I just had the amazing experience of being able to spend five weeks of my summer with the children in Cuenca, Ecuador! It was incredible. I learned so much about love, patience, friendship, loyalty, and trust. Each one of the children I met was going through their own challenges but still had the capacity to love so deeply, especially the children in the special needs orphanage run by OSSO. I hadn't had much experience working with special needs kids before my trip to ecuador and to be quite honest, the first week was pretty hard. I was getting used to speaking spanish all the time, doing seemingly (or what I thought were) monotonous tasks. Little did I know how much I would cherish what I thought were the monotonous tasks and that they would turn into some of my most cherished memories.
During the first couple weeks as I was learning each of the children's stories, it was so easy to think about how unfair life has been for these children. They don't have loving parents. They don't have perfect minds or bodies. Many of them will never know what life outside of an orphanage is like. As time went on however, I learned to appreciate their different circumstances. I realized how much I had to learn from them. Although life seemed so unfair, there was no denying the beauty of the experiences I was having with these children. Without the opposition they were facing in their lives, I would never have had the chance to learn from them. I firmly believe there is beauty in opposition, and I saw it every single day with these kids.
One experience in particular that I treasure was with a little boy named Anthony. Anthony is three years old and has cerebral palsy along with some other disabilities. Although he is three years old, he looks like he could be about 9 months old. His body is so tiny and fragile. Part of that is due to the fact that for most of his life Anthony has not been able to get the nutrients he needs due to not being able to keep his food down. The doctors told OSSO that if Anthony did not receive a feeding tube, he would die. Anthony went in for surgery to receive his feeding tube, and since there were only three of us volunteers that spoke spanish fluently, we were asked to take overnight shifts at the hospital since Anthony always had to have a member of the OSSO staff with him.
I remember when I was asked to spend the night at the hospital with Anthony. I hadn't even met this little boy yet. My first reaction was thinking about what a long night it would be, and that I was a little nervous about spending a whole night by myself with a baby in a foreign hospital. But I agreed to take the shift (with the promise that I would get the next day morning shift off so I could sleep, yay!) As I arrived at the hospital with Suzanne and Kirsten and entered Anthony's room, I was surprised at how fragile he looked! He really was so tiny. Kirsten and Suzanne gave me instructions and then left. As I was left by myself with Anthony I felt the special spirit of this little boy. I stood by his bedside as he slept and stroked his face and cried as I thought how much this sweet little boy deserved a mother. I thought back on all my medical experiences and how my mom was by my side through all of them, and what a comfort that was to me. Anthony didn't have that. Tears ran down my cheeks as I thought how unfair this was. Where was this little boys mother I wondered? Did she realize what a special little boy she had given birth to?
Because Anthony's body was getting used to being fed through a feeding tube, he would start to cough and would throw up saliva. I spent the whole night by Anthony's side, holding him up as he would begin to cough and then cleaning up his saliva from his hair and his face. As the night went on I began to see the beauty in this experience. True, it would be more fair if this little boy had his mother by his side, but then I would have never gotten to have this experience. I was so glad I was able to be Anthony's "mom" for the night. My time in the hospital with Anthony created a special place in my heart for this sweet boy. I found myself sneaking in to his room during the weeks following just to hold his hand and talk to him. These experiences brought me so much joy. I love this little boy so much and all of the children I was able to work with at OSSO. Below are some other beautiful experiences I was able to have with the kids:
-Blowing bubbles with Laura, the 20 year old girl with cerebral palsy and microcephaly. When I would accidentally touch the bubble wand to her nose she would start to giggle (cutest giggle EVER) and then I would start to laugh, which led to both of us giggling uncontrollably
-Working with Roman, the 26 year old boy with cerebral palsy. Roman always has a serious expression on his face but when you are doing an activity and he finally decides to smile it's a good day :)
-Reading scriptures with Martin and Christian every night, and feeling the spirit so strong I thought my heart would burst.
-The last night I was in Cuenca and we went to read scriptures with Martin and Christian, and when we talked in Christian crawled over to me and grabbed my legs in a bear hug. :)
-Juanita, the teen at HML, another orphanage in the city, who would scout me out each time we visited just so I would sing "London Bridges" and "I love you, you love me" to her in english.
-Reading stories at night with 5 year old Jhon and the other kids in Casa Algeria.
-Reading the Froggy books with 8 year old Christian who has Autism and when we turned the page to see a picture of an open window, his eyes go really big as he exclaimed, "Ay! La ventana esta abierta!" (oh! The window is open!) to which I replied yes...and he finished by saying "Tengo miedo!" (I'm scared!) and all I could do was laugh because it was so cute and made no sense why he was scared of an open window.
There are so many more beautiful experiences I had with each of the children I was able to work with. I'm so grateful I was able to find the beauty in these situations that at times seemed sad and unfair. I know that God is good and He loves us, whether we were born here in the USA with a loving family, or in Ecuador with an imperfect body living our days in an orphanage. He is aware of His children. One day all of these imperfect, unjust situations will be made right because our older brother decided to die for us. For that I am grateful.
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