Hope & Lazaro

On the last Sabbath before I left, Sarah, Lilli, and I made it out to Ngaramtoni to visit Hope and Lazaro at SOS Children's Village. It was a long dala dala ride, but very worth it! 

Twins, Hope and Lazaro left Cradle of Love at the very end of October after they turned 4-years-old. I couldn't wait to see them again in their new home! I was a little bit nervous that they wouldn't remember us since four months had passed since we had seen them last.

SOS Children's village is set up like a neighborhood. Each house has a "mother" who lives there with the orphans, loves them and cares for them as her own. The children are able to grow up with "siblings", go to school, learn to work, play and have fun with their families. It's a beautiful system and the families seem to be very happy. When we entered Hope and Lazaro's house, the mother was cooking lunch and the kids were playing in the courtyard. As the eight of them piled inside to meet the visitors, Lazaro was staring at us with eyes growing bigger by the second. You could see his brain working very hard to process our familiar faces. Soon a smile spread across his face, he whispered our names, and Hope scooted on to our laps. They remembered us! We sang all of our old preschool songs and they even remembered Philipians 4:13 and were able to recite it with us. They told us all about their siblings, classmates, and school work. 

To see Hope and Lazaro growing up and doing so well was a wonderful Sabbath blessing. It was encouraging to see that they remembered their memory verse and songs from our time together. They're beautiful kids and God is blessing them in their new family.