Picture I came across...

This is a picture of me a while back in Honduras. I went with a group my Dad goes with to do some humanitarian work. It's made up mostly of medical people, but there were a few of us who went to help build a library at one of the many orphanages there. It was an amazing experience. This particular picture tears at my heart. When I first saw this little girl she was sitting on the floor, bawling hysterically and no one could calm her down. No one was even trying. She just stared up at me with her running nose and her her terrified, big brown eyes, crying and crying. I found out that her mother dropped her off at the orphanage 3 days before I took this picture. She hadn't eaten in those 3 days because she was still breast feeding when her mom left her, and refused to eat what they could offer her. I couldn't stand just watching her cry and having no one to hug her and make everything "all better". I scooped her in my arms and tried rocking her and cooing and all the things you do when children cry. Nothing would calm her down. Tears were just pouring down my face because I couldn't help this innocent little girl with no future ahead of her but this orphanage. (Adoption is illegal in Honduras, so she will never know what it is to have a loving home with a Mom and a Dad). I walked her outside and rocked her but she was still just sobbing. I suddenly felt the need to sing "I Am a Child of God" to her. I started singing and in about 10 seconds she stopped crying and just looked up at me and touched my face. I kept singing/crying until she fell asleep in my arms. The words to that song have never meant so much to me as they did in that moment.