Second Trip September, 2009 Day 3

I am very sick this morning. My old friend Lupus is waging war on me but God is sustaining me. I can rest next week but right now I am with my little girl and that is the whole world. This morning we had a wonderful time of relaxation and conversation at breakfast. It is amazing how good our communication is in spite of the language barrier. The old adage “Love is a universal language” has sure been proven this week. Every day our group gets more comfortable and as Allen said tonight, “more like a family.” We sat around and enjoyed visiting until about 11:00am and then we took an hour ride out to an animal park. We saw trick riding, a pig race, and a wonderful dog show. We also got to pet several different kinds of animals. We laughed and joked and wore out several sets of batteries shooting hundreds of pictures. Some of the girls had never been up close to animals before. It was very cute to see them pet them. David is so funny. He had Rebekah laughing all day. His Goddaughter, Lida, who is the oldest of the Goddaughters at 18, has been such an example to the rest of the girls this week. It is beautiful to see the way she adores David and looks after his and the girls every need. Genari, Allen’s Goddaughter has been a dynamo of joy and laughter the whole time. It has been enthralling to watch her thoroughly enjoy everything with a infectious smile, ready laugh, and servants heart. After the animal park, we went to the mall and had dinner. Some very sweet things happened there. First, while everyone was ordering their food Heidy asked me to do her a favor. I said “sure.” She asked me to buy her a small loaf of hot bread at a little bakery next to where we were ordering our food. I thought, “this is great, she is comfortable asking her Godfather for things she likes and wants.” I bought the bread and she promptly took it and handed it to a little old man in a tattered hat and tattered coat who was shuffling near us. Then she walked back to me with a huge smile and said, “Gracias”. She had seen him coming and her heart went out to him. It was pretty special to say the least. The second thing was when Marley, Allen’s other Goddaughter, who didn’t get to be with us yesterday because of some paperwork complications (so today was her first full day with us) was trying to say something to Allen and he asked me to translate. I said, “she is saying that you have her heart in your hand.” Allen began to tear up and Marley asked me with a concerned look on her face, “why is Allen crying?” I said, “because his heart is so full of love for you.” Then Marley started crying. So Allen and Marley were crying and laughing at each other for crying :-). It was awesome. Because Marley wasn’t with us yesterday when we bought the girls toiletries, we went to the store and bought all the things that Marley needed. We had fun shopping too (I guess that is another universal language 🙂 ) All the girls have been as good as gold and it has been an absolute joy to be with them. They keep saying that they are afraid that it is a dream and they are going to wake up and find that it never really happened. Another sweet thing was when we pulled up to the hotel the girls all clapped and told us thank you for a wonderful day. We told them, “just wait ’till tomorrow, it only gets better!” 🙂

Love and prayers,