1 Perú Entry 10: Thankful

I know you're not supposed to play favorites, but sometimes it's hard!

Time to spotlight a few of my boys:

Luis is the most charismatic kid you'll ever meet. He also had the biggest crush on Ash & I. It became a problem. I remember one night though, Ash & I were walking to the Plaza & some of the boys were coming home from school (a few of them have school at night), & we ran into Luis & his "girlfriends" on the street. We thought we'd say "hi" to him to help his game a little. (Two American hotties, make the Peruvian chicas a little jealous...) He acted like he didn't know us then was so embarrassed & ran! Guess he has a reputation to live up to. So sad, but we laughed so hard.

Hmm. Where do I begin? The kid is 10 years old & about 3 inches tall. He has a litttttle bit of a temper, but on the other hand is the sweetest, most lovable kid. He would just come give us hugs & then ten minutes later do the slit throat gesture at you. No matter what, I love Alberto.
Oh my gosh. His voice is the greatest thing ever. He talks like a little mouse. This is the only picture we have of Romario because he hated pictures & every time he saw a flash go off (we tried taking pictures of him paparazzi style), he would delete it off our camera. But one day he went up to Ash & asked her to take a picture of us! We were in shock but there you have it! I have some really cute stories about Romario too that I'll put in another post.
Bernie is the biggest brat, most terrible child. He is. Everyday when I walked in he'd either flip me off, call me stupid, tell me to shut up or moon me. I was determined to crack this kid. I knew he was just doing it for attention & he needed a little love. It worked. We became such buddies the last few weeks. Every night he would make me tuck him in bed and he needed "one more hug."
Ash knows this. Edbarzon was my all time favorite. Sometimes I cry when I look at his picture. I know that is so dramatic, but he is just the sweetest thing ever. One day we took the boys to Corpus Cristi which is a huge Peruvian festival in the Plaza. Imagine 30 boys, all of them so excited to be out of the orphanage walls, with 5 volunteers. Not only that, but this place was more crowded than Disneyworld on it's 50th anniversary. I was holding about 10 hands at once to make sure no one got lost. I kept saying, "Rapido chicos! Rapido!" because we needed to make it in time for the parade. Edbarzon asked me what "rapido" was in English. So I told him "fast." He tried & tried and could not pronounce the word. I kept telling him that he'd get it, it just took practice. Everyday that he saw me, he'd come up and just say, "fast." On the last night when we were giving our tearful goodbyes to the boys, Edbarzon told me he'd miss me & then said, "fast" perfectly. I started bawling & he just smiled really big. Well that's my story. Sorry, semi-depressing.
I have prayed for these boys every night since I've left them, but recently, I've been praying that just one really good thing will happen to them a week. It seems so simple, but these kids have such rough lives & have come from such terrible circumstances. My mom told me there's a special place in heaven for my boys. With it being Thanksgiving time, my mind has trailed back to them so often. They have absolutely nothing & I have everything. We are from two completely different worlds & being with them showed me how much I have to be grateful for.

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