A Captured Heart

It happens every trip. One child or several grab my heart and it just crumbles. It was definitely Joel in Africa. I still think about Joel and pray that God does a mighty work in his life.

In Costa Rica, there were two...sweet Keoshina and Alexis. It looks like Keoshina will probably be reunited with her mother soon. I hope that her mother pulls it together and offers Keoshina a stable home. It must be so hard on these children to be bounced from place to place.

Alexis is a 16 year old boy who is blind. I think he's been blind since birth, but I'm not sure. He's smart as can be and he is happy and laughs so much.

The day we went to the beach he was sitting on the beach all alone playing with some sand toys. I went and sat with him and he started rattling some stuff off in Spanish (rattling is an understatement). I said, "no hablo espanol". He giggled. Five minutes later we had the same exchange. He was trying to figure out all the sand toys. I was able to show him with our hands what the sifter did, but of course I didn't know the Spanish word for ship since I don't speak ANY Spanish. He kept feeling it and trying to figure it out. I finally said, "un momento" and ran and asked our translator for the Spanish word for ship. I came back and told him, he giggled. Then he rattled something off in Spanish and I said, "no hablo espanol". And he laughed again. When I told this story when I got home, Stephen said, It's kind of funny that you were telling him in Spanish that you didn't speak Spanish. Good point!



Alexis could manuever around that house in amazing ways and he could sense when people were beside him. At one point when we were saying goodbye, he walked up to Jennifer in the high chair (I still don't know how he knew she was there) and started talking to her and playing with her. We had given them all beanie babies right before we left. I gave Alexis a lion. I just kept thinking "be strong and courageous" and to me a lion represents that. Alexis is kind and loving and funny and has an incredible personality. And yet he probably has very little future in Costa Rica. This is an opportunity for another "but God" story. May God take what Satan meant for evil and turn it into something good that brings God glory. I pray this for Alexis' life. I can't wait to hug his neck again someday and this time I hope to actually know a little Spanish. :-)