The Orphanage

After two months of praying and asking, I was finally able to visit an orphanage! I was able to go with the 6^th grade class from Bingham Academy. It was a great experience and I hope to go back!

When we got into the orphanage the first room we went into was the babies’ room. There were 20-25 cribs crammed in this little room. Thankfully there were only 7 or 8 babies. I say thankfully because the babies keep getting adopted! Praise God for that! There was one baby who didn’t have a name that I happened to pick up. I couldn’t tell if this baby was a boy or girl, but I think he was boy – therefore I will refer to that baby as a boy. He had a really hard time focusing on my face, which I think is a combination between being so young and having very limited attention. I held this little baby for about half an hour before we saw the rest of the orphanage.

The second room we went into had 5 disabled kids. Let me tell you: they are precious. I mostly talked to Baby K and Jafar. Baby K could not move his legs more than -10 degrees, had limited movement with his arms, and could move his head back in forth, like when you shake your head no. When I talked to him he would stare at me with his big brown eyes, occasionally smiling back. He loved holding my hand, too. Baby K loved having attention and being touched.

Jafar had the biggest, prettiest eyes with the longest, best curled eyelashes I have ever seen. I have never seen a child more excited to be talked to in my life. It didn’t matter what I told him for two reasons: 1.) getting healthy attention is more important than talking about insignificant things and, 2.) he couldn’t understand me since I was speaking in English. I sat between Jafar and Baby K, taking turns looking at them, talking to them, rubbing their hands. Whenever I would turn my head to talk to the other then look back the first would have lost his smile and looked sad and forgotten again. Until our eyes met and I smiled, then he would smile, his eyes shiningly brightly. I told both of these kiddos what it was like outside, the conversation I had with someone earlier that morning, and about Darby who sat with me for a few minutes. It didn’t matter; they loved it.

After hanging out with them for a while I went back to the babies’ room.  There is a little girl in there named Elsa Bett. Little Else is around ten years old, can’t walk, and confined to bed. She can’t speak, can’t move her legs, and has limited movement with her arms – I saw no movement in her wrists or hands. She is suffering from hydro syphilis. Little Elsa Bett. She stole my heart. I talked, she listened. She looked at me when she could get control of her eyes. She smiled twice, made some gurgling sounds once, and cried once. We put some music on and she loved it. I danced for her, she loved it. When I started dancing she started moving her arms and trying to move her head, she smiled so big that it seemed like all of her problems disappeared.

After a while I decided to hold the little baby boy again. I picked him up and we talked for a while. After a couple of minutes he was able to focus his eyes on mine! It was a great feat for the day. After he figured out how to focus on my face he couldn’t stop. I help him, walked around with him, speaking softly to him. Then he fell asleep. More like he fell into a trance. We placed all of the babies on mats on the floor in the sunshine so they could get some sun on their little legs. I help my little sleeping boy for a while before deciding to lay him next to the other babies. He didn’t stir. We unbuttoned his almost too little onesie to let his skin be exposed to the sun, hopefully soaking up some Vitamin D. He still didn’t stir. There was crying, laughing, and talking going on – he didn’t stir. He was out; it was kind of funny. Since he was sleeping I decided to go tour the Catholic church next to the orphanage, so I did. When I came back he was awake and ready to be held again!!

I split up the rest of my time between the babies, Elsa, and Baby K and Jafar. These kiddos are precious. They are children of God. They are hanging out in this orphanage hoping and wanting and waiting to be adopted. Thankfully this orphanage was a decent orphanage. But an orphanage is not an ideal place to grow up. The babies, the toddlers, the older kids – disabled and non-disabled alike – they all need parents, families, homes to grow up in love, faith, and support. They need to hear and see the love of Jesus.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” –James 1:27a