This week, I had the opportunity to meet one of the children from the foster program I’ll be volunteering with, whose name roughly translates to “Sun”, so for our purposes here, I'll call her Sunshine. She lives like an infant, though she’s three years old, because of a lack of strength in her back and neck to sit up or hold up her head. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and also suffers from spasticity in all four limbs, which means that the muscles in her arms and legs will clench for long periods of time.
As I sat with Sunshine, her foster mother, and a woman from the program, it struck me how different her life is from that of the little 4-year-olds that I teach English to on weeknights. While they learn to speak a new language, she hasn’t learned to speak at all, and while they run recklessly in the hallways, she is currently limited to rolling from her side to her back. The comparisons are sobering, but even while I was thinking about this, I felt my heart pour out to little Sunshine, and I thought about how precious she is in God’s eyes. Holding her in my lap, massaging and stretching her legs, helping her sit up, I could feel nothing but love, and I feel like I caught a glimpse of what God’s love and grace is like for all of us.
I left feeling so thankful for the opportunity to meet her, and really look forward to how God will choose to use me in service of children like Sunshine.
PRAYER REQUEST: Obviously, “Sunshine” is not her true name, but I chose to exclude her real name for security and privacy purposes. However, please be praying for her – her foster parents will be moving far away this summer, and so she will need to find a new foster family by May to avoid being sent back to the orphanage. I’m told she has had so many improvements since entering foster care, and it would be sad to see her lose that space for growth. Please be praying that an able and willing family would come into the picture to take care of Sunshine, and that she would continue to grow and improve.