Well
the challenges keep arising!! Between
daily internet/water/electricity outages, seriously huge hairy spiders, eating
guinea pig (cuy) for dinner, and challenges of kids just being kids (hospital
trips for puncturing each other’s ears with toothpicks)… I’m learning to just
go with the flow. But we
definitely have a lot of fun too :) Whether it’s a trip to the park or down to
the river to play with the monkeys, I’m constantly amazed at this beautiful
country.
Everyday
here is a new adventure, but last Thursday was one in particular. Earlier in the week we got a call
saying the mother of the children in our care just gave birth to a little
boy. Although the natural reaction
of our kids (especially the older ones) was excitement for their new sibling,
it was hard to feel the same enthusiasm.
Don’t get me wrong- I fully believe all children are a part of God’s
plan, but as I mentioned in my last post, this mother has no business having
any children under her supervision.
Although the social worker assigned to this case thinks otherwise, I
believe a parent with a history of severely, severely abusing children should
not be allowed to care for another child.
On
Thursday we decided to take our children to go visit their mother and see the
new baby. After getting lost in a very
rural area of the Amazon, we walked barefoot up a muddy jungle path, in the
pouring rain (with kids in our arms) to finally arrive at the house. Since I had just spent a week in a
Belizean village with no running water or electricity, I didn’t feel too out of
place… until an indigenous Kituwah Indian appeared with a machete in one hand
and a shot gun in the other. It
was sad to watch the kids react in fear, not due to the gun or machete, but
rather because it was another person who had taken part in their abusive past,
their grandfather.
Upon
entering the house we found the mother in a side room with the sweet child in a
hammock. With nothing more than a
dazed half smile on her face, she greeted her children whom she hadn’t seen in
9 months. My heart broke for our
kids as they were dealing with a whole range of emotions... I can only imagine
what that felt like.
We
then inquired about the baby so she unwrapped him enough for us to see his
frail body. Since she gave birth
to him in that house we were the first to see this baby and take note of his
health. Disagreeing with the
social worker again, we believe this child is in a very unhealthy state,
physically, in addition to the immediate danger of living with his own mother.
We
are really praying and believing for this child to come live in our care. We know this mother has had many
children go “missing” in the past and we ask that you join us in prayer that
this sweet baby isn’t the next.
We’ll
be speaking with the social worker this week more about this case so I’ll try
to update again soon.
I also
want to mention that thanks to a group of 13 here from the UK, lots of work is
being done at the orphanage this week.
We hope to have the official government documents back in 2 weeks which
will allow us to open the orphanage.
We’re
thankful for progress!!
Dios
te bendiga // God Bless,
Tanya
