What? It's only been four days... it feels like so much more... in a good way. Two packed days of teeth brushing in Los Pinos, sitting by the bedside in El Hospital San Felipe, and loving the girls in the Refuge. Oh yeah, and did I mention that we are staying in an amazing place with good food, hot showers (hopefully all three after they "fixed" one this morning) and more beautiful surrounding than we could hope to expect.
In the hospital we are learning many things, at least I am. We have bags of post natal hygiene items for the mothers and baby items for each child. I don't know if I can express how much fun we have had putting the bags together and cooing over all the cute baby clothes. The women have continued to brain storm many ways to serve the ladies with snack bags, foot massages, and holding their babies while another one of us helps the mother to the bathroom for a shower. Lourdes is amazing in the hospital! Part of my joy is seeing her light up and she is so good with the women and the many questions the new mothers have about breast feeding. We are so blessed to have this time with her.
The teeth brushing program is awesome! The women on the team are having so much fun showing the children how to brush their teeth using some dragons with human molars (yeah, creepy to us adults, but the kids think it's hilarious). We hope you enjoy the Smilebox! We plan to make one for the hospital and refuge as well. A picture truly can be worth a thousand words!
The refuge...where do I begin? The girls are beautiful and their babies are so precious. Today we heard the laugh out of them that, I think, breaks the ice beyond the silly ice breaker games. The laugh that means they are truly having fun and feeling more comfortable with us. It came in the form of Down Dog Yoga poses and the sweetest little two year old (who knows how cute she is) doing the advanced Down Dog pose with a lifted leg or lifted arm. We also are doing physical development and medical check ups with the babies. Meanwhile the mothers and their babies decorated onesies with their child's names in big bright colored block letters, and learned how to use a sling. One of our coolest moments today was our prayer at the end. Lourdes suggested that we allow the girls to choose one of us to pray for them. This was so great for us to see which of the girls was feeling drawn to us as individuals and now we can be intentional with those girls and see confirmation that girls we feel drawn to feel mutually about that. God is working and every day we ask Him to use us as His hands and feet so these girls and women and children can see Him through us.
I've spent at least an hour trying to write and think through this... I think I need to get to bed and get all rested up for our next big day. The general feeling among the team is still very high energy, excited, and enthusiastic. Thank you for all your prayers... we feel them!
Namaste, as the girls learned today,
Holly
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