As the orphan kids sang in a choir song they specially dedicated to Dave’s mom and Dave’s dad (our angel in heaven now), tears dropped down my face as we received a gift much bigger than any material thing in the world.
November 30, 2011 there was total chaos in our life. Dave’s dad tragically passed away in an accident, so young, so full of life. We had never gone through anything like that. We decided to turn that into a gift and find the blessing. Dave’s dad grew up without parents, homeless living in the boats of Guayaquil Ecuador. His dream was to retire in Cuenca Ecuador this year. He was only $12,000 away from paying off his house in Burbank. As a deli man, he worked at Canters. Worked 2-3 jobs all his life to pay off his house. What kinds of lessons can you learn from someone who had every excuse to fail, yet he thrived, lived a pure life of integrity, taught his kids to excel in life? Imagine what we can do with our life?
Today was very special as we were able to fund the 2nd orphanage home in Cuenca Ecuador, with all the donations everyone participated in, instead of flowers. Thank you to everyone. There were so many smiles. I received and gave hundreds of hugs today. One of the little girls hugged Dave’s mom and told her: “You will be my grandma now and please take care of yourself and come back to us because we love you.” After Dave’s speech, another two girls came and hugged him and thanked him for sharing his dad’s legacy and they loved on him as he had tears of joy.
We brought balls for the kids, a special day for all of us, brought toys and gifts…and Amy joined an organization where she collected Teddy Bears and we gave all the kids a couple…they were loving on their toys sooo sooo much – it was incredible.
Will blog more as we journal our experience. We left those kids with hope. We told them Galo’s story how he turned a tough life into a life of example. We left them believing they can do anything they want, and with a powerful vision of what their life can be like. So many smiles in the room!
My heart is touched sooo deeply…
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