It amazes how the most abused and abandoned children idolize and fantasize about their irresponsible parents! The most abused , the most excuses they make up for their behavior and sometimes the most abusive they become with those who unselfishly take care of them! Emotional self-preservation? Probably! But I believe it is because they refuse to see themselves as unloved children, do not trust that what they receive will last and do not know how to live in a loving environment!
Karla Marie-Jean, the girl we received a few weeks ago, came from one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. She, her older brother, a 4 years old sister and a 4 months old baby boy abandoned by her father! Most of the times going hungry until mother came back home at midnight or later and then appeasing them with pizzas or any other type of junk food! She, running around with a gang of school age kids skipping classes! Her older brother already had been beaten once trying to defend her from abuse by these kids and other older people! She was wearing a minimal miniskirt when she was brought to our home!
But she tells everybody that her father is away working and her mother works at a Free Zone Clothes factory, and that both of them love them dearly and care for them, and…. and….
Karla Marie-Jean, the girl we received a few weeks ago, came from one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. She, her older brother, a 4 years old sister and a 4 months old baby boy abandoned by her father! Most of the times going hungry until mother came back home at midnight or later and then appeasing them with pizzas or any other type of junk food! She, running around with a gang of school age kids skipping classes! Her older brother already had been beaten once trying to defend her from abuse by these kids and other older people! She was wearing a minimal miniskirt when she was brought to our home!But she tells everybody that her father is away working and her mother works at a Free Zone Clothes factory, and that both of them love them dearly and care for them, and…. and….
But during the weekend I already shared about it she was asking me to approve her something she wanted. It was a kind of testing the limits! I told her to go to my wife as she was the one in charge of dealing with such things. She, then, replied asking me if I was not the boss. I answered back that I was her father while she were with us and my wife was her mother.
She pondered all this for about a minute and then asked me… What a father does? To provide, to love, care and protect, to be present in your life! And she kept on asking… then, a mother… what she does? She loves, cares, protects and teach you how to become a beautiful lady was my answer. Karla then smiled, kissed my cheek and ran to my wife, seating nearby, to kiss her too.
Later on she kept playing happy and chirping as a little bird, but from time to time also kept on coming to hug us with a beautiful smile in her face.
These are the emotional rewards that by the grace of God enrich our lives and make easier the wearing out of the everyday care of the children at the expense of our own rest.
And so, many other seemingly little but important events happen just before our eyes without us paying due attention to what the Lord wants to tell us as when in Habakkuk 2:3 clearly states: “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it: for it will certainly come, it will not delay”.
But everything in His time, not in ours!
Now she came back to visit as she considers us her grandparents (The Abuelitos).
