As I sat in the airplane heading back here to a place that has become familiar, I ask myself what makes me continue to come back…I already miss my wife and four little boys at home, but feel a need and yearning to go back and bring some happiness, and security to these little abandoned children’s lives. I still remember the feeling I had the first time I entered an orphanage, seeing the many beautiful children who had been abandoned and how my heart broke as I looked into the many faces.
Today we visited one of my favorite orphanages in Ecuador, The Remar boys home. In the country of Ecuador today is a holiday called, “Day of the child, or Children’s day.” This is kind of like a Father or Mothers day…but for the children. Thankfully a local high school had come and was putting on a party for the kids. As I watched them I was so happy to see the children having fun and enjoying the moments, but also sad knowing that as the face paint faded, and the confetti blew away tonight they would still have to go to bed in a room packed with beds wall to wall with no parents to tuck them in, after all they are orphans. Children who have been abandoned and abused by the ones who brought them into the world, abandoned by the ones who should be loving and protecting them. So today is “Day of the Children” the kids get ice cream, a balloon and dance to some music, but what about tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that…when will society give these children a chance. We live in a world where we have the resources, finances, and technology, to really cure hunger and stop the suffering of innocent children, but as Mother Teresa has said, “In order to comfort the afflicted, you need to afflict the comfortable.” As a human race, and as individuals we need to decide if we are going to be the difference in the ...