I have another prayer request…unrelated to Dionisio (YEAH-but I’ll update you more on him Monday evening after he sees the pulmonologist/allergist…let’s just say…I love Tia Julietta…and apparently Dionisio is fond of her too!)
We have a new kid in the baby house: Julio!
He’s 3 years old and he arrived in the center on Friday and in the BH on Saturday as he spent his first night here in the big boy dorm with his brother. His mom is in the end stages of Aids and can no longer cook or take care of herself, much less Julio or his 6 year old brother. Their father is with his other wife and their family deserted them when they found out she had Aids. A Catholic missionary group has been helping her in the home, but she is too ill now so they have taken her to their center..but they have no program for kids. So they are both with us (of course, his brother is too old for the BH, so they have had to be separated). Upon the home visit we make before we take in children, no food or water of any kind was found in their house made of grass and it appeared there hadn’t been any for some time. When there was food, the 6 year old would cook! The community occasionally tried to help out with food, but as it is a very poor community they often don’t have enough for their own families. Julio speaks very very little if any Portuguese-he speaks his tribal language, so he is very confused and scared at the moment-first being taken away from his mom and now his big brother (we do have play dates for the two when we can). The tias try to speak his language to him when they can, but he has to learn Portuguese as well cause it’s what the rest of us will speak and the main language of all the other kids in the BH. He’s smart though…he’s catching on and watching the other kids and tonight as they were watching a cartoon before bedtime while some kids were kidding baths, he was watching it very animatedly. We have seen one smile and he has played tentatively with toys. You can tell though that all the noise and chaos of the BH is a little overwhelming for the moment. His skin is in horrible condition and he appears to have an ear infection, but otherwise he looks pretty healthy…they have obviously gotten enough food from time to time to be ok recently. Both Julio and his brother have been tested for HIV and they are…Praise the Lord, both NEGATIVE! Please pray for Julio as he is adjusting to the center, being away from his mom and his brother and being in an environment that is foreign where he can’t speak or understand the language! Pray the other baby house tots will take him under their wing and love on him, inviting him into their world. Pray he will pick up on Portuguese quickly and that he will start reaching out to us! Give us the strength to love on him and the wisdom to understand him, despite the language barrier.
Yeah for new kids! We are F-U-L-L-full!!! There’s not a bed left in the BH with 3 new arrivals in the last 4 weeks!
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