It is well!

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Day 3

Last year I recorded the children singing "It is well" and set it as my alarm. So, everyday this past year I have woken up to the kids singing. 

This morning, I woke up to them singing that same song, except it wasn't just a recording on my phone. I'm really here

and they are really singing! 

We started doing medical checks today. My job was to entertain the kids in the "waiting room" and calm them down if they were nervous at all. There are two new twin boys, John and Allen, who have some type of intellectual disability. 

They were abandoned on the streets by their parents, found by the police, and taken to the orphanage. I love them so much. They were both afraid during medical checks because they had never seen a doctor before and did not know what was going on. 

One at a time, they came outside to the waiting room and I just held them until they calmed down and could go back to class. 

Later, Allen ran up to me and made a gesture to pick him up, so I did. He didn't know any English and I wanted him to learn my name so I would take his finger and point to him and say, "Allen" and then I would point to me and say, "Shelby." I did it over and over again until he could say it on his own. 

His face lit up when he understood my name and he just kept saying "Allen... Shelby!" over and over again. 

It just broke my heart because so many people in third world countries don't know how to identify IDDs or take care of those who have a disability. In a lot of places in Africa, and all over the world, people born with disabilities are often shunned, killed, or sent to a prison-like environment because of something they can't control. 

I am SO thankful for this amazing place and for other places that see how much of a blessing people with disabilities are and do what they can to gain more knowledge so that they can better help people with disabilities. 

This orphanage is definitely making strides toward improving the needs for children with disabilities. A special education teacher from Ohio is on our team and I will get to sit in on the assessments she does with the potential students for special education tomorrow.