Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

 She walked into the room and hardly looked around. Never saying a word or making eye contact with the other children, she leaned shyly against the doorframe. Waiting for something or someone to take notice.
 

I imagine that the first day must be the hardest for the children who come to live at the House of Rainbow Bridge.

She can’t be more than ten years old. One of our translators told us she was the new girl, having just come from the hospital.  After asking a little more, I discovered that her parents died quite a while ago and she had been living with her grandmother. Details were lost in translation about why she can no longer live with her grandmother…

Her head has been shaved; her short hair reveals a scalp scarred and marred by minor skin infections. They are no different from many of the children’s skin infections here at Happy Tree, where every child lives with HIV.

I beckon her towards me and give her an extra big smile as I grab her little hand. All the other kids in the class have already completed making their paper crowns, and have started eating their snack. As I get her situated with her crown materials, two of the other children come alongside me, helping her glue colored paper gems on to it, and writing “princess” around it in Khmer. I’m so glad they helped her!

By the end of the day my new friend has even smiled at me several times. She has a sweet, innocently beautiful face, and her smile is especially beautiful because of her rosy, pink, full lips.
 
It doesn’t matter that her head is shaved, her skin is scarred, her body is skinnier than it deserves to be. All I see when I look at her is her huge brown eyes and that beautiful smile. All I see is a precious daughter of Jesus, one of the little children that will sit in his lap some day in heaven, with a disease-free body and no more tears, no more loneliness, no more pain and poverty.

Today when she saw me, a huge grin spread over her face, a grin that will tuck itself into my memory forever.