place last night in San Salvador. It felt more like a home! We had a great breakfast and went to the local "Walmart" to get supplies we needed for the orphanage. We had a great lunch and then arrived at the orphanage around 3.

When we pulled up to the orphanage, we were greeted by lots of kids running all around us. They ran up to us and hugged us like they had know us for years. Actually, Jenni, Angela, and Edwin came to this same orphanage back in November. So it was fun to see the kids come up and call them by name. Jenni had taken their pictures back in Nov. and got them developed and game them to them. THEY LOVED IT! There is not many things that they can call "theirs". You could almost feel the joy all day. The children just wanted to be next to you and hug on you. They could not get enough of the love! Neither could we! I was sad when we had to go and many followed the truck to the gate.

I was telling one of the girls about how I adopted my daughter from China. She had just told me the story about how she had lived in the states for 12 years with her mom. Then she had to come here to live with her dad because her mother did not want her anymore. She could not stay with her dad because we works two jobs and is never at home. That is why she ended up in the orphanage. She turned to me and asked, "Can you adopt me?" I told her how I wished I could. Adoption in El Salvador is so hard right now. It takes years and is not predictable. There were lots of kids I wish we could just take home:) There were many sad stories, but we are all amazed at the joy these kids have even though there is so much. We felt that the love these kids showed us today was like "kisses from heaven".

We bought them all ice cream and that was a treat for them. Internet connection is spotty at our hotel. Tomorrow we will try to start to de-lice the kids! I will try to post pics soon. I kept crashing tonight.

We made it!! It was such a long day of travel. I will leave you with a picture or two.

On our way!

The almost 6 hours of sleep I was going to get last night got even smaller when a strange beep from our house alarm woke us up. After a few minutes, I realized this beeping was because the power had gone off. My daughter is a light sleeper and she started crying. I went to comfort her while my husband shut off the beeping. The whole cul-de-sac was dark. He got the job of sleeping with her to calm her down and I tried to calm my racing heart. As I lay there, I was suddenly filled with all kinds of irrational fears. So much so that every little noise I heard sent my heart racing again. I had to get up and go look around down stairs just to calm my fears. I happen to check my phone and I found that a sweet friend of mine had sent a text earlier to let me know she was praying for me and she quoted a verse. It read “The Lord will keep you from all harm-He will watch over your coming and going both now and forever” ps 121:7-8

This was such a comfort to me and helped bring gospel sanity to my fears. To remember that He is the one that is in charge of this mission trip and all the details! He is the one that will protect our team. It is so good when God reminds me that He actually is in charge. So much of the time I want to be the one in charge and it is such a false sense of reality. SO many times the voices in my head tell me the opposite of what His word says. That is why we need our community to remind us of the truth everyday.

“If I were to fly on the wings of the dawn, and settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand would guide me, your right hand would grab hold of me.” Ps 139:9-10

We all got on the plane and are on our way to Dallas. After Dallas, we travel to Miami where we will meet up with Jenni and her son, Jordan. They are our California team and Jenni actually lead a trip to this same orphanage in El Salvador in November. We are so excited they could join us. We get to ride on the plane with them into El Salvador. Once we arrive there, we will meet up with 2 more members that are already there. Angela and Edwin also went on the trip with Jenni back in November. Both Jenni and Edwin speak Spanish and actually Edwin is from El Salvador!! We were amazed at how God pulled this team together and are excited to get to know each other more in this next week!

Wendy

Go with us to El Salvador!

I am so excited to leave Saturday for El Salvador with a team from Visiting Orphans. This team formed pretty quickly in October when I talked to Amanda, who is the director of Visiting Orphans. We were at the Together for Adoption conference and she asked me to take a trip with Visiting Orphans. I told her I would love to, but my husband has gallstones and he cannot go out of the country until they get removed this summer. She said, "Then why don't you lead a trip?"

Yeah, why don't I? That conversation got me very excited to think I could do something like that. We adopted Amelia from China in 2005. It was a wonderful experience and I love sharing about adoption what God taught me during that time. I have always wanted to do more. There are around 147 million orphans in the world. That number is overwhelming. What can one person do really? I am compelled to do something. I am going to use the freedom and resources God has blessed me with to do something. Well, our team of 11 people have been called to go to El Salvador to work with about 110 orphans for a week. God has formed our team and I am so excited! I even get to serve with my brother and sister-in-law while there!

I hope to update here as we serve and let you know how God is already at work in El Salvador...because He is at work there! We get front row seats and I want to share the view with you. Maybe after this trip you too will see that you can do something.

We are amazed at how has God raised up such an amazing team to be our supporters. The 7 of us that are coming from the Nashville area all are checking a whole bag each filled with supplies for the orphanage. We were able to get a list from the orphanage director of very specific needs. We shared this with our churches and community. We are so grateful to have so many supporting us and praying for us! It is beautiful to see the body of Christ at work!

One of the things that is a real need at the orphanage is their lice problem. Most if not all of them have lice. We have 4 nurses on the team and others that are ready to get messy. We called the Nix company and they donated 114 treatments to us! We also called the Robi Comb company and they donated Robi Combs and shampoo for our trip. We have never used these electronic combs, but we are excited to try them out. We arrive in San Salvador Sat. night and plan to start the lice treatment Sunday! Pray for us. We know it is a big job, but if these were my children, I would want to do something to help the discomfort of lice.

Other things we plan to do are: health physicals that they have to get done every year, take some of them to the beach, pizza party, "nail salon day", a shopping spree to buy some bigger things they need, and also just play with the kids.

So go with us!

Wendy