A second visit

I appreciate all the encouraging comments regarding visiting the orphanage.

Thank you!

 

I went yesterday, all by myself. I prayed for help and not to be nervous. The Lord answered those prayers.   I found the place with no trouble,  even when I honked the horn for the gate to be opened, I spoke to the guard and said I was coming to visit the babies. He let me in fine, I parked and walked over to the area where the rooms are.  I passed several people just hanging out in various parts of the facilities ( It is a large facility with older kids as well) and said hello.

When I got to the room,  all the workers were outside sitting on the ground.  I said hello, and asked if I could help today.  One of the ladies  said, “Are you alone”  meaning not with my friend Stephanie  and then told me all the babies were still sleeping. I said Ok. Well what time do they wake up.  14:00.  It was 13:30,  so I asked if I could come back.  She said yes  and then I left, told the guard I would be coming back soon and ran an errand.

 

When I came back,  it was feeding time, and changing time.  I started helping feed a little boy.  He was hungry and eating all his cereal. He did this really cute thing clapping his feet together almost every time he took a bite.  He ate the whole bowl and I so I asked if she wanted me to feed another one. So she poured more cereal in the bowl and then pointed to a little girl to feed. The boys had a “green”  runny nose so again, my instinct to share spoons and germs with another one was telling me, “no…”  but those things really aren’t important and so I kept quiet and feed the other baby.

 

Then I heard one of the babies crying.  He was quieter but consistent.  I went over to him and picked him up and held him for a minute and realized he was soaked all over again.  The worker was coming next to him so I put him back down and he was changed in a few minutes and he was still crying. So I went back over and his shirt was still wet and he had formula all over him,  I found a shirt and changed him and held him a little  he was happy a few minutes but then started crying. I found his bottle and started feeding it to him.  I kept walking around the room and one of the ladies was cleaning the floor it seemed like I kept stepping in her water.

So, I went outside and a few minutes later a large group of high school girls from a local catholic school came in and started picking up all the babies and holding them and oohing and ahhing over them.

 

Thankfully at that point I was sitting outside the room on the porch/veranda feeding the little guy a bottle.  He drank the whole thing and was finally happy and content.  A few girls came out holding a baby and we talked a few minutes. I asked them if this was a field trip and she said no,  we are all supposed to go visit an orphanage for LENT.

I see.    I watched as the girls walked around laughing and playing with the kids and then they left.

And I thought to myself…   Is that what they might see me as doing?  A whirlwind in here and then gone? 

 

Things to think about… I don’t know what they think though, but the encouraging thing is God knows my heart.

 

 I stayed a little bit longer, put the boy down who was now happy and picked up  the little boy who is so tiny that I mentioned last week.  I noticed when I went in right before all the girls were leaving that  I saw most all the kids were picked up and out of the cribs except him.   How sad.  Looking at him, you see how frail he is and maybe other factors going on. But in that moment my heart went out to him.  He wasn’t crying,  but  just to think about him not being “lovely” and that how often are we drawn to the “lovely ones “ and not those that are frail and weak.   

But Christ was drawn to the weak and despised.   

 

When it was time to go, I said goodbye and they said thank you.

I went to pick up the kids,  came home and checked my email and had a few encouraging comments, to keep going!    So,  even the timing of getting those was an encouragement to me.

 

It wasn’t until later that evening I was talking to James about it.  He was encouraging me,  and then I stopped to think a minute and told him of 2 encouragements that day.

The one boy that I spent most of my time with, who was initially fussy and crying   was happy and content when I left.    So, I helped him.

The other encouragement was that I realized the boy that I fed  that was happy and clapping his feet,  was the same boy that last week would not even open his mouth for me to feed him.  He just kept it closed and looked at me.  The worker had to take over and feed him and I went on to someone else because he was not eating.    So that was progress! 

 

 

Thanks for being interested.  I don’t plan to  blog every time I visit,  but maybe just these initial visits.