A New Leaf

It is hard to sum up into words how I have felt this past week.

.Humor.

.Joy.

.Sadness.

.Stress.

.Gratitude.

.Peace.

.Friendship.

.Frustration.

LOVE

So pretty much every emotion rolled into one. This experience is full of change and growth. It wasn´t until this past week that I finally realized this. Every five weeks the old group leaves and a new group comes in. The girls that left I am going to miss, they brought a lot of fun to the house and I will miss them very much. When they left I was talking to one of my friends in the house and we realized something that we hadn´t before. These children have no one, no constants in their lives besides workers who do their job then go home. The volunteers that come down here are their only friends and family. Once they finally get to know them, bond with them, and love them...they leave. My heart breaks for these children. A life full of change and a life full of seperation from loved ones can´t be fun. My heart goes out to them.

I only have five weeks left, I am going to give it my all and leave behind as much as I can.

The founder of OSSO Rex Head is here with us in Cuenca for a few days. We have had the privelege of being with him and learning from him. Eleven years ago he came to Ecuador looking for something, not really knowing what that something was. He decided to check out the orphanages here in Cuenca and was brought to Hogar Migel Leon. Which is an all girls orphanage full of broken but bright, beautiful young girls wanting to be loved. They accepted him as their father. To this day he looks out for them and loves them as a father would. The past days that he has been with us he has been spending most of his time with the girls that lived at that orphanage so many years ago. He keeps tabs on them and helps them, most of them are struggling with things I will never know or understand. As I sit here he is visiting in the next room with a girl who was in the orphanage nine years ago. She took a seven hour bus ride here to see him. She is beautiful. He is so interested in her life and what she has going on. What an example to me to see such a great man come into the lives of these people and bless them not only with the OSSO organization but his own time and love.

This week has been a learning experience for me.

It is hard for the put into words how much I have learned here. I am growing and realizing that my time in Ecuador is so short and it scares me, but I am excited. The new girls in the house are wonderful and hard workers. These next weeks are going to be great!