It's the Little Things that count

4/14/11

Today I went to Esperanza and Milagros. I’ve been able to talk quite a bit in Spanish with the workers which is great, but I still have a lot to practice and learn. The best things that happened at shift today were that I figured out how to make one of the handicapped girls smile. She is seems to always have a sad look on her face. I have noticed that when I touch her or get close to her, she hits me or pushes me away. But today when she hit me I just jumped back and laughed like “Woooah!” And she got the biggest smile on her face. I did that over and over again and she was smiling so big :) The only other time I made her smile was when I Took her running. It was so awesome!

Another great part of the day concerns a boy who is also from the hadicapped orphanage. His is severly autistic. Most of the time he is off in his own world, and often gets so scared or shy or mad that he hits. Sometimes he wants to communicate and be around people, and sometimes he doesn’t. Well, I recently noticed that he loves to receive little things and hold them up to his mouth to play with them. So I have been giving him little things throughout the past week to play with like a little piece of yarn.

Today he was sitting down alone on the couch in his own little world. I went over and plopped about two feet away from him on the couch and just smiled at him really big. And he grinned at me. He then reached over as if he wanted to see my hand. I reached out and he touched it for just a moment. A few seconds later I put my hand on the couch and played with the material. Once again he touched my hand and smiled at me. Then, so precious, he leaned over and kissed my arm.

You know, most of the times this boy ignores my smiles and compliments I give him. But that does not mean that he does not hear or does not remember how I treat him. It doesn’t matter if when I give him a little gift he throws it on the floor occasionally. He remembers how I made him feel happy and that I shared with him. He remembers how I treated him, and he can sense my love even if he cannot talk like me. And this is the same with all children and people. People may not remember exactly what you said or did, but they will remember how you made them feel. So just remember that the little things you do really do make a difference.