This past year has been a roller-coaster ride, and not always in a good, fun way! Sometimes I’ve questioned God with a “Why would you have me do this or go through this?” The answer, I believe, can only be found in retrospect.
Why would God have me spend a few months working hard with the kids at a children’s home, only for things to go wrong there, and us needing to pull out due to the home’s administrative issues? I poured my life into the kids, loved on them, got attached to them, and still wonder where they’ve ended up. The last time I was there, I found that that a few kids had gone back to their parents, and they were happily living with mom and dad. But what about the rest, I ask sometimes? What about Luisa? What about Gugu? Gugu was to be adopted by the caretakers of the children’s home, but due to the administrative issues, they had to leave as well, and left their little boy at the home.
Then, at church on Thursday night, as I was at the Motoculto (Motorcycle Church) to take photos and say goodbye to dear friends who are moving, I caught sight of a little boy who looked just like Gugu. I didn’t think it actually was him because of his history. He had no family to ever go back to and was, quite frankly, a difficult child, but he was still young enough to potentially be adopted.
Gugu’s story was heartbreaking, his mom and her friends had burned him, as a little baby, with their cigarette butts and other drugs. He had lived at the children’s home since the state took him away (rightly so…) from his mom.
So at Motoculto, I saw him there, with a family, an older couple, who clearly were doting on him, the mom holding him tightly in her arms like a little baby, even though he’s nearly 3 years old. And, to boot, a friend of mine went to the children’s home this weekend, and, sure enough, Gugu had been adopted! Well, I already knew that, but it confirmed that I actually did see him!
Sometimes God has us do things, and we’re not sure how they all work together, or how they will all work out, and its painful to love and then leave, yet its a part of life. Sometimes I’ll still pray for kids I’ve worked with, all over the globe, not ever knowing where they are or what happened to them. All I can hope for is that they are walking with Jesus and doing well. But seeing this one kid adopted, really makes any work and any trials worth it.
I’m not saying I had anything to do with the adoption, but just knowing that one of the kids I worked with had a very happy ending to his time at the children’s home makes the work there worth it.
