Liviana

Last weekend I went to my first orphanage.  We all have a life filled with brokeness.  Some have less than others, praise the Lord, but others have lives overflowing with brokeness.  Like Job, that poor guy lost close to everything.  I wouldn't call my life easy by any means, but at the same time I am learning how blessed I really was, even when I thought God had it out for me.  People always use to tell me, "you should think of the little kids who have nothing, you have it better than them."  O my goodness, I hated when people told me this.  Yes I knew somewhere out in the world, there probably was children who were starving, seriously dying of hunger, who had no home, and NO ONE to love on them.

Well, this weekend my eyes have been opened.  As I continue to live my 22.8 years of life I am constantly learning and experiening all sorts of things in which I never thought I would see.  Children with broken homes are my passion.  My heart breaks for them when I think of the love aren't recieving or the terrible things they are experiencing at such a young age.

SO .. this past weekend a co-worker of mine invited me to spend the weekend with her while it was her duty to watch after these children in the orphanage.  Without a hesitation I said I would.  There were about 12 children at this particular orphanage (3 older boys have just recently been adopted, PRAISE BE TO GOD).  There are 5 babies/todlers and 7 older ones.  I wish I had photos to show, but would you believe it I forgot my camera!  I know, how shameful!  Anyways, the kids stole my heart right away.  We walked into the play room and it took them about 10 minutes to warm up to us, and then they were ready to go.  Ready to wear Ms. Brittany out.

I think the thing that got to me the most was even though these children are in a Christian orphanage, it is just almost impossible to give all 12 of them the attention they need.  Most people know that I am quite the hugger, I LOVE hugs.  But these children loved you to just hold them, hug them, love them, or just to talk and listen to them. I hugged them every chance I got, and never did they get tired of it.  To the older ones (and by older, I mean like 7 or 8ish), they too wanted the hugs just as much as the younger ones.

There was one girl named Liviana.  She stuck out to me the most.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the youngsters.  I loved holding them, feeding them, and playing with them.  But Liviana is the one who stole my heart.  She is 7 years old and is brand new to this orphanage.  She is from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, and speaks mostly Meskito.  She speaks ok spanish, and a little bit of English.  She also has one eye, and can barely see out of the only eye she has.  The other girls make fun of her a little, because she has a tendency to be Ms. Clumsy due to her bad vision.  She fell at least 3 times when I was around her because she couldnt see hardly anything in her peripheral vision.  She is a pretty strong girl, but one time she began to cry and the others began to laugh.  You see when visitors come to the orphanage it is their natural instinct to tend to the little ones more.  Which they do need more hands to take care of but the older ones are often disregaurded.  So while everyone else was wrapped up in the babies gooing and gahing, I went to pick Liviana off the floor and take to the rocking chair just to rock her and to hold her.  I told her I loved her, and I do even if I had only known her for less than 24 hours.  I told her she was a special girl and that nobody could tell her differently.

That is my prayer tonight.  I especially pray this for Liviana, but I pray it for everyone out there.  Whether we want to admit or not, we all need to know that we are loved and that we are special to someone.  But my prayer is that we, as the daughters and sons of our Father in Heaven, could truly come to feel the unconditional love that he pours out on us abundantly.  That Liviana and the other Livianas out there would know that they are a princess to their heavenly daddy.  He knows every tear that you cry, every heartache that you have, every desire, fear, and as your portion, He is here to fufill them all.  And for that, I give all the glory, honor and praise to my Lord, my Savior, my Father in heaven, my daddy.