Today I met the sweetest boy. I had a whole other blog planned and typed out to post, but then I met James.
I’ve never had a kid steal my heart the way he did. James is 10 years old, speaks little to no English, and his laughter is straight from Heaven.
Upon arriving to today’s feeding, I began scooping out food and turned around to see Makenna with a precious child wrapped around her. I walked over knowing nothing about this child & him knowing nothing about me. Yet immediately he stretched his arms out to be picked up. (I mean, how can you say no to that???) Makenna handed him to me and he wrapped his little arms and legs around my body, not allowing me to set him down. I noticed something different about James- he had a big scar right in between his eyes.
Around this time Makenna came to get me and asked if I would walk with her and James to James’ house to give his family the food we scooped for James. I’m not sure how James communicated this is Makenna considering he speaks very little English and we only know a few words in Waray-Waray, but maybe James usually does this and the other kids told Makenna what to do.)
So we start walking, rain POURING down, a kid in my arms, and a smile on my face. Soaking wet, we arrive at James’ house and give his family the food. We had two containers for James, assuming one was for him and the other for his family. James didn’t want that. We passed another house that he kept pointing to, so we stopped, and he gave the last container of food to them. I don’t know how he knows them, but it was clear he cared for them. At this point, we no longer had food or a container for James. But he didn’t seem to mind, he genuinely wanted to give his food away. We got back to the school and all James wanted was to be held by me and my team. Every 5 minutes he would point to a different one of us and insist on that person holding him.
After our values class it was time for us to leave. James followed us to the van and pointed inside it. He wanted to come with us. Of course he couldn’t and it broke my heart. This sweet boy ran full speed to keep up with us. IN THE MUD AND RAIN.
Chris, the lead for the feedings, asked us if we knew James’ story. We said no, but were eager to learn. He started to tell us that they found James within the community one day. He had a growth in between his eyes. They took him in and started a fundraiser for James to raise enough money to get some tests done. Turns out, it was actually his brain that grew out of his skull. They did some more fundraising and after three surgeries, he was all fixed up. Turns out, James’ family had abandoned him and that’s why Chris had found him. He now lives with his adoptive family in a tiny tin home, but seems so so happy and grateful. Chris told us that he was clinging to us because he adores foreigners due to the fact that they raised the money for his surgery and got him off the streets. For me, this was an eye opener that all those fundraisers you see on Facebook for kids in need actually do change their lives.
And James changed mine.
