It's been a crazy whirlwind in our house lately. I don't know how else to describe it! Not only have we been wrapping up the school year, but, we have had teams and ministry commitments that have kept us hopping. Sometimes it amazes me how hard it is to keep things from spinning out of control! But, it's been a good time in our house lately for many reasons: 1) Looking forward to a little break from the school routine, which we all need. 2) The ministry is really stepping up and doing well. 3) The kids are growing and we're trying to keep the social calendar to a dull roar!
But, one of the biggest changes we had during these 2 weeks was a temporary addition to our family in the form of a little boy named Clinton who was placed with us from the emergency courts here in Antigua from the streets. We met Clinton through our soup ministry around Easter time here. He was living with a group of homeless people in an area of Antigua called "La Polvera" (basically the vacant lot). He did have parents or anyone with him, he was by himself, working when he could in the market selling toothbrushes and toothpaste.
We were concerned about him, understandably, and spent a few weeks trying to find out his story. What concerned us the most was when we found him starting to sniff glue. Glue is a huge issue here in Guatemala (it's a cheap drug), and few people understand the danger. It really is more dangerous than a lot of street drugs. Mark and I knew we had to act quickly. We had a lawyer who attends our church find out about the system for getting a child off the street and started that process.
After sitting with Clinton at the courthouse for 4 hours, we were told by the judge that they had made at least 15-20 phone calls to orphanages in the area and none of them would take him. The choice at that point was to return him to the street until they could find something or taking him home with us. It was a clear choice. At about 1:30 am, we were sitting in the back of a police truck driving back to our house with Clinton.
Now began 2 weeks of total change for a little guy who had been on the street for a while. Taking a hot shower was something fun for him and we couldn't get him out! He just loved the clean feeling. Brushing his teeth regularly was also something he liked. Waking up and knowing he'll have 3 meals and play time with kids was new. Watching kids do school work was interesting to him--he'd never been to school. Just family life in general was a lot of fun for him to experience.
We had just watched the movie "The Blind Side" and I remember the scene where they are having Thanksgiving dinner and they all take their plates into the family room to watch TV and Michael Oher takes his into the dining room and sits there and starts to eat. That happened with us! I remember all of us dishing up our dinner and heading into the living room (we were used to this since we hadn't had a dining room table for a while) and Clinton sat at the dining room table and started eating. We all gathered up our stuff and sat with him and enjoyed sitting around a table together.
So many things we take for granted.
Clinton is now in Casa Shalom, happily living with 5 other boys in a house with his house dad. He's in school, attending church and chapel, getting 3 meals a day, sleeping out of the rain, playing soccer and basketball, working with chickens and having fun. He's happy! We're so blessed to see him be able to make something of himself and have opportunities to grow and learn. God is good!
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