28 de Julio

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 (Day 18):

Today was the Peruvian Independence Day! They were supposed to have a big parade, but it was canceled. I'll give you three guesses as to why it was canceled, and the first two don't count. If you guessed swine flu, you are correct! They are really paranoid about this swine flu business. I think they are making this out to be way worse than it really is. Anyhow, today we headed back to the girls home. They had asked us to come join them for a special Mass celebrating Independence Day. All the girls came in with their babies. A few of them took communion, but not all of them. After Mass, we divided up. We originally thought that the girls from the other home were going to be there, but they were not. A few of us took the girls to sing songs while the rest of us took care of their babies. I chose to stay and help with the babies. One of the moms had asked me to feed her son, but he didn't want to have anything to do with the food. We all passed children around trying to feed them and keep them happy. After that, Allie and I went to give our testimonies real quick, but came back to help with the babies quickly afterwords. Julie told the story of Esther to the girls and apparently they loved the story and were upset that Julie hadn't finished the story. After the girls listened to the story, they came in to decorate little foam frames that they wrote their Bible verses on. I took care Karmin's daughter the entire time. Her daughters name is Dulce Maria, or Sweet Maria. She was the cutest, most content baby! While the girls were working on their craft, Karmin would pass little animal crackers to Dulce and she would just munch on them. Then Dulce was introduced to bubbles and she absolutely loved those. Her face would light up and she would try to chase the bubbles. I felt bad that I wasn't really talking with the girls, but I also know that the girls appreciated us taking care of their children so they could work on crafts and such. Karmin did thank me after she was finished with her craft and it was time for lunch.

After an extra long lunch, we had originally planned to paint the girls rooms, but seeing that we didn't have paint yet, our plans changed. We were then going to play games with them, but when we went to find them, all the girls were packing up their stuff in their rooms. Apparently they were moving to new rooms. We then started helping them pack up their clothes and move it all to their new rooms. I ended up watching some of the kids for them. As moms packed, I played with babies! I played with this one little girl forever. She was precious! She has so much hair and she is just about to start walking. I had to constantly watch her to make sure she wasn't eating rocks or dirt, but I still had so much fun playing with her. I know the moms appreciated us watching their kids for them while they moved because they didn't want us to leave at the end of the day.

Julie and Kelli told us the best story once we got back in the van. One of the girls, Andrea, has a 1 month old little girl and is having a hard time loving her/accepting her. Julie and Kelli have been trying to get through to her the past couple of days. They were both at the hospital when she gave birth, so they have a stronger connection with her. Julie and Kelli had noticed her not treating her baby as she should, so they wanted to talk to her about that. Kelli wanted to tell her the dangers of shaking baby syndrome. When they sat down to talk to her, she really began to open up about everything and she didn't realize the harm she could do to her child by shaking her. All she knew is that she gets frustrated with her baby and didn't know how to handle it. As the conversation went on, Andrea told Julie and Kelli that she wanted to accept Christ. She had a lot of anger built up and she realized the only way she could be free was to have a relationship with Christ. The anger she has stems from her childhood. When she was born, her biological parents did not want her and her adopted parents passed away when she was 6 or 7. She was then passed from home to home and basically was left to fend for herself on the streets. She became a maid at a well off family's home in Lima and the brother of the owner began raping her. She wanted desperately to get out of there, but the owner would always lock her up in the house. One day, the owner left a lock open and Andrea escaped. She was found on the street by a lady who became her Godmother. Her Godmother ended up bringing her to the home. This poor girl has already gone through more in her young 15 years of life than I could ever imagine. Once Andrea, Kelli and Julie walked out of the room they were in, I could tell there was a difference in Andrea. At this point, I didn't know the story and that she had accepted Christ. Andrea had this huge smile on her face and she wasn't as cold or hardened as she had been. She ran up to her baby and gave her a kiss on the forehead. I'm anxious to see how she acts tomorrow. I could tell the difference in her and I could see how the Lord completely changed her.

It's amazing watching these girls. Some of them are simply not fit to be mothers. Others are completely mature about it and know how to be a mother. Jackeline is one of the girls that is not fit to be a mother. She was barely hanging on to her 4 month old son. He also had a fever and she had him out in the cold like it was no big deal. At one point she was carrying him around on her shoulder like he was a baby doll and she would just leave him laying around. She is the girl that wanted to play with Play-Doh yesterday and was playing with the 4 year old twins in the Playskool houses. I know she is definitely not mature enough to be caring for a child and I'm fearful for the day when she is let out on the streets by herself with the precious little boy. Luckily the new director was somewhat getting onto her about how she was treating her son. Hopefully the girl will learn how to properly care for a child.

Please pray for these girls!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! It is greatly appreciated!!!

God Bless!
Dawn

P.S. It is amazing how creative the little kids get. They don't have blocks to play with, so they were stacking little plastic chairs and they made a little school bus by lining up all the chairs in a row. It was too cute to watch!