Before you read this blog, I recommend that you take a look at these two previous blogs.
With time running out I was wondering if I would be able to find someone special enough for my last toy… then I met Imola. We’d just pulled up to a village and began greeting the children when I saw her. She was covered in dirt but had a huge smile spread across her face. Imola is 4 years old and lives in a little Gypsy village that we were able to visit on four different occasions. The Gypsy children are beautiful in every sense of the word, but Imola captured my heart from the beginning. She appeared shy at first, standing in the back of the crowd, but in no time she was joining in, singing, dancing and laughing along with the rest.
Imola is a little bundle of joy, full of life and love, just like my niece, Sidney. She has a tender heart and beauty that radiates from within. It was any easy decision to give her the toy dog Sidney had picked out. Yet despite the ease of the decision the actual process was the most challenging of the three.
It was our last visit to the village and I had exited the bus in hopes of finding Imola running towards me, but I had no such luck. I looked around, searching through the mass of children, trying to find my favorite smiling face. She was nowhere to be found. I finally stumbled across Imola’s older sister and was able to ask about Imola. She was at home but her sister was willing to run and get her. I watched with an eager smile as the older Gypsy girl ran down the train tracks towards a house off in the distance. I was so excited to see my little girl that I almost forgot we were on a time schedule. Within minutes we were being ushered back to our bus, but there was still no sight of Imola.
I couldn’t leave without seeing her so I told one of our translators to ask the bus to meet us on the other side of town and with another translator close behind, I darted off in the direction Imola’s older sister had run. It wasn’t long before I saw them climbing back onto the tracks. A little out of breath but happy to see Imola, I explained about my niece, Sidney, and the little toy dog. I told her that even though I was leaving her village and her country, I would still be praying for her and that Sidney would be praying for her hundreds of miles away. Imola understood and smiled a big cheesy grin. I hugged her goodbye and then we continued running down the railroad tracks to catch our bus.
The children all ran after us, Imola with her toy dog and the photograph of Sidney still in hand. We arrived to the rendevous point and realized the bus had already passed us by. Excited to have a little bit more time with Imola I grabbed her hand and continued towards the bus. Ten minutes late we rounded a corner and saw the bus and the rest of our group waiting for us. With one last hug I told Imola goodbye, our adventure had came to an end but what a success it had been.
