My first week in Barbie’s Dream House….began as a nightmare.
This month we are at Mi Casa, a orphanage that is more family than orphanage. From the moment we walked in, the kids were excited to see us and get to know us. There are 15 boys and 17 girls in two separate houses.
Walking into the girl’s house was like walking onto a Barbie studio set. The whole house is painted various shade of pink. There are two beautiful balconies. And the walls on the inside are painted with murals. In the dining room Flamingos dance among palm leaves and purple vine flowers. Motivational crests adorn the bedrooms and pink comforters drape over the plush couches.
The yard is in the front of the gated property and it houses a fort with swings.
It’s a little girl’s dream.
I’m not going to lie. The first few days were hard for me. We are sleeping in the living room of the house and as such, we don’t put our sleeping stuff out until the girls go to bed and the first day the youngest girl (she’s 4 and absolutely precious) woke me up trying to catch the kitten.
I felt like I was floundering.
There were no boundaries.
Ministry seemed as if it would be 24/7 no escape.
I felt a lack in myself, my ability, and my energy and began to panic.
At the behest of the director we were in an internet “black out” so that we would focus on getting to know the kids. I felt isolated and like I was spinning out with no way of stopping.
BUT GOD.
He always knows what I need in the moment, I just have to look to see where it is.
This time it came in the form of my team. They fought for me. They allowed me to feel it all and didn’t make me feel guilty or condemned.
They helped me find avenues to help ground me. (Mainly we have scheduled times to spend with God in the mornings but we also have freedom to go to a park for an hour or so when needed – in pairs of course).
I made a goal for myself to connect with just one kid a day to keep myself from getting overwhelmed. But God in His goodness connected my heart with so many of them so quickly.
The language barrier is not a wall like I feared it would be. We understand each other. 70% of communication is tone and body language. But I’m getting to know the kids 100%
Y’all I can feel it! This will be the best month yet, and probably the hardest goodbye…
