"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." ~John 14:18
"No los voy a dejar huérfanos; volveré a ustedes." ~Juan 14:18
We left Canta early Saturday morning headed back to Lima. It was really hard to leave the mountain. We went straight to an orphanage in Ventanilla - one of the outlying districts of Lima. This is one of the largest (if not THE largest) orphanage in a city of almost 10 million people. The facility houses around 850 children, ages 2 weeks to 18 years. The children live there, are schooled there, and work there helping to keep everything going. Most of them can't be adopted because their parents still live in the "slum" areas around them, can't afford to feed them, and know that the orphanage will.
In the baby/toddler room, there are 42 children ages 2 weeks-2 years, and two ladies who care for them daily. Yes, I said TWO. Just stop for a minute and imagine that. The diaper changes, the feeding, the cleaning, the cooking, the entertaining... They couldn't even remember all the names of the children. And all this in a tiny building with no heat/air conditioning, no window screens/glass, no washing machine (yet), no dishwasher. As soon as we walked in there, children came running with their arms out to be picked up. For the next three hours we held babies, played with toddlers, changed diapers, rocked sleepers, fed infants, cried, smiled, and LOVED ON those children. There aren't enough words to describe everything there. I'm just going to post some pictures. Even these don't do justice to what it is like there. Some pics are very sweet, and some are heartbreaking. We will be going back. Over and over and over again. Even if they can't be adopted, we will do everything in our power to improve the life they do have. Every. Single. One.
Every. Single. One.
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