Moses is my adopted child for the month at the orphange for disabled children that we are working at. He is 9 years old and has autism and I think problems with seizures. He lives in this home with probably 50 or 60 other children of all ages. In his own room, he is in there with 9 other kids under the age of 9, 6 beds, and three caregivers. More than half of the kids in his room can not walk and just lay on the beds until someone picks them up. All of these kids are physically, mentally or emotionally disabled in some way. It is one of the hardest things I have ever seen. I have never seen children who look and behave like this and never this many in one place.
Well, for the month, I would like to take you on my journey with Moses. I want you to be able to follow his progress with me. I want you to see how much individual love and attention can help a child and how necessary adoption and child sponsorship is for this child and the rest of the children.
Day 1: Today I met moses. I didn't really know what to do with him. I was sitting in his room with him and trying to teach him how to play patty-cake, but he didn't understand. I noticed that he hit his ears a lot. I was told that he does this to keep himself occupied because he doesn't have enough stimulation. I followed him outside where he likes to explore. He would just walk around and try to find things on the ground that were interesting. I tried sitting with him, but he didn't want to do that much. Then I just watched him with one of the caregivers. She reminded me that he is just a child like any other children. She tickled him and made silly faces at him. He is just another kid.
Day 2: I was feeling really exhausted and so I took the afternoon off to sleep. But I was told that Moses was moving around a lot more.
Day 3: I went into his room and sat next to him on the bed. He moved closer to me and gave me a hug. 🙂 We practiced patty cake a bit more and he was starting to get it more. I picked him up and twirled him around like a dad would do with his son. He loved it. Unfortunately, I caught him biting me a few times and hitting another child. Something else to work on.
Day 4: He knows who I am. He knows that I am coming consistently. He hugged me today, played patty cake and was more affectionate towards me. We explored more and just had more time together. Today was difficult because a lot of the other children become really violent towards one another. There are just too many childeren who need undivided attention in one place who are not getting it at all. They aren't being taught right from wrong. I found myself getting really protective of Moses as if he was my child almost too much. God reminded me that Moses was His child first and that all of the children in the orphange are His. He is in charge of them. I needed to let Moses go and give him to God. I also found myself getting really frusterated with the violence. I was playing with some other kids who are typically violent and I redirected their hitting motions to playing ring around the rosie. They loved it. God reminded me to not get angry at these children when they are violent. The reality is that they have never been taught any differently. We can only do what we can, but let God take care of them.
Day 5: Today was difficult for me. I just felt really overwhelmed by all of the violence happening around me. Seeing kids push other kids or pull their hair or hit them without instruction from other caregivers is really difficult to see. There are not enough people helping there and most of the women are older women who realistically don't have the energy to give these kids the attention they need. I had to take a 15 minute break and go and listen to music. I went back and played with diffierent kids while Moses explored. At the end of our time I picked up Moses as high as I could in the air and looked him in the eyes. His face LIT UP!! I have never seen him so smiley and attentive like that. He has a hard time focusing on things so that was a treat to see him like that. He hugged me more today as well. He also is warming up to my teammates and sitting next to them more.
Moses is my love for the month and I am SOO excited. My daddy, God is showing me how to care for him through His eyes. More updates to come!
