Children’s home bliss…

There are times when adult life, stress, pain, and conflicts disappear into the bliss of living with 60 children. When something seems to be going wrong, there is always a child who will say the most random thing to make everything better. When I am about to cry, the tears ready behind my eyelids, a kid will walk up with a smile asking the most innocent thing and the tears are replaced by a smile. These are my little gifts from God, because nothing else could explain the perfect timing of these random actions or words of a child.
On New Years day I was taking the ladies to the beach since it fell on the day of our ladies devotional group. A boys’ cottage joined to be dropped at another beach and there was some tension in the car as things were all being figured out. Remember that we had not slept much the night before, and not everyone at CH was supposed to be joining us. Well all of this was in languages that I could only half understand. Since I knew everything was fine by me and the ladies with me I just sat there and observed. Just at the moment when I was about to speak up, Jammel, a 5 year old boy sitting next to me, looked up at me and said, “Merry Christmas auntie Mal”, and gave me a half hug. Hehehe. How cute, and he had no idea that those same words from an adult would have been a joke in that moment, given the tension. I was once again entrapped by the bliss of the innocence of a child. I laughed out loud and said merry Christmas back, as I simply remained patient while the problem was slowly resolved.
On our way back home that night the kids were very tired. A very full jeepney and very tired and cranky kids usually do not mix well together. That night the kids were very particular where they sat, who was near them, how much room they had, ect! None of this flies well in a children’s home though, and two eventually began pushing a bag, which led to pushing each other, and then quickly to hitting each other. The hitting led to crying, which led to louder voices, and of course… louder crying! And then we were pulling into the road to begin the 30 minute ride home when… the engine stopped. I was like, “oh gosh… now this is the reality of life in the children’s home!” Hehehe!