3 of our kids

one of my favorite things to do is play with our smallest kids in the morning. the compound is pretty quiet because most children are at school, only the toddlers remain. we have about 8, and they all laugh when i walk up and shout "Arfa ana!" - "Pick me up!" after a few rounds of picking each of them up and swinging them around, i'm pretty tired, so i'll sit down with them of just stand. they battle to hold my hands and i try to have enough fingers available for them all to hold. i'll usually have 2 kids on one side and 3 on the other. one little boy that is recently warming my heart is jackson. he, along with his brother and sister, are our most recent arrivals. their mother went crazy and abandoned the children. their father is a soldier and is away a lot. he had left them in the care of a friend with enough money for 6 months. he was gone for 2 years, and the children lived practically untended to in the army barracks. they came to us sick and sad. the friend who was supposed to have been taking care of them did not even know their names. the girl is about 12, and you can see that she has suffered much, probably all kinds of rape and abuse. she rarely smiles and is somewhat rough and hardened. you can see the affects of the cruel life they've lived on the older boy, about 8, as well. he's active and plays with the kids but will often hit and fight with the others for no reason. but the youngest, jackson (pictured), about 5, has somehow managed to come out of his harsh life unscathed. he is such a sweet and gentle boy. he's very calm and quiet most of the time.

yesterday, i picked him up and he just gently rested his head on my shoulder and smiled. i rubbed his back and he laughed. i thought i was going to melt. the Lord is truly cultivating a mother's heart in me. i'm believing that as these 3 children are at Iris in the presence of the Lord and His Spirit, He will fully restore them and heal their broken hearts, as He's done with so many others.