But Not Today

All week we have eagerly been anticipating today. We thought we were going to get two little girls. These little girls' names are Miguelina and Baleska. They are eight and six. Miguelina and Baleska are the sister and cousin of Isabel.

Karen, Dorian, Marc and I were up at the house last week. The next day, Ashley, Isabel, a lawyer and some people from INHFA were there. The INHFA people knew it was a miserable situation and wanted them in Casa de Esperanza.

As I have said so many times, things don't work here like they do in the states. Dorian and I had to drive up there this morning and get the kids and the mother and drive them to Casitas Kennedy in Tegucigalpa. Casitas Kennedy is an awful place, nothing more than a warehouse for kids. There is a little boy that is twelve living there also. We are trying to get him placed at Jovenes en Camino. There is also a baby, but the mother and the boyfriend want that child and are just visiting in the home of the grandmother right now.

We got to the house and the grandmother and one of the girls weren't there. The boyfriend of the mother went to find them. He said it would be about ten minutes. Of course, that was a Honduran ten minutes. When the grandmother and Miguelina returned, there was some fear. They were not afraid of going with us, they were afraid they were going to have to get injections. The mother and four kids came and got in the car. We finally, got to Casitas about 11:15.

The psychologist first met with the mother and the kids. Someone came out and asked Dorian to join them briefly. Dorian had to say there was no food, no water, the kids are receiving no education and lived in filth. A person could pretty much look them at them and know that. The little girls refused to talk to the psychologist.

Then we all went to the clinic so they could have physical exams. I will say that is definitely one clinic that is severely understocked. These poor little kids were terrified. They have never been to a doctor. The nurse asked Christian, the twelve year old to come get weighed. Then Miguelina and the Baleska. Baleska was not going. She was scared to death. Marc went over and picked her up and carried her to the nurse and stood right there with her. Then the nurse weighed the baby and begin to examine him. At the same time, the doctor took Christian back to the exam room.

Marc, Dorian, and I all had different angles at which we saw things. Dorian could see the mother trying to get the clothes off of the baby and they were so small that she was having to tug and pull to get the shirt over his head. I could see Dorian sitting there shaking his head. When they took the diaper off, I could see huge blue bruises all over the baby. Marc was far enough way, and with the dim light, he thought it was dirt. The only thing that kept me from crying was those two little frightened girls. If I had started to cry, I am not sure what they would have done. The doctor was cleaning the baby and Marc realized it was not dirt. Though the baby appeared to have on a clean diaper, he had not been cleaned well at all from previous diapers.

The doctor examined the baby and then told the mother to come with her to the exam room. The mother turned to go with the doctor, leaving a 6 month old baby on the exam table. The doctor talked rather harshly to the mother about leaving the baby. The mother picked up the baby and walked back with the doctor.

I got up to go sit with the girls. The little one was getting more scared by the second. I picked her up and put her in my lap. I was rubbing her back and saying it is ok. She has not been around enough people that she did not even know how to react to my kind touches. Both of the girls jumped up and ran back to the mother.

Soon everyone is crying. They were petrified of the examination. They have ear and throat infections, and are lice infested. The people at Casitas gave everyone new clothes, but sending them back into that house is not really going to solve anything.

The people at Casitas told us upfront we were getting the girls, but there was some uncompleted paperwork that had to be done.

They gave everyone the first dose of medicine and then gave the mother the rest of the prescriptions. We do not know if they will get another dose or not. Dorian asked them not to give her the lice treatment. We will treat them for lice when we get them. Dorian was afraid, since the mother can't read, that she would give them the lice treatment instead of the antibiotics and they would all die. And until everything in that house can be washed, it would be pointless to put treatment in their hair.

Yes, we are getting Miguelina and Baleska. We are still working on getting Christian into Jovenes en Camino. But it was so hard to take those sweet children back to that house and back to that situation. It is only temporary, maybe not longer than two weeks.

Please pray that the system moves quickly for these children.

Terri