Hogar de Vida

When the Lord called us to work with EMI in Latin America, we were sure of His call, but unsure of what doors He would open for me to minister. As a physical therapist, working in an office of engineers is a little outside of the norm for me. I had been praying that the Lord would direct me to a place of ministry here in Atenas. When we moved to Atenas in January 2010, I approached the directors of an orphanage called Hogar de Vida about volunteering. Hogar de Vida is a children's home run by Children of Promise ministries and works, in partnership with the Costa Rican government, to care for children who both are orphans or need to be removed from their home due to neglect or abuse. Most of the children that come into the orphanage are delayed somehow, whether in language, physically or socially. They were in need of someone to evaluate the children for developmental milestones and do follow-up treatments with those falling behind in various areas. Over the past month, I've had the chance to play with and get to know the cutest kids with the biggest smiles. To have one of them run up to me and want me to hold them as I'm walking into the house still makes me smile. I'm in the process right now of slowly going through each of 3 houses, with a total of 35 kids, performing evaluations that take about 2 hours per child. Even in this, the Lord is teaching me patience and I'm learning more about latin culture. Growing up in the U.S. culture, we are used to having a focus of productivity and efficiency. It's engrained deep in our thoughts and perspective of the world around us. So, to show up one afternoon, ready to jump into evaluations, and the kids have other activities planned, or the majority of the kids are sick with a virus or it takes almost an hour to round up the child and get them ready for the evaluation has been a challenge. The Lord has been showing me that my biggest call is to love on the children and show them HIS love. The evaluations that are completed are just on top of that. I look forward to so many more days of loving on these kids. Here are some pictures of some of the kids!





This is one of the little ones that have stolen my heart!