Friday: Jesus loves the little children

Me at the Peace Monument

July 1, 2011 Jesus loves the little children   

I am starting to lose track of what day it is.  Well, my watch says it’s Friday.  This morning, we said good-bye to a small group who were heading back home to the Washington, D.C. area.  I slept in till about 6:00 and headed for coffee around 6:30.  The “eager beavers” starting lining up for the sign- up sheets before 6:00 am!!!  I was bound and determined I was not going to wait in line for 30 minutes to sign up.  I originally signed up for unloading a container because that was about all that was left, but they asked for big strong men to do that, so some of the guys changed and I got signed up for visiting Hospital Escuela and the special needs orphanage.

This second grader from Key Largo has been here with his mom the whole time.  He was dressed up to visit the hospital.

This mom told us her baby was blind and deaf.

                Our resident Canadian, Brett Mitchell, was our leader for the day.  I meet him my first year here and I’ve seen him every year since.  He and his wife, Judy, even brought their 1 ½ year daughter last year.  We went to Hospital Escuela first.  We divided into three groups and went to different areas of the hospital.  My group went to the Neurological area.  We handed our hygiene packets to the parents who were sitting with their sick children.  Many of them had come from little villages hours away.  The interpreter did a great job helping us communicate with the families.  One mom said she had four children at home and the oldest, who was watching all of the older children by them self.

The children in our ward were all ages from 2 weeks to 15 years old and had things like hydrocephalus, brain tumors, spina bifida and similar kinds of problems.  The babies were heart breaking.  I would pray for the child and his family and an interpreter would interpret it in Spanish.  After I prayed with a family, another mother would ask me to also.  I was wearing my new cross necklace, and just now I was thinking tonight, maybe they thought I was a nun.

                Brett took us up to the Peace Monument for lunch.  It was up on top of the hill and you had a beautiful view of the city.

                After lunch, we headed out to the special needs orphanage.  The facilities were very nice and we even saw some children swimming in the therapy pool.  They were laughing, splashing and had a great time. We stayed all afternoon and helped feed them their dinner. It was a great day!!!  I’m falling asleep as I write this, so I’ll try to reread and post it tomorrow.  Good-night & Via con Dios!!

xoxoPJ