Amando Abel (Loving Abel)

To be completely honest, some of these kids in particular are, at times, difficult for me to love. Their lack of positive role models, discipline, love, attention, and consistency didn't give them a good platform to jump from. Abandonment, abuse, and broken relationships can make some kids (and then adults) just plain miserable to be around. You feel like they will NEVER learn, things will NEVER improve and it's just so hard to deal with them and the consequences of the crap they've been dealt in their life.

Tonight I was doing my daily laps around the orphanage as a way of battling the carbs' advances on me, and one of the special needs/ "difficult" kids yelled at me from the top of the slide as I was approaching. As soon as he got my attention, he turned around and stuck out his butt and started doing a butt dance at me and then slapping his butt. He has been told an insane amount of times that this is inappropriate. I told him again and then decided to try to redirect him, even though I figured it was a long shot. I said, "Abel, look at the beautiful sky! God made that for us! What colors do you see?" (it actually was a gorgeous sunset so there were plenty for him to choose from.) I continued my walk and the next lap, instead of a butt dance, he pointed to the sky and said, "Dios hizo (God made)." His speech is really hard to understand but I'm positive that's what he said. I had the biggest smile. He proceeded to walk calmly (if you know Abel, this is totally the OPPOSITE of how he ALWAYS is) about 7 laps or so, "answering" (or just saying unintelligible sounds) my questions and even chiming in to the praise n' worship song I was singing. It was a beautiful moment and I'm so glad God allowed me to see that side of Abel that I usually don't take time to see. Thank you, Lord, for loving me when I'm not the easiest to love myself.



Abel


Trying to correct his crossed eyes with patches


Being tough


Abel with his brother, Italo


Oh, Abel!