Wonder of Wonder, Miracle of Miracles

Another miracle, perhaps the biggest yet-

TEO (our volunteer coordinator at the orphanage- aka wonder woman and the nicest, most selfless lady on the whole wide planet) SAID CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES APPROACHED HER ON FRIDAY AND SAID THEY FOUND A FOSTER HOME FOR MR. MAGICIAN AND... MY LITTLE SQUIRT!

As of two weeks ago, they still needed to evaluate the family and let them meet little squirt and make sure they would be okay to take him on with all his problems, but... he had a chance! Teo said they came with a CPS agent with the prospective parents to meet him and see if there was a connection there. Oh how I hoped there would be.

And there was. His foster mom is is kind, and very nice. I got to meet her on my last day at the orphanage during a birthday party in the kitchen. I looked at her helping feed the little squirt birthday cake and cried because of how good God has been.

This is a miracle. I was so sad about having to leave Romania, feeling like my life would be worthless because he still didn't have parents and look at that- God was looking out for both me and my little squirt and is giving him some parents right as I'm leaving. Only two weeks after I leave Romania, he is scheduled to go to his new home.

God sure planned that perfectly- I learned to love a little boy that needed love, and he got to teach me about being amazed with God's creations out the window, and now when I leave to go back to America, I won't be as worried, because he'll have a mom. :)

I get it easy. Teo loves him just as much and more than I do. She has known him for longer, and has seen him progress. Sometimes life is very, very, unfair. The people, like Teo, who do the most for these kids, who save them and love them when no one else does, who take them on special trips to the zoo and visit them just to see how they are doing every day in the orphanage- who give everything they can to loving these kids while no one else is loving them... are not the ones who get the credit for it. He's going to his new home with his new wonderful mom, and Teo will keep taking care of all the other kids at the orphanage. Will anyone tell Teo thank you? Not even the little squirt is old enough to comprehend or to say, "Thank you for changing my life." Even though she has.

Matthew 18:

 "1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the^agreatest in the kingdom of heaven?

 2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little ^achildren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 4 Whosoever therefore shall ^ahumble himself as this little ^bchild, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my ^anamereceiveth me."

Teo is my hero. She found a mom for my favorite little boy. I don't know if anyone will ever tell her thank you- but she really is my hero- always doing good, even though it is good no one else ever knows about unless they work directly with her.

So here- Dear Teo-

Thank you Teo. Thank you for helping a miracle happen. It means the world to me, and it means the world to that little boy. You are God's hands.

Love, Alana

Mary

Mary has always been my hero. My grandma is also named Mary, and I think it's the greatest name ever. For goodness sakes, Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ. Talk about God trusting you. When she was only 14, she was pregnant. So by 15 she was a mother.

This is me at 15. Aka- NOT ready to be a mother:

If I were Mary, and I'm 18 years old, Christ, my son, would be three years old. That's the same age as my little beaver kid in my room- the one with fetal alcohol syndrome. 

Little Beaver was really sick this week, and he was in the hospital. Sometimes I wonder how Mary did it. She was only 14 years old- how did she possibly know everything about being a parent to Jesus Christ?

Well- I don't know anything about being a parent either- but I know that it's sure easy for me to love Little Beaver. He's just a little boy, and he just needs someone to play with him, color with him, hold in and rock him while he is sick in the hospital. I couldn't wait to trek the 30 minute uphill walk to the hospital so I could see little Beaver's eyes peering out from between those white metal crib bars, and so I could take him out of that crib and hold him.

Maybe Mary was like that. Maybe she just really really loved her little Jesus, and so God knew she would do a good job, and taking care of him was natural.

My dad once told me he was afraid for me to be born. He didn't know how to be a father and he was worried he wouldn't be good enough. His father, my Grandpa Bob, told him, "Just love them." Maybe it's not so much about knowing as it is about loving.

" I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." -1 Nephi 11:17 

Hiding Orphans

The hospital has a strange phenomenon:
Many times, when we ask what rooms the orphans are in, the nurses will just shake their fingers at us and say "nu avem" (we don't have). Even though we KNOW they have kids. Sometimes we can literally see the orphans through the window, but oh no- "nu avem."

Why would they say that? Sometimes it's because they don't want the kids to cry when we leave. But even more often than that- it's because they just mopped and they don't want footprints on their wet mopped floors. So, the children go unvisited. It's "nu avem" and a shaking finger.

Obviously it's wrong. Obviously it is infinitely more important that a child without family or friends has someone who will come and visit them than that the floors get a few footprints down one side of the hallway. Yet- the nurses who mop the floors want their coworkers to admire their clean floor, and they don't want American girls messing that up for them. So, it's "nu avem" and a shaking finger.

There's definitely a bigger and greater analogy to that. It made me think-

Do I hide orphans behind mopped floors?

Obviously I don't. But- when I say orphans- I mean- are there greater needs in my life- people who need loved, a friend who needs to be listened to, educational things I should take the time to learn, but I don't because I don't want any "footprints" on my floor?

And by footprints- I mean- the time to sit down and talk with that friend, or maybe that friend annoys me and I don't really like them and don't want to be their friend even though they need one, or maybe I am too afraid of what they would think if I shared my religious beliefs with them, or maybe I feel too lazy to take the time to learn something right? Or maybe footprints are things other people see that would be sacrifices to make if I were to take the time to actually do what is more important. Maybe I would have to sacrifice my status in a group of people to help someone not seen as "cool". Maybe I would have to miss the big end of semester ward Christmas party to help them study for a test. Maybe I wouldn't have time to curl my hair and look fabulous for church because I'd be making them breakfast. (Haha. I never have time for curling my hair anyway. I like sleeping in way too much. :) )

Maybe I am like Martha, too busy in the kitchen trying to make an impressive meal for the Savior, that I never take the time to be content to be known as the hostess who just served bread and water, so I could take the time to sit and talk with Christ.

It's worth thinking about. Do you hide orphans behind mopped floors?