Monday we visited the special needs babies, children, and adults at the State Orphanage in Guatemala. This day always gets to me because this orphanage is way over capacity and resembles a jail with its barbed wire and concrete structure. We take the time to visit the special needs groups because they never receive visits from anyone besides who our organization brings in. You’ll see that some of the group is composed of children and adults. A majority of the children have been abused or abandoned and some of the adults are here because of detrimental effects of addiction.
I had the privilege of leading the children and adults in some zumba songs and they absolutely loved it. Nicole captured some joy filled moments in the photos you see below. I loved watching them laugh and smile as they moved to the rhythm of the music. Some of the older boys even came up to lead with me. Near the end of zumba a few of the adults requested a bachata song. They went nuts when I turned on “Stand By Me.” Daniel, who was leading in the front with me, lit up ear to ear as he knew exactly how to move to this song. I let him take over and just stood next to him following his leading with just as big of a smile.
[zumba]
[Daniel gettin it]
[everyone finding a partner]
After zumba we went inside to do an activity teaching about Jesus and salvation. Jesika, one of the trip directors, spoke about how Jesus offers salvation and led all of us in a prayer thanking him for salvation. We all cozied up to a few of the children and adults and helped them color their sheets. My girl got real excited and grabbed my face to kiss my cheek. I can’t say it didn’t make me a little uncomfortable, but the joy that she was experiencing through the little bit of love I could give to her that day out-weighed it. We continued talking about colors and filling in the shapes on her drawing.
[my friend]
[Nicole thought her buddy was just shy but then she came to the knowledge that she was actually deaf. Nicole was able to then sign to her how beautiful she was and just be a loving presence to her.]
We also got to share cake with the group. As we all passed out cake, one of the adults asked our leader, “Where is the sugar? There is no sugar in this cake?” He joked back with her apologizing and saying that he would remind the baker to put sugar in the cake next time. We all got a few giggles out of that moment.
[you can never have enough sugar]
[There is much joy to be found in the little things. Dancing, coloring, and eating cake.]
Before we left the orphanage we were able to spend some time feeding the special needs babies. I was a little overwhelmed when I walked in to a room of 9 little ones in wheelchairs. In the other room there were 10 more even younger. There were only three moms to take care of all these special needs babies and little ones. I can’t imagine all they do in a day for these kids. We made sure to speak some encouragement in to their lives, thanking them for all they do and praying over them.
[sweet babies, it broke my heart that they will most likely spend a majority of their life here]
[Nicole with a precious little one]
[I spent some time praying and rocking this pretty bebe. She made noises like laughter and it blessed my heart.]
