Blessings 365: Day 45: My little boys at Watoto

My little boys, Nate (age 10) and Garrett (age 6), are best buddies.  They love to play together, swing together, make bodily function jokes together, walk around and talk together, play DS together....you name it, they're together.  They can be silly together.  They can decide together that they are bored.  When we're out, they can protest and say they want to go home and just play....together.

So on our first official day of volunteering at Watoto Babies Home (Monday) I left my boys at home.  I just wasn't sure about having them up there while we "learned the ropes."  And they were fine to stay home....no argument from them.

Yesterday, though, they were super excited about going with us.  The kids had talked so much about what we did on Monday that Nate and Garrett couldn't WAIT to meet Precious, see who Matthew is, or give Rose a bottle.

Still, I was a little nervous.  I prayed a lot this morning.  And I had Nate put a couple of Playmobil guys in his pocket in case he decided he wanted to just play.

Well, all that worrying was for nothing!  The boys did GREAT!  Super!  Fantastic!  They fed bottles while holding babies on their laps.  They played with babies. They followed me to the changing table and talked and cooed to the babies while I changed diapers.  They read books to the babies.  They fed babies "yummy" rice cereal with avacado.  And NOT ONCE did they ask to go home.  Not once.  I couldn't believe it.  It was SUCH a confirmation to me that working together with my children is the RIGHT thing for our family!!


Another confirmation of our calling to work at Watoto:  today I was getting books off the shelf for the kids to read to the babies.  I noticed one of the supervisors looking at me, so I went over to her and said, "Is it ok for me to just get books off the shelf for us to read to the babies?  Or do I need to check them out or something?"  She said, "Oh no, it's fine.  It's very good.  Our mamas don't interact like with the babies like that and I see them watching you and imitating what you are doing.  Maybe now they will read books to the babies, too.  You are teaching them."  I was floored.  Overwhelmed.  I told her about how we wanted to be a blessing to them, and she said that we were!  I told her about how long we had waited to work with babies and what a blessing it was to us, too, then I practically floated back over to play with babies!