Day 3 but Day 1 at Casistas Kennedy

Where to even begin today...how about breakfast. We once again our getting fed very well, we had something like a breakfast burrito that turned out be a much needed ¨bigger¨breakfast for what we would be doing today. We have finally had our first day at the orphanage. Half of us spent the morning painting graphics on the walls to cheer things up and the other half of us went into the baby room. Painting was often interrupted by kids coming to see what the ¨gringos¨were doing and hoping they had candy. The baby room has 10 babies (couple months old up to about 2 years) and then there is a separate special needs room which has 4 children; however we only met 3 today. Two of the children were siblings with Cerebral Palsy and possibly something else and the other was a beautiful girl who is blind and has a clef palate. While heartbreaking, all that went through my mind was these are all God´s children whom He loves dearly but chances are they will not be shown as much. We are learning that the class system is alive and well in Honduras and I can only imagine how these children will be treated as they get older.

By the way, this was written by Jessica not Casi so please excuse any errors or lack of info you were hoping to read :)

In the afternoon, we had set up a craft room in which the ALL the kids got to make bead bracelets and they seemed to love this...we had to limit them to 3 a piece. When the kids were not in the craft we just played soccer, jump rope, frisbee, catch, on the playground. In this time, I think all of our hearts were broken! Despite the language barrier we were able to learn some of the kids stories. The little girl who cried and just kept repeating how she was missing her mom and Casi was so gracious and just had this little girl on her lap hugging and comforting her. Gail who learned about one of the boys whose parents had just dropped him off and telling her how no one loves him. We each have a story about a kid. The kids whose parents are in jail, to poor to take care of them, under investigation for abuse...ahh learning all this in one day too.

Did we really mean what we prayed? ¨Lord break our hearts for the things that break Yours¨ Yes, all of our hearts have already been broken, tears have been shed and now the question remains...¨But what will we do with this ¨new knowledge¨ that we have?¨ I think we all fear that we will go home and fall back into our routine but that is something we are all praying that will not happen. Yes, this is the beginning of our experience but we don´t want it to just end on Saturday and we don´t want this to be something you just read. We are being challenged and broken...yet having the most amazing time. We want you to get involved at whatever level you can be but hopefully it will be one that will take you out of your comfort zone and allow you to be vulnerable to what and how God wants to use you.

Unfortunately, we are not able to take pictures at the orphanage so we aren´t able to put names and faces together for you, but trust us when we say these are beautiful children. They do not deserve what they have experienced in their short lives so far and some will need a lot of support to get through it all. God has told us that we are to take care of the orphans. So, I end this asking you, ¨What will you do in taking care of the orphans?¨