What a Day

Well, we got to see A this morning about 9:30.  She was so shy, withdrawn and not receptive at all. Tears streaming down her face off and on.  She didn't want to take anything that we had brought to her and would not speak.  It was a bit overwhelming for her to have so many people in the room talking so fast back and forth, back and forth.  Most were shocked she was being withdrawn, although she is shy.  We could not get even half a smile out of her.  The director recommended that we go to another room with just us, the facilitator and her caregiver.  That did not help much but our facilitator did get her to tell why she was upset.  She has an older brother, age 23, that she talks to on the phone occasionally.  He has told her not to go anywhere and when she leaves the orphanage he will help her.  He lives in another region; 6 hours by train.  The director then said we should come back this afternoon and give her some time.

So at 3:00 this afternoon we arrived to a girl who was a little more open.  She still had tears but a smile was now appearing.  She talked to our facilitator again about her brother.  He is the only family that she has.  Her mother passed away in 2012.  Really the orphanage is the only life A knows.  They are her family.  She finally started talking to our facilitator and took the things we had brought for her.  I made sure that our facilitator told her that we did not want her to go with us if she did not want to.  We wanted her to be happy and make the choice that she thought was best for her.  She then relaxed and started coloring a drawing that she had made.  We left around 5, as she had homework, and we all got a hug from her; baby steps.

We will be going to see her again tomorrow morning and we really don't know where this is going to go.  Obviously it would not be right for anyone to talk her in to doing something she does not want but we also have to think about how much time we can spend here.  It seems we will have the weekend with her and then by Monday she will have to decide.

So many mixed feelings.

I rest in the fact that God knows what He is doing. So no worries.

Here are a couple pictures from today.

Here we are with the director of the
orphanage.

Here is A, a little smile. : )