Faces

There are so many things that I could be blogging about and sharing today, but one thing that is very heavy on our hearts are FACES today!  Faces of beautiful children that very few will ever get to see.  Faces of children longing for their mama and papa to come for them, who know that they have no chance to ever have a family unless somehow, someone will find them.  Faces of children who are curious to find out who we are.  Faces that are smiling and happy despite the circumstances they have lived through.  Faces that long to be picked up and carried away never to return.  There are faces of so many beautiful children, who deserve to have a part in society, who have so much to give to us, and yet they are hidden away where no one can ever discover their beauty.  Andrea G., a missionary friend, who we met when we first began our journey to bring home Vika, shared a beautiful quote with me today, and I think it pretty much sums up just how we feel today.  It comes from David Platt:

"Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes."

We knew going into this journey that it would be extremely hard for us to leave those children behind that we cannot bring home with us.  We tried to prepare ourselves the best we could for those days to come, and yet, no one can truly prepare himself for the look in those faces that we have seen. 

Many of the children were outside today either helping in the garden or simply enjoying the beautiful day that we had here today while we were visiting Vika.  One little girl (I believe she was  girl-everyone has their heads pretty much shaved right now) sat down on the bench where our things were while we were walking the gardens with Vika.  I observed her from afar as she picked up a little puppy my dad had given us for Vika and rubbed it against her face.  She was in love.  I came over to get something out of our backpack, and gave her a little doll that our friend Ulla had brought us for Vika from Germany.  She was immediatley in love.  I also blew up a balloon for her, and she was so happy to get to hold it.  She tried to communicate with us, but we had a huge language barrier.  :)  We were unsure if we were allowed to interact with her, so we only interacted minimally.  It is very important for adoptive families to walk very carefully because not only can we jeopardize our own adoption but also the adoptions of families who will come behind us.  We are earning the trust of the people in charge of our orphanage and we cannot jeopardize it. However, none of the caretakers seemed to mind our interacting with the kids, and now that we checked with our facilitator, we will hopefully get to interact more with the kids.  Yes, we are there for Vika.  We want to spend as much time as possible with Vika, but Lord-willing, we will get to bring Vika home with us for a lifetime of showing her the love we have for her.  The children we have to leave behind may never get to experience the love of a mama and papa, and they so much deserve to know that they are LOVED and that they are BEAUTIFUL and above all that they were created by our God in His image, who loves them so much more than any earthly papa ever could.

And then, there are the faces of our beautiful girls on the other side of our computer screens when we get to Skype with them!  Oh, how we miss them, and how much we long to wrap them up in our arms every time we get to see them!  Soon, VERY soon, we will finally be reunited!  :) 

Okay, now on a much happier note, I know you want to know all about Vika.  :)  We brought Vika a banana today and after asking the caregiver if it was okay, she could not wait to open it.  She held it in her hands and took big bites right off the banana.  It was gone in no time.  She also finally showed more interest in some of the toys we had brought her, and I finally figured out the one thing that will probably be one of her most cherished little treasured "toys."  I will make it for her while I come back to wait out our 10 day wait, and then I will show you. :)  We also brought a ball with us today.  She LOVED it.  After one time of showing her to throw the ball, she became proficient at it.  Vika has a great sense of direction and loved throwing the ball back and forth.  She also really started bonding with Abe today, which was so nice to see!  It is very obvious that she has not been exposed much to men, so it takes more time to earn their trust.  We love her more with every time we visit her (although we loved her already infinitely before we met her) and it is becoming harder and harder to leave her there.  We only get to see her once a day from 10-12, and we are not sure yet if we will be able to see her tomorrow, but we will try!  :)  We will also take some snacks for Vika's groupa tomorrow.  Vika was really tired today, and I thought she would fall asleep on me before they came to get her, but she was fighting going to sleep with all her might!  As soon as her eyes closed she pulled herself up and started getting busy again.  It was really funny!  In many ways, she is still like a baby in a four-year-old body.  Okay.  Now, I will leave you with some pictures.  I am still working on getting some videos uploaded, but I have to do it at a time when not a lot of people are on the network because it takes a very, very long time.  Hopefully, in the next couple of days.  Please pray that we will find out our court date soon.  We are praying for June 3, but we are not sure that it will work out, yet.  We should know on Monday. 

 

Listening intently to "Jesus Loves Me."