Monday, April 23, 2012
One more.
Monday, April 16, 2012
+3
Today, the GSF family is +3. Whenever new kids come in it is a bitter-sweet situation. Bitter because of the situation of why they are at GSF and sweet because they have a good place to live now. It's like beauty from ashes. Meet our three newest ...
Welcome to the family! More pictures later!
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| Daniel (AKA Danny) |
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| Efrance |
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| David |
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
All to the Creative God
I listen as the Hyrax ends his song to the Creator and the
daytime creatures awake and takeover. I
walk over to a spot where the day is seen awakening in its fullest, prettiest
form. At least 5 kinds of birds sing
their songs to the one who made them – the Creative God. Somewhere overhead another kind of bird joins
in drumming with sound of his wings flapping through the air louder than other
birds. But, he does not care that is his
song just like all around there are tons of other birds making all kinds of
different noises. But that is only the
actual choir … the backdrop makes a difference too … the backdrop screams His
name. The black night sky turns into one
filled with soft grayish colors and beautiful shades of pink and they scream,
‘look at the creator! Look at what he
has done!’ And then … slowly, slowly, he
pink and the gray turn into bright blue and white clouds and they to scream His
name, ‘Look, it’s a brand new day … all the fears of the night are gone … God
has given you a second chance! Joy comes
in the morning!’ And of course, what’s a
song without a dance? The tall green
dancers are taking a break but they are beautiful … covered in dew drops they
make this scene look even more magnificent.
The purple and yellowish-orange flowers are the dancers currently on
stage … the birds help move them ... they land and again fly off sending the
purple flowers bouncing up in down. The
bright orange, yellow and green leaves in the forest add in their part … making
this even more beautiful. The monkeys
crash through the trees putting a unique twist to this show. Their music and their dance moves me … it
makes me want to add in my own part … so here I add it in … and maybe others
will be moved by music and use their gifts … to join in the dance … and move
with all creation singing … not only because He is Creator God because He is
The Creative God … and He gives us all our own unique song making one beautiful
melody … stretching from east to west and north to south. Join in with me … where is your part?
This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.
(Taken from http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh369.sht)
Thursday, April 5, 2012
A year free of struggles & sorrows ....
.... for Gloria
When we came to GSF four years ago
I honestly didn’t know how to respond to you.
At first I didn’t really even want anything to do with you. I don’t remember when that changed, but now I
am so glad it did. There were so many
times when I would go see you in the hospital and thought you wouldn’t make it
out. You did sweet girl, you made it out
of the hospital every. Single. Time. God had a bigger plan for you … A much
bigger plan for you. I am forever
grateful that I got to sit and watch that big plan for you unfold. Many people would think you wouldn’t have
even made it to GSF. Many little girls
and boys in your village just like you ‘accidently die’ as little babies. Gloria, that wasn’t God’s plan for you. He made it nearly impossible for that to happen
to you, sweet girl. He brought you to
GSF where you would be safe and loved.
Maybe part of His beautiful plan for your life was to come and change my
heart. Because, you and the other
special needs kids at GSF did. My heart
for special needs kids has grown beyond what I could have ever imagined.
Gloria, a year and almost a month ago I heard
something I always knew was coming, but wasn’t prepared to hear. Auntie Justine told me ‘Gloria, she … she …
dies.’ I put on my shoes as fast as I
could knowing my mom was already there.
Looking back now I would think I would have walked quickly. No, I didn’t I walked slowly along. Solome was walking that way but I didn’t tell
her, ask her, or cry then. I didn’t want
to believe it, sweet girl. I always knew
that would happen but I didn’t think it would be right then. You had seemed perfectly fine. My mom found Solome and I coming and told us
‘she’s with Jesus.’ I immediately knew
it was you but Solome didn’t know. I
didn’t cry then either. I think I was in
too much shock. I remember as Nurse
Sarah told Auntie Marjorine, ‘remember how Gloria always used to try to dance
when we turned on music? Now she’s
really dancing.’
I could feel tears
welling up in my eyes, but I didn’t cry right then. Later that day I sat in the pavilion crying
with the girls in your house. You
probably think that’s the craziest thing you’ve ever heard because you’re
having a great time now! No, we weren’t
crying because we were sad for you, we were crying because we missed you, because
we loved you and we still do and I was crying because I was wishing I had spent
more time with you. Sweet Gloria, to us
here on earth the one year you have been gone seems like such a long time, but
I know that to you it seems like you have only been gone for a little
while.
I remember that one time I came
to see you in the hospital. You had a
big old nasty wound and it was filled with ants. We asked the nurse to clean and put a new
bandage on it but she said all the sterile bandages were locked in a room and
the ‘man with the key’ was gone. You
would have to wait till tomorrow. I know
that was only one of your many struggles and you have probably had much worse
troubles than ants in a disgusting wound.
Gloria, there are many times when I sit with Rosie and want to do that
more because I feel like I didn’t sit with you enough and I regret that
now. I can’t wait to one day have a huge
dance party with you, Emma, Norah and all the others with Jesus. I have found myself singing ‘I can only imagine’
a lot these days. I would like to think
that I will sing and dance for Jesus and then come and find you, Norah and
Emma. Anyways, there are countless times we think about you, sweet girl …
countless. Even now as I am writing this tears are welling up in my eyes. I miss you so much sweet girl. You don't even know how much we miss you.
We miss you so much this side
of heaven and still love you more than you can imagine (but not as much as
Jesus loves you:)).
To all those reading this: I know
that Gloria can’t read this, but I like expressing my thoughts in this way as
if I’m really writing to those I am telling you about. For those of you who weren’t around here last
year Gloria had cerebral palsy. In fact,
the very first blog post I wrote was about Gloria. Here are the two posts I wrote about her:
Dearest Gloria,
All my love,
Caralina
And here are post’s about Gloria’s
passing from others:
Moving
up in life and death – Nurse Meredith
Lessons
learned from Gloria - My mom
Unusual
Things – Nurse Sarah
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