Randomness

It's after 2am and I can't sleep. I am still sick, actually sicker than I was on Saturday, so I have already called out for work tomorrow. UGH! I hate to miss any more work, but I njeed to rest and sleep off whatever this is. I cam home from church today and slept for a few hours and then went to bed at 9 and slept another 2 hours, which is probably why I can't sleep now, plus my stomach is really upset. So I took two Tyenol Simply Sleep and am drinking a Ginger Ale and I figure I would just write in my blog till I am sleepy again.
I keep meaning to write about this here but have forgotten to until now but I found out some really cool news. *EIGHT* kids from the orphanage are getting adopted!!! One family is taking all 8 of them, which is incredible. The family lives in VA but they're moving to Nica for 2 years to help the adoption process and then will bring the kids back here. So Brenda and Ivania, Vanessa, Manuel, Elizabeth and Eveling and also Kevin and Helena are getting adopted. I am pretty sure all the kids except Helena have parents. She has cerebal palsy and was abandoned so no one really knows anything about her family. And I think Kevin's parents live in the eastern part of Nicaragua (not Puerto Cabezas, but maybe near there?) I know the four Hernandez kids have their Mom in Managua (not sure about their Dad) and Brenda and Ivania have at least one of their parents in Managua. It's so perfect how this os working out for them. Teh adoptive family is really connecting with the birth parents and the kids will still be able to have that connection to their birth parents even when they move back here. The adoptive parents even led the four Hernandez kids' Mom to a relationship with Christ. How awesome is that?!? I can't even imagine what that must be like for those parents to first of all send their kids to live in an orphanage because they can't afford to care for them, and then to allow them to be adopted knowing that in 2 years they'll be leaving the country. It's so hard to fathom and yet that is the reality for too many families in Nicaragua (well, at least the sending their kids to live in an orphanage part, I think adoption is definitely a lot rarer). I'd say probably more than half the kids at Casa Bernabe are social orphans who stil have at least one of their parents still living. And those kids are the "lucky" ones. Too many other kids are working in the marketplace selling gum, cigarettes, bootleg CDs and DVDs, whatever else, or literally working in the middle of the streets at intersections washing people's windows when they're stopped at the traffic lights, or, even worse, are prostituted by their parents. There is one girl who used to live in the orphanage off and on, who doesn't live there anymore, who we are afraid is in that situation. It really makes you stop and realize how good we have it here, and how good most American kids have it. And for those who complain that we have poverty right here and you don't need to go to a third world country to find poverty, well, that's right, we do have poverty here, but it's nothing like having the majority of the country living in poverty. Especially this time of year when we are inundated with ads for toys and gadgets and other "must-have" gifts, it just makes me sick. While so many kids here will be whining and begging to have the latest MP3 player or Xbox or whatever, many, many many kids will be waking up in a home with dirt floors, or literally in a dump, or living on the streets. We are just so materialistic overall as a country that sometimes it really makes me ashamed. I saw on the news the other week how people were literally trampling each other over the new Xbox. I mean, come on people, IT'S A FREAKING VIDEO GAME STATION!!! Is it really worth risking serious injury for?? And for what you would spend to buy one of these video game players, a family could pay for maybe even like 6 months worh of food!!
I know this girl from my church, who is in her first year of college and she is just awesome. For the past 3 years (well, this will be her 3rd year) she has asked not to get any Christmas presents, but just to be able to go to Nicaragua and spend Christmas with the kids at the orphanage. We both got to go the year before last and it was the best Christmas I ever spent. I wasn't able to go last year or this year because of work, but I hope next year I can again. When you get away from all the materialism and glitz that we make Christmas into here, it really reminds you of what Christmas is really all about. And to see the kids just so happy that you're there with them and how they're so grateful for every little thing you do for them, I can't even imagine a better way to spend Christmas. So anyway, I know there are other kids like Summer, who are willing to "give up" Christmas presents and who are all about helping others and being a light like that to other people. And I know there are tons of people aho do su much and give so much of their time, money, talents and other resources to help people in need here and abroad. I guess this time of year I just get disgusted with the materialism of society as a whole, or at least the materialism our society presents. It really makes me wonder how the kids must view North Americans as a whole. A while back, someone had donated a Satelite TV system to the orphanage (how difficult is that to picture: kids whose primary meals are rice and beans, who live in an Oprhanage in a town that has only gotten its first phone lines within the past year who watch Satellite TV??) and when I was there last, a bunch of the kids watched Desperate Housewives. It was actually hilarious how they would "police" themselves and shut the doors to the entertainment center during all the "sex" scenes. But it kind of freaked me out (for one thing because if the orphanage director even knew they were watching that show she would have a heart attack) because if the kids are watching this kind of show, what must they be thinking about our society? It must be confusing for them, because on the one hand they have all these missions teams coming to spend time with them and they know people donate money and stuff to the orphanage but then they see shows that present materialsim and selfishness and a mentality of doing whatever you want as long as it makes you feel good. I know they must think we all have money, and comparitvely we do. I am not rich by US standards but when I am in Nica I am abe to do a lot with the money I do have, like being abke to buy enough food to throw a barbecue for the whole orphanage and feed beef, salad, beans, plantains, dessert and beverages to 77 kids and spend just slightly over $100. But sometimes I wonder if they think the majority of us there in the US live like what they see on TV.