If you haven’t heard, Team Liora (and Shekinah Glory) is at Sarah’s Covenant Homes in India, caring for abandoned children with special needs. For me, it is a dream come true, or rather, a prayer God so graciously answered.
I love it here.
At the beginning of the month, each of us chose two (out of four) houses to volunteer at – one in the morning, during preschool, and one in the afternoon, during one-on-ones. I help out at Anjali School for the Blind at Courage Home in the mornings, and hang out at Jubilee Home and do three one-on-ones in the afternoon.
You’ll probably hear about all my girls at some point or another, but today, I want to tell you about Eden.
Eden is around fifteen months old. She is blind (due to anophthalmia) and, as SCH recently found out, deaf. For now, she lives at Rescue Home, so my squadmate Shannon carries her to and from preschool at Courage every day.
Something to know about Eden: She isn’t really a morning person. We like to joke that she isn’t an afternoon or evening person either. If Eden had her way, she would be sleeping all the time. SCH had its annual Christmas party on Saturday, and I’m pretty sure she slept through the entire thing.
During preschool, my job is to keep Eden as awake and engaged as possible. Trust me, it’s harder than it sounds.
There is a lot of playful wrestling during circle time, when she tries to lay down on my lap or on the floor, and I try to keep her sitting up or standing. There is a bit of crying, more on some days than others. There is a learning curve for working with someone who is both blind and deaf, especially someone as young as Eden is.
I’ve only had her for a week, but I am learning a lot. Some days are better than others.
Last Friday was a good day for us. What I learned about good days: everything is funny.
Practicing standing up by herself and losing her balance. Hitting her head on my leg repeatedly. Getting stuck in her dress. Eating oranges during snack time right after trying candy cane for the first time. Everything is funny.
Life on the Race is like that too. Some of the things that happen to us are completely ridiculous. When you are cut off from water for a day or two (or seven). When monkeys steal your breakfast (and lunch and dinner). When you vandalize a car because all you really want is to see a lion at the crack of dawn.
It happens in logistics too. When withdrawing money from the ATM takes three hours and five visits. When “fifteen minutes” becomes two hours, or four, and then some. When a government employee threatens jail time for overstaying your visa by 13 hours.
Things like that.
(Sidenote: If you haven’t read my teammate Jen’s monthly “Sometimes…” series, you should. I help her keep track of some of the moments she writes about, and still, her blog posts make me laugh.)
When life gets so absurd that you can only laugh or cry, choose laughter, every single time.
Like Eden, we all have those days when we want to pull the blankets over our head and keep on sleeping. Yes, even on the Race. We all have those days.
You can complain. You can be frustrated and take it out on somebody else. You can kick and scream until you get your way.
And honestly, we have. I have. They are certainly not my proudest moments.
Choosing laughter makes life a little lighter. A little more fun. A little more joyful.
If anything, that is what God is teaching me most. Even on the hardest of days with these kids (and I’ve only been here for ten days, so “hard” isn’t very), I experience joy in the deepest parts of my soul. It is their joy that I see, but I know it comes only from the Lord.
I can’t believe that this is the life God called me to.
P.S. – Did I mention I am FULLY FUNDED? Praise the Lord!
