Mil Maravillas

"The more you are intimately in love with Jesus, the more holy you will become. The more holy you become, the more you will be a channel of His love, compassion, and presence to the poor." - Blessed Mother Teresa


Buenos to one and all. I am writing today, not from a internet cafe but from the comfort of the home of our dear friends, the Arroyos, in Quito. Mariya and I are here for a week to do some research and relax a bit while the kids on base are on vacation. I won´t lie, I´m loving the warm showers :) We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and I can only hope to be as cool as the Ecuadorians one day, with their immense love and hospitality.

But let´s get down to business. This past week was certainly one of many lessons and yes, mil maravillas, a thousand wonders. On Monday, I began again to join the social workers in Libertad, doing home visits and other such things under the auspices of CAIFF, Centro de Attención Integral del la Familia del Fiat. And on this, my second day on the job, came the hardest thing that I have ever done. We received a notice in the afternoon that there was an emergent situation in a barrio of Libertad and that we needed to remove four children from a home due to extreme negligence, maltreatment and violence. After gaining the signature and escourt of the local police, we arrived at a home that was by far one of the worst I have seen in Ecuador. We had a police escourt because we were warned that the father was a very violent and unpredictable man and the mother mentally ill. Fortunately, the father was not home and we were able to remove four precious children and bring them to one of our compounds, the Casas Familiares, with little trouble, other than the extreme sadness of these four sweet babies who didn´t want to leave the only home they have ever known, even if this very home was killing them. During the 1.5 hour drive from Libertad to Manglaralto where the Casas are, I held these children in my lap and tried to convince them that they were safe and that they were going to a better place. Even though I knew that what we were doing was the best thing for these children, this knowledge did little to keep my heart from breaking for them. Thus far I have only heard the horror stories but it is entirely a different thing to see it for yourself. Later that evening, I sat before the Blessed Sacrament and cried because I was so sorry that we had let four precious babies ever live in a situation such as that. I told the Lord how sorry I was that this had ever happened to four of His children.

At the end of it all though, the experience only served to strengthen my belief in the work that is done here and my desire to be a part of it. Through the foundation (there is no govermental protection for children in Ecuador) these children now live in a home all together (Casas Familiares) where a missionary (one of the consecrated women) live and serve as the "mamitas" and the children can experience what a real home life is. As our own little "mamita" Fatima told me at the end of that day, yes, there are many ugly things here in Ecuador but that is why we are here. Within this experience lies many lessons and yet many wonders in that now we have four beautiful, clean, happy and working-on-being-healthy children who will now know the love of a family and of Christ, and I and my collegues will begin to work on finding members of their family to raise them or potentially rehabilitating their own family to the point to where one day they may return and live in safety. Redemption can be found in even the ugliest situations.

Other parts of life are progressing along well, we visited once again our brother Marciano on Friday and look forward to continuing our visits with him. We will also resume our visits to our little pueblo, Rinconada, a week from this Saturday - I can´t think of a better way to spend my birthday. Speaking of which, the mail works for sure and it took just about a week and a half for the package from Mariya´s mom to reach us...therefore, there is just enough time before my birthday, should you feel so compelled...haha.

Off for now to dinner with our dear friends, a post soon with my new cell number and a link to photos. As always, may the Lord bless you all as He has blessed us and our 'least of these'.