Last week we had our first
opportunity to visit one of the Felix Family homes. It was 6PM when five of us entered “Cypress”, one of the seven homes in the cul-de-sac community here at Caminul Felix Family
Village #2. It was Romanian
Independence Day, a holiday, so I was 
surprised to find eight focused children sitting
at a large dining table diligently doing homework. Their sweet shy mother was expecting us and
although the older children were busy with schoolwork, she said we could play
with her younger children. Immediately
four children were at our feet ready to have fun with puzzles and tea party
serving ware. Emily, the teacher of our
group, headed to the table to help with homework, leaving the rest of us each
with a child of our own. I started a
puzzle with Darius who I proudly called my prodigy because of his stellar
puzzle skills. He didn’t speak English,
but I was able to lovingly encourage him by repeating one of the few Romanian
words I know “Da” which means “Yes”.
About 30 minutes after we arrived
the father of the house came in the room. He seemed like a humble man who at
first, unobtrusively observed us from a distance. I couldn’t help but wonder how it must feel
to invite complete strangers into your home to play with your children; strangers
you can barely communicate with given your limited English. The more I pondered how these parents must
feel I realized inviting strangers into their home is the calling God gave them.
Much more than a two or three year missionary commitment, they have answered
God’s call to not only raise these twelve children until they leave the home to
start families of their own, but they have committed their entire lives to provide
security, open arms, and unconditional love, forever. It’s truly a beautiful
example of the security we have as Christians adopted for life into God’s
family.
When it came time for a snack, a
few of the children jumped up on bar stools to enjoy orange wedges. Darius excitedly waived me over to sit next
to him and he happily shared some of his wedges with me. Although I was a complete stranger, Darius
made me feel so loved.
We sometimes ask little children what they want to be when they
grow up. To our surprise, some of them answer that they want to be a mommy or a
daddy and that they want to have a large family, just as ours. We realize how important the example we set is,
because one day our children will behave the way they saw us behaving. One day
our children will try to solve the problems they will face the same way they
see us deal with problems now. Children
copy us, imitate our gestures, reproduce our words, and follow our example.
We rejoice when we see our children growing, developing, and becoming stronger
and more confident. The pattern of the new life that they are now living was
very well imprinted in their lives, and they look at life from a totally
different perspective. We would like to see our children becoming adults one
day, to see them strong and ready for life, able to form their own family and
raise their own children with much love and commitment. By investing in
children now, their past can be understood in a different way and their future
can be regarded with confidence. We are grateful to God for all the special
people that believe, just as we do, that when you invest in the rescue of a
child, you actually invest in the rescue
of the future generation as well.
Caminul Felix Family Villages Newsletter
We started saying our goodbyes
for the evening and Darius asked in Romanian “When will you be coming
back?” I hope we can return to Cypress
and for more time to connect with and love on Darius. But if we can’t I’m confident he is being
lavishly loved by his adopted family which is much larger than the twelve
living under the roof of his home here at Caminul Felix.
