7/24/2010

Beautiful Place and Happy Boys

This is the Handicapped Orphanage and as you can see it is surrounded by the mountains. I never saw the mountains without the clouds because we were there in the rainy season. Carlos is the man who runs the Orphanage and takes care of the kids. These kids are mostly abandoned by their families because of their conditions. There are five little boys that live in this multi-colored building everyday that took my heart the first day that I met them.
This is Jose Carlos. He is a limber little dude who is persistently in motion and dedicated to those beads. Jenna brought bags full of those beads and everyone had fun with them. Jose would look at you for a minute but he would move on quickly and stay after his beads.
This little guy is Juan Carlos. He loved to be on his stomach and he would watch whatever was happening. He had wonderfully wavy brown hair. Juan Carlos would freeze when I was playing music on my iPhone. All of the boys loved listening to my classical music and especially Music Box Dancer. I remember the country music station in Memphis (WMC 79) playing Floyd Crammer's version of this song when I was a kid about the age of these kid back in the 70's.

This little dude is Marlin. All you had to do to get him to smile is say his name. You also could rub his tummy and he was ticklish.
This little guy is the first one that really stole my heart. His name is Orbin. He really loved the music to but he loved playing with the beads. I hooked up the beads to the mobile above his head. I would then thread the beads into his grasp and I would shake his arm and make the mobile shake and he started smiling. The more we shook the beads and the mobile the more he would smile. He would also make moaning sounds that I would emulate back to him. I loved talking to Orbin. I loved talking to my kids when they were little and any sound I would make they would echo. Orbin was the first kid that brought me to tears. The joy we shared shaking a mobile with beads and moaning back and forth to each other and listening to classical music was just over whelming. That little boy gave me so much love that he just took my heart.
This last guy is Douglas. I love Douglas because he would cross the language barrier with me. I speak no Spanish except for the single word excellent a. I learned that with Jay Simpson a couple of years ago when planning a trip to Mexico that never actually happened because of border unrest but that is another story. Since I didn't know any spanish and after a while we were tired of the iPhone music I started singing. I sang several songs but the one Douglas liked was Head and Shoulders,Knees and Toes. I would touch those body parts as I sang the song and that precious little boy would smile and tense his little mis-formed body until it would shake because that was the only way to show his excitement. Did I mention that I love Douglas. I miss him.

These little boys live in their beds all day every day because they can't even set up by themselves. They look up at a beautiful Noah's Ark painting on the wall and they are quiet. You can walk in and those boys are quiet, not fussing or crying. I think of Paul's comment that he had learned to be content in all situations. These boys are content. The smallest thing brought them extreme joy. I realized that God was taking care of these boys and that I was getting to share in that job for three different days of one week. God has those little boys exactly where he wants them and is supplying all of their needs just like he takes care of me. My little buddies taught me a great deal about faith, hope and love.

I understand why Jenna was taken with these kids the first time she went to Honduras. She calls those kids her kids. Well these guys have been added to Jackson and Jalen as my boys.

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