“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.
We are going to try to post pictures somewhere and post the link here.
Wendy
“ 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.
Jordan with the kids at the pizza party!
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.
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. 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
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
