So…. during our first week in El Salvador, we got the wonderful opportunity to visit another orphanage about 3 hours away. This orphanage is home to about 20 kids who suffer from a history of sexual abuse. The orphanage is in a pretty isolated area, so they typically don’t have many visitors and don’t get to go places often.
We partnered with Elly, who began 100SmilesProject, to spend the day with the kids…we played games for a few hours, before we ate at Pollo Campero (their version of KFC) and went to watch Big Hero 6 at the theater. We all had such a blast!
This was the day that I met Jorge. Jorge had me at “Hello”. We couldn’t understand much of what the other was saying because of the language barrier, but smiles and hugs are a universal language. His smile stole my heart, and we spent most of the day walking hand-in-hand. As it came time to leave, Jorge ran up to me and gave me the best bear hug he possibly could, before saying bye and running off with the other boys.
I left that day, happy, knowing that Jorge would forever be in my heart, and, so sad, thinking that I might never get to see him again. (travel expense for the trip wasn’t in our budget for a second time)
So, fast forward time a little…after I told Mom all about him, and how much we loved getting to spend time with the kids at this orphanage…after she updated our Sunday School from our recent Skype call…
A wonderful friend responded to the update by saying yes to God… She offered to pay the transportation expense for us to be able to go back to that REMAR orphanage, if it was something we would like to do!! I will never be able to thank her enough for that! We enjoyed our day SO, SO much!
So, this Thursday, we loaded into the van around 5:30 am, and we began that 3 hour drive to the orphanage. 🙂 We got there and walked into the same room we did last time. The kids were finishing up chores, so we had a second to reunite with the workers….
Then I saw his sweet face! Jorge ran to me and gave me the greatest hug ever… We stayed attached to each other at the side for a few minutes… And so our time began. We played games with all the kids, and just enjoyed loving on them for the time we had, before they went to school. All throughout the next few hours, Jorge would run up to me and give me the greatest hugs in the world before returning to the games…
The time came for them all to go to school, so with one final, amazing hug, I told Jorge goodbye. I pray that I will get to see him again one day soon… This boy has a piece of my heart <3
With love,
Ash
