Costa Rica...Tuesday "Forever Changed"

Have I mentioned its hot here?  Do you know how much I don't like heat?  God can use us in the most interesting way. :). We started off the morning with another breakfast at the hotel, I am starting to tire of the pineapple, watermelon and crepe combo here for breakfast but it's what they serve.  The bags are coming under my eyes,  Drew had a hard time waking up today but it doesn't seem to damper our excitement despite the exhaustion   

Tuesday was the day we were planning to start our mural. We needed to paint a fresh coat of paint on the wall first. Susana asked if this teen boy named Maykol  (Michael) could help us.  I said sure. Michael is a handsome boy who played a lot of soccer. I had seen him but not thinking I was here for teenagers I had kind of put him in the "Drew box" meaning he was one of the boys God had planned for Drew to influence.  Not me. Not a mom. Not a woman. Susana told me he had been in a lot of trouble and was not allowed to go to school due to behavior and violence. That he'd had some gang interactions etc. I figured he could paint and that would be fine.  Boy I was wrong. Michael took SUCH great pride in his painting. He beamed at all of the compliments from passers by. He kept going and going. I asked him in my broken Spanish how old he was....he was 14.  The same age as Drew. 14.  That broke my heart.  This boy had grown up too fast. He lacks innocence. It's hard in this Mama's heart. But he painted beside me for MOST of the morning.  Maybe God doesn't have me here for babies after all?

I spent most of the day focusing in this mural. Vines and branches and handprints.  And to my surprise the older kids loved doing their handprints.  And to my surprise Maykol (Michael) and the teenagers began to hang out near me and the mural. They loved having their photos taken and then looking at them through my viewfinder.  

One of our projects that our team had decided on was to make journals with the kids.  Basically it's a composition notebook with scrapbook paper covering it.  And some stickers...and we added photos of each of them to the cover thanks to a printer one of our team members brought along.  We had thought the 9-13 year old girls would LOVE this project, which they did but you know who loved it even more?  The teenagers and especially the teenage boys.  Who would ever have THOUGHT that?  Not me?  Not our team.  But God knew.  And they spent hours making their journals perfect.  And they wanted photos holding their journals.  

Later in the afternoon I stopped into see the babies. And I grabbed the little guy who always looks so sad. Jexsaile.  And he let me hold him and walk with him. Sigh. A break through. How can a baby be so angry I wonder.  How can at such a young age you be so sad all of the time. Rejecting people. Choosing crying in a hot house on a hot sofa over being held and cuddled.  Yet again a heartbreak.  But I know God loves him. I know he's not a mistake. I prayed over him and sang Jesus loves me over and over. Humming it to him and loving the fact that we had connected.  So I'm torn between Maykol, my 14 year old teenage buddy, Valeria, my 4 year old right hand girl and baby Jexsaile.  Oh and then there is Daniel. My personal photographer.  He loves to be photographed and he loves to take photos on my phone.  You will be seeing his face often in my photos from the trip. 

Drew continued to play sports outside with the boys much of the morning, they LOVE that.  Always a game going on.  He comes once in a while to help me paint, or see what is going on...but then someone talks him back into playing more soccer.  As a matter of fact Drew, Seth and Steve have a little friendly competition going on with the kids here.  I believe they have a Futbal tournament happening.  They are down 0-2 in the series.  

One of the other projects that we were blown away by the excitement of are decorating pillow cases with fabric markers and iron ons...a HUGE hit with every age.  I so can see God's hand in the details.

                                        

One of the neatest moments in the day was also one of the scariest ones for me.  I was down by the gate where the kids go to school, they go at different times during the day.  Once in the morning and some in the afternoon.  Not nearly enough kids go to school, but that's another topic.  Steve and Drew headed out the gate with the boys and a Tia, and said they were going to walk them to school. I didn't think much of it.   It was around 12:30 or so a few of the boys (Frederico -13, Marlon -12, and Carlos - 6) came out of the house in their standard school uniform outfit. The Tia( women who work at the orphanage and watch over the kids) was going to walk them to school.  I watched as they all left walking along a train track...see above picture. That's how they get to school. Steve took this great picture of Drew walking with the the boys to the school.
                                                   

They dropped off the older boys at one area and walked Carlos around to a different area where the teacher came out to let him in the locked gate. The Tia had to talk to the director of the school so Drew and Steve walked around a little bit. They found Marlon in his classroom. Drew poked his head through the door and Steve poked his head over the wall and through the wrought iron to see Marlon sitting at his desk. He began to vigorously and proudly wave at them - in front of his other classmates. His response was not only one of joy but pride - that someone he knew was there to observe him and check on him and to wave to him. No one else but him. Drew told me it was like they were SO excited to have these American friends with them (Gringos)...that they were SO proud that Drew and Steve knew their names.  That they were with them.  Steve later shared with me that he and Drew had some time sitting on a bench while waiting for the Tia to run an errand to the clinic, and during that time Drew shared with him that he now understands what the "American Dream" really is, and why that's such a BIG deal to so many people.

This ended up being by far his favorite memory of the trip.  It was later dubbed "The Illegal Escape from the Compound"  This is the part that got scary for me...I wasn't too worried about them going, I didn't think it could be that far and they were with a Tia, and Drew was with Steve who we know well.  But as I was printing photos out in one of the houses, our leaders came up to me and asked where Steve and Drew were...I simply said "Oh they walked some of the boys to school with a Tia" and the look on their faces caused panic in me.  They told me they should NOT have left the orphanage, it was not safe and that they were sending Manuel (bus driver) and Monica out to find them.  Okay then I was scared...I said a prayer for protection...but I was a bit worried when I saw the concern in their faces.  They ended up being back safe and sound.  And it gave Drew a perspective he never would have had otherwise.  He came back changed.  I could see it in his eyes.  Forever changed. "