Well, I was hoping for a better day, but I woke up at about 11:30pm (last night) and had probably the worst night of my life. Aside from being extremely sick, another tragedy happened that will probably greatly affect my life for a long time and I’m really not ready to deal with it – and cannot even bring myself to talk about it yet. I hope that God’s love & grace shines brightly throughout these tough moments because I want to be able to use these last two weeks to work with these little kids and love them so much! I was so glad to hear Veronica’s words at big circle. I’ve known her since the 1st year I came down here and she is such a sweetheart. That woman has been through so much – I feel that we have a lot in common. It’s amazing how God can put those words on her heart to share and they
are so applicable to many…that no matter what struggles we go through in life (big or small), it is Him to whom we have to look and only Him that will get us through.
This morning (after my daily duties at the little girls’ house) I tried to paint a little more, but the fumes got to me and made my sickness worse. My brain was swarming, so I was unable to rest. I had some
plain white rice and took a lot of “heat” from the little girls’ about how gross that must’ve tasted…just plain, no chicken broth, no butter.
I found a team member to help Kari with the lunch dishes so that I could surprise Blanca & Yenci and take them in to town for some ice cream cones (Julie accompanied me and brought 2 older girls). We ended up getting permission from Papi, which I was really excited about.
Neither Blanca nor Yenci had been outside of Emmanuel…EVER! Blanca clung to my hand, and sometimes Yenci had my hand – sometimes she followed quietly behind, but the entire time she looked scared. When we got in to town, I stopped at the little bakery and bought some banana bread. They were amazed at the little bakery (again, having never seen one before). Then we headed through the central park to the ice cream shop. It wasn’t a 32 flavors or anything…I think they had 10-12 flavors, but they each chose one and got their cone. It was their first ice cream cone as well. I was so nice to enjoy how appreciative they were and amazed at this new “thing” that tasted so great!
We stopped at the supermarket on the way home and Blanca pulled the cart around as I picked out supplies. They grabbed at least 5-10 items from each aisle (like toothpaste, noodles, Glade, etc) and asked if I needed it. Again, another moment for me to just absorb! When we got to the front, I let them each pick out a juice box and small pack of cookies. We also shared a Sprite on the way home.
On the way home they saw a few shoe stores and just about begged for shoes as we passed EVERY store, lifting their up which were getting pretty old. This is definitely not something my own children beg for. I may have to think about sending them some for Christmas, now that they’ve been sized. Our final shopping stop was at Glenda’s, where I bought a bunch of bananas (to help soothe my stomach issues) and let them each get a banana and another tiny fruit that I didn’t even recognize…which only cost 5 cents for three of them!
When we got back in to Emmanuel, we ate some of the goodies/snacks at the tienda before taking them back up for their ensenanza (bible study). We chatted a bit and had fun. It was a WONDERFULLY FULFILLING day!!!
Then it was back to serving supper and clinic duty before I turn in for the night. I may do a little bit of painting, but perhaps I should grab a face mask from the clinic so I’m not inhaling so many fumes and putting myself at greater risk of getting sick. We have 3 bedrooms just about finished and most likely should get them done and perhaps a little more on Saturday – provided no kids are at the clinic. This evening there was only 1 boy at first, but justifiably so, because he came in with 103 degree fever. Later in the evening, Gerson brought another boy in to spend the night. There was a pretty good storm outside, so I showed them how to count the seconds between the lightning and the thunder to know the distance away from them the lightning struck. We sat back and did this for about an hour.
The