Footprints On My Heart

Hello, my blogger friends! I had not planned to be out of town this long so I didn't bring my computer with me. There are so many things I want to share about our trip and I have not even been able to get on the Internet until tonight. I finally broke down and upgraded the old "samsung" for a phone that will actually let me communicate.

I'm not really sure how the rest of the team felt coming back home, but I found that I really needed this time to....trying to think of the word to explain...maybe synthesize everything? This was my first mission trip out of the country and the first to work with orphans and it has been extremely hard for me. I found myself wanting to tell everyone about Visiting Orphans and all the children who need our help and prayers! Maybe I had too much free time after my boys went home. The beach has always been my place of retreat so it is fitting that this is where I have been this last week. Just looking out over the ocean gives me such a sense of awe about how big God is and how small I am. There is a song that talks about how one tear from heaven creates the ocean. In the vastness of all the children in need all over the world, how much difference did I make? Yes, we loved on the children and played with them and took care of any immediate needs that we could see. But this only felt like we were putting a band-aid on the surface and not treating the deeper wound. Some of children have such sad stories that it may take years for their wounds to begin to truly heal. It was so obvious at the two orphanages we visited how much the tias love and care for the children. But for most of the kids, this is only a temporary home before they can be placed somewhere else with family or friends. Then, does the cycle start over again?


As I was walking down the beach one afternoon this week, I was reflecting on our beach day in Costa Rica and thinking about how we did the same thing there on the black sand. The water washes away our footprints whether we are in white sand or black sand. It made me think about how there are some footprints that will stay with me forever and never be washed away... those are the footprints these precious children made on my heart!!