Those Little Things

You know those days when the smallest thing makes it all worth it? I have a super crazy schedule this semester. I work 20 hours, am taking 14 credits, and volunteering for about 8 hours...all in one week. Then there is homework, my church calling (RS 1st counselor AHH) and attempting to have a social life..... With all this stuff going on I am super busy and trying to find time to just sit down is quite a challenge.

So after this crazy week I finished it up with volunteering. I volunteer at a crisis nursery-a place where children from at risk home can just be kids and have a safe place to be for a little while. Sometimes, generally in fact, it is simply so their parents can look for a job, have a break to run errands attend therapy or a meeting, or receive medical treatment. Other times they are there under court order until the state can determine where they should be placed. Either way, all these children have had a rough time and their parents have had it even harder. Anyway so my job is to just spend one on one time with the kids. We estimate that over half of these kids have been seriously neglected or in some way abused. It is important that they have positive experiences with adults and are given an opportunity for cognitive and social development (aka playing).
I had just had a long bus ride out to the center and a very long week before that. I got there and almost immediately noticed a little girl, kind of off to the side seeming alone and a bit withdrawn. I decided she would be my first stop. I went over and started to play with some cars she was sitting by. She was probably around 18-20 months old (its hard to tell when children may have been deprived of various things because the normal milestones don't generally come online at normal times). But as I showed her the cars and showed her how to make the roll and "vroom", she became a totally different little girl. When I first sat down she didn't really respond to me....just kinda sat and stared. Then slowly but surely she began to interact with me. And then she began to talk and make the cars go vroom too :). I would do something she would like and she would say AGAIN! I would sometimes describe a car and she would try to repeat what I had said..."een ar" (green car btw haha).

It was so amazing to see this transformation. It made everything I have gone through this week, to make sure that I could be there this afternoon totally worth it. When I see that I am making at least a small difference......that is when I know there is nothing else I want to be doing. It is worth all the sacrifices.