July 06

Reaching out

There is a public hospital just a few blocks away from where I live here in Antigua that is home to dozens of special needs children. We went to visit them today. My very good friend Melissa goes to visit the children often, many times taking groups of people with her. She has the amazing gift to see the children through her heart, not her eyes. She once told me about a little girl that she knew was coming available for adoption that was six months old and blind. I'll never forget this. Melissa said to me, "Don't you just love blind? How much fun would that be?". And I was thinking to myself that I wouldn't know the first thing about what to do with a blind child. The thought embarrassed me and humbled me.

In the past, I've allowed my nerves and hesitations prevent me from ministering to these children. I let my own fear of the unknown get in the way.

But I'm a mom to an impressionable fifteen year old. I want to show her what the rest of the world is like, outside of suburbia, USA. I want to show her what God sees. I want to teach her about ministry. And I can't do that hiding inside a gated community.

I can't describe the joy I felt at taking my two girls into that hospital today and watching them engage the children that live there. It warms my mother's heart to see my children reaching out to other children. I don't know how God feels, but I imagine it's much the same. My heart ached with Irene's as she first looked around, trying to take it all in. I felt nervous too, as a boy in a wheelchair reached for her hand and she wasn't sure what to do. She took his hand in hers and his face absolutely lit up with an enormous smile. I could just see her courage begin to build and she tentatively began to speak to him and stroke his head with her other hand. Before long, we could tell that he wanted to go outside and she pushed his wheelchair into the courtyard where they spent the next hour together, just holding hands. Isabella, on the other hand, went with me from child to child, laughing and talking with them and stroking them. It was absolutely clear that she didn't notice a single difference between herself and the other children. And they loved her for it!

As we were leaving, Irene asked me to help her tell her new friend that we were leaving but that we would be back. And she looked at me and said " We are coming back, right?". Absolutely.

It didn't matter that they didn't speak Spanish, or that one doesn't speak at all. Both of my girls were able to communicate love to children who desperately need it. I'm a proud mom today.