Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Day 4: House Blessings, Cries and Goodbyes

We started today off with the usual early, early morning wake up call.  After our hearty breakfast of beans, eggs, pancakes and fruit, (mom would be proud of my diet) we headed off to a community that we worked on in the past and see how the families are doing.  It was amazing to see the thankfulness, joy and gratitude that the families gave us  as soon as they saw us.  Some of the children jumped up and down and could not wait to greet us as soon as we were in eyesight.  Building houses doesn't just save a family from homelessness.  It creates hopes and dreams for the families.  Seeing the houses and the adjustments they made to them to make them more homey impacted my life because I realized we weren't just building houses,  they were for a specific family that has their own unique personality.  It's easy to forget why you are doing something once the work is hard and fatigue settles.      The house I visited had three children and their parents.  The girl wanted to be a nurse and the older brother wanted to be a truck driver.  The youngest brother just enjoyed playing with his sister and brother without a care in the world.  The home that people built for them in the past allowed the mother to raise her children without as many worries giving them the opportunity to dream of their futures. The children have the ability to focus on their dreams and achieve them.

Later we headed off the the houses to finish the job with a blessing.  After the houses were blessed the families thanked us with tears and kind words.  It's amazing how much a person can say without words.  This whole week, we could barely understand anything they were communicating but somehow we shared a bond and that bond was hard to leave.  After hugs and tears we left the families.  The girls would do their typical "AWWWSS" every time a child would hug someone, look at someone, or even breathe.  I guess it's adorable.  Andrew had an especially touching goodbye but I'll leave that to him to talk about.

This week has been a blessing not only to the families we helped, but also to us from the families.

No comments:

Post a Comment