Uno

 Hola,
 
 I wish I could tell you everything. I wish you could see this. I’ll try to relay thru this writing what my eyes have seen, but I’ll warn you now, I can’t tell the half.  
Friday, November 6, 2020
I left you on this day in my hotel room in GRU airport, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Well I’m not there anymore. I watched some airplane, bought some food (which was interesting as the people I found weren’t much for English speakers and I was even worse of a Portuguese speaker and much too self conscious to try much of my broken, mispronounced Spanish on them although that is what I am learning it for so I don’t know why) and eventually went to bed. One thing I forgot to mention in my first letter was that I found out that to keep the lights and AC on in my room I had to insert my card in a little slot that was just inside the door. It took me awhile to catch on. Kinda felt like a good old escape room!
 
Saturday, November 6
I managed to wake up on time to be at my gate about 20 minutes before boarding time (0550.) Well let’s put it this way. I got up around 0445, messaged a few key people that yes I was up so they would not have to call me to make sure and then packed up and off I went to see if I could find out which gate I was supposed to leave from. There was one of those cool screens that tell you all the flight informations for the next few hours In the hotel lobby so I checked that but nope, no gate number. So off I went to the gates, planning to walk around til I found it. I started walking past the first gate and noticed a bunch of people sitting there and most people who were walking by turned around when they noticed what the screen above the counter said.. So, being the smart woman I am, I too glanced up and read the word Asunción above the counter. Well, we did not board on time, the pilots and attendants were even late. There was a mad rush to make sure everybody had the QR codes from filling out a form about whether or not you were sick with covid like symptoms (I showed the code twice but it was never scanned) and then everybody was packed tightly into the plane. Maybe first class didn’t feel tight, but those of us sitting in the furthest back row you can get on a 180 passenger plane felt like it was full. We couldn’t even see out any window, so I tried to keep myself entertained by the gentle men on either side of me. The one kept laughing out loud (somewhere between snorting and actual giggling) over the movie or something on his device and the other one couldn’t decide if he should be wearing a face shield over his mask or not and he obviously thought I should be using more hand sanitizer as he offered it to me at least twice during our 2 hour flight.  Eventually after hearing many different announcements all three times (no, I didn’t understand them all as they were given in Spanish and Portuguese as well as English) and sleeping for most of the flight we landed in Paraguay! And then began the process of buying a visa (no, no, we need this exact amount, we don’t make change here, try the atm, oh that doesn’t work, look this lady speaks English, she’ll take you out thru immigration, out into arrivals, almost up to where your family is waiting for you and you can exchange this 20 for 2 10s and then go all the way back to the beginning and this time do it all properly.) At that point I felt like running outside and starting my life over in Paraguay without a visa, without my luggage, who cares. Then on thru customs (which thankfully didn’t take very long) and soon I was outside being greeted by a blazing sun and a group of familiar faces wearing (you guessed it) facemasks! Perdón. I mean tapabocas as I was soon was to find out. And then without further ado we were off toward home. Stopped for snacks and then lunch closer to home as Asunción is about a 3 hour drive from my new home. I tried to take in everything but it seems like everything that I saw on the ride somehow disappeared from my head. The ride did go by quite quickly tho, between staring in wonder out the window and trying to relay all the random information of my flights and everything back home. We stopped at a fruit stand and bought some chipa there too. Chipa is a short of cheese bread made from cassava flour, a bit dry but if it’s hot it’s quite delicious. We in the backseat had just finished up our game of Uno when we pulled into town and onto the driveway.  
Now don’t think a paved driveway that easily fits 4 vehicles, no. First of all the van that we are in is sort of a squished version of North American vans. A bit shorter, maybe a bit skinnier and, it seems to me, a fair bit taller, sort of like handy vans. (I haven’t seen a full sized vehicle here yet.) The van barely fits on the driveway and someone hops out to unlock and open the gate. But inside the gate is just grass! Not a problem, pull on and park somewhere in the shade. All the way across the yard if needed. The yard itself is about the size of a nice town lot back home, (think big side yard of the old Smidt place those of you who are Green Thumbers.) On one side of the yard is the grass and the other side are the buildings. The main house is a 5 room brick house with a peaked, burnt-orange tiled roof. Just outside the kitchen door, on a tiled pad is the quincho where most of our meals are eaten. The quincho (keen’ cho) is a round, open aired hut with a grass roof and a ceiling fan. Take a few steps on the other side of the it and you come to the long building in which my room and the school room and a few other rooms are. The bike shed and the laundry room each have doors to the outside, but the school room and my room and the spare room are all connected with a bathroom yet too. I am going to try to remember to attach a drawing of the yard to my email along with this letter. The rest of the yard is covered in grass that is kind of wide and flat. It doesn’t seem to grow very tall but I’ve only been here a week yet. There are 2 mango trees to give us shade, a peach tree that is out of season, banana plants, a passion fruit vine that should be giving fruit in not too long, and some pineapple plants!
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. I did some unpacking and setting up in my room. It was a warm sunny day and later on Eric and Rachelle and I sat under the mango tree and drank terere together. The first drink or two was a bit bitter to me but eventually I got used to it and found it quite refreshing. The water fight that went on between Christina and Ellie and Aubrey and I that afternoon was also quite refreshing. We ate supper outside and eventually ended up in the living room talking while the girls were going to sleep. I was just thinking about heading to bed myself when Rachelle got a message that one of Felicita’s sons had an accident on his moto and was killed. (Felicita is one of the members here and a moto is a smallish type of motorbike that a lot of people own.) I got my first real dose of Spanish when Rachelle called one of the family to see if they should go there yet that night. So plans of going to bed were changed and Eric and Rachelle left for a few hours and I stayed inside the main house so someone would be around if any of the kids woke up. Finally around 1 they arrived back and we all headed for bed.  
 
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Church was cancelled this morning due to the burial and ensuing activities. The other missionaries here in Paraguay, Karlin and Shayla Hiebert, dropped Judd (4) off for a few hours in the afternoon while they were at the burial with Erics. I let the kids go get ice cream and play in water and probably anything else their parents wouldn’t have allowed if they had been here. (Insert emoji with big eyes and bright red cheeks here.) Later on when the parents and babies were back home we sat under the mango tree and drank terere and the kids bought us all more ice cream as it seemed to be quite a hot day. We had asado, barbequed steaks and chorizo sausages, for supper with mandioca (cassava) on the side.  
 
Monday, November 9, 2020
Slept in this morning. Sung a few Spanish songs with Karlins to the grieving family and then we all continued on with our day. Karlins left on their 3 hour drive back to Campo Nueve (Camp 9) and Eric showed me around the classroom as he has been the one teaching his girls these last few weeks. I changed the classroom around a bit, put up a makeshift paper tree in one corner as a job chart and hung an evergreen tapestry in another. I had a bit of a hard time with the tapestry as the only thing that works to keep anything on these walls is fun tack and it didn’t seem to keep a large piece of fabric stuck to the wall very well. I wasn’t having any of that so I decided I’d use hot glue and if I have to repaint in a few months when I take it off I’ll do it gladly! Sadly tho, It hasn’t hung for a week and its half down, maybe due to the fact that the fan is often on and blowing air underneath it.  
 
Tuesday, November 10, 2020  
We started school this morning! At 0800 I rang the bell and began my first day as a real true school teacher! We sped thru our work and even got some of yesterday’s missed assignments done.  
There hasn’t been much rain here for the last while. Yesterday I woke up to rain and it was rainy all day. It rained a lot of the day today, too. They say the weather here doesn’t stay the same for more than 3 days at a time so we’ll see if it continues to rain like the forecast is saying.  
 
Wednesday, November 11, 2020  
I’m sitting in my desk doing a bit of work before school starts. The girls all peek in to see what I’m up to. The toy chicken inside gets squished and lets out a sound that does not sound quite like a chicken but rather like a toy.   
It was just rainy enough today that we didn’t have recess outside but by the end of the day the rain had ended. The Paraguayans sleep when its raining so there hasn’t been much action lately. The radio has been turned on in the afternoons at the gym directly behind the school room but I hadn’t seen anyone there til today, I think due to the rain.
Tonight was the night of the bugs. Now that the rain has come they like to come out at night. I watched a frog debate for a few seconds on whether or not he should eat the inch long beetle and when he tried it he spit it right back out. I think it stuck to his tongue and he didn’t like the feeling.  Those beetles are quite common to see around here, as are the flying ants that lose their clear wings before the evening is up, cicadas, and who knows what else. Colorful beetles, random flying things that may or may not choose you to crawl around on, some cockroaches.. There’s a very interesting big kind that fly around that have lights in their eyes and on their under sides. Unlike a lightning bug, these lights that look to be about ¼ inch long, only blink out for fraction of a second every few seconds. There were 3 frogs having a feast, one of them was about 5 inches long. (A few nights later, these frogs were christened Ananias, Saul and Beauregard just a few hours before they took their last breaths and met death by shovel.)
 
Thursday, November 12, 2020
The gimnasio (gym) started blaring music this morning, so during our last hour or so of school we had to raise our voices to be heard. The girls are used to this so it didn’t bother them, but I was trying to read a book on grading and that didn’t go to well with loud music. I don’t know what else happened today.
It was today or yesterday that Rachelle and I were talking and decided to try some fun stuff. We taped some pencils to an empty pop bottle as a sort of stand, dumped some vinegar and baking soda in and tried in vain to get some sort of cork into the opening so we could launch our rocket. After too many futile tries, we found a stick that almost fit and enlisted some manpower to manhandle the stick further into the hole as it had been leaking around it. This time the rocket built up enough pressure to launch itself high enough to hit the tin of the roof of ‘my house.’ So in the end our experiment did work, just half the height of what the instructions said it should.  
 Sometimes I feel like I have lots of time but I still don’t get stuff written down so I can remember to tell y’all. And there’s so much to take in that I don’t remember it all much less tell you about it.
 
Friday, November 13, 2020
School has been good but I think we were all happy it was the weekend. Aubrey came to school around 1115 and helped us with our art projects. I had brought wooded letters (C+E) for Christina and Ellie to wrap pretty yarn around and Aubrey and I covered the tin can pen holders on my desk with yarn. Erics went to Felicita’s in the afternoon but Christina stayed home with me. I found out that missionary kids today play the same games they did back when I was a missionary kid. We spent the afternoon playing Old Maid!
 
Saturday, November 14, 2020
It’s officially been a week since I arrived here! Some days I can hardly believe it, it still feels like it must be a dream! I slept in a bit this morning. Eric and the girls went to clean church and church yard to make it ready for church tomorrow. Tiago (11 months) is finally becoming comfortable with me and he played in the school room for a long time while I was figuring out some school stuff. We had a sort of Paraguayan spaghetti for lunch. It had fewer tomato stuff and more other veggies in it than the spaghetti you would be used to. And it had chicken parts in it. As in bones with meat on them, which were a bit tough, as Paraguayan meat is typically. Paraguay is a country known for exporting meat, but they send the good stuff and keep the not so good stuff here for the rest of us.  
Now this brings me to now. It’s Saturday afternoon. The family went to the Juan, another member’s house for Bible Study and Aubrey stayed home with me. We are now baking cookies and dancing around the kitchen in excitement. Well I’m not dancing as I’m having a bit of difficulty figuring our how to turn on ovens and how to use these ingredients. It does seem to be working, but I did burn the bottoms of the first batch.  
 
I’ve been in a sort of isolation since I came here. I haven’t left the yard since I first arrived here via a certain Hyundai van. But we have had visitors and I’ve been teaching school and Erics family has been going away like normal. There’s so much to take in even just on the yard, and even so much to talk about that I so far haven’t been bored. I will be happy tho, when I can step or even ride off the yard and start meeting these people that I hear about everyday. I am slightly wary of using my tiny little bit of Spanish but I’ll learn.  
 
Adios,
Adorae  
 
Barrio San Pedro mission
Eric and Rachelle Toews – Twin Rivers
Christina – 9 (Grade 4)
Ellie – 7 (Grade 2)
Aubrey – 5
Cody Santiago who is called Tiago – 11m  
Me - teacher
 
Camp 9 missionaries
Karlin and Shayla Hiebert – Rosenort
Judd – 4
Gabe – 1
 

In Limbo

Hola, mis amigos,

 Last time I left, I was poetic. Last time I wrote poems and concocted eloquent sentences on the subject of Gone. Last time is passed. 

This time I promised myself that I would remember little details. I promised myself that I'd make it interesting for the ones who have to read this. To remember them is one thing, but to make them into sentences that people will actually want to read is totally different. Plus I'm not used to this keyboard and I'm making a lot of mistakes that I may or may not correct eventually. 

My first flight left at 1345 on Thursday. Five people in a 4 person vehicle (okay there was a car seat involved) and a drive through McDonalds drive thru later (those fries tho!), we arrived at the airport where my sister was already waiting. I didn’t want to wait around so after I checked in I gave my family hugs and headed thru security to where I was chosen by ‘random selection’ to have my bags searched. Wonderful start to an already scary (not the right word but I can’t think atm) trip. I found my gate, watched my suitcases get thrown roughly onto the conveyer belt up into the belly of the plane and watched the same belly spew out legs and then the body of the man who was loading the suitcase. I make it sound like he was hurt or something. He wasn’t. It’s just not every day you see a pair of legs dangling from the plane you are soon going to board. Or any plane for that matter. The flight itself was full. My carry-on was stored somewhere towards the back as I was one of the last people on and every compartment by my seat was already stuffed. The front of the plane smelled of weed and those of us towards the back were scattered in between a large family or 2 of East Indians. I tried to see my hometown from the window but the gentleman who was sitting by the window didn’t want the shade open so my efforts were a bit futile. The lady with the English accent on the other side of me kept her earbuds in until my water bottle delivered forth a bit of a fountain of water and then she pulled them out long enough to exclaim ‘Oh! Your book!’ which indeed had been splattered. I took that as an invitation to watch her movie with her till my book dried, except it became too gory for me. By the way, the window shade was opened towards the end of the flight and I was able to watch the sunset. 

Right now I’m sitting in Toronto airport, waiting for my next flight. I have a few hours here but he waiting area by the gate is a bit different than I am used to. Long tables with devices at every seat to keep you busy while you wait, or to make sure you don’t think too much and chicken out of what you are about to do, or maybe to keep you updated while you are away from the outside world. Close to me a small child threw up all over his dad. Off to one side, a trio that can only be co-workers discuss the details of Covid that they are not impressed with and also tell stories in which they call people whom they thought thought they were better than them, names. That was confusing. I talk to an old Ecuadorian lady who thinks that my dress looks pretty and comfortable, and tells me I should go to the beach when I’m in Sao Paulo. I eat some normal food. People bustled around me. A few Mennonite families walked by with 6 or 9 children in tow. It feels almost unreal, to be in an airport, getting ready to board a 10 hour flight, by myself, to spend 3 months in Paraguay, while everyone at home is going about their normal business. Here time is measured by how many minutes to your next flight. Not by the sun or even the lack thereof. You count the hours since you last slept and calculate in when you can sleep again to figure out if you should try to sleep. Same thing with eating. Its hard to imagine yesterday or even last week when you went to work and slept and ate at appointed times and departures and arrivals and destinations were under your control. You are not at home, yet you aren’t at your new home either. Neither here, nor there. In limbo. 

Some of the last paragraph was, obviously, written while waiting to board in the Toronto airport. I didn’t feel like changing the wording so I lied a bit and finished writing it in present tense when really it is tomorrow morning already. 

My next flight was quite uneventful. I boarded at 2008 hours, EST, November 5, to a half full flight. I almost had 3 seats to myself but then a kind lady with pug faces on her socks, switched seats to give a family another seat so their boys could sleep. We faced almost 10 hours on this flight. We were almost ready to back away from the terminal when the intercom dude came on and said that due to a security issue inside the terminal, we were being held at the terminal for an indefinite amount of time. Within half an hour we were taking off, so the wait wasn’t bad. But who knows, maybe we all literally flew away from death. Or maybe someone was refusing to wear a mask. There were 2 small children right near my seat but neither of them were super loud. One of them remind me a bit of Keenan at home, a very active boy. Soon after take off, we were all handed a long rectangle box with our supper in it. Supper consisted of Eggplant Parmigiana Salad, with kale salad and a small loaf of refrigerated bread on the side. Some of us had already eaten supper but tried the food anyways because the package asked us to please be nice to the cook. Or maybe that wasn’t the reason, whatever. The nice pug-sock lady beside me puts her mask on between every bite. Eventually the lights are dimmed and people drift off into fitful sleeps. Random men and old ladies who would normally be too dignified to nod off in public now stretch out on their 3 seats to sleep. Once again my water bottle erupts when I open it and I decide its due to altitude of cabin pressure and it was not smart to bring it along. This time everybody is sleeping so no-one exclaims over it. We change two hours on the flight, so now I am 3 hours ahead of omen time. After some amount of sleep, people start waking up and moving about. Have you ever seen a sunrise from above the clouds? It’s super beautiful, shades of unnatural pinks and purples and then the windows are switched from night mode into day mode and you realize that’s exactly what it was. Unnatural, and a sunrise looks much the same from above as on the earth. 

And then I arrived in Sao Paulo. From the window on our decent, I could see a bumpy, maybe rocky landscape with burnt orange roofs huddled so close there were just glimpses of their colorfully painted walls. Every few blocks there were a handful of skyscrapers with what looked like swimming pools scattered around. I made my way through the airport with the help of a few people and at one point had the choice to either drink the rest of the contents of my water bottle or go back to a bathroom to empty it and come back thru the line again. I drank the water, but they didn’t take any notice of me after I was given the choice so I could have just stick it back in my bag. 

And once again, that has brought me to the present. I found the hotel that had been booked for me for today and here I am, writing this long, boring epistle that is full of useless facts. I could have just attached my itinerary and sent that and that would have done the trick. My flight to Paraguay leaves at 0550 (UTC-3, which would be 3 hours later than CST) tomorrow (Saturday, the 7th) morning. I think I’ll take the chance to eat and sleep and shower and maybe walk around the terminal, find my gate for tomorrow morning so I know where to go when I’m half asleep. And hopefully I’ll send this off later, too. 

Adios, amigos.

 

By the way, I did not really proofread this so take what you read with a grain of salt.

Plot Twist

I like a busy routine. I can work well and make big headway in chaos. But suspense, now that is a different story. 

Routine is routine. You know what you're doing and eventually you can get fast at it and add something else yet to the routine. In chaos, everything is so crazy that you expect and even welcome more craziness. But with suspense, you never know when the next plot twist will be thrown at you. You promise to do something and nothing seems to ever happen. A few weeks turns into months and sometimes you get hopeful updates only to have your hopes dashed a few days or even minutes later. And then when you are fearing the worst, even worse news gets thrown on you. Sometimes there are dates set. 'Yup by such and such a date, you should be able to go.' And you even doubt that because at this point you doubt everything. And every day, for weeks, months, you have to go find the patience button and push it so you can get through the next bit of good or bad news. Thing is, that patience button has been pushed so many times the words are wearing off.

And then one day it's true. One day the tickets are booked and you have two weeks to get ready. Which can easily be enough but for months you've been hoping and praying for this and now finally it's here and you don't know what to do or how to do it or if you will be ready or what in the world you are thinking traveling so far away from home. 

But adventure. Now that's something I like. 

 

 

P.S. I cannot take credit for the patience button idea.

Copy Cat

 I'm a copy cat from the very beginning. My sister had a blog long before me. I thought it was a good idea and created one, too. It's very nice to have someone to chat with about it. All the technicalities and such. Lately she's been updating hers and I got inspired by that. So now I have made a few changes. I used the same layout as my sister (From the Sunset Watcher, here ), but I changed the colors a bit. She also showed me how to do that cool link in my previous sentence. Another thing I added two subscribe buttons at the top. The subscription list will not be displayed for all to see. You will receive an email that you will need to follow through with, and then you will receive an email when I post a new post. And, I think, if I edit an old one. The disclaimer is that if I post twice in one day you will only receive an email about the first one (I think). 

I never post twice a day.

Thanks for reading.

Tell It To Jesus

'Tell it to Jesus, he is a friend that's well known. You've no other, such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone.'

The words echo throughout the church sanctuary as 70 plus people lift their voices. Every single one of those people know what it's like to tell it to Jesus. We cry to him about all our troubles and ask him to help with all our difficulties.

I sit there, one of the 70, but unable to sing. My mind goes back to a few months ago.

The same words echo from the play room and down the halls of a big house down in New Mexico. A small girl sings it over and over again. Right now she has good food and a nice house and people who love her. Soon she'll go back to the home where it's not uncommon for someone to be going to the hospital as a result of someone else in the house getting mad. Soon after that she and her little sisters will be stranded on the porch of that same household when their Grandma and Mom decide they don't want them or can't take care of them anymore. And she sings 'Tell it to Jesus.' I hope those words stay with her the rest of her life as a comfort to her. I hope she never forgets the words and what they mean. I hope she tells it to Jesus.

You Can't Wipe Off Shadows

 The phrase caught hold of my ear and pulled my nose from my book. I glanced up to where the others were milling about cooking food over the fire, commented on the strange word combination and went back to reading.

You can't wipe off shadows. I finished the book, our camping weekend ended and we all went to our separate homes, but those words stayed with me. I don't know what the phrase was referring to in it's original conversation but I knew they'd make the perfect blog post if I thought long enough to pull a meaning from them. Sure enough. Sitting on a mower all day gives a person time to think and it didn't take long to have it all written up - in my head. Sitting on the mower is not conducive to writing a blog post tho, so that is why it has taken me a long time to even start this.

Whatever I say here is purely my imagination so if you form a different opinion that's entirely up to you. If you want to confront me, go ahead but I won't argue.

You can't wipe off shadows. Everyone's life includes shadows. Monsters, baggage, call it what you will but in this post it's all referred to as shadows. Physically, shadows are caused by different objects blocking the sun's direct light. To remove these shadows you only have two options - take away the sun or take away the objects, both of which are impossible. You can't wipe the sun out of the sky, neither can you remove all objects from the earth.

Everyone has shadows. Maybe their childhood was rotten. Maybe someone they love was taken cruelly from them. Maybe they made bad decisions. Whatever these shadows are, they stay with their respective people forever. Nothing these people do can change the fact that they have been hurt or are hurt. Nothing can wipe off those shadows.  

Here's the catch. You can't wipe them off but these shadows aren't stains. Shadows don't have to be an ugly blotch on your life that you are ashamed of or angry at. You can change your position. As long as you are looking at the shadow, everything will look like a dark stain but as soon as you turn to face the sun the shadows fall behind you. Take a few steps til you reach the edge of the tall object in your way, take your thoughts off of your childhood, and suddenly there's light. Step out from under that tree, away from your former bad decisions, and you'll need sunglasses. Let go of your umbrella, the thought that you failed the one/s stolen from you and the shadow will fall away.

You will always have a shadow. You can't physically remove your shadow and leave it, but you can face the sun and not dwell on your shadow which is now behind you. There will also be days when the sun hides itself in the clouds and the whole earth turns into a gloomy shadow. On those days, your shadow seems to expand and it seems there's no sunlight, no matter which way you turn. But the sun always returns to drive out the shadows and still extends the offer to make your shadow fall behind you.

 So there you have it. You won't be able to remove your shadows with a cloth and some muscle but you can find the sun and leave those shadows where they belong. Behind you, in the past.

Throwback

 A beautiful Sunday morning dawns, raining and cozy. It's quiet at Christian Child Care. Everyone is still enjoing the peace sleep offers. The night girl struggles to stay awake. The train again whilstles its long, mournful call, as if telling of the pain hidden from men's eyes in Gallup

A phone call breaks the silence. Six children in need of a place to call home. Someone to comfort and soothe the pain that is deep inside their hearts. Girls stumble groggily from their beds of slumber. Their spirit is willing but their flesh is week.

Dirty, so dirty a bath doesn't even take it all off. Even some blood. So, so stinky. Wounds too deep for us to deal with, a Dr. maybe. Their clothes are ill fitting. Barfoot and only a diaper. Scratched. Hair full of lice.

 They smile timidly. Arms reaching out for someone they can trust.  She reaches down, picking him up. He snuggles close, lice, dirt and all. His arms encirlce his neck and he sighs as he lays his head on her shoulder. 

They cry as they are cleaned up, but soon they quiet. Happy smiles smine from their once lonely, sad faces. A new dress, a clean diaper. Lice are dealt with, wounds cleaned, food for their hungry tummies. Smiles and hugs. Love where there hadn't been any. 

There's a call.. to go.. feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the broken. Will you leave your fun social lives, your well paying jobs and the comfort of your blessed beyond measure homes? Will you leave it all to hold these broked children close? You're cup will be filled to overfilling.

By: Jo

 Not my inspiration today. But I lived the same mirning. The faces and sadness and shock are etched just as cearly on my mind. And this post will help it stay there and remind me that not all are half as privileged as I am. Thanks Jo.

 

This post was first written up almost a year ago. Somehow it never got posted then and I decided to post it now. It may be almost a year ago but it still is my history. I lived that morning. Sure it was a semi ordinary morning by Gallup standards. But something about those 6 severely neglected, rejected kids struck a cord in everyones' hearts and we will never forget them. Maybe it was the 2 year old boy who was wearing nothing but a diaper and an adult sized bright pink sweater.  Maybe it was the skinny 6 year old who nonchalantly told me that she was glad they were at CCC because we took care of them instead of neglecting them like she was used to. Whatever it was that made us all hurt a little more for them, that morning and those 6 skinny, neglected kids will always be etched in our minds and hearts.