ever been kidnapped by a couple of orphans?

I decided that I would write a blog post describing to you a moment I dreamed about for almost 6 months. I constantly dreamed of what it would look like as I re-entered those gates to the orphanage that I had ached to return to for what seemed like eternity. But my first few minutes inside the gates went a little differently than I had imagined...actually, a lot differently. It went a little something like this:

As we pulled into the gates I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. The car could not stop fast enough to let me jump out. My first feeling was "i am home." After I had found my Haitian mother, Jasmine, and given her the hug that I had been storing up since December, I ran off to try to find those beautiful faces that were burned into my memory...I had not been there more than 10 minutes before I was kidnapped by Daika (10), Oltania (9), and Ashley (9). They took me back to the side of girls dormitory where I saw Mensah (8) standing there with that beautiful sheepish smile that she is famous for. Immediately the other girls surrounded me and began all asking at once, "you adopt Mensah, you be Mensah's mama?" I then had to explain that I was basically still a child myself. Then they asked me "You mom be Mensah's mom, you family adopt Mensah?" My heart just broke and I was a loss for words. What do I tell a child who has been waiting for years for people to call her parents? A child who sits in the shadows and watches many of her friends and all of the little children around her bond and spend time with their adoptive parents and families. She has been waiting for the only two people on this earth that can promise her the kind of never ending unconditional love she so greatly deserves and desires. I realized just how important the three weeks that I would spend at the orphanage would be...I would be a constant in each of their lives for 22 days straight and although I personally could not adopt any of them, I could still show them the love of their heavenly Father so they can no that although they do not yet have earthly parents from America who promise to love and provide for them, they are not alone.