Visitation Day

This is Cat a year ago. I don't have a recent picture of her.

    As the title says, today was the day for relatives of the children here at Casa Bernabe to come visit. Like most things here I didn't know what to expect. I started out my Sunday morning as usual. I arrived at the baby house at 7:30 to pick kids up out of their cribs. I pick all 13 kids out of their cribs and welcome them to a new day. "Good morning _________. It's time for your bath. Let's go." I undress them and, today I handed them over to a teenage girl helping out at the house on the weekends. She gives them a bath and then she hands them over to a staff member to be dressed. Then they are put in a high chair and fed by another teenage girl. I love the teenagers here. They are live at CB for various reasons and they are truly wonderful.
    After the kids eat they are cleaned up and sent outside to play. Today when it was time to go to church, we had some members from a visiting church group from the States playing with the kids. The staff member in charge at the baby house decided to let the members from the American team take the kids that had visiting family members up for church.  The kids that have visitors meet their, grandparents, mother, or dads at church and they can visit until 3:00 in the afternoon. The rest of the kids would stay at the house with the staff member, teenagers, and me.
    The Americans each had a child's hand in theirs or a child on their hip ready to head up the hill to church. If you come visit CB, you will have a clear understanding of "the hill." The hike makes you grasp for air by the time you reach the top. The point of me telling you that is that I want you to understand that we really have to help these kids get to the top. We carry them or hold their hand all the way up. It is a slow journey but great exercise for everyone involved.
    One girl, Cat wouldn't go with the American team. She started to cry and said no when one lady tried to hold her hand. She continued this same behaviour with another lady. Then she looked at me with her pleading eyes and asked for my hand. Of course, that made me feel like a hundred bucks. Oh, by the way she calls me Barbie. "Barbie, mano (hand)."
    I politely asked the staff member in charge if I could walk her up and screaming with hope on the inside.  I was given the ok to walk her up so, off we went. When we arrived at church, Cat's grandmother wasn't insight. I was sad for her but selfishly happy that I would get to be with her during the service. We found a place in the back of the church to sit. She was sitting on my lap and her older sister (3 years old) sat beside us.
    Her grandmother arrived after a few worship songs. I had Cat on my hip and walked to the front of the church to hand her over. As I handed her over, I wanted to burst out into tears. As I turned around to walk back to my seat in the back of the church, I tried to figure out why handing her over made me so upset. What a weird reaction to handing over a child to their grandmother.
    One thought is that it was a realization that Cat has relatives but yet she is living at an orphanage. This is a common story for several of these kids. That is why CB has a visitation day once a month. I don't know Cat's story but in other cases the relative feels CB will provide for their child better then they could.
    My other thought is that the physical act of handing over a child gives you an overwhelming feeling that it is the end of your relationship with a child. Today that wasn't my reality. At the end of the day, Cat was back in the baby house holding my hand, kicking a ball around the backyard, and telling me she needed to go poop in the potty. :)  Ha! That is my reality. Welcome to it!  Seriously, this morning was a reminder that sometimes these kids leave and go home with their relatives.
    Someday a child will go to their yearly court hearing and they won't come back to CB. They will be allowed to go home with their family. Some of these kids will be adopted. After my reaction today of handing a child over for a three hour time span, it is going to be difficult to say goodbye to one of these kids. I don't look forward to those type days.

A year ago, I had no idea she would become my little buddy.

   

My Job in October

    I will be stationed at the baby house which has 12 kids ages birth to 3 years. The original plan was for me to float between the baby house and the preschool house (kids ages 3 to 6) for the month of October. That seems impossible. I have only spent 5 days at the baby house and I am fully aware of the various needs of several of the children.
     My unspoken mission at the house is to help a 14 month old. She was severely malnourished when she arrived at the orphanage but I don't know any other information about her life. I am not sure how long she has been here but I think it has been about 6 months. The physical signs of her malnourishment are interesting to ponder. The tips of some of her hair is a light brown color, she only has 2 teeth, and she is tiny.
    Everyday and typically all day I help her do exercises to gain the strength to hold up her head. She only wants to lay on her back but she is now beginning to grab for objects near her, roll over, and kick her feet. I have really enjoyed helping during "tummy time" and she is enjoying it more and more each day. It is really exciting to hear her make noises now when she is happy and to see her spend more time holding up the weight of her upper body on her arms during "tummy time."
    It is really amazing how fast kids can learn when they are given the opportunity. The mom at the baby house has been doing physical therapy with this little girl each day. When she first arrived, supposedly the little one slept all the time and was unresponsive to objects being placed in front of her. She didn't have the reflexive response to blink when something was going to hit her in the face. The house mom worked with her enough so that now I am able to help her sit-up.
    I am really excited this girl now has a chance. Who would think moving to an orphanage would be a good thing? It seems to be the story of most of these kids. The more I learn the more I wonder why God would allow such terrible things to happen to children. Then I am reminded that he took these children out of their bad situation by them moving to a God centered orphanage.

Quinceaneare

 I was invited to a girls Quinceanera, a party for girls that turn 15, after church. It is a big deal! Your Quinceanera and wedding are the most important days in a girl's life in Guatemala.  The girl's American sponsor, Becky, flew to Guatemala to go shopping for the dress, tiara, shoes, pinata, and cake. Becky rented a room at a nice Mexican restaurant in the area and it was nice. The girls from the house, the house parents, and some of us long term Americans went to the party.
The party began with the young lady dancing with Tony a long term missionary here, people sharing their thoughts of the girl, a video of her life, prayer over her life, and ending with a dance with her house dad. We ate a very tasty meal and ate a piece of cake. After four hours of partying we came back to CB to bust the pinata. That is always dangerous and totally amusing.  It was a fun day and a very special day for this young lady. I really appreciate and respect Becky for taking her commitment to her sponsored child seriously.

I Kid After God's Own Heart

My first full day at Casa Bernabe started out at the church on campus. After a fun time of worship, a little boy (in the picture) that I met in the baby house 2 years ago stood in front of the church and shared things the Lord had laid on his heart. It is interesting to know a little background of this child.
My first trip to CB (Christmas Break) this little boy wouldn't allow any of the Americans to play with him or help him in any way. He would look at you and say "No!" Now I understand why he didn't want our help. He knew he wasn't just another kid at the orphanage. He had hope of having a family.
 When I returned the next July, I was walking with the children from the baby house around campus and this little boy saw I teacher from the school on campus. She yelled a greeting and he yelled back. Both of them began running towards each other. They hugged each other and kissed and shared words of love to each other. During that trip, I learned that the teacher was in the possess of adopting this little boy.
Yesterday I learned that this little boy is now in this teacher's life forever. The adoption is complete! This child shared that he loved his family and that God loved him in front of the church proudly. He is so happy to be with his new family. What a journey for him and he is only 5 years old.

Transition to Casa Bernabe

Today is a big day! I will be traveling to Casa Bernabe. It is really interesting to think about all the conversations, preparations, missions trips, prayers, money, learning, and more that brought me to this point. All week I have struggled with the thought of leaving Antigua. I have really enjoyed my time here learning Spanish, making new friends, and dancing. It has been so wonderful so why would I want to leave? The funny part is that I thought I would be really lonely and miserable during my time at langauge school. Wrong! Today, I am a ball of emotions. The thought of fufilling God's call on my life in his timing and the thought of seeing a little boy I hope to adopt is overwhelming. What I'm filling isn't excitement.... I'm overwhelmed to be going to the one place I have longed to be at for the past year.

New adventure

Mallory, Her Teacher, Me, and My Teacher

Next Saturday, I will begin my adventure at Casa Bernabe. I am ready to be with the kids and I am interested to see which tasks I will do at Casa Beranbe. As always, I have a lot of ideas of what I would like to do and hopes for my stay at the orphanage. It should be interesting to see what The Lord has in store for me. I can't wait. I am ready for a change of pace and not having to memorize around 40 words or phrases each night. A break from cramming sounds wonderful!

I still have a very real desire to continue learning the language but I know it is my time to move on to the next portion of this adventure. To put my Spanish language skills into perspective for you, I am now in the third level of Spanish out of seven. I will finish level three this Friday and travel to the orphanage on Sunday. I now know the basics but I am nowhere close to truly understanding the language and being able to speak with ease.

My two desires are to begin working at Casa Bernabe and to continue learning the language. Here are my thoughts of how to do both things...the ideal situation is to be able to come to Antigua for a day or two during the week to take classes. The biggest problem with my plan is transportation. I have contacted a travel/shuttle agency and I have 2 friends in Antigua that are guides. Hopefully the transportation issue will get cleared up this week.

This weekly trip to Antigua would also give me a break, a time to recharge before diving back into work with the kids. I have met 2 people in the street that worked at the orphanage for sometime. Literally we started chatting through mutual friends and discovered that we both knew Casa Bernabe. Both people mentioned with great enthusiasm that I need to schedule a break within the week so I don't get burned out. It seems burnout is a common problem.

I truly want to be doing what the Lord wants me to do while I am here in Guatemala. At this time, I just don't know the MINOR details of what he wants me to do. I'm so happy I'm not in charge of my life and I don't have to scramble around to figure it out. I'm just waiting on the Lord (acting, listening, and responding) to let me know my next step.