Life in a Children's Home ~ Patience and Personal Space

As the first few weeks of transition begin to fade, life is becoming more rhythmic, and the girls here are getting more and more comfortable with me. I am starting to realize the value in patience and personal space. Living with 35+ young girls makes me appreciate my mother :). Patience is needed in abundance and my ideas about personal space need to be completely eradicated. With approximately 15 new girls moving in soon, and summer break quickly approaching, I am finding myself planning and valuing "quiet time" more than I ever have in my life. Daily walks have become a great time of body and soul rejuvenation (I found out your secret Mama!). The trifecta - peace, prayer, and a Thailand tan :).

I have suddenly transitioned into an older sister - and one who is often caring for girls who are in need of constant attention, and affection. In general, the girls have so much energy! - from the 5 to the 15 year-old, they are constantly active, giggling, and often making me laugh despite the language barrier. It is never quiet, never organized, and never boring. What a contrast to living the majority of my days in corporate America - with my average day comparatively private, efficient, and orderly. I am re-learning to appreciate the blessings of laughter, squealing :), and community. Even if that means sacrificing the 20 square feet of private space that I have (my bed) to the 6+ girls that just want to be close. Yesterday throughout the course of the day I had four different people napping on my bed at some point in time. Everything is shared - and has to be!

The young women that call this home come from such distressing circumstances, and as they begin to open up to me about their lives, I am finding my heart swell again and again hearing their stories. They accept each other as "family" almost instantaneously and it is a wonder to watch them care for each other. From haircuts, to homework, to consoling the little ones from nightmares, I am constantly blessed by the love that overshadows all things. The organization and the home itself are built on the idea of Agape - God's unconditional love - and the verses on love from 1 Corinthians 13. <3

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 
~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Striving for agape and learning from the only one who can only truly give it...