I’m pretty sure most of you all read my blog about my babies in the Philippines and how I was completely in love with the kids at the orphanage. Well I left out one other person that stole my heart while we were there. So while I was working in the orphanage every day I was living in the Jazz home. The Jazz home houses over 30 girls ranging from age seven to sixteen. The Jazz home provides a place to escape, and people to shepherd them away from the vicious cycle. Well when I first got there it was so many girls that it was kind of overwhelming to try and get to know all of them. Mr. Jeff Long the founder of the organization had already warned us that it would be and to just find one girl that we clicked with and pour into her. Honestly I didn’t think it would be too bad until I saw all the girls. OMW!!! Honestly for the first week they were back I just kind of stayed clear of all of them.
Until one day I was eating dinner and this smiling face comes up and starts talking to me. This little teenage girl was just so adorable that I couldn’t help but give her all my undivided attention. Her name is Joan Mae Mariano, she’s fifth teen years old and her birthday is November 4. From that day on we were connected at the hip. So was either always looking for me or I was looking for her. One day I finally asked her how she came to the Jazz home and she said, “I have no parents and no siblings …… and I lived by myself when I was little and then I was placed into an orphanage. I came to the Jazz Home when I was 13 yrs. Old and I have been here ever since. I enjoy being here at the Jazz home and I’m always having fun here but it is also sad because I don’t have any parents of my own. But I know that God has a good plan for me”. That’s so amazing to me to hear the come from a child that doesn’t have anything not even parents to call her own and she knows that God is going to provide no matter what. But I’m really heartbroken to know that someone could abandon a child.
Time passed and I got to love on her and be a sister to her. Days before I left I decided that I wanted to do something special for her before I left. So I asked Josie, the care giver of the Jazz home, could I take her out to the mall. Josie said yes, so Joan, Keyasha (my Best Friend on the Race), and I headed off to the mall. We ended up getting food, I bought her some things, but to me it was worth every dime that I spent because I got to see a smile on her face. I also realized how spoiled my children will be if I don’t get control of myself…LOL!
To end the night we went and got pedicures together at Kids International Ministries J Salon, and the lady that did our feet looked at me and said you all are the same color, height, and you look alike, why don’t you just adopted her and take her home with you. I was speechless, yes it had crossed my mind, but I didn’t know other people could see how much I cared for this little girl that I had just met. Needless to say I had to tell her that by law in the Philippines I wasn’t old enough to adopt. You have to be 27 yrs. old, married, and in there system for three yrs. All things that I didn’t meet, but I promised my little girl that if she wants to come and live in the states and go to college, she will always have a free place to stay with me.
