Today was a wonderful and fruitful day with the kids.  We started our day with a visit to the babies home.  Our plan was to take the babies to the children´s museum while John and Emily were at the Embassy for their meeting.   Shortly after we arrived at the home, we got a call from them reporting that everything had gone as we had prayed; Juan Pablo should be coming home in to Indiana in about 7 weeks!  They need to get another birth certificate and spend a bit more time with him in Guatemala, but their family will be together so very soon.

We had a great time at the museum, but the special moments for me today were spent with the kids.  Milli (short for ¨miracle¨) is very reserved and stoic, and she isn´t one to give a hug.  Yesterday, she moved away from my touch.  Milli is 3 years old, but she is smaller than my nephew who is 20 months old.  She was found in a dumpster, and she is growing in health.  Today I sat with her and eased my way closer.  I eventually offered her one finger, and she touched her hand to mine.  It was lovely.  Maybe she grows in trust in small increments through loving acts, and it´s visits like these that bring healing.

This afternoon was spent at Eliza Martinez.  We visited those boys in August in their home in the city, but they have a beautiful new home in the country with plenty of room to play outside.  They have a school on site, closets of their own, and comforters with super heroes, just like a kid should.  When we pulled into the drive, I was so excited to see who was there, and there they were!  Tito, Ambrosio, Miguel, Marcos, Mario, Isaias, Hernan, David…the gang´s all here.  We met with the boys and shared with them how we have missed them and want to continue to visit and write and have relationships with them.  We passed out t shirts and socks, and we found out more information about these kids.  I talked to Marcos for a while and found that he was in a different orphanage before he was here and he has no family other than cousins.  I found out that David´s mother worked for a circus and kept him in a cage with lions for 11 years.  That sounds inconceivable to me.  Several of the boys don´t know their birthdays or last names.  Also hard to swallow.  There is so much to their histories, so many blank spaces or areas filled with abuse and neglect, but here I am in the moment with them.  I see their humor and intelligence in their eyes, the longing that they have for human touch and being connected to someone else, the way they wait around to get my undivided attention for a few moments.   We prayed for the boys as a group, and then one of the boys offered to pray for us.  Talk about being humbled…being the recipient of the prayers of an orphan.

I´m so glad to be here this week and to spend time with these kids who are deeply imbedded in my mind and my heart.  I continue to pray for them and for their futures.  I´m grateful to be witness to the good that God is bringing them already.  Tomorrow we will visit San Gabriel to visit another group of boys, and then we fly home on Sunday.  See you soon.