A Full Room

I have been spending time each week with children in a foster family where each of the eleven children have some type of disability.  Although it has been really enjoyable, it has also been overwhelming because each child wants individual attention and I can only give that to one child at a time.

A couple weeks ago, Gulnar, who works for Interlink with graduated orphans wanted to come and see what I was doing.  She had recently been teaching a section of life skills to her graduates related to volunteering and wanted to see if this would be an area they might be able to help.  

 Two days ago, I was planning my weekly trip.  The children enjoy doing puzzles, but they are bored with the easy puzzles I have been taking them.  However, when I give them a harder puzzle, it usually results in crying and tantrums as they need help to complete the puzzle.  Even so, I had decided to pack the harder puzzles, but wondered how I was going to manage all of it on my own.  However, I found out that a birthday party Gulnar had planned was canceled and she and some of her graduates wanted to join me.  

I was really impressed with the four graduates who went with us.  Gulnar had done a good job preparing them and they did a great job.  They hugged, held, loved, and played with the children despite it being hard to see what the children struggled with.  Oftentimes it is hard for all of us to focus on what we have.  This was a good reminder to each of the graduates, that despite a hard life, they still have a lot to be thankful for.  Gulnar mentioned to them that whenever any of us girls look in the mirror we tend to critique ourselves and she wanted them to look in the mirror after this time and see all they have.  

Many of the girls asked when they could come back.  We will be taking different girls with us next Monday and Wednesday and hopefully some of the girls will want to return.  It would be great to have people go with me each time I visit as they children needs so much individual love.  

Yesterday morning, I was looking at the task ahead of me completely overwhelmed.  I didn't know how I would interact with all of the children at once.  What a blessing to have these girls, many of whom I knew when they were younger, come with me to love the children.  I look forward to seeing how this might impact their future lives as they see that they can make a difference in the lives of others.  There is always someone who we can help and someone who can be that help to us.  I am thankful for these graduates who helped me and Gulnar for having the idea to include them.