“Ah Capt. take him, please take him.” Grace looked at me with wide eyes as the young child in her arms leaned away from her and screamed. I took the young boy and tried to calm him down. The main “mother” of the orphanage came over and informed us that he was yelling because he was wanting to go with us. Well, his fit worked because even without shoes on, he was allowed to go with us to the cinema.
We have spent some of our time in Vietnam at an orphanage that houses mostly disabled children and teenagers. Every Tuesday night, the able-bodied children go swimming. During our month, we have been visiting on Tuesdays to do something special with the other children. The first week, we played games and decorated Christmas cookies. This week, we took about 25 children to the movie theater.
We were told to get in pairs and then get 5-6 children in our group. It was quite the scene trying to all pile into a taxi and get to the movie theater. I climbed into the taxi with the young boy still in my arms. He lives with cerebral palsy which affects his ability to stay balanced. He couldn’t sit up on his own without tipping over or slipping down, and he could not walk.
Needless to say, this young boy was in my arms from the moment Grace handed him to me until I placed him back in his crib after the movie. In the beginning, I was just trying to manage the other children as I held this one. But like the Grinch, my heart grew 3 sizes.
I thought at first that he didn’t want to drink his coke. After eating a bunch of popcorn (and me praying desperately that he did not choke), I gave him the coke again. Although he was putting the straw in his mouth, I realized he couldn’t suck the coke through the straw. I didn’t want to take the lid off because I was afraid he would choke on ice or hit the cup and spill it all over himself. So, I did that trick where you put your finger over the top of the straw and it captures a little bit of drink inside. I pulled the straw out and dropped the coke into his mouth. His face lit up. I said in my best kid voice “Is it good? Do you like it?” He made eye-contact with me for the first time and laughed. For the rest of the movie, he would throw his head back, which was my sign to give him some coke. (Granted that meant I was basically dropping it straight down his throat, but he didn’t mind.)
I never really saw him watching the movie. He was either asking for coke or staring at the light from the projector, but it didn’t matter. What mattered is that for a few hours, his needs were met. Not his needs for food or shelter, but his need for one-on-one attention and love. The orphanage is truly awesome, but they have their hands full with 70 kids. I was blessed with the opportunity to make this one feel extra special. After spending over an hour dropping tiny amounts of coke down his throat, I felt my heart overflowing with love for him. I realized sitting in that dark theater that we, as humans, are so helpless without God’s guidance and direction. He delights in leading us and loving us. It was amazing to see how God used something as simple as helping a child drink to show me even a drop of the magnitude of His love for us. I will never look at drinking coke through a straw the same way again.
Other photos from the orphanage:
