the dinosaurs are happy tonight

My mother and i came home tonight with these big old grins on our faces. We had just finished talking to Gabriela and a bunch of the kids at El Camino, who were enjoying their first real meal in a while.

Somewhere around 1:00 this afternoon, we had the money wired down to Gabriela through Western Union. By 4:00, she had already paid off her debt to the grocer and was food shopping for the kids. On top of that, welfare finally came and delivered 100lbs of sugar and 300lbs of rice. The immediacy of the whole process was simply astounding, and even now i'm amazed at how in fact God goes about rewarding the faithful. Not only does Gabriela spend every minute of her life running a large home and taking care of abandoned children, she never worries about where her provision will come from.

Needless to say, Gabriela was very thankful, and so were the kids. We used the speakerphone again so my mother and i could both talk to them, and boy is that fun. Hearing their voices and giggles like that makes me feel like i'm right there with them...sitting outside in the warmth of the evening, watching them eat dinner with such gusto. The little ones would be kicking their legs back and forth under the tables while the older ones would serve them milk or juice. All of them asked when we were coming, even though they'd been told already a hundred times. They thanked us for the food and said they loved us.

I realized today that i'm always going to feel incomplete without these kids...without Brayan and Emilio and Marcos and Cristian, Melanie and Yessica...all of them so beautiful and all of them taking up another little space in my heart. And if i ever start to forget even a tiny piece of all that wonderfulness known as El Camino, i'm just one phone call away from remembering.

Thank you, God, for always remembering.