Guatemala – April 2013, Day 4

This morning we visited Mama Carmen’s orphanage to follow up with the kids we’ve worked with on the previous trips.

Gregg and Paige worked together to make some significant changes for Merlin – a “new” revamped chair, a wedge to sleep on, and educating her caregiver on signs of aspiration. Prior to the trip, Julie had anticipated that she would mainly work with older kids and only threw in a few smaller Beniks while we were packing. Thankfully, there was one that fit perfectly for Merlin!

The entire team was able to work with Cesar. Since he is unable to go to school due to mobility, Paige introduced educational materials and left some books and flash cards for him. Gregg modified his wheelchair for better positioning, and Eric gave him some new orthotics since he outgrew his last pair. Julie fitted him with a new Benik and after instructing his caregivers on wear time, he later kept repeating, “I’m going to put these on every morning and take them off every night.” He also told us, “Thank you for everything!” So sweet.

Eric got to help a boy named Jonathan who has some leg deformities. He knew he needed orthotics, and guess which ones were a perfect fit? The ones that Cesar has outgrown!! With a little help from the heat gun, Eric was able to make them work.

In the afternoon we headed to God Bless The Children. We got to see Angel, the little baby that was new to the orphanage last year. He’s now 10 months old but they said he can’t sit on his own or roll over. Julie and Eric worked hard to convince his caregivers that a little tummy time wasn’t going to kill him. Eric shared, “Men want to do what men want to do, but women have the power to convince men to do what the women want them to do.” The caregivers laughed and agreed to work on these various exercises.

Paige introduced PECS for a little boy named David, and he totally ran with it. Or, shall we say, he scooted on his knees with it. With a little help from Julie and her pom-pom wig, they were able to quickly move into phase 2. Eric also gave him some new orthotics and we’re hoping that we can bring a reverse rolling walker for him on our next trip to assist with walking.

Regarding our prayer requests from yesterday – Unfortunately we aren’t able to go to San Jeronimo tomorrow, BUT we will get to see some new kids! The orphanage director at God Bless The Children connected us with a nearby orphanage that has some children with special needs, so we are heading there tomorrow morning to see how we can help.

As we meet some new children and caregivers tomorrow, please pray that we are able to help improve the quality of life for these precious kids and that the orphanage workers are open to learning from our team. We will also head to Anini tomorrow afternoon, so pray that we are able to use our time wisely and able to help as many kids as we can.

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