Through prayer alone, God provided...

I would like to start off by apologizing to my followers for my lack of blogging during the past week or so. I am very new to this whole blogging thing, so please bare with me. Lol. Things have gotten a little crazy around here with the team and I getting sick, and a large group of people coming in for Shoes for Orphan Souls (a Buckner ministry). I would like to catch you up on how the week ended at La Sagrada Familia. Here it goes...

Oh goodness, June 4th was the last day at La Sagrada Familia... the entire night before and the morning of, I was praying that God would provide me with the strength, smiles, and energy I needed to get me through that day. I knew from day one that it was going to seem impossible to say "Ciao!" to those precious children who have stolen a place in my heart forever. Just as Jesus has always promised... if we ask in His name, He will provide. Sure enough, He did just that... the Lord alone provided me with everything that I needed to get me through that day. The moment I walked into the room filled with children from 2 months - 3 years old, I was not thinking about how I had to leave them at the end of the day... I was walking around with a huge smile on my face, scooping up any little kid that came my way, and thinking about how I could show these children God´s love through my words and actions.

Throughout the week, I developed a special connection with a little girl named Carla (she is the little girl in my Facebook profile picture). She has the most precious face with the most darling dimples, and you just can´t help but fall in love with her. I have 3 favorite things that Carla and I would do together: 1) she would stand either on my legs or in between my legs while I was sitting down, and she would hold her arms straight out to the sides... she would wait for me to do the same, and then she would fall into my arms and wrap her little arms so tightly around my neck before mine were even completely around her. 2) I would make random funny faces, ans she would mirror them back to me. However, when I made my lips go diagonal, she just gave me this funny look like, "You expect me to do that?" Lol. 3) She would start crying, so I would walk over to her, and she would hold her arms up towards me and say "Mama" - this just about melted my heart every time. I felt like everywhere she went I went, and everywhere I went she went. Saying goodbye to Carla and all of the other kiddos was extremely difficult, but I found comfort in knowing that I have the privedledge, through Christ, to pray for her every single day.
Next, we had to go say our "Ciao´s" to the 4-6 year old girls and boys. With this group, I made a special connection with a sweet and shy little boy named Edison. As we were singing songs, he wouldn´t sing or do the motions, but then we made eye contact and I just smiled at him, and he joined right in with the words and motions. I caught myself, several times, just staring into his sad, deep brown eyes and wondering what his story was. However, I quickly remembered that it doesn´t matter what his story is, because I was called to develop that special relationship with him to be able to simply love him and smile with him. After we finished there, the rest of the interns and I decided to walk back by the 2 month - 3 year old room... each of our little "favorites" were outside as if they were waiting for us. There was a fence between us and them, and I would stick my hand inside the fence and Carla would place her little hand in mine. She would press her head between the fence posts and look at me with sad little eyes as if she knew that I was leaving for good this time. As we began to walk away, there little feet ran after us as far as the fence would let them. It was one of the most heartbreaking things to look back and see all their precious faces pressed between the posts staring back at us.

My prayer for the children of La Sagrada Familia:
God, I pray that you will wrap every single one of those children into your tender loving arms. Those children literally have nothing, but yet they are some of the happiest little children I have ever met. I want to pray specifically for my little Carla, and that you will bless her life as she continues to grow into the beautiful young woman I know she will become. I thank You so much for the opportunity to pray for all of these sweet children. Father I know that by serving Your children, I am serving You. I love you Jesus!
Amen