I remember the first time I met her. We walked into the special needs orphanage greeted by a few children, happy to see us there. With spit drooling down their face and snot down their nose, we each squeezed a child to greet them with a warm hello. As I was hugging one child, I noticed a back room. I was curious to see what was back there, but there were kids already fighting for our attention right in front of us. So I sat down and started to play with one of the kiddos… but I was still thinking about that back room. Maybe 15 minutes into playing in the large group area, one of my teammates came out of the glass door in the back and said, “there are little ones back there!”
I gave the child I was sitting by, who was grossly involved in his coloring sheet not paying much attention to me, a slight smile and nod…. and excused myself from the table and bee-lined it to the back. I had to see the littles.
As I walked in, I was taken back by the ratio of kids to cribs. But one crib caught my eye. She stood about 2 feet tall in her crib with the biggest grin on her face. I went to pick her up, and quickly discovered she has the body mass of a small Tonka truck. She was thhhhick! and I didn’t mind it, it actually made me love her just a little more. Her name soon became “Chunks”.
From that point on, she was my sidekick. I actually think I was way more obsessed with her than she was with me… but whatever. You could just tell she loved being around people. If we were all in a circle talking, she would hop from arm to arm wanting everyone to hold her. The smile never left her face.
Every time we would go back to the orphanage, I would make it a point to go love on her in that back room. Our normal routine would be, me getting into the room, her having the biggest grin and arms in the air, all the while me singing “She’s a Brick House!”
Even though Chunks and I never exchanged a single word, we had love! More and more God is showing how important the simplicity of love is.
I wish I could bring Chunks home with me so that y’all can meet her. But these photos will have to do the trick.
Without further adieu… meet Chunks.
”Ow, she’s a brick house. She’s mighty-mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.”
